Audiences Lectorial

This lectorial talked about the changing role of the audience that came as a consequence of the shift from broadcast to post broadcast age. The audience went from a silent, passive one that consumed information that flowed as a one stream from the media industry to an audience with a voice that can pick and choose what consume and (most importantly) how to respond.

We were shown a clip of Robert Menzies introducing Australia to the television with the emphasis being on its capacity to educate.  This is in contrast to American views of the time that believed the televisions main use to be that of entertainment purposes. Another particularly interesting thing was Menzies tone of voice, obviously he was talking to an imagined audience (and probably a very broad one) and because of this he adopted a very monotonous/neutral tone. This shows how ill-defined audiences were (particularly in Australia) at this particular time. This is in stark contrast to the present where niche audiences are very much impacting media production. In this day and age a person looking to present to a particular audience would adopt a very different ‘voice’ to Menzies, tailored to the specific audience. This shift in audience was described in todays lectorial as from Broadcasting to Narrowcasting.

From an advertising side of things companies have to imagine the audience differently, they have to go and chase these audiences due to the fractured media landscape we live in. A key question these companies ask is how do you track and find these niche audiences? Everything is spread out, sporadic.

Another quote/sub-topic that interested me was the theorising of the ‘active audience’. Communication is a gamble, you code the audience to convey a meaning to the audience, however this is not always going to work, they may not be able to decode what you put into the text. For example, to learn from Mad Men we have to decode meanings, what happens if I get a meaning Mathew Weiner didn’t want to put into the text. This is the gamble he as a creator/communicator is taking.

Interpellation: The process of which individuals/readers are ‘hailed’ in other words when the individual is prompted by a text to recognise him or herself as being a subject that belongs in a role.  For example, your role as a citizen, in the library when the cameras are applied for your safety, you are interpellated into being a victim. I am guessing this is a key tactic in advertising, the creators of the advertisements tailor their adverts to a specific demographic. By hailing in this demographic in order to make them recognise that they need the product, they can directly target the potential consumers of this specific product.

Hollywood has used popular culture to supress the population, to make sure they are docile, make sure they are lost in mindless entertainment; the pop-culture is used against them. European migrants picked up on this in the 1930’s and were outraged. This is correlated to production of many pop songs these days, they are made in factory’s formed from a factory mode lacking individuality. These ideas and modes of creation link in the quiet, the passive audience.

Finally, due to so many texts being made available, the bridge between high culture texts and low culture texts is accessible to everyone. Audiences are omnivores they can consume well cultured texts steeped in history and tradition on the same networking service as keeping up with the Kardashians.