5 May

Who cares about audiences? Advertisers? Filmmakers? Academic scholars? This week’s lectorial on media consumption, in particular focusing on the idea of ‘audience’, was informative. In today’s modern media world, preconceived notions on media consumption are constantly being subverted and reconsidered as the audience’s involvement in media production and creation is changing; broadcasting now is contrasted by narrowcasting. Whilst institutions and technologies change and new ones come into play, the media environment changes respectively vis-a-vís audience’s knowledge, participation and expectations. On this media change, it is important to know what interpellation is in relation to a media audience.

Interpellation:

The process by 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
Louis Althusser

Throughout all forms of media – cinema, television, social media, visual art, advertising – the association and relationship the audience feels towards the text is always a primary concern. As the audience becomes more ‘active’ with media, so too must the depth of relatable material presented. This ‘active’ participation in media by the audience is generally associated with fan-made adaptations. In the lectorial, we watched Jonathan Krisel’s Portlandia episode “One Moore Episode” where the audience’s involvement in media is comically scrutinised. Centring around Fred’s and Carrie’s appreciation and then obsession with Battlestar Galactica, “One Moore Episode” is definitive in its intention: audience participation is at an all-time high and fans demand more and more from the media that they interact with.