Media Audiences : Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power

by John L. Sullivan

ISBN13: 9781412970426

ISBN10: 1412970423

Format: Paperback

Pub. Date: 2012-10-23

Publisher(s): SAGE Publications, Inc

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Summary

Despite the widespread use of the term audience in our popular culture, the meaning of the audience is complex, and it has undergone significant historical shifts over time. Media Audiences explores the concept of media audiences from four broad perspectives, as victims of mass media, as market constructions & commodities, as users of media, and as producers & subcultures of mass media.

Preface	p. xiii
Acknowlegments	p. xv
History and Concept of the Audience	p. 1
Situating the Audience Concept	p. 2
Overview of the Chapter	p. 2
What Is an "Audience"?	p. 2
Constructionism and the Notion of the Audience	p. 5
Three Models of the Audience	p. 6
History of Early Audiences	p. 8
Greek and Roman Audiences: Public Performance and Oral Communication	p. 8
Print and the Shift Toward Mediated Audiences	p. 11
Liberalism, Democratic Participation, and Crowds in the 19th Century	p. 12
Motion Pictures and the Rise of the Mass Audience	p. 15
Audiences and Notions of Power	p. 16
Structure and Agency	p. 16
What Is Power?	p. 18
Conclusion: Constructing Audiences Through History and Theory	p. 19
Discussion Activities	p. 20
Additional Materials	p. 21
References	p. 21
Audiences as Objects	p. 23
Effects of Media Messages	p. 25
Overview of the Chapter	p. 26
Origins of Media Effects Theories in the Early 20th Century	p. 26
Charles Horton Cooley and the Emergence of Sociology	p. 27
Concern Over Film Audiences: Hugo Münsterberg and Mass Suggestibility	p. 28
Mass Society Theory and the Payne Fund Studies	p. 30
The Payne Fund Studies (1929-1932)	p. 31
Consequences of the Payne Fund Studies	p. 33
The War of the Worlds Broadcast and the Direct Effects Model	p. 33
The War of the Worlds Broadcast (1938)	p. 34
Cantril's Study of Mass Panic among Radio Audiences	p. 35
Mass Propaganda Concerns and World War II Communication Research	p. 35
Early Concerns With Mass Persuasion	p. 36
World War II Communication Research	p. 37
Postwar Communication Research: The Rise of the Limited Effects Paradigm	p. 39
Persuasion Research: Selectivity and the ELM	p. 39
The People's Choice (1944) and Personal Influence (1955)	p. 42
Effects of Media Violence	p. 44
Rise of Public Concern Over Television and the Surgeon General's Report (1971)	p. 44
Long-Term Media Effects and Cultivation Theory	p. 46
Video Game Violence and Effects	p. 46
Conclusion: Enduring Concern Over Media Effects	p. 47
Discussion Activities	p. 48
Additional Materials	p. 49
References	p. 49
Audiences as Institutional Constructions	p. 53
Public Opinion and Audience Citizenship	p. 55
Overview of the Chapter 1	p. 56
A Brief History of Public Opinion	p. 56
Greco-Roman Notions of Public Opinion	p. 57
Feudal Europe and the Representative Public Sphere	p. 58
The 18th-century Enlightenment and the Bourgeois Public Sphere	p. 59
Quantification of Public Opinion in the 19th Century	p. 61
The Rise of Surveys in the 20th Century	p. 62
Survey Methods and the Public Opinion Industry	p. 62
Sampling and Survey Participation	p. 63
Data Gathering and Survey Design	p. 64
Public Opinion Organizations	p. 65
Public Opinion and the Limits of Audience Constructions	p. 66
Public Opinion as a Fictional Construct	p. 66
Surveys and the Manufacture of Public Opinion	p. 67
How News Shapes Public Opinion	p. 69
News and the Public Agenda	p. 69
Opinion Polling and the News Media	p. 71
Conclusion: The Construction of Public Opinion and Its Implications for Democracy	p. 72
Discussion Activities	p. 73
Additional Materials	p. 74
References	p. 74
Media Ratings and Target Marketing	p. 77
Overview of the Chapter	p. 78
The Political Economic Approach to Communication	p. 78
Political Economy and the Commodity Audience	p. 80
Dallas W. Smythe and the "Blindspot" Debate	p. 81
Ratings and the Construction of the Audience Product	p. 82
Toothpicks and Trees: The "Natural" Audience as Taxonomic Collectives	p. 82
Measuring Audiences: The Ratings System	p. 83
Audience Research and the Ratings	p. 84
Operationalization of the Audience Concept: Quantification	p. 84
Constructing the Nielsen Sample	p. 86
Measuring Audience Viewership: Diaries, Household Meters, Peoplemeters, and PPMs	p. 90
Online Audience Measures	p. 93
Ratings and Shares in the Television Industry	p. 93
Ratings, Market Research, and the Audience Commodity: Assigning Market Value to Mass Audiences	p. 95
The Importance of Audience Demographics: Age, Gender, and Income	p. 95
The Role of Psychographic and Lifestyle Measurements in Targeted Marketing Appeals	p. 97
Marketing and Social Stereotypes: Minority Audiences Struggle With Big Media	p. 98
Conclusion: How Effective Is Institutional Control Over Audiences?	p. 100
Discussion Activities	p. 101
Additional Materials	p. 102
References	p. 102
Audiences as Active Users of Media	p. 105
Uses and Gratifications	p. 107
Overview of the Chapter	p. 108
Early Examples of Uses and Gratifications in Communication Research	p. 108
Motion Picture Autobiographies and Media Motivations in the 1920s	p. 109
Female Radio Serial Listeners in the 1940s	p. 110
The Uses and Gratifications Approach	p. 113
Israeli Media and Their Uses (Katz, Gurevitch, and Haas, 1973)	p. 114
Uses and Gratifications and the Notion of Needs	p. 115
Audience Activities and Media Motives	p. 116
Expectancy-Value Approaches to Uses and Gratifications	p. 120
Social Uses of Media	p. 122
The Uses and Dependency Approach	p. 125
Conclusion: Refocusing on Audience Power	p. 128
Discussion Activities	p. 228
Additional Materials	p. 229
References	p. 130
Interpreting and Decoding Mass Media Texts	p. 133
Overview of the Chapter	p. 135
The Rise of Critical Cultural Studies	p. 135
Interpretation and Semiotics	p. 135
Ideology, Screen Theory, and the Critical Paradigm	p. 138
The Birmingham School and the Encoding/Decoding Model	p. 140
The Encoding/Decoding Model	p. 140
Message Asymmetry and Multiple Levels of Meaning	p. 141
Polysemy and Three Subject Positions	p. 142
The Nationwide Audience Studies	p. 144
Gender and Media Interpretation: Soap Operas, Romances, and Feminism	p. 147
Crossroads and the Soap Opera Viewer	p. 148
Decoding Dallas: The Work of Ien Ang	p. 149
Reading the Romance Novel Reader: Janice Radway	p. 149
Cross-Cultural Reception of Popular Media	p. 151
Israeli Viewers of Dallas	p. 151
Decoding American Soap TV in India	p. 152
Open Texts and Popular Meanings	p. 153
Open Texts: The Theories of John Fiske	p. 153
Intertextuality and Interpretive Communities	p. 154
Conclusion: Interpretation and Audience Power '	p. 157
Discussion Activities	p. 158
Additional Materials	p. 159
References	p. 159
Reception Contexts and Media Rituals	p. 161
Overview of the Chapter	p. 162
Media in Context: Notions of Space and Time	p. 163
Social and Situational Contexts	p. 163
Time and Media Use	p. 165
Media Reception in the Domestic Sphere	p. 167
Housewives and Mass Media	p. 168
Morley's Nationwide Follow-Up: Family Television	p. 168
Television and "Gendered" Technologies in the Home	p. 169
Domestic Media Reception in the '90s and Beyond	p. 170
Social Versus Individualized Viewing Behaviors	p. 171
The Internet and New Media in the Home	p. 172
Media and Everyday Life in the Domestic Context	p. 173
The Blending of Public and Private Spaces: Modernity and Time-Space Distanciation	p. 174
Media Technology and the Home	p. 175
Media Spaces in the 21st Century	p. 176
Media Rituals: Another Reception Context	p. 178
Defining Rituals	p. 178
Media Events: Creating Television's "High Holidays"	p. 179
Conclusion: Audiences in Context	p. 182
Discussion Activities	p. 182
Additional Materials	p. 184
References	p. 184
Audiences as Producers and Subcultures	p. 187
Media Fandom and Audience Subcultures	p. 189
Overview of the Chapter	p. 191
Defining Fan Cultures	p. 192
Fan Stereotypes	p. 193
Defining Fan Studies: Why Study Fans?	p. 193
Fan Cultures and Interpretive Activity	p. 195
The Social Aspect of Media Fandom: Developing Communities and Subcultures	p. 195
Fan Activism: Challenging Institutional Producers	p. 196
Fans and Media Texts: Protecting Continuity and Canon	p. 198
Canon Wars: Star Wars Fans Define the Popular Text	p. 201
Fans and Textual Productions	p. 202
De Certeau and Textual Poaching	p. 202
Fanzines, Fanfic, and Filking: Textual Poaching in Action	p. 203
Fans and Cultural Hierarchy: The Limits of Textual Reinterpretation	p. 206
Pierre Bourdieu and the Sociology of Cultural Consumption	p. 207
Second Wave Fan Studies: The Reproduction of Economic and Social Hierarchies	p. 207
Conclusion: Fans, Creativity, and Cultural Hierarchy	p. 209
Discussion Activities	p. 210
Additional Materials	p. 211
References	p. 211
Online, Interactive Audiences in a Digital Media World	p. 213
Overview of the Chapter	p. 216
Digitalization, Fragmentation, and the Rise of Audience Autonomy	p. 216
YouTube and WoW: Sites of Audience Agency and Creativity	p. 218
The Rise of Participatory Culture	p. 218
YouTube as a Site for Participatory Culture	p. 220
World of Warcraft as Creative Playground and Social Center	p. 224
Crowdsourcing Media Production: Wikis and Blogs	p. 225
Wikis and the Crowdsourcing of Audience Knowledge	p. 227
Blogs and Citizen Journalism	p. 227
Questioning Audience Power in the Networked Information Society: Issues of Media Ownership, Surveillance, and Labor Exploitation	p. 229
Audience-Produced Media: The Question of Intellectual Property	p. 229
Social Media and Audience Surveillance in a Networked Environment	p. 231
Audience Creativity and Labor Exploitation	p. 232
Conclusion: Networked Creativity Meets Undercompensated Labor	p. 233
Discussion Activities	p. 234
Additional Materials	p. 235
References	p. 235
Conclusion: Audience Agency in New Contexts	p. 239
Overview of the Chapter	p. 240
The Rise of Mobile, Transmedia Experiences in the Post-Network Era	p. 240
The New Economics of Audience Aggregation	p. 243
Audience Studies in a New Century	p. 245
Additional Materials	p. 247
References	p. 248
Index	p. 251
About the Author	p. 263
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Media Audiences : Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power

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