#i was just studying psy and greek today

[emilyiswrightt]

Audience Studies (3P18) Blog #1

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Audiences are complex and withhold many meanings and understandings. The first question to consider is what really is an audience? Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines an audience as “the act or state of hearing” or “a group of listeners or spectators, a reading, viewing, or listening public” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/audience, Lecture 1, September 14, 2020). Many times throughout our lifetime we are an obvious audience member, such as attending concerts, sporting events, going to the cinema. Instead we are often the less obvious audience, by reading a news article or scrolling through a social media platform. The next question to consider is when are we not an audience member? Some argue that we are audience members even when asleep. This suggests that being an audience is part of something which is much larger than us, and much larger than we can fully comprehend. Although audiences are complex, they can begin to be understood through history. Not to indulge you into a full history lesson, but to briefly understand audiences will be done by reviewing audience history. Audiences date all the way back to to 4th BCE. These Greek audiences were very barbaric by disruptive acts. Greek audiences were talkative, unruly and overall poorly behaved, as proven by shouting, jeering and throwing fruit. As audiences evolved by the 17th century, they began quieting down and were a more active audience. Further down the line, in the 20th century audiences were divided by lower and upper class. The lower class audience was rowdy, while the upper class was polite and quiet. Although by this time audiences have shown to reduce their barbaric features, they still seem drastic and unruly. This now brings us to audiences as we know them today. Besides your local county fair, I would find it unlikely to come across a public event with an audience that is extremely rowdy and barbaric! The four major themes to consider when identifying audience history are (1) size, (2) danger, (3) Sullivan’s “trilogy” and (4) power. Firstly considering size, it is clear that they are not as large as today. In today's world an audience can reach billions of people through social media platforms. This makes me think of 8 years ago when the song and music video “PSY - Gangnam Style” was released on YouTube. At the time this was the most viewed YouTube video, sitting at 3.8 billion views. This just proves the incredibly large audience technology can allow us to reach. As you know, the Greek’s were not quite up to par with today’s technology in audiences. This may be a good thing because who knows what kind of damage they would’ve done throwing fruit and other items at their electronic screens! Their audiences were actually quite small, mainly limited to their village. The next factor to consider is danger. In history, the most dangerous aspect of audiences was the audience themselves. The problems were in the unruly people who entered a theater for a viewing (Lecture 2, September 21, 2020). Today, we do not need to be worried about what may be thrown at us, but how the message is received. We must consider the content and as mentioned in Lecture 2, “how media messages might degenerate audiences” (Good, 2020). With the number of media sources and opinions, content can quickly be torn apart by the audience, even if the intentions were innocent. When I think about innocent intentions and negative results I think of H&M monkey-shirt scandal in 2018. H&M released an ad which featured a African American child wearing a shirt which etched “coolest monkey in the jungle” on the front. This message was perceived as intention and racist when it all began circulating. Many news sources wrote about this incident, one of them being the NewYork Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/08/business/hm-monkey.html. After the fact, it resulted in a public apology from H&M as well as them hiring a diversity leader for all of the ads and media content being released to audiences. When explaining this, I am not saying it is a bad thing to be aware of your surroundings and the content you release. What I am saying is that in today’s world it is that much more important to be

[dayquercus]

(Greek theatre! as if in Greece, this summer, if doable)

a photo from the lecture hall, taken from the year representative : “just realised my msg didn’t send out, was going to ask who’s coming to Emily’s talk.... end up only 3 students turned up, feel sorry for Em....”. (biopsychology course lecturer, and as attractive as our program leader) . booked research seminar a couple of weeks ago? didn’t show up on calender = don’t rely much on digital products , but where is my post-it note - stick on the laptop (maybe) ....

forgetfulness (on group messenger) + lateness (for checking messages) : would love to make amends by sitting in there and taking notes while playing the recorded lectures online ..... hope that the space is enough to navigate materials (papers, textbooks, a lap-not-top, a notebook, pens....) and the bench won’t be too hard/? did sit through the library - on the carpet floor again! where I know no one would walk through - back posture to the white wall - taking d mask off (cheeky, couldn’t breathe) with 4-5 rows of bookshelves with no books sleeping on it. not a secret chamber. 

the definition of traits? does it change overtime, or merely the behavioural changes after trainings, events, relationships, marriage, work, age....? “calmer” they say.... “not all” will be “matured”..... say cheese (smile)!

a day of study life, woke up at 5am today, becoming a morning person during the week (not weekend , but maybe I must for the Sat. work that requires me to be on bus @ 07:20 ish (20-30 min journey + 15-20 min walk) . tiredness or morning wakefulness to be more productive .... 4am or 5am is still sounding relatively quiet, sorry birds, prefer the background noise in the cafe, not you singing competitions/ .... fell asleep around 00:00 instantly - “knackered” they say, and about that sleeping time: 4am-8:30am the earlier day, therefore... ironically, not for the purpose of Biopsy. tutorial on the sleep deprivation, respectfully .....

some readings (on the to-do list). what choice would you choose: 

equally important - both are happening at the same time @ 12pm 

(would like to meet the group for the conversations - 2-3 from the states , one of the them are working on the project - attachment - have to reach out and ask in person for the information exchange - no numbers exchanged, his anthropology background+gf studying at St. Andrews that is still on my list to visit ..

a recorded group tutorial to meet your personal tutor - topics on further training, career options ect. - many questions to ask - since he worked as a psychotherapist in California ..

// asked a cohort to audio record the meeting for the Conceptual and Theoretical Psy. tutorial .... + sneak into a 4pm tutorial room (”can’t” but will try and do so by sitting at the corner - is it a misconduct or penalty for attending-learning?!!!! disrupt? - discuss!), with an absence on 12pm record (fine!) 

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the experience of emotions - me facial expression/ reaction .... “funny” but it’s not .....