The topic, "effects of media messages" is essential to the study of audiences because audiences are exposed to such a variety of different media formats everyday such as: print media, television, movies, video games, music, cellphones, various kinds of software and of course the internet.
because such a variety of media formats are readily available for audiences to consume its important to remember to use a broad perspective on media effects in order to understand the incredibly wide range of influence the media messages carry.
Personally when I hear the phrase media affects my mind goes towards the negative impacts media has on us, such as watching violent TV causes aggression in youths, or how hearing a radio broadcast can cause direct effects on its listeners, or how medias unrealistic image of the female body creates young females to become self conscious and anorexic trying to meet media standards.
However true these statements can be showing negative affects of media messages
Lecture example of "Social Learning Theory" created by Albert Bandar exploring how children are socialized by their environment. An experiment took place where some children were made to watch as an adult as he betted a plastic Bobo doll, while others weren't exposed to this. Then all of the children were individually put into the same room were they found themselves to with the Bobo doll. The results showed that the children whom had watched the adult be aggressive towards the doll, displayed similar characteristics, while the ones who did not witness the violent acts were not violent themselves. Thus the plastic Bobo experiment displays an example of negative effects of the media.
Textbook example of the "War of The Worlds Broadcast" of 1938 a time when listeners ate, slept and dreamt about what the radio told them to. During this particular broadcast, actors were given the famous script of the novel, "War of The Worlds" while enhancing the broadcast with realistic background sounds which would have been described in the book. The broadcast intention was to be a source of entertainment for its listeners however the broadcast ended up leaving listeners leaving their homes with their families believing the world itself was being taken over by aliens. This shows the direct effects media messages can have.
There are also examples of positive media affects as shown in audiences were "The Ice Bucket Challenge" a challenge encouraging audiences to pour cold water on themselves to display for a brief second what it feels like to have mls, each video was promoted to donate to mls funds to find a cure. This is a positive example of effects of media messages because it promotes good behaviour, for a good cause.
In seminar this week we discussed how hard it is to study audiences effects of media due to a variety of reasons: inadequate technology, miss representation, active vs passive audience etc. which lead us to discuss the many hardships in actually trying to study audiences and how studying audiences have changed over the years. this topic was backed up by the article we were suppose to read for class, "Taking audience research into the age of new media: old problems and new challenges" this article discusses how in the past audiences were mainly reported by ethnographic studies. the main example was the example of the study of romance novels, and how it was previously assumed that middle aged women simply read the medium to pass time, however due to a change in how we study audiences from a passive stereotype to a active member allowed for research to conclude that women read romance novels for many reasons, for submission of the male characters, to enhance their love life's, etc. not to simply pass the time.
an end thought, audiences are always changing, we as the audience are finding new ways to consume media and participate in the media we choose, therefore as we change the technology and research to study us will have to change organically as well.
Hi, my name is Kyrstin and I'm starting this blog "Audience Studies" as a way of showing my understanding and interest in the evaluation and importance of audiences today. A little about myself is that I love to be apart of audiences, in all its forms. Im an active user on social media accounts, I am a highly invested consumer of television shows and often go on for days about the latest episode of Teen Mom, Big Brother, etc. Along with my favourite activities outside of school and work is to go to a sporting event, or a concert. Hope you enjoy, my take on audiences today!
A little history of Early Audiences
As far back as 400 BC is our histories earliest records of audiences forming. It was during this time that the Greeks performed plays for all of Athens free for all to attend.
As time moves forward we see the Roman theatre in 100-300 BC continue the lively traditions of the Greek theatre.
As well as audiences forming in churches during the middle ages ( 500- 1400 ACE) to listen and perform bible scenes.
Elizabethan audiences gathered in the mid 1500s for audience members to simply enjoy life.
Greek/Roman theatre (BC)
church in the middle ages
until nearly the 18th century audiences were considered over active, rowdy members of society. Often the audience would engage with actors, talk during plays as a sign of enjoyment.
It wasn't until 1865, after the American civil war a true definition of theatre came to be, and audience rights, to be active during a play etc. became poor manners.
which translated audiences during the 20th century to become passive.
I believe this definition best describes what an audience is:
" An Audience is a group of people who participate in a show or
encounter a work of art, literature ( in which they are called "readers" )
theatre music ( in which they are called "listeners" )
and video games ( in which they are called "players" )
This definition best describes all the ways in which we can be an audience, times have changed since the beginning of audiences with the Greek and Roman theatre, today audiences arent limited to a single show as their only way of being an active audience member. Today being an audience member is unlimited to its options, do you play video games, and chat online with members, do you have any social media accounts, do you have a favourite television show you follow, or band you like to see when their in town? There are so many opportunities for you to be an audience member, you might not even know you are one.
Heres an example of how multi audiences are being formed from one "show".
In this example, you are an audience member if you are sitting in the audience of the Ellen Degenerous show, you are an audience member if you are watching the show from home, You are also a audience member if you are a Twitter member, following or participating in any of the tweets, or hashtags. Overal in todays an audience member has had an evolution from being a single audience member to now being a audience member on various levels of both passive and active members.
SO the Big Question, why do we care about audiences?
Audiences are so powerful in todays society, the power of the internet has allowed videos, tweets, and photos to go viral almost instantaneously across the globe. Meaning that a single person can send a message around the world, to promote, discuss, enjoy and stop acts of violence, discrimination etc. at all times. This relates to the textbook, the idea that media messages can lead to changes in individual audience members is the thrust behind the "effective perspective", which emerged in the 20th century as the dominant paradigm in the field of media studies.
An example, is how a young women simply doing yoga in her living room, came across the knowledge that cats can do it to. This woman's discovery has lead to the world being able to view her idea, support if they wish and spread the message of helping orphaned kittens.
Although, this message and video doesn't save the world by any means, the audience this video acquires will help save and give homes to orphaned kittens which might not have been possible. The power again is the multi audience, this is through the internet, which allowed for a single video about cats/ and yoga to go viral, anyone who is an audience of youtube can view or come across it, yoga ethusiates may follow or look up yoga titles, of audiences who follow the news this story was published by CBC, and by audience members who are animal lovers. This video can lead to individual audience members, as the effective perspective, making a change.
Reflecting to today's audiences, and how they are being discussed, lets hit it close to home with the Toronto Blue Jays. A baseball team which didn't always make it to the playoffs, and didn't always get the support of Toronto as it is today.
overall the Toronto Blue jays audiences are being talked about today in every news outlet possible, its the fans that make a team, and its the team that connects the fans.
because such a variety of media formats are readily available for audiences to consume its important to remember to use a broad perspective on media effects in order to understand the incredibly wide range of influence the media messages carry.
