This week’s topic was based around audiences- the whats, the hows.
So what is an audience?
According to David Morely, the audoth or this week’s reading titled ‘Audience’, extracted from New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture & Society, an audience could be considered as ‘those who are physically, and collectively, present in the same place…the addressees of a sermon, speech or theatrical production’. This definition, however, may only be suitable for small audiences and may not be applicable to all groups that may be labelled audiences in this day and age of mass media and technology based media- as they may not be physically interacting with the media, merely the target of it. After researching definitions of ‘audience’, I created my own…
A group of individuals, large or small, that are reached through a particular communication medium; listeners, readers, spectators, influencees
Now, more than ever, audiences are so influential in not only the success and popularity of media, but in the creation of it. The creators, writers etc of various forms of media, most commonly TV, now look to social media sites in an attempt to pick out trends in the wishes of the audience- events that the audience wish to happen, for example the coupling of two housemates in Big Brother. This trend may be picked up by the writers of the show, and incorporated into the story line.
How do the audience and a particular media relate, influence and effect eachother?
This is explored through media influence theories which have identified two main types of audiences…
An active audience is one that actively engages with the text- they do no simple accept the message communicated through the media. They question what they see/hear and develop their own interpretation based on their life experiences, education, family and culture. A passive audience, however, is one that does not question the message communicated through the media; they simply accept it in the way it was intended to be accepted.
Sometimes, people write songs for specific people in their audience… my favourite example of this is a song that addresses the people seated in the Nosebleed Section…thank you Hilltop Hoods
