Audiences & Mass Communication
Do you agree or disagree with the idea that each reader decodes the media text in relation to its social status, ethnicity, gender, age, occupation, education, etc. Discuss.
Before one can agree or disagree with the question, it is worthwhile to examine the various research works done in support of the ideas implied in the question
Begin with the premise that meaning is not fixed – pg 265 (Media/Society: Industries, Images & Audiences by Croteau and Hoynes) – text is polysemic
In line with the new approach to studying audience – The New Audience Research
Assumptions of the questions
– That audience is active
– That text is not fixed
– Discuss the new audience research
– In line with the new philosophy or paradigm towards addressing audience
– Interpretivist paradigm
– interpretive ethnography can provide a means “for different peoples to form complex concrete images of one another; as well as of the relationships of knowledge and power that connect them” (Clifford, 1988:23).
– Examine the various ways in which subcultures interpret media text
– Encoding / recoding process – Stuart Hall
– David morley audience analysis theory – 2 research done by Morley
Gender differentiation in tv watching – how men and women tv watching pattern differ, the kind of conversation related to tv
The three different types of reading – reflects the different socio-economic status the viewer belongs to
– Ieng Ang’s – Watching Dallas
– Janice Radway
– Proving that meaning is not closed – diversity in perspectives
– That audience is capable of making / constructing meaning
– the New Audience Research often prioritizes respect for cultures or cultural backgrounds that are marginalised by the dominant culture and by mainstream research traditions
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