When we perform textual analysis on a text, we make an educated guess at some of the most likely interpretations that might be made of that text
- Textual analysis is a methodology: a way of gathering and analysing information in academic research. Some academic disciplines (particularly in the physical and social sciences) are extremely rigorous about their methodologies, with a small number of long-established ways in which it is acceptable to gather and process information
- Audience research can sometimes produce interesting insights into the unexpected ways in which media texts are interpreted by audiences. For example, Henry Jenkins discovered in his work with Star Trek fans that a distinct subgroup of female audience members thought that the relationship between Captain Kirk and Mr Spock had a powerful erotic undertone, and they interpreted the films and episodes of the television programme in light of this sexual relationship between the two men.
- There is no way that we can attempt to understand how a text might be interpreted without first asking: Interpreted by whom? And in what context? Say, for example, we were trying to understand a music video that was made and first broadcast in the late 1970s. It features a lot of blue eye-shadow, crimped hair and very glossy, bright pink lipstick. How can we interpret these features? What does blue eyeshadow mean?
