Interpreting Audiences: The Ethnography of Media Consumption
... One way to understand perspectives on media audiences is to see them against a background o f approaches which (as Livingstone, 1991, notes) oscillated between emphasising the power o f the media, or 'text', and the active, discriminating audience or 'reader'. As Moores (1993) points out early interest in the media very much saw the audience as a 'm ass' subject to manipulation; resulting in either ideological deception or moral decay "depending on which side o f the political spectrum the critique o f mass culture came from" (1993: 5). The ensuing 'effects' approach to research popular in the United States measured 'immediately observable changes in human behaviour'. ...
... Semiotics will be touched on later in this introduction when consideration is given to its role in an emerging social constructionist perspective. For now it is worth noting that the broadly Althusserian perspective constructed audiences as 'readers' o f the 'text' or media, as Moores (1993) Althusser's approach to the media was popular partly because it provided a relatively clear intellectual agenda. Scholars could decode the ideological messages -typically supportive o f the current power relations -which the media produced. ...
... One aspect o f this perspective was that it tended to assume that whilst critically orientated scholars were well placed to decode and resist embedded ideological messages audiences were in general likely to accept the message effected by but unaware o f the ideological 'medicine' they had imbued. Moores (1993) illustrates the picture o f the audience implicit within such research; "in the work o f MacCabe, Heath and others, the text is not so much 'read' as simply 'consumed/appropriated' straight via the only possible positions available to the reader -those inscribed by the text." (1993: 15). ...
The talk of politicians, news-journalists and audiences has been relatively neglected in social psychology and media studies. Within these approaches talk has been ignored altogether, treated as a symptom of cognitive or ideological processes or employed simply as a tool to gain access to `inner' meaning making' or 'outer' behaviour. This thesis explored a corpus of talk data from a discursive perspective in which the talk itself was the focus. It was argued that politicians and news-journalists could in different ways be seen to orientate to the 'truthfulness' of what they say. Thus politicians' were found to cite others to corroborate their claims, and new-journalists through their exchange of utterances attended to the co-construction their 'impartiality' and 'authoritativeness'. Politicians were also found to construct intent in terms of acting in 'the national interest' - this 'repertoire' could blame or exonerate self and others depending crucially on talk-context in which it was produced. Audiences' talk about their identity and contrasts with others was also explored. Their talk was analysed not to uncover their 'meaning-makings' or behaviour but instead to discover the activity orientations of their talk and its sensitivity to the surrounding talk context. In this way the talk of politicians, news-journalists and audiences was not seen as a symptom of some separate, 'underlying' phenomena of interest nor as a mere tool to access their 'inner' or 'outer' world - but rather it was the focus of study itself. Approached in this way talk was understood as orientated to a range of activities such as warranting, exonerating, blaming and so on. It was argued that these activities could be conceptualised as occurring within and across talk context - that is in sequences of talk. The implications of the thesis were considered for aspects of social psychology, media studies and discursive approaches.
... W telewizji oprócz warstwy oralnej/auralnej istnieje również warstwa wizualna; wspólnie tworzą system symboli -audiowizualny język, którym posługują się telewizja czy film, a którego rozumienia uczymy się przez regularny kontakt z nimi (Gunter, McAller 1990;Lemish 2007). Odpowiedni poziom znajomości języka mediów audiowizualnych (konwencji nimi i w nich rządzących) pozwala dzieciom dokonywać właściwych przewidywań na temat "dobrych" i "złych" postaci i na tej podstawie tworzyć przypuszczenia dotyczące możliwych wydarzeń i zakończeń nieznanych historii (Moores 1996). ...
... Recently the debate regarding the strengths and weaknesses of Hall's encoding/decoding model (1974) has gained momentum, with scholars like Abercrombie and Longhurst (1998) and Barker (2006) suggesting that the model be abandoned altogether. Others, like Moores (1993), Morley (2006) and Michelle (2007), in turn, are wary of such a stance. The search for the ideal model or typology of audience responses is therefore still on. ...
So often we seem to speak in abstracts about marketing. We may all nod our heads when itcomes to the importance of the basics of digging and delving into the marketplace and thoroughlyresearching the competition and looking at trend analyses. When we moreover talk about theimportance of positioning our brand and differentiating it by means of both an impactful name andpackaging that really do express the brand’s character, its DNA, we may all nod our heads again.
... Recently the debate regarding the strengths and weaknesses of Hall's encoding/decoding model (1974) has gained momentum, with scholars like Abercrombie and Longhurst (1998) and Barker (2006) suggesting that the model be abandoned altogether. Others, like Moores (1993), Morley (2006) and Michelle (2007), in turn, are wary of such a stance. The search for the ideal model or typology of audience responses is therefore still on. ...
... Recently the debate regarding the strengths and weaknesses of Hall's encoding/decoding model (1974) has gained momentum, with scholars like Abercrombie and Longhurst (1998) and Barker (2006) suggesting that the model be abandoned altogether. Others, like Moores (1993), Morley (2006) and Michelle (2007), in turn, are wary of such a stance. The search for the ideal model or typology of audience responses is therefore still on. ...
What is described as ‘a major leap of faith’ by producer Danie Odendaal (Labuschagne, 2010:62) has turned out to be somewhat of a cultural phenomenon. For one, 7de Laan was, at thetime of the study, the most popular Afrikaans soap in that it reached a bigger audience than anyother Afrikaans soap, such as Binneland2 (M-Net and KykNET)3 and Villa Rosa (kykNET) (TVSA,2010). It further held its own in the fiercely competitive timeslot of 18:30 during which two othersoaps, namely Isidingo (SABC 3)4 and Rhythm City (e.tv), were then broadcast. The soap hasalso received the Voters’ Choice Award for best soap opera two years’ running at the South AfricanFilm and Television Awards, thereby confirming its popularity. Although initially commissioned forthe upper-income category (De Lange, 2007: 3), 7de Laan now has a much wider audiencebase, which includes viewers from different socio-economic, racial and language groups. Usingreception analysis as point of departure, this study used in-depth interviews with a cross-culturalsample of viewers to describe the appeal of 7de Laan.
... These are the "stories" that parents are so worried about. There is extended literature on why soapies are so popular, with both communication scholars and psychologists explaining the phenomenon (see for example Moores, 1995, Zillman & Vorderer, 2000. Some researchers mention man's need to understand and project himself into some of the characters (Noble, 1975, Van Vuuren, 1979. ...
The consumption of media – especially radio and television – by children has been a topic ofresearch for decades now. Although extensive research has been published on the effects of themedia, also in South Africa, very few (if any) publications address the issue of when and whatchildren are viewing in South Africa, and if something should be done about this behaviour. In thisarticle, specific examples of the viewing patterns of children between the ages of 7 and 15 arepresented in the context of unacceptable material to which they are exposed. The different rolesof parents, broadcasters and legislators are discussed, against the backdrop of recent literature,in an attempt to suggest a way forward.
... Esta perspectiva permite explicitar la variedad de las posibles interpretaciones de los espectadores sobre los procesos que experimentan al ver televisión y el modo como dichas interpretaciones se relacionan con las condiciones de vida, identidades o demandas de la situación de los sujetos entrevistados. Livingstone (1998), Morley (1992), Moores (1993) y Brundson (2000 llaman la atención sobre las variadas formas de interpretación que se pueden producir según los contextos simbólicos o los recursos interpretativos de los receptores. Ang (1996), Alasuutari (1999), Boyle (2005), Tulloch y Tulloch (1992), Schlesinger et al. (1998) y Hill (2001 ponen de manifiesto las maneras peculiares como los espectadores se posicionan e interpretan las emisiones televisivas y, en consecuencia, las diversas maneras de ser afectados por ellas, en función de sus actitudes, identidades o condiciones de vida. ...
Numerosos autores han vinculado la experiencia de ver violencia en televisión con procesos de identificación. La investigación ha descubierto dimensiones que no recogen con precisión la experiencia peculiar de los espectadores. El objetivo de este trabajo es reconstruir la noción de identificación a partir del discurso. Se analizaron ocho grupos focales con visionado de fragmentos de programas con violencia real o ficticia. Los resultados muestran que la identificación está conectada a la especularidad, la posibilidad de experimentar la misma emoción e impacto de los personajes, según la similitud o preferencia de los espectadores. Por último, se discuten las implicaciones sobre los efectos de la violencia en televisión
... Ang (1996) y Alasuutari (1999) señalan la necesidad de un reconocimiento de la reflexividad de las audiencias que debe ser captada a través de la investigación cualitativa etnográfica. En una línea de investigación similar se sitúan Morley (1992), Moores (1993), Boyle (2005), Ang (1996) y Brundson (2000, quienes señalan las más diversas formas de interpretación que se pueden producir según los contextos simbólicos, los recursos interpretativos y otras muchas condiciones de variabilidad como, por ejemplo, los repertorios interpretativos previos de los receptores de la información. ...
La investigación sobre violencia en televisión se ha orientado a una labor cuantificadora de lo emitido o a la práctica experimental para determinar sus posibles efectos. El presente trabajo se centra en cómo interpretan los espectadores las imágenes de violencia. Basado en el análisis de 16 grupos de discusión, muestra las dimensiones que mediatizan los posibles efectos de la violencia televisiva; en concreto, las condiciones en que se reconocen y clasifican escenas de violencia, las funciones de la imagen violenta, las emociones y sentimientos despertados por ella y los procesos de identificación que se pueden producir con los personajes de las escenas.
... Un aspecto importante de dicho 2 Mi enfoque está sobre la manera en que el cine crea una perspectiva de la audiencia para los participantes en la creación de la película, no es una investigación sobre el modo en que las audiencias generalmente relatan e interpretan una película. Lo que sigue es campo bien establecido de estudio; véase por ejemplo, Martínez (1992) yMoores (1993), así comoVávrová (2014), quienes condujeron un interesante experimento mostrando películas en un pueblo de Papua Nueva Guinea en el que las personas no tenían experiencia previa viendo películas. Mi tópico en este artículo tiene una conexión cercana al método de retroalimentación de Jean Rouch. ...
Este libro es una antología coordinada, editada y traducida por Mercedes Martínez González con la colaboración de Roberto González Rodríguez y Abel Rodríguez Carrillo. La antología reúne textos sobre antropología del diseño y antropología visual escritos por el profesor de antropología de la Aarhus University en Dinamarca, Ton Otto, algunos con la colaboración de las especialistas en antropología del diseño Rachel Charlotte Smith, de la misma universidad, y Mette Gislev Kjaersgaard, de la University of Sauthern Denmark. Lo que aquí se presenta es una compilación de textos diversos que los autores han publicado en inglés en diferentes revistas y libros, incluyendo la introducción que Otto y Smith escribieron para el libro Design Anthropology. Theory and Practice, referente indiscutible de los estudios de antropología del diseño.
... Such work has directed attention to the social context of media production, shedding light on the material conditions, professional standards, institutional structures, social relations and values, that shape media workplaces and that ultimately affect the content and meaning of media texts. Beyond media production labour, anthropologists have also explored the work of media consumption, with ethnographic observations of household media habits making valuable contributions to audience reception studies (Moores 1993;Horst 2012). Ethnographies of media labour have also drawn attention to the work involved in media distribution, from the exchange of photographic images (Edwards 2012) to the circulation of hard drives (Cearns 2021). ...
... In particular, ethnographic research on media appropriation suggests that concepts of "mass media and " (Curran and Gurevitch, 1991) need to be countered with different perspec-tives that place greater emphasis on the everyday embeddedness of media use, its contradictoriness as well as practices of everyday resistance (i. e., Drotner, 1994;Moores, 1993). A certain 'messiness' of media appropriation became clear here, an approach that, in turn, corresponds with non-Western ways of theorizing (Murphy and Kraidy, 2003). ...
Until the end of the last century, media sociology was synonymous with the investigation of mass media as a social domain. Today, media sociology needs to address a much higher level of complexity, that is, a deeply mediatized world in which all human practices, social relations, and social order are entangled with digital media and their infrastructures. This article discusses this shift from a sociology of mass communication to the sociology of a deeply mediatized world. The principal aim of the article is to outline a new media-sociological imagination: media sociology as a cross-sectional sociology, a sociology of entanglement, and a new critical sociology of technological deep structures.
... Pe n e l i t i a n i n i m e n g g u n a k a n paradigma kritis atas upayanya untuk membongkar relasi kuasa yang berjalinkelindan dalam relasi antara audiens/ pengguna dan media sosial (Buckingham, 2017;Jenkins, 2004;Ross & Nightingale, 2003;Wallace, 2018). Adapun pendekatan yang digunakan adalah pendekatan kualitatif dengan pertimbangan bahwa penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menyajikan data dengan kedalaman atas pengalaman hidup individu (Moores, 2000). Oleh karena itu, metode yang digunakan adalah etnografi virtual (Hine, 2000) sebagai metode utama, serta etnografi baru (Saukko, 2003) sebagai metode pendukung. ...
Abstrak Selama masa pandemi virus COVID-19, media sosial dipenuhi dengan pemberitaan dan informasi tidak hanya seputar virus tersebut saja, melainkan juga kehidupan manusia yang mulai berubah menyertai upaya pencegahan penyebaran virus. Pada tataran ini, kaum muda sebagai generasi digital native yang merupakan pengguna media sosial turut menjadi audiens dalam paparan berita dan informasi terkait topik COVID-19. Oleh karena itu, riset ini tidak hanya mengkaji bagaimana proses paparan informasi yang terjadi, melainkan juga menganalisis persepsi dan dampak yang ditimbulkan oleh proses pemaparan tersebut. Adapun riset ini menerapkan metode etnografi virtual sebagai metode utama dan metode etnografi baru sebagai metode pendukung. Dalam riset ini, ditemukan bahwa dalam terpaan wacana COVID-19 di media sosial, kaum muda cenderung mengalami dua kondisi. Pertama, munculnya ketidakpercayaan, baik terhadap akun tertentu yang menayangkan informasi COVID-19 maupun Pemerintah. Kedua, paparan yang ada di media sosial membuat mereka mencari eskapisme dalam bentuk kegiatan lain di luar media sosial. Pada akhirnya, proses seleksi informasi dilakukan oleh kaum muda dalam menghadapi paparan informasi terkait COVID-19 di media sosial. Abstract During the time of COVID-19 pandemic, the social media world has been filled with news and information regarding whether the virus or the changes in human life in the effort to prevent the spread of the virus. At this stage, youth as the generation of digital natives, has become the main audiences who got exposed by news and information of COVID-19. Therefore, this research aims not only to study how the exposure takes place, but also to analyse the perception and impact caused by the process of exposure. This research was conducted by applying virtual ethnography as the main method and new ethnography as supporting method. In this research, we found that within the exposure of COVID-19 discourses in social media, Indonesian youth tends to experience two conditions. First, the emergence of distrust, towards whether certain media institution or the Government itself. Second, the social media exposure leads them to seek for escapism in form of activities outside the social media. In the end, selection information process is conducted by youth.
... Etnografi dalam studi media menekankan interpretasi bahwa media dikonstruksi oleh audiens dalam kehidupan seharihari. Menurut Moores, adalah benar bahwa studi media tidak didasari penelitian lapangan yang ekstensif di suatu tempat yang jauh, tapi mereka telah membagi perhatian yang sama dengan apa yang diusahakan oleh para peneliti etnografi antropologi (Moores, 1993). Dalam konteks penelitian ini, metode netnografi digunakan untuk melihat sebuah fenomena melalui aktivitas digital yang dilakukan oleh komunitas atau kelompok virtual yang ada pada akun instagram @sobatambyarindonesia. ...
... Most critics and would-be theorists, sensing a dialectic in place, direct efforts toward synthesis (Frith 1992;Hardt 1992;Lum 1996;Moores 1993), to "elaborate a model of consumer cultures which recognizes creativities and constraints operating simultaneously, and which manages to hold them together within a coherent conceptual framework" (Moores 1993:138). While seemingly admirable, this model ultimately assumes the agonism inherent in the above approaches. ...
Drawing on the contradictions between the lyrical modes of karaoke and the situation of karaoke performance, this article examines the role of colonial nostalgia and the vernacular concept of fate in contemporary Taiwan. Stressing that colonial nostalgia is a formal property of karaoke lyrics and performance, I attend to the relationship of karaoke to the problem of finding truth in human voices, particularly as a complication of urban life.
... The systems of symbols used by TV are its audiovisual language that spectators learn to understand by regularly viewing TV (Gunter & McAleer, 2005;Lemish, 2007). The appropriate level of TV literacy and knowledge of representational TV codes, comprised in a visual and aural layer, allows children to make the right predictions about "good" and "bad" characters and, on that basis, generate predictions about possible endings of unknown stories (Moores, 1996). In any event, to understand the language of audiovisual products and to be mentally able to decode it, one needs to have regular contact with them. ...
Purpose: This article’s aim is to discuss the potential of audio description (AD) in two contexts: (1) developmental and educational difficulties experienced by children with low vision or total blindness; (2) psycho-social importance of access to mass media by children and adolescents.
Method: The considerations presented here are formed on the basis of a literature review and – by referring to well-established theories – draw from several different fields, for example (typhlo)psychology, (typhlo)pedagogy, and media accessibility.
Results: The existing evidence base shows that visual stimuli are a spur in children to start conversation, which, in turn, supports acquisition of communication skills and new knowledge. This suggests psychological and educational consequences for children with severe visual impairment.
Conclusions: The present article explains why AD may be an effective tool to compensate for the lack of sight in children with severe visual impairment who may be missing out on important opportunities in terms of their overall growth and personal development. It also includes information for caregivers and teachers on why it is worth to use AD as a supportive tool for children with typical vision. The information provided may also act as a guideline for AD creators to reconsider the content and form of AD tracks, consequently optimizing the effectiveness of their products and increasing the social inclusion of children with visual impairment.
... Drawing on research conducted in the Lebanon in the summer of 2015 with a Syrian refugee family, also part of a bigger audience research project including fieldwork in Morocco and the United Kingdom 1 (see Sabry and Mansour, 2019), this article uses findings from family ethnography and participant observation, conducted over a period of 4 weeks in Beirut, (a) to provide an ethnographic description and analysis of the media worlds in a Hizbullah area in South Beirut, (b) on media uses and aesthetics of violence in the context of war/refugees' lives and (c) I use the concept of thrownness to phenomenologically capture and theorise the affective regime that emerges during the ethnographic encounter. However, rather than merely focus on media users' everyday experiences through the consumption of screen media texts, this work delineates a 'non-media-centric' approach (see Moores, 1993;Morley, 1992) that situates the media within a wider, complex and relational structure (including both screen and non-screen media). Through the use of this intra-actional, methodological manoeuvering (between screen and non-screen media), a useful question came to the fore: Do the everyday uses of screen media by Syrian refugee children at home replicate or mirror, at the level of content or form, the everyday, non-screen media 'absent-present' structures that envelop the refugee camp or do they open up new spaces that make flight from such structures possible? ...
This article provides a self-reflexive account of ethnographic research conducted on the outskirts of Burj Al Brajneh, a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, run by Hezbollah. It focuses on ethnographic research conducted with a Syrian refugee family including the mother, father and three children. The research is well captured, in hindsight, by Sarah Pink’s definition of ethnography as a ‘reflexive and experiential process through which academic and applied understanding, knowing and knowledge are produced’. The article demonstrates how the ethnographer’s experience with the refugee children was marked, regardless of long and diligent preparations, by several dislocations: methodological, sensorial and epistemic. The ethnographer pursued a non-media-centric approach allowing him to explore both the refugee family’s media uses as well as the lived, everyday conditions that marked their media uses. The primary aim of the article is three-pronged: (a) to provide an ethnographic description and analysis of the media worlds in a Hizbullah area in South Beirut, (b) to analyse media uses and aesthetics of violence in the context of war/refugees’ lives and (c) to theorise using the Heideggerian concept of thrownness, the entangled and affective regime that emerges during the ethnographic encounter.
... Therefore the ethnographic tradition in audience and media consumption studies (Ang, 1991;Morley and Silverstone, 1990;Moores, 1993;Nightingale, 1996;Silverstone 1994) was soon followed by an important number of studies on migrant uses of media communication technologies (i.e., Robinson, 2000, 2003;Elias, 2008;Georgiou, 2002Georgiou, , 2005Georgiou, , 2006Georgiou, , 2007Gillespie, 1995;Hepp et al., 2011;Millette et al. 2012;Morley, 1999;Ogan, 2001;Ong, 2009;Yoon et al. 2011). Madianou and Miller (2012) examines the new transnational lives of migrant families with parents and children living in different countries while staying in touch closely and caring for each other via the Internet. ...
Nowadays, immigrants are able, in an unprecedented way, to stay in touch with their country of origin through the media. Never before has it been so easy to navigate, technologically speaking, between different "worlds". Scholars have examined the impact of transnational media use on national and diasporic identities. Ample research has shown how satellite television and online-sites reinforce multiple national attachments. Studies are sparse, however, with respect to the field of news. Little attention has been paid, so far, to the strategies of appropriation of different kinds of news contents, as well as the various ways in which meaning can be negotiated by an increasingly active audience.
... 488), and when it happened, most of the time they were focused on the use/reception of digital technologies (Baym, 2000;Miller & Slater, 2000;Postill, 2008). Just as the ethnography of media production is a trend that has been more slowly established within media studies than the ethnography of media reception and consumption (Moores, 1993) and audience ethnography (LaPastina, 2005;Murphy, 1999), the ethnographies of the production sites of digital platforms are also slowly emerging, lagging behind the ethnographies of the reception of digital media. The ethnography of digital media production first spread in the field of journalism studies: many recent works have extended the tradition of focusing on routines and decision-making practices in the newsrooms of online news media (Paterson & Domingo, 2008;Tandoc, 2014). ...
This article aims to provide a detailed rendering of the struggles we experienced while undertaking ethnographic research for the study of music curators working at online music streaming platforms. Based on the field notes generated during a multi-sited ethnography, the article will critically discuss the “black boxing” strategies employed by these platforms in order to protect themselves from public scrutiny, and how media scholars can counteract in order to (partially) circumvent the restrictions posed by them. In light of this discussion, we propose five tactics that we argue can be employed in order to perform ethnographic research in the age of platforms. We conclude with a reflection on what we can learn from “failures in the field” and why it is important to advance ethnographic studies of the new places of cultural production.
... The social process of purchasing and integrating a smart speaker like the Amazon Echo in a home environment is summarized by the term domestication of technology (Spigel, 1992;Moores, 1993Moores, , 1996. Turo-Kimmo Lehtonen (2003) outlines domestication according to a set of Latourian "trials" (Latour, 1999: 311) to stress the openness of the process and its association with dynamic relationships in particular households: in various stages, participants involved may asses the compatibility of a technical object within their household but may also evaluate any "emergent attachments" (Lehtonen, 2003: 381) that are affected by perceptions of the gadget's design, its usefulness, and the user's appreciation for it in the conduct of everyday life. ...
The purpose of this article is to explore how unboxing videos on YouTube contribute to the domestication of privacy-invasive technology. Further, the objective is to show how consumer influencers on YouTube adapt to the flexible persona of the online warm expert (OWE) which expands the concept of the ‘warm expert’ from the domestication literature (Bakardjieva, 2005). I argue that the OWE and unboxing discourse advance corporate interests of surveillance capitalism in home environments by promoting the circulation of emergent consumer technologies and eschewing meaningful discussion of privacy and surveillance issues. A case study of the Amazon Echo smart speaker and Alexa, its voice-activated personal assistant, is presented. The research consists of a qualitative thematic analysis of unboxing videos (N = 73) and viewer comments on YouTube. Unboxing discourse reflects normative consumer culture values that are detached from critical discussions of surveillance or the informational privacy framework of end-user agreements. As a practical implication, the study helps look beyond the household and traditional social relationships in the domestic sphere to understand how technological domestication is being shaped in a paradigm of consumer culture that is fused with the infrastructural and cultural logics of the Internet and social media.
... (This approach is not necessarily ‹better›: asking people to verbally provide their spontaneous reactions to certain research questions can be valuable in certain circumstances, but by definition such responses will not be the most reflective or carefully considered). Moreover, the physical process of making somethingdrawing, for example -involves the body in a physical engagement with thought which, again, may affect personal response: some artists would suggest, for instance, that the physical effort of making a creative piece means that the engagement with it begins in the mind but comes through 1 There is not space here to add to the extensive previous discussions of the limitations of the established approaches (but see, for example, Moores, 1993;Ang, 1996;Gauntlett & Hill, 1999;Ruddock, 2001). This article is instead an attempt to begin a consideration of alternative and complementary methods. ...
This article introduces an emerging area of qualitative media «audience» research, in which individuals are asked to produce media or visual material themselves, as a way of exploring their relationship with particular issues or dimensions of media. The process of making a creative visual artefact – as well as the artefact itself (which may be, for example, a video, drawing, collage, or imagined magazine cover) – offers a reflective entry-point into an exploration of individuals» relationships with media culture. This article sets out some of the origins, rationale and philosophy underlying this methodological approach; briefly discusses two example studies (one in which children made videos to consider their relationship with the environment, and one in which young people drew pictures of celebrities as part of an examination of their aspirations and identifications with stars); and finally considers some emerging issues for further development of this method.
... While the role of TV in society has been a major departure point of cultural studies at large (Williams, 1974), the first ethnographic research project was probably David Morley's Nationwide (1980, which analyzed how different types of viewers interpreted and "decoded"-the encoding/decoding model was introduced by another well-known exponent in this field, Stuart Hall (1973Hall ( / 1980)-a popular BBC TV program called Nationwide. In developing an empirical approach to the use of media not only have cultural studies con tributed to supplying a picture of the role played by such media in the private and family context but they have also definitively enriched the theoretical tradition based on McLuhan's work to empirical studies of media technologies as material objects (Moores, 1993). This, for example, was the contribution of Roger Silverstone and Eric Hirsh's (1992) media domestication approach, which described the household media integration process, understanding technology as concrete objects within the private and family sphere and focusing in particular on the role and space occupied by TVs at home. ...
... There is no single method that would allow an optimal operationalization of all the dimensions that can be used to characterize media use within the present framework. Ethnographic and auto-ethnographic studies of media reception, in-depth interviews, observations, thinking-aloud, and other introspective methods could be used to study the subjective, biographical, and situational aspects of strategies (Bilandzic, 2009;Moores, 1993;, while an investigation of their structural correlates requires information on the distribution of social positions and resources. Analyzing strategies of media use by means of self-reports and standardized questionnaires is a compromise between the phenomenological and the structural perspective; it is an attempt to reconcile the analysis of subjective experiences and the need to relate patterns of media use to typical social situations, to global patterns of social inequality, and to large societal groups. ...
In our post-face, we discuss the intellectual traditions that have inspired communication researchers when conceptualizing and theorizing how we use the media. We reflect on the contribution of the articles in this volume to this particular approach to media use. We then try to contextualize the “how” of media use with regard to how we experience all kinds of worlds that we live in and how we modify this experience. Starting from this review and contextualization, we call for a synthesis, identify theoretical, empirical and methodological desiderata. Finally, we consider the critical potential of research on how we use the media.
... There is no single method that would allow an optimal operationalization of all the dimensions that can be used to characterize media use within the present framework. Ethnographic and auto-ethnographic studies of media reception, in-depth interviews, observations, thinking-aloud, and other introspective methods could be used to study the subjective, biographical, and situational aspects of strategies (Bilandzic, 2009;Moores, 1993;, while an investigation of their structural correlates requires information on the distribution of social positions and resources. Analyzing strategies of media use by means of self-reports and standardized questionnaires is a compromise between the phenomenological and the structural perspective; it is an attempt to reconcile the analysis of subjective experiences and the need to relate patterns of media use to typical social situations, to global patterns of social inequality, and to large societal groups. ...
Research into strategies, modes, and modalities of media use and reception is characterized by a remarkable methodological diversity—in this volume but also in general. This chapter therefore aims at mapping and discussing some of the methodological approaches in this book but also in relevant research to date. These approaches are discussed in the context of some key methodological challenges posed by both the field’s particular object and perspective of research. Extending the discussion in Krämer and Frey (2019), this chapter elaborates on three interconnected methodological challenges that pose themselves to a particular degree when approaching strategies or modalities of media use and reception empirically: (1) Developing appropriate strategies of data collection to capture inaccessible elements of strategies, modes or modalities; (2) accommodating empirically the comprehensiveness and richness of theoretical concepts like strategies, modes and modalities; and (3) observing or experimentally manipulating the reception process without adulterating it.
... There is no single method that would allow an optimal operationalization of all the dimensions that can be used to characterize media use within the present framework. Ethnographic and auto-ethnographic studies of media reception, in-depth interviews, observations, thinking-aloud, and other introspective methods could be used to study the subjective, biographical, and situational aspects of strategies (Bilandzic, 2009;Moores, 1993;, while an investigation of their structural correlates requires information on the distribution of social positions and resources. Analyzing strategies of media use by means of self-reports and standardized questionnaires is a compromise between the phenomenological and the structural perspective; it is an attempt to reconcile the analysis of subjective experiences and the need to relate patterns of media use to typical social situations, to global patterns of social inequality, and to large societal groups. ...
The question of how the media are being used by individuals has not really entered the canon of traditional research interests and is not commonly used to characterize an established field of research in the discipline. We think this is worth changing. This volume therefore brings together a number of contributions that represent different perspectives, theoretical foundations and methodological approaches on this topic. In their entirety, they provide an overview of the work already done in the field so far and at the same time further develop it. This introductory chapter starts with some reflections on the relevance of this field of research. We then would like to attempt a rough overview of the relevant branches of research in this context in order to finally present and explain the selection of contributions collected in this volume.
... There is no single method that would allow an optimal operationalization of all the dimensions that can be used to characterize media use within the present framework. Ethnographic and auto-ethnographic studies of media reception, in-depth interviews, observations, thinking-aloud, and other introspective methods could be used to study the subjective, biographical, and situational aspects of strategies (Bilandzic, 2009;Moores, 1993;Woelke, 2005), while an investigation of their structural correlates requires information on the distribution of social positions and resources. Analyzing strategies of media use by means of self-reports and standardized questionnaires is a compromise between the phenomenological and the structural perspective; it is an attempt to reconcile the analysis of subjective experiences and the need to relate patterns of media use to typical social situations, to global patterns of social inequality, and to large societal groups. ...
The concept of strategies of media use is introduced to describe how reception as a practice is related to social structure and individuals’ lives. Elements of strategies are outlined and hypotheses are proposed on their relationship to social structure. A quantitative survey demonstrates how strategies of media use can be measured. Using television and strategies pertaining to emotional experiences and high culture as an example, dimensions of strategies are analyzed and explained in terms of agents’ social background, current social position, and experiences during socialization and in the workplace.
... There is no single method that would allow an optimal operationalization of all the dimensions that can be used to characterize media use within the present framework. Ethnographic and auto-ethnographic studies of media reception, in-depth interviews, observations, thinking-aloud, and other introspective methods could be used to study the subjective, biographical, and situational aspects of strategies (Bilandzic, 2009;Moores, 1993;, while an investigation of their structural correlates requires information on the distribution of social positions and resources. Analyzing strategies of media use by means of self-reports and standardized questionnaires is a compromise between the phenomenological and the structural perspective; it is an attempt to reconcile the analysis of subjective experiences and the need to relate patterns of media use to typical social situations, to global patterns of social inequality, and to large societal groups. ...
This volume considers strategies, modalities, and styles of media use and reception. Dynamic changes in media technology and infrastructure have spurred important changes in media use. Looking at these developments within the common conceptual framework of reception strategies, modes and styles of media use and reception, this volume is highly relevant against the background of the changing media environment. When it comes to media use and reception, communication research has mainly dealt with two much-cited questions: What do the media do with the people? What do the people do with the media? In comparison, the discipline has devoted less attention to how the media are used, the modalities, patterns or configurations of the actual practices of media use. The volume features original contributions, both empirical and theoretical, on the key concepts and approaches in the field, covering old and new media and different types of media content. Offering a comprehensive overview of existing research as well as promoting original findings and insights, the volume will be of interest to communication researchers, students, and scholars.
... Conventional ethnography has been central in media and communication studies particularly in researching audiences and the dynamics of media consumption (Morley 1980(Morley , 1992Moores 1993;Morley and Brunsdon 1999). Although ethnography continues to be significant in audience and reception studies in the field, its uses in the interdiscipline have become wide and variegated within the intellectual movement of cultural description and critique. ...
This chapter argues that media and communication research are deeply entrenched in global capitalism and the imperial projects of the Global North. The problem of Eurocentrism and the coloniality of knowledge in media studies does not only negatively impact the projects theory-building in the South, but also methodology as medium through which we interpret the word and the world. The coloniality of knowledge production in the Global South means that the South is not just faced with the problem of epistemicides as genocides of knowledge, but also methodicides as genocides of non-Western ways of knowing. This chapter discusses the need for decolonizing research methodology and methods in order for the Global South to create transformative agency in its research that currently remains neutralized by theoretical mimicry and puppetry. The chapter concludes by a typology of alternate decolonial or resistance research methodologies. These methods, albeit a work in progress, aim not only to resist epistemic colonization in cultural analysis, but also help the Global South to unlearn the Western method.
This paper presents some of the findings of an ethnographic audience study of the soapopera viewing patterns and interpretations of Zulu-speaking students living in residencesat a South African university (Natal University’s Durban campus) who watch The Boldand the Beautiful (an American soap opera) and Generations (a South African soapopera). Although the research undertaken covered various aspects of the soap operaviewing experience and the consumption of an international vs a local soap opera, thispaper will focus specifically on the nature of the viewing process and the ways in whichthe respondents relate to both soap operas, and it touches briefly on how the viewingpatterns of the students and their motivations for watching compare with audiencestudies conducted elsewhere in the world.
This article introduces a theoretical perspective on young adults’ television news-viewing choicesgrounded in the synthesis of reception aesthetics, socialisation theory and qualitative researchmethodology. It argues that this theoretical framework allows for a deeper contextual reading of thereader-text relationship and for the argument that, despite post-apartheid social transformation,young adult South Africans’ readings of locally produced television news texts are still ideologicallysituated sociocultural imports traceable to their differential class, race and gender positions in thecountry’s social structure. Evidence produced through focus-group interviews is used to supportthe position of the introduced theoretical framework.
This thesis explores how ICT is used for learning and leisure in a Danish High School in the period 2000-2001. The thesis documents that ICT is used in a both compliant and strategic way by students. It is an media ethnographic study, and the theoretical framework consists of critical cultural studies, empirical media studies and cultural psychology and pedagogy.
The chapter introduces the theoretical and methodological framework of the book and of the related research on the relationship between young people and smartphone practices. First, we outline some of the most important works pertaining to the social implications of the smartphone. We underline how research in the socio-anthropological field has been able to bring light to important issues, while it simultaneously left several gaps in research to be addressed. Then, the chapter presents key theoretical references which inform the present research, which include notions from cultural and media studies, and science and technology studies (STS). Moreover, the chapter describes in detail the design of the empirical research, based on a qualitative approach including semi-structured interviews and one focus group with smartphone users. Finally, we outline the structure of the book to help readers identify the six main topics addressed in the following chapters: smartphones’ role as material technology and their use in interpersonal relationships, photographic practices, music listening, consumption practices, and young people’s thoughts on the fears related to smartphone ‘addiction’.
p>Since popular music has become an industry, the notion of 'authenticity' has played a role in shaping a cultural identity of 'resistance' to commercial products. This thesis focuses on French rock music as a product conveying a cultural identity, and examines its constitution or invention as 'authentic' by looking at the interconnectedness of artists, music producers, the media, the state and the audience. In the early 1980s in France, French rock music developed in parallel to the setting-up of 'independent' record labels, which attempted to produce music autonomously from powerful companies. This material determinant, and the cultural identity derived therefrom, is known as 'alternative'. Its paradox lies in the desire to represent a form of opposition to the contemporary conditions of production, in a music product in fact reliant on them.
Assessing the rarity of academic studies on French popular music, Chapter One establishes the theoretical framework within which the concepts of 'authenticity' and 'resistance' are studied. Following the pluridisciplinary method of Cultural Studies, it examines the historical, political and economic background to the evolution of French popular music, and underlines the role of national traditions, such as republicanism, in shaping the concept of 'dissidence'. Chapter Two analyses the industrial and state determinants that contribute to the production of French rock music. With case studies of record labels and artists' interviews, this chapter argues that the production of distribution of an 'alternative' music culture maps conflicting zones, and is relative to external pressures. The fact that the French Ministry of Culture promotes its rock music also raises the debate on 'cooption', as it appears that the state sanctions a discourse of 'resistance'.</p
Fan Studies aims to de-pathologise fans, their communities and their fannish practices (Jenkins 1992). In doing so, Fan Studies privileges fan voices by interrogating their quotidian on-and offline fan practices (Brooker 2002; Hills 2002), demonstrating the emotional connection these fans have to texts. Much of this fannish engagement revolves around the creation and consumption of slash fiction (Bacon-Smith 1992; Hellekson & Busse 2006), a fan practice occurring in fan fiction communities that has been identified as a 'queer female space' (Lothian et al 2007, 103). This work predominantly explores why women create these fan texts with little consideration given to the fan's source text. In spite of this, little attention has been given to LGBT+ fandom and how self-identifying LGBT+ fans negotiate mediated representations of LGBT+ identity, especially when considering the increasing level of LGBT+ media representations on television and particularly on Teen TV programmes. Therefore, this thesis addresses the ways in which fans negotiate non-normative identities represented in the teen mystery TV series Pretty Little Liars (2010-) by investigating 'queer' modes of fan production, namely 'fan talk', (fem)slash fiction, digital (fem)slash and fan theory-making created by PLL fans. PLL hosts a range of diverse LGBT+ representations and includes a large number of LGB producers and creative talent. This investigation occurs by employing a reader-guided textual analysis (Ytre-Arne 2011), a method that centralises fan meaning-making by analysing the fan's source text through these fan interpretations. I argue that reader-guided textual analysis (Ytre-Arne 2011) allows us to better understand how fans negotiate LGBT+ representation, how fans accept or reject these LGBT+ representations and the characters' relationships. The implications lie not just in Fan Studies methodologies and fan production, but also for Queer Theory's 'evaluative paradigm' (Davis and Needham 2009) or how Queer Theorist assess representations as either positive or negative.
Mills (1959) saw the true potential of sociology in exploring the link between micro‐level human experience and macro‐level societal trends and structures. And yet, sociological inquiry has largely overlooked micro‐level approaches to a common quotidian American experience: watching television. Overemphasis on “top‐down” approaches to studying television leads to three main misconceptions about television‐watching and any micro‐level approach to studying it: that the practice of watching television is too individualistic, too mundane, and too difficult to study. In fact, television‐watching is social in myriad ways and, although mundane in its quotidian nature, is not devoid of complex power dynamics for sociological investigation. Research by scholars in other fields indicates that studying television at the micro‐level is sometimes challenging, but possible. A truly effective and comprehensive sociology of television cannot exist until sociologists use phenomenological approaches to investigate people’s experience of structure in their lives, engaging micro‐ alongside macro‐level perspectives. The promise of sociology of television, then, can only be realized by tapping the potential of phenomenological approaches to create a more complete understanding of television—one that must reconcile the power of institutions with agency, context, and experience in daily life.
Ebben a cikkben a vizuális kutatási módszerek legújabb szakirodalmát tekintem át, mégpedig két kérdés tisztázása céljából. Először is megvizsgálom, hogy a legújabb interdiszciplináris kölcsönhatások milyen képet alakítottak ki a vizuális kutatás alapító tudományáról és a reprezentációról a vizuális kutatásban, elsősorban a vizuális antropológiára (és kisebb mértékben a vizuális szociológiára) koncentrálva. Másodszor pedig kritikus szemmel a szaktudományaikból vizuális módszereket átemelő, illetve azok számára ilyen módszereket bevezető elméleti tudományok közös céljait és érdeklődési területeit. Ha elmélyedünk a vizuális kutatás „új keletű” szakirodalmában, világossá válik, hogy a különböző szaktudományokban dolgozó mai vizuális kutatóknak vannak közös érdeklődési területeik: ilyen a reflexivitás (reflexivity), az együttműködés, az etika, valamint a tartalom, a társadalmi kontextus és a képmások (images) anyagszerűsége közötti kapcsolat. Érvelni szeretnék a vizuális kutatómunka intenzívebben együttműködő interdiszciplináris megközelítése mellett, amelyben az egyes szaktudományok anélkül tanulhatnak egymástól, hogy narratív sallangokkal kellene bizonygatniuk saját tudományáguknak a többiekkel szembeni felsőbbségét.
This research studies the television watching activities of two families in Yogyakarta, which does not intend to measure and find out a specific effect of media usage on family informants but merely gives a description of watching television as a cultural practice. The study was also conducted as a counter-argument from the tradition of media effects research on passive audiences. This research uses ethnographic audience, and the result shows that watching behavior in the family is not monotonous and passive. They do not really give full attention to watch television. Watching television is only one of the existence cultural practices and not the only practices in their daily life.Abstrak: Di dalam kehidupan sehari-hari, manusia masa kini telah menjadi sedemikian terbiasa dengan kegiatan menonton. Penelitian ini menjelaskan pengalaman menonton yang bertujuan mengeksplorasi penggunaan media televisi dalam rutinitas keseharian keluarga informan. Penelitiaan ini menggunakan etnografi pemirsa terhadap dua keluarga informan yang tinggal di Yogyakarta. Dengan mempertimbangkan aspek-aspek yang sifatnya kontekstual, penggunaan media televisi oleh keluarga informan menunjukkan bahwa menonton televisi merupakan salah satu praktik budaya dan bukan satu-satunya dalam rutinitas keseharian. Keberbedaan pola menonton memperlihatkan juga perilaku menonton yang tidak monoton dan pasif.
O artigo discute os usos da mídia entre segmentos da classe média urbana brasileira moradora de ecovilas localizadas na zona rural. Com base em dados etnográficos e perfis sociológicos individuais, argumentamos sobre a busca de reconhecimento social através de novas formas de trabalhar e consumir. Os resultados refletem sobre em que medida este fenômeno se relaciona com tendências globais como a globalização cultural, o comunalismo e o individualismo contemporâneo. A aspiração ao reconhecimento e sua negação institucionalizada pelo sistema capitalista gerou sofrimento nas trajetórias pessoais e a apropriação dos modelos culturais do individualismo e do comunalismo como orientação moral.
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2; page-break-before: auto; page-break-after: auto;" align="justify"> Nunca en la historia ha habido tantos medios de comunicación en euskara como en la actualidad. La variedad de formatos y contenidos va en aumento, al igual que el ámbito geográfico que abarcan. Para poder analizar la influencia de éstos en una era marcada por la convergencia de medios, es necesario superar las metodologías de medición de audiencias y m étricas que durante los últimos años se han aplicado. Además de la aproximación cuantitativa hasta ahora utilizada, es necesaria una aproximación cualitativa que explique cómo y por qué (no) se consumen medios de comunicación en eusk e ra y cuál es el papel que juega el idioma en la elección medi ática del público . Este artículo, fruto de una investigación llevada a cabo junto con la Asociación de medios de comunicación vascos Hekimen, pretende asentar unas bases teóricas y metodológicas para la creación de una audimetría que tenga en cuenta las caracter ísticas sociodemográficas y lingüísticas tanto del país como del sector de medios de comunicación en euskara.
Palabras clave : Medios de comunicación en Euskara, Internet, c onsumo , suscripciones, motivaciones, transiciones. </p
Reception Analysis audience research since its evolution from the German Reception Theory of the Constance School has been beset with varied methodological issues. This is stridently because reception analysis per se straddles both the humanities and the social sciences. This paper attempts to set off the methodological perspective that can enable audience researchers in the field of media studies in Africa conduct reliable and valid reception analysis research. This paper posits the qualitative method as a viable analytical tool for reception researchers. Additionally, this paper takes into consideration factors in the social systems in which media discourses are embedded. These factors enable the generation of interpretative strategies shared by individuals belonging to a specific audience group within a specified cultural context. In the light of this, these interpretative repertoires can thus serve as veritable texts that could be analyzed in reception analysis research.
Newsworthiness has historically been understood through studying mainstream news content. But in alternative forms of community media, the audience has agency to determine the output. This chapter investigates news value from their perspective. Studies of newsworthiness and shareability are first introduced, before focussing on the field of ‘hyperlocal media’. The chapter then draws on ethnographic fieldwork from two UK neighbourhoods with highly participatory local Facebook Pages, spaces of local knowledge and information maintained and shared by the audience, demonstrating their investment in certain story types and local subject matter. The chapter closes by recognising how audiences share content based on what they deem to be immediately functional, but also socially valuable, and how such insights might prove useful to the wider field of journalism.
This chapter draws together the main findings from an exploratory study in which five contemporary British prison films were screened to an audience of men serving long sentences in an English prison. At a macro-level, mediated images are a power resource that project ideological visions of justice. The audience recognised that representation was part of the power structures that enabled punitiveness. Although they applauded examples of alternative, critical perspectives they saw this is having limited impact in the face of hegemonic power. From the meso-level, the participants used these films to map the social terrain of prisons. The dominant representations conveyed a hegemonic ideal of what it is to be a prisoner. This was a form of symbolic violence that had implications for how people in prison are viewed by others but also how they construct their own lives. At the micro-level, media was deployed by the audience members as part of the ongoing process of constructing their self-identity. The chapter ends by considering the implications for research and practice. This includes the potential to use media productively, for example through film discussion groups and by engaging prisoners in media production. It is argued that as digital developments are rolled out in prisons, the end-user, prisoners themselves, should have an important role in design, content production and use.
The men's lifestyle magazines FHM (For Him Magazine) and Ralph are a significant presence in the Australian market, and both target a specific readership of young, heterosexual men. My central research question concerns how desired audiences are constructed or imagined at the ‘front end’ of magazine production. One of the major tasks of the editors and publishers of these magazines is to access, and compete for, an audience. This paper aims to examine the contradictions apparent in the editorial practices of defining or envisioning an audience for Ralph and FHM. To understand the process of how they produce the magazines, I examine the editorial staffs' conceptions of the ‘audience’; the ways in which it is created and for what purposes, as well as the terms used to describe this integral part of the industry. How the audience is defined and constructed highlights how contradictions, creativity and constraint operate in defining the audience.
Assistir às telenovelas brasileiras/portuguesas em Portugal é o tema
investigado neste trabalho. A abordagem da “teoria fundamentada em
dados” foi empregada na investigação para prover um “MODELO DA
AUDIÊNCIA DAS TELENOVELAS” firmemente enraizado na perspectiva de
quarenta e nove receptores entrevistados. O modelo resultante revela três
grupos de motivos para a audiência: a) Gerenciamento do humor, b)
hábito e c) Aprendizagem/Integração social. Cada grupo de motivos no
modelo se associa a particular estratégia e intensidade de exposição às
telenovelas, como também se associa as escolhas preponderantes das
telenovelas por sua origem, se nacional e/ou estrangeira. Em destaque
para a seleção das telenovelas portuguesas é identificado o uso dos seus
conteúdos para integração social e aprendizagem/aconselhamento, este
último permitindo ao receptor verificar a validade de sentimentos e
comportamentos, aconselhamento para tomada de decisões, reforço/ajuste
de atitudes, estilos e condutas para incremento da credibilidade e posição
pessoal. Em destaque para a seleção das telenovelas brasileiras é
identificado os motivos de Gerenciamento de Humor, muito embora de
forma não excludente às outras categorias de motivos mencionadas. Com
o estabelecimento das relações entre os conceitos surgidos na pesquisa
indutiva, o estudo representa as experiências dos receptores das
telenovelas em Portugal
Cho examines the cultural and economic globalization and its influence on South Korea by exploring its sports fans who enjoy global sports in their local spaces. By focusing on the American Major League Baseball fandom, Cho attempts to grasp the changes in Korean society and its people who most embrace the impact brought out by the structural reformation during the economic crisis in the late 1990s and onwards. The introduction highlights three important issues in connection with global sports fans: identity politics, nationalism/nation-state, and glocalization. Lastly, it provides the research method: Cho suggests that internet ethnography is pivotal for understanding global sports fans who passionately and creatively utilize their online community for sharing information and for developing their individual and collective identities.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.