Directed Study Week 7 – Conceptualising the Audience

In this weeks lecture we looked at conceptualising the audience. Audiences are the target media and have the power to choose what media sources to engage and associate with. When researching audiences, there are three components that need to be considered; the consumption, meaning the focus on the audience, the reception of the audience and how the audience responds, therefore their activity. Creativity and resistance from the audience is seen as a bottom-down model and their activity can be conceptualised as either passive or active.

This weeks reading focuses on the interpretation of the audience as passive or active. The reading follows the work of Adorno who believed that the passivity of a radio audience actually allows the experience to be more exciting and enjoyable because the audiences are repeatedly subjected to music they know quite well and therefore can relate to it further. For example ‘ the relationship between broadcasters, listeners and viewers is an unforced relationship because it is unenforceable’ (Scannell, 1996:23). Suggesting, that a radio audience interestingly seems passive due to the unforced nature of its appeal. Audiences are not in any way obliged to choose that station and the act of engaging is not something that requires and active response.

Additionally, a reading from my own research explores audiences in festivals. Stephanie Pitts, (2005) looks into the response and activity of audiences in a festival environment. She found that audiences felt as though ‘their presence was significant’ (Pitts, 2005:268). It is quite an interesting contrast to the passivity of a radio audience, which can lead one to question whether a radio audience can emulate the same active engagement? When studying an audience, the idea that the audience itself has the power means there is a constant variance in expectations. This is because the industry will have to conform to the changes of an audience’s opinions.

In terms of my own research, I think it would be interesting to look into audiences from a national radio and audiences from a national television just to see the differences in the way they engage and react. In order to do this I will need to explore the history of both audiences through media texts.

Bibliography:

 Hendy, D, (2000). 'Audiences'. In: (ed), Radio in the Global Age. 1st ed. UK: Polity Press. pp.(134-147).

Pitts, S (2005). ‘What makes an audience? Investigating the roles and experiences of listeners at a chamber music festival’. In: Music and Letters Vol 86. UK: Oxford University Press pp. (257-259)