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Connor Russell Audience Studies 3P18 Blog Analysis 2

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Week 6

Chapter five on Uses and Gratifications focuses mainly on print, radio and how people justify their needs. This is significant as we all view media in different ways so this chapter solidifies how we generate needs that are gratified. To start this exciting learning blog off I will speak to the five main uses and gratifications. I found this particularly interesting because now when I use social media or watch T.V., I am more selective and understand why I am watching what I am watching. They are cognitive needs, affective needs, integrative needs, social needs and escape. Cognitive needs are correlated with gaining knowledge and becoming more educated. The affective needs show the audience members pleasurable experience. The integrative needs help with confidence and inclusion. Social needs strengthen relationships with friends and family and the escape aspect relates to stress relief. I use two of these aspects of the uses and gratifications model. 

The first aspect I can relate with is the cognitive needs. I like to challenge my brain and play games like quizlet and question master to strengthen my brain and expand my knowledge. Playing this game is fun as well as informational. The second aspect of the uses and gratifications model that I use media content for is to escape. When my life gets busy and I need a break I turn to movies or YouTube videos. This allows me to take my mind off of what is going on in my daily life. If I am writing a blog analysis all day, I will be looking to watch a movie or funny YouTube clips to take my mind off of school work.

The reading was also intriguing as it relates to live blogs so I had to illuminate its principles in my own blog. This article shows a study of how audience members interact with the live blogs. “The study employs audience-oriented uses and gratification approach to explore the reader’s motivation for consuming live blogs” (Pantic, 2020). The live blog shows up to date information that gives readers and listeners the most important information at the top of the blog. The research conducted on this topic relayed that news outlets must keep in mind that timeliness and immediate news updates are the most important aspect of lives blogs. This is what audience members want. When I was keeping a close eye on the U.S. election, my roommates and I were staying up to date with a live blog called Mirror.co. I related to the readings findings as I felt like all the information I needed was given to me immediately. The most relevant information was always at the top of the blog.

While learning about the Uses and Gratifications of our lives I found that Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs needed to be discussed in this blog. We all have our basic survival needs of food, water and shelter. Safety needs of stability is the next on the chart. We all want to fit in and belong as audience members. We don’t want to be outcasts in society. Our self-esteem is also important and of course we all desire to be fulfilled in our daily lives. These are factors that media content creators must take into consideration when deciding what emotions and needs they want to evoke from their target audiences.

The most significant piece of information I took from this week’s material is that as audience members we all learn and receive media content in different ways. Media comes in all types of forms and they need to be able to satisfy the audience’s needs. Learning online for me has been a struggle because I learn better in the classroom listening to the professor. To fulfill all of the audience’s gratifications, modality is one way to get media content messages across in a different way than normal. The concept of Modality discussed in lecture was interesting. Modality, “refers to the different methods of presentation of media content, appealing to different aspects of the human perceptual system (hearing, seeing)” (Good, 2020). A YouTube video, a drawing on the board, a meme or listening to a podcast are all different methods of transportation. Listening to Joe Rogan’s podcast while working out has kept me informed and up to date on interesting things happening around the world.

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Live Blog on October 22nd, 2020 of the presidential election.

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Week 7

Discussing course concepts from week seven, I will use lecture content, chapter six from the textbook and the reading from the international journal of communication to dissect important concepts for this week’s blog. I will discuss semiotics, Stuart Hall’s decoding and encoding principles, the four modes of audience reception and my personal audience experiences with all of these notions.

Firstly, semiotics is used in language all around the world to decipher messages and meanings of signs, symbols and texts. Semiotics is simply the study of signs and their importance in all of society.  There are many aspects to this concept. The sign represents the actual object or thing. For example, a pineapple. The actual pineapple is the sign. The signified is the mental concept of what this pineapple could represent such as health, fruit and or tropical freshness. The signifier is the physical existence of the object. It could be a sound or a word or even a picture. In the instance of the pineapple; spikey and yellow could be the signifiers. In the textbook, Sullivan mentions that “signs are defined by the interaction between two specific elements: the signifier, or the form of the sign, and the signified or referent, which is the concept the signified represents” (Sullivan, 2020). Stuart Hall, a sociologist and cultural studies scholar, developed the idea of encoding and decoding. With these principles of encoding and decoding, he offers an approach to how media messages are translated, produced and interpreted. The first offering is called the preferred or dominant reading. This occurs from how the producer wants the audience to view the media content. If I am trying to convince my brother to go on a skiing trip with me to whistler, I am going to present him with pictures and videos that explain how beautiful the city is and how much fun it would be. With the preferred reading the audience will take the side of the producer if the message is clear and distinct. The negotiated reading is essentially a compromise between the preferred reading and the oppositional reading. To simplify, the audience accepts a portion of the producer message and then uses their own knowledge and views of the subject to interpret the message. My brother would listen to how fun whistler would be but he also is afraid of heights so he would have a different opinion of the trip. The final stage is the oppositional reading which shows the audience member rejecting the intended message and creating their own meaning. My brother would view my message and think Whistler is a terrible place to go on a vacation due to Covid-19 restrictions.

What I found interesting about the “Decoding “The Code” article written by Granelli and Zenor was the four modes of audience reception. This is the concept that outlines how audiences decode certain texts created by the producer. The producer encodes media texts and the audience decodes them. The first step of audience engagement is transparency. “In this mode, audiences read the text as life” (Granelli & Zenor, 2016). This mode makes it clear that the audience member is completely engulfed into the realm of the text. The next mode is called the referential mode of audience reception. This mode makes it known that “in assessing the meaning of the text, the individual moves outside of the text itself and compares it to his or her own real life for interpretation” (Granelli & Zenor, 2016). This is the comparison mode. The third mode is called mediated audience reception. This mode identifies that the audience member is more concerned with the actual aesthetics of the text than its meaning making it more difficult to decode the intended message. The final mode is discursive. In this mode, the argument is made clear.

The show Dexter stars a blood spatter analyst named Dexter Morgan. He is a normal functioning member of society but also has a dark serial killer side to him. He exemplifies how being a villain and killing people can be justified. When I watch Dexter, I am rooting for him as he gets rid of bad people. The way he does it I don’t agree with but that’s where audience members will have different beliefs and will read the media content in various ways to either agree, partially agree or completely oppose the media. Dexter is the avenging angel and portrays the justified vigilante that we discussed in lecture. This concept refers to “an eye for an eye” (Good, 2020). He only kills people who deserve to be killed.

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“Eye for an Eye”

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Week 8

In this week’s blog analysis, I will use chapter seven of the textbook, lecture material and the reading highlighting sports viewing to summarize my knowledge of audience studies. In the textbook, the chapter highlights the research that was conducted on audiences in various media landscapes.

In lecture, we discussed the themes of evolving audience experiences and how our homes have made it more difficult to assess media consumption. The printing press was the first revolutionary invention that made it so audience members could take newspapers home and catch up on what was going on in the lives and the towns around them. This was the first time that audiences became more private. Fast forward to this day and age, we are now using smartphones and viewing various media by ourselves. Especially during this pandemic, people are staying at home and are not a loud to attend concerts, sporting events or live performances. This changes the media consumption landscape in a major way. In lecture, the example of watching a movie or a sporting event at home vs. at a theatre showcased many aspects of audience studies. From personal experience, attending a sporting event at a movie theatre juxtaposed with the pleasure of watching it in your own home in incomparable. The overall comfort factor watching at your own home is better. The lighting is dimmer and you cannot control it at the theater. At home, I can set the lights the way I want to. In a theater, it is unacceptable to be talking and making noise whereas at home you can be as obnoxious as you want. The atmosphere is better at home in my own opinion. I have watched a World Junior hockey game at a theatre on boxing day three years. I personally did not like this experience as many people were trying to be experts on the game of hockey and talking while the game was on. When I watch the World Junior hockey games with friends and family at my own home I am able to speak freely and enjoy the banter between my friends regarding who is going to win. This is because my home is a more private setting and I can control all of the variables. Yes, the screen is larger and the sound is better at a movie theatre, but the overall atmosphere in my own living room is not comparable.

In Chapter seven of the textbook, the themes of the transactional system. I found this interesting as I could relate to the conversion aspect of this system. The system includes, appropriation, objectification, incorporation and conversion. Appropriation is when “the device such as the television actually becomes part of the home environment” (Sullivan, 2020). A family buys a television or gets a new gaming system which in turn then becomes one within the home. Objectification is when that Television that was bought is set up in a room for viewing purposes. Families will reorganize furniture to allow comfortable viewing of the specific technology they have brought into their home. The incorporation aspect of the transactional system speaks to how these devices such as the television are actually used in the home. The final stage of the transactional system is the conversion aspect. Conversion is when the intel from the television, whether that news or sports, gets discussed within the confines of the home. I can relate personally to the conversion aspect especially during the pandemic. My family and I would watch movies and the Covid-19 updates on our television in our living room and they would be topics of discussion during dinners. Since there was not a lot of excitement in each other’s lives our main source of entrainment was what information we received from the news, sports updates and movies.

The reading for this week discusses the research of audience participation at home or in public at a theatre. Watching the FIFA World Cup of soccer at home or watching at a theatre, the author stated that the research investigates “how the experiences of viewing sports in a movie theatre would differ from the typical television viewing condition in a home” (Kim et al, 2016). Like previously mentioned, the reading discusses how audience members view the forms of media such as a large sporting event. The study conducted showed elements such as atmosphere, lighting and social interaction while viewing. The study ultimately concluded that presence was the main contributor to the enjoyment of the sports media consumption experience. I agree with this completely. If I am watching a game of hockey and someone is talking about something else, I am not fully in that present moment and that affects my level of enjoyment.

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FIFA World Cup at home vs. in a theatre

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Week 9

This week’s material covers the concepts of media fandom and different audience subcultures. We hold celebrities, famous politicians and professional sports stars to a higher standard in our society. We all have someone that we idolize for their talents. So, what is fandom? Fandom as described by Sullivan is “associated with the cultural tastes of subordinated formations of the people, particularly those disempowered by any combination of gender, age, class, race” (Sullivan, 2020). Throughout chapter eight of the textbook, I found many interesting themes and concepts that relates to my own life.

This chapter speaks to how society views media content in their own way in order for them to understand it more clearly or benefit their wants and needs. Along with this there is the passive consumer, the enthusiast, the fan and the active producer. These are the different levels of fans. My good friend is playing in the N.H.L. for the Vancouver Canucks. When we go out in Vancouver to a restaurant or the mall for example, people will ask for pictures and autographs. He also has people who create fake Instagram accounts of him which takes on a whole new level of fandom. The difference between a casual content consumer and an actual fan is stated by Sullivan as “intensity of their emotional and intellectual involvement” (Sullivan, 2020). I am a huge Toronto Maple Leafs fan and will let this blog analysis resemble my fan experiences with the Leafs. I have been to games, practices, autograph signings and interact with the leafs social media accounts. Many people from Ontario and around the world are Toronto Maple Leafs fan and through online platforms, we able to stay connected and communicate about what the Leafs are doing on a daily basis. The subcultures of a sports team like the Leafs are also present through media. Some accounts on twitter strictly follow and update the audience on the goalies. Other accounts only focus on the Canadian players on the team. These subcultures allow for fans to connect to players on many different levels. The continuum of fandom as discussed in lecture shows these levels of fandom. The producer uses material from media and transforms it to suit their own needs. While using emotional intensification, I will re-post the leafs winning goal or a highlight real from the previous game. I am emotionally involved with the leafs as my mood changes whether they win or lose. Due to the fact that I consume many types of media the leafs release on various platforms, I would be considered a fan. Radio, Instagram, twitter and SportCentre are all media content producers that allow me to be a Leafs fan. Fans buying merchandise are also important to the fan continuum.

When buying jerseys, hats, t-shirts or coffee mugs with a certain logo on it, you are now financially invested as well as emotionally invested into that specific team. I am not a super fan but I know people who stalk the Toronto Maple leafs players to see where they live, what restaurants they eat at and when they walk their dogs. This is a creepy level of fandom that can also be related to paparazzi for people like Drake. The people that wait in line for three days waiting outside for an outside viewing party like the Toronto Raptors fans do are on a whole new level.

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Week 10

This chapter in the textbook clearly focuses on the evolution of digitalization of media. Digitalization is simply how media is recorded and then communicated to audiences. I enjoyed this chapter as it allowed me to realize how we as the audience actually have control of media production. We hold all of the power.

In lecture, we learned about media production entrepreneurs making a lot of money for producing content on YouTube. Sullivan states, “relative ease with which unknown artists create their own cultural materials and circulate materials of people at a time via the web, effectively bypassing the institutional gatekeepers in the traditional media” (Sullivan, 2020). My friends and I used to have a YouTube channel that promoted our rap music we were trying to create. All we needed was a computer and a microphone to produce the music and try to distribute it all across the world. Naturally, our music was not good at all but this example highlights how many people have turned to media production for a living. YouTube stars like Jake Paul and Dave Dobrik are extremely successful. They don’t have to go through administrative gatekeepers or have a boss to regulate their content. They can freelance their media production and it allows people from China, Brazil and Germany to view their material. It’s crazy to me how this concept got so popular. For me to create content on YouTube as well as watch videos I am what’s called a prosumer. A prosumer is someone that produces content on a media platform as well as views content. This is how platforms such as YouTube and Tik Tok are so popular. Again, the audiences have all of the power and without them these YouTube stars would be broke. They earn a living off of audience engagements and viewership which clearly demonstrates how the audience is in control of this digital age.

A prime real-life example of this is how I was supposed to play professional hockey in the East Coast Hockey league. The team I was supposed to be playing on shut down due to lack of funds caused by the pandemic. The main source of revenue for this team is their fans. They would get roughly 8,000 fans for home games which would generate all of the revenue to pay players and the team staff. The dangerous effects of Covid-19 made it clear that fans would be endangering themselves if they went and gathered in large groups so attending a hockey game was not permitted. The is a clear example of how the audience has all of the power. I can no longer play hockey because there is no money to operate a team all due to the fans not being aloud in the rinks.

Another example of the audience controlling all of the power in this digital age is how my best friend was famous on Tik Tok for about a week. He made a video of him and his dog dancing to the Titanic theme song and became famous over-night. He gained ten thousand followers and was getting requests for more videos like that. People on Tik Tok started copying this dance with their dogs as well. This went to his head as he tried to make another video the next week. He did not get the same feedback as the previous video and ended up deleting Tik Tok because he thought he was going to be famous. This shows the dynamic of the audience’s power and how they control media production.

In the reading, “The dynamics and potentials of big data for audience research”, the main theme is the potential of new data collection methods for audience members. There are not of lot of researchers that are establishing at home media consumption and how it effects economic growth for tech and media production companies. I believe that there are already data points put in place to view our interaction with social media. For example, whenever I talk about buying a dog or search anything related to dogs, my Instagram feed shows me ads for dog toys, dog beds and where I can buy dogs. This data could potentially be utilized to generate more information on audience members interaction with media content.

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References:

Athique, A (2018). The dynamics and potentials of big data for audience research. Media, culture and Society, 40(1), 59-74.

Good, J (2020). Audience Studies. Lecture slides. Brock University. St. Catherines, Ontario.

Granelli, S., & Zenor, J, (2016). Decoding “The Code”: Reception theory and moral judgement of Dexter. International Journal of Communication, 10, 5060-5078.

Kim, K., Cheong, Y., & Kim, H. (2016). The influences of sports viewing conditions on enjoyment from watching televised sports: An analysis of the FIFA World cup audiences in theater vs home. Journal of broadcasting & electronic media, 60 (3), 389-409.

Livingstone, S. (2019). Audiences in an age of datafication: Critical questions for media research. Television & New Media, 20(20), 170-183.

Pantic, M (2020). Gratifications of digital media: What motivates users to consumer live blogs. Media Practice and Education, 21(2), 148-163

Pouls, S. & Gilpin, D. (2019). Socially mediated Stranger Things: Audience cultures and full-season releases. Southwestern Mass communication Journal, 34(2), 1-11.

Sullivan, J (2020). Media Audiences: Effects, users, institutions and power (1sted.) Sage Publications Inc., New York, NY.