How audiences engage with, consume and read media narratives
Engagement - The emotional connection an audience has to a media product. This can be effected by individual characteristics of the audience.
Consumption - How audiences 'take in' the media narrative. This can include viewing habits, physical location, technology used, etc
Reading - How audiences receive, understand and process media narratives. This is an intellectual response to media narratives.
Media products are complex... and so is their relationship to their audiences. Media products can be read differently by different audiences. Some audiences will engage more with some media products over others. Have you ever been recommended a movie and you hated it? or vice versa? Each individual viewer with engage with, consume and read media narratives differently to the other individual viewers.
Engagement
How an audience engages with a media narrative is dependent on many factors such as their age, culture, gender, maturity, understanding, life experiences, etc. For example adults are far more likely to engage with narratives that concern historical events than primary aged children because they may have lived through said events. Their reception of the narrative will vary greatly dependent on these factors.
Audience engagement is an emotional response. You may engage with certain codes and conventions used in narrative films such as the music, the acting, the storytelling, the language and dialogue, the characters, etc. You may find it relatable, or exciting, or emotionally compelling. It may help you relax, or feel better. However, how you engage with a media product may be very different from your friends, family, or someone in another country.
Consumption
How an audience member consumes a media narrative can also have an effect on their reception. For example, audiences may consume media narratives in private locations free of distractions, or in busier locations. They may view media narratives on large screen or on smart phones. In terms of viewing habits, audiences may binge watch a whole series or they may watch episodes years apart. Younger audiences with shorter attention spans may consume media in short sharp formats such as YouTube videos, Snapchat or Instagram stories, etc while older teens and adults may be more likely to sit down and watch an entire series or movie.
Reading
The huge amount of factors that determine how audiences engage with and consume media narratives means that most individuals will read the narratives in a completely differing manners than other individual audience members. This means that each person’s reading of the media narrative will be unique to the context under which they engage and consume.
Audience reading is an intellectual process. while engagement is emotional, the way you understand and think about media narratives can be summarised by looking at active audience theory. This theory suggests that when individuals consume a media product they don’t just blindly believe everything they see, but are intellectually engaging with it. One way this is done is through the interpretation on the product. Active audience claims that media products are polysemic — which means that they can be interpreted in lots of different ways by audiences. Audiences bring their own prior knowledge, understandings, wants and needs and then use these to make their own meaning from it.
Consumption - How audiences 'take in' the media narrative. This can include viewing habits, physical location, technology used, etc
Reading - How audiences receive, understand and process media narratives. This is an intellectual response to media narratives.
Media products are complex... and so is their relationship to their audiences. Media products can be read differently by different audiences. Some audiences will engage more with some media products over others. Have you ever been recommended a movie and you hated it? or vice versa? Each individual viewer with engage with, consume and read media narratives differently to the other individual viewers.
Engagement
How an audience engages with a media narrative is dependent on many factors such as their age, culture, gender, maturity, understanding, life experiences, etc. For example adults are far more likely to engage with narratives that concern historical events than primary aged children because they may have lived through said events. Their reception of the narrative will vary greatly dependent on these factors.
Audience engagement is an emotional response. You may engage with certain codes and conventions used in narrative films such as the music, the acting, the storytelling, the language and dialogue, the characters, etc. You may find it relatable, or exciting, or emotionally compelling. It may help you relax, or feel better. However, how you engage with a media product may be very different from your friends, family, or someone in another country.
Consumption
How an audience member consumes a media narrative can also have an effect on their reception. For example, audiences may consume media narratives in private locations free of distractions, or in busier locations. They may view media narratives on large screen or on smart phones. In terms of viewing habits, audiences may binge watch a whole series or they may watch episodes years apart. Younger audiences with shorter attention spans may consume media in short sharp formats such as YouTube videos, Snapchat or Instagram stories, etc while older teens and adults may be more likely to sit down and watch an entire series or movie.
Reading
The huge amount of factors that determine how audiences engage with and consume media narratives means that most individuals will read the narratives in a completely differing manners than other individual audience members. This means that each person’s reading of the media narrative will be unique to the context under which they engage and consume.
Audience reading is an intellectual process. while engagement is emotional, the way you understand and think about media narratives can be summarised by looking at active audience theory. This theory suggests that when individuals consume a media product they don’t just blindly believe everything they see, but are intellectually engaging with it. One way this is done is through the interpretation on the product. Active audience claims that media products are polysemic — which means that they can be interpreted in lots of different ways by audiences. Audiences bring their own prior knowledge, understandings, wants and needs and then use these to make their own meaning from it.
How audiences from different period of time read media narratives
Media products are usually made for a certain target audience... however an audience's tastes, values and beliefs never stay the same and can often change. With the passage of time, media products can be read and understood quite differently by modern audiences.
Have a look at these commercials from the past (below). How would audiences today react to these commercials? Why? What has changed over that time?
Have a look at these commercials from the past (below). How would audiences today react to these commercials? Why? What has changed over that time?
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The Hey Hey its Saturday blackface Incident.
One interesting case study in how audiences from differing periods of time engage with and read media narratives is the 2009 'Hey Hey its Saturday' blackface incident. A group called the 'Jackson Jive' reappeared on the Red Faces talent segment after winning it 20 years ago. The act involves the men dressing up in blackface and pretending to be the Jackson 5. This time, they caused controversy when an American judge (Harry Connick Jr) took offence to the use of blackface and host Darryl Somers apologied to him and his countrymen live on air. This is an interesting example of how Australia has become globalised and less isolated, and in doing so has had to to become more socially aware. Interestingly, Whoopi Goldberg notes on 'The View' that Australians don't have the context of blackface that Americans have. What do you think? |
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