Always an Audience

A blog dedicated to all audiences

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Audience Studies COMM 3P18 BLOG #3

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Social Aspect of Media (Sullivan J., 2013)

The social aspect of media allows fans to come together to share their common interests.

Not just the Arianators love Ariana Grande, thousands of other people love her and want her to do good! 

Today audiences are connecting together with voting, something previously never thought to be possible!

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Interpretive Aspect of Fans

Interpretive Aspect - Fans interpret and produce media content along with modifying media texts to suit their interests. 

We modify media texts to suit our needs in a way that justifies what we think. As audiences, we only hear what we want to hear, and with all the fake news and even more research being presented to us than ever, we inevitably make the choice as an audience to choose what to believe.

(Sullivan J., 2013, pg. 193)

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Fandom (Sullivan J., 2013, pg.191)

When you see someone in the same Media Fandom as you!

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Being an Audience Member

What other people think I do

What I actually do

Participatory culture (Sullivan J., 2013, pg.219)  

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Audience Fragmentation (Sullivan J., 2013)

Early Audience Fragmentation

Audience Fragmentation today

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Why Veronica Mars should never have used fan service

Imagine watching a television show and from the very first episode, you fall in love with the characters and everything in their world. Now imagine that same television show becoming altered by people who pay the director to put in their ideas. Not big companies trying to sway our interest, but other fans like yourself. Would you be upset by this? Is that even the same show anymore? And is it even considered the same thing if the viewers are writing the scenes?

When the author alters his original vision to fit what the masses want, it's called fan service. As interesting as that is already, the director of Veronica Mars took it to a whole new level. The Director of Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas combined crowdfunding with fan service creating a disaster. He didn't just alter his ideas for the masses, he specifically included the fans requests that paid money into his media creation.

Rob Thomas started a crowdfunding campaign and raised over five million dollars from fans to create a new season of Veronica Mars since it was removed off the air. Rob tried to repay the fans for their donations by accepting their ideas for the next season. He ended up implementing many of the requests in the final media product. The result, a show totally unlike the original (Navar-Gill, 2018). Many of the fans were upset as would many people rightly be. Changing things in a show is going to dissatisfy people because if something is the same for a while and the suddenly different its going to cause upset.

Veronica Mars did not even need to be altered. Rob was expecting two million dollars in donations from his fans, they love the show so much they ended up donating over five million dollars. Even though Rob used crowdfunding, he shouldn't have included the fans ideas in the original media text. Fans love the show Veronica Mars for Rob's vision of it.

There is a different space for fans to put their own ideas and preferences in media products instead of permanently changing the original to suit peoples specific needs. This is where a fandom of fanfiction comes into play. Fans can get together over social media and create and share doctored media texts to suit their own niches specific needs. This age of audiences is so fascinating because the audiences don't just interpret texts in their own way but they are now re-imaging them and recreating them in their own different ways.

With such a diverse world, we can't have fan service and Veronica Mars should have never used fan service in creating the new season. By specifically trying to appeal to a group of people, you are going to displease many others. Content creators have to stick to being themselves and doing what they do best instead of focusing on trying to please their audience. 

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Audience Studies COMM 3P18 BLOG #2

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What are we doing with media

Media wasn't planned or designed to be apart of our world as significantly as it is today. 

in 2018, we look to media to have our needs met, trying to learn the newest most important fact, looking to polls to seek the majority opinion, watching videos to see how people dress instead of actually going out and seeing peoples style and way of life, talking to them and learning their TRUE history, knowledge, opinions and what they care about and like and also sharing the same. 

It’s true that talking to people is awkward at times, but it can be so gratifying to make a friend and talk to them.

We cling to media everywhere, trying to feel connected with our friends not with us, our followers around the world, and our family who we haven't seen in forever. In reality, we are disconnecting ourselves to the people right beside us on the bus, on the street, down the halls, in the store and everyone outside our virtual reality. 

We are addicted to the media, looking are our phones every hour every day trying to accomplish something and feel satisfied enough to move on and do their work. 

The truth is we are losing and missing all the opportunities to feel entirely satisfied every day. While we are on our phones or consuming another type of media there could have been a potential mate or friend walking by or wanting to hang out. Interacting with people is what truly satisfies aout=r needs and makes us happy. Early audience study found people's needs were more gratified by contacts and connections then mass media (Sullivan J., 2013, Pg. 115) 

We are missing all the opportunities we have at bars, in restaurants, and on the street to talk to people and be satisfied because we are on our phones trying to be satisfied. 

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What audiences can do to you

After the first month of being a Youtuber: 

After the first year of being a Youtuber:

People, specifically YouTubers, are feeling constantly pressured because of their mass audiences. 

Youtubers make a living off of entertaining and creating content for thousands and millions of people around the world. They race to come up with an idea for a video that is intended to be enjoyable for as many people as possible. This constant dependency on them to generate and dish out quality content is being heavily pressured by the audience through multiple channels of media. 

People are talking to Youtuber’s through comments of the videos and even on other social media sites, asking for more of what they want. This role of the audience can be fun but to the content creator, it can be damaging. Imagine getting messages all the time about what people what from you, and what you should do next. 

We have to stop relying on media, and especially Youtubers to give us what. We can't rely on anyone but ourselves to fulfil our needs and make us truly happy.

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Uses and Gratifications

Definition - How and why individuals use media

 (Sullivan J., 2013, pg. 108).

The first thing that comes to mind:

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Legalization of Marijuana:

Canada Before Legalization of Marijuana:

What Media says Canada will be like after the legalization of Marijuana:

Canada after the legalization of marijuana: 

The Media will never get tired of throwing its blanket opinion over us.

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THE MEDIA CANT TELL US WHAT TO DO

No really, it cant.

Do you wonder if all the advertisements, propaganda, and other media we are constantly exposed to are having an effect on us? Are you afraid that the news is just a tool of the government used to manipulate the mass population? 

We always wonder if the media is having an influence on us, but what if I tell you its all up to you and your happiness. 

People seek out media to consume because they are in need of something. If you want to know what's going to happen tomorrow, you look at the news because you have a cognitive need. If you want to feel a certain experience you will seek out a horror or romance film because you have an escape need. Also, if you need to improve yourself, you seek media for guidance because you have an integrative need. 

These are 3 of the 5 groups of needs that Katz and Blummer describe influence audience decisions. The whole list is as follows; Cognitive- strengthening one's knowledge, Affective- strengthening one’s pleasure and emotional experience, Integrative- strengthening ones confidence, status, and creditability,  Social needs- strengthening ones contact with friends and the world, Escape- strengthening one's self and social roles (Katz et al,.1973, p. 166)

We as audiences choose the media we want to consume, it's not just thrown in our face or shoved down our throats. If you need it you will search for it. “Audiences actively choose media and content to suit their own needs” (Sullivan J., 2013, Pg. 113). So if you have all your needs met, you will not actively seek out media to fulfill your needs. 

If you educate yourself, talk to others around you, go on adventures with friends or just spend time with them, you will have your needs met in other ways and then you will not consume media as often or be as reliant on it. “Media cannot ordinarily influence an individual who has no use for it” (Sullivan J., 2013, pg. 109)

We consume media following our instincts, constantly trying to fulfill our needs, but we have become too reliant on media. 

The media can't tell us what to do because we do, we tell ourselves every day, what to do, say, act, and become. 

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Audience Studies COMM 3P18 BLOG #1

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Power Parable and the Spiral of Silence

After you watch an inspirational movie.

The day after, when everyone you’re surrounded by, even the ones you love, don’t care about changing the world, so your opinion becomes the minority opinion, and instead of questioning yourself, your sanity, and everything you know, you disregard your opinion entirely, stop caring and eventually go back to your life of repeated anxiety and depression about innocent lives being taken advantage of, and the worlds depleting natural resources.

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You are more Amazing, Influential, and Powerful than you know!

Have you ever looked in the mirror? Good, you know how amazing you are.

Have you ever noticed how Lorrie at head office started saying “All the best” at the end of conversations just like you, or how Janet traded in her black stilettos for some white runners just like yours? This is because you’re amazing and more influential than you think. 

People are always influenced by each other, subconsciously or not. We see the way others drive, and we say to ourselves I’m never going to drive like that. We see someone using reusable products and start thinking, maybe I should too. 

We have the ability to change our actions and routines even after seeing something only one time. Humans are a unique species for many reasons and one is that we are always trying to make our life better, we have to ability to learn quickly from what we see.

When people are in groups learning something, shared thoughts and a common state of mind can become immensely strong over that of a minority thought. This is why you as an audience has power.

Audiences in the masses can be influenced in a short period of time to change their decisions, action in their life and eventually the world.

 This is not to say that everyone is influenced in the exact same way. 

1 out of 25 people are psychopaths. So yes, after a scary murder movie, some may have the desire to replicate what they saw could be done with a small kitchen knife, but the majority will not be influenced from the film in that way. 

James Cantril, a media scientist, discovered how some women may become less naive or even more terrified when going out at night especially in the rain after watching a scary film, and some men may become less trustworthy of other males if the murderer was a deceiving male. 

People can be influenced in a number of different ways when they are in an audience, even by the people sitting beside them. Think about it, have you ever felt slow for not laughing at a joke on cue? Maybe you were the person yelling really loud.

Comment if you have ever been powerfully influenced by something you saw or felt as an audience member.

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4 processes of audience engagement all in one photo

1.Transportation

2. Personal Interaction

3. Identification

4. Worship