Vehicle Strand Audiences

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Vehicle StrandAudiences
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• Audiences Introduction
• ? BS bobo dolls, voyeurism, content and
  quantitative analysis, encoding and decoding,
  ethnography, negotiated readings, cultural
  competences, audiences as producers
• ? time to address audiences

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• Audiences
• ? what is the relationship between a media
  text (artefact) and its audience (consumer)?
• no conclusive research
• ? you must assess merits of different
  approaches

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• Audiences
• two basic models or approaches (1) effects
  model (BS focus) (2) uses model (my focus)
• ? Key terms effects model, uses model

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Effects ModelKey questions? what do the
media do to the audience?? how do the media
affect audiences? ? assumption the media change
our ideas, perceptions, behaviour
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The Effects E.g. effects of watching
television violence ? audience members become
desensitised ? audience members become fearful?
audience members become violent (e.g.
Columbine, Jamie Bulger)
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• Hypodermic Model? effects model a.k.a.
• hypodermic needle model
• ? the media inject a message
• audience are drugged, passive, manipulated
  recipients
• power lies with the message

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(quoted in McLuhan, 1964, p. 3)
Any Questions?
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Uses Gratifications ModelKey questions ?
how do audiences use the media?? what motivates
an audience?? what needs do they seek to
gratify? ? Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch (1974) ?
four uses
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The Uses(1) Surveillance ? people seek
awareness, fear ignorance e.g. news (e.g.
current affairs) e.g. CrimeWatch and
RogueTrader ? need knowledge and security
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The Uses(2) Personal Identity ? reaffirm
identity and position in society? define
yourself in relation to others e.g.
individuals on reality TV shows e.g. celebrity
shows e.g. characters in soap operas ? use
affirm identity
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The Uses(3) Personal Relationships ? media
consumption as a social activity e.g. watching
movies together e.g. discussing TV shows ?
use cement relationships
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• The Uses(4) Diversion
• ? escapism, forget your own life
• e.g. Blockbusters, holiday shows etc
• can be positive cheer you up
• ? can be negative happy with own life
• ? use diversion

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Models or Approaches?? many different
approaches to research into the media?
specific research will adhere to one or other
of these two models
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• Assumptions? each model relies on an
  assumption about the audience
• effects model power lies with message and
  audience is passive
• ? uses model power lies with the individual
  and audience is active

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Assumptions and Ideologies? these assumptions
demonstrate the researchers ideologies
(beliefs) about the human mind ? effects
model humans are influenced and manipulated,
i.e. they are not free (c.f the Matrix)?
uses model humans are not controlled or
determined, i.e. they are free (c.f. Neo) ?
which do you believe? Any Questions?
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• Videodrome? David Cronenberg, 1983
• James Woods, Debbie Harry
• Network of Blood, Zonekiller
• DVD in library

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Videodrome? Max Renn, sleazy cable TV channel
? Channel 83 cheap sex and violence ?
discovers Videodrome broadcast ? affects his
mind gruesome hallucination or reality?
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VideodromeVehicle Strand? narrative?
genre? representation? audience Environment
Strand? Cronenberg knows McLuhans work? hot
and cool media? discarnate identity? Brian
OBlivion Marshall McLuhan
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VideodromeTodays relevance? audiences
effects and uses? the power of television??
satire on censorship? Clip? media debate on
Maxs broadcasts ? participants Max, Nicky,
Rena, Brian? their own assumptions regarding
media audiences?
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Videodrome (1983)
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VideodromeParticipants their Disposition ?
Rena (effects) a climate of violence
sexual malaise? Nicky (effects) we live in
overstimulated times? Max (uses) a
harmless outlet ? Brian ???
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Audiences Debate? organise into groups of 6
people? divide your group into 2 factions?
decide which faction will be pro and which
con the proposition
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PropositionThe texts produced by the media
provide harmless information and entertainment.
Audiences are intelligent enough to consume these
texts without having their ideas and behaviour
manipulated, and without becoming desensitised
couch potatoes, quivering and fearful wrecks, or
violent and sadistic killers. Audiences are
essentially proactive in their use of the media.
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Audiences Debate? take a handout each ? take
your factions readings (one per person) ?
read your text (5 mins)? share you text (10
mins)? pro faction (5 mins)? con faction
(5 mins)? responses (15 mins)
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Questions? Does the age, gender or education
of the audience make a difference?? Does
genre make a difference?? Correlation and
causation? ? What ideological assumptions would
you expect each of the six readings to hold? ?
Have you been affected by violence youve seen
in the media? ? Which model do you think is
right?
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Environment StrandParticipating in the Global
Village
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• McLuhan on Audiences? beyond effects and
  uses models ? OBlivion (McLuhan) ignores
  debate, talks instead of television names
  (i.e. virtual identities, discarnate man)
• ? media do affect audiences they create new
  environments and change societies and
  individuals? medium not message
• audience is not passive media are extensions,
  e.g. TV, radio
• ? Key term global village

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The Global Village? a popular probe, phrase
endures ? The new electronic inter-dependence
recreates the world in the image of a global
village. (McLuhan and Fiore, 1967 67) ? what
does this mean?
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Two Quotations? Electric circuitry has
overthrown the regime of time and space and
pours upon us instantly and continuously the
concerns of all other men. It has reconstituted
dialogue on a global scale. (McLuhan and Fiore,
1967 16) ? Ours is a brand-new world of
allatonceness. Time has ceased, space has
vanished. We now live in a global villagea
simultaneous happening. (McLuhan and Fiore,
1967 63)
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• Village Life? everyone has equal access to
  public information (town crier)
• everyone can ask questions interact
• ? interaction is immediate
• ? everyone is a participant
• ? romantic representation?

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• Print? creates a mass audience whole
  nations get same information
• simultaneity of communication is lost
  individual and dispersed
• from acoustic to visual space
• ? communication channel is one-way people
  are passive receivers

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• Time Overthrown? radio and television
  broadcasts restore simultaneity
• time is overthrown
• ? allatonceness and simultaneous happening
• ? town crier is retrieved (third law)
• ? channel is still one-way though receivers
  are still voyeurs and eavesdroppers

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• Telephone Internet? participatory element of
  village life is also restored
• e.g. forums you can question the town crier,
  and post yourself
• dialogue is now on a (potentially) global
  scale

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• Space Overthrown? new media make large areas
  small
• interaction is possible across vast (global)
  distances (Skype)
• space is overthrown
• Any Questions?

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Political Implications? A new form of
politics is emerging, and in ways we
havent yet noticed. The living room has
become a voting booth. Participation via
television in Freedom Marches, in war,
revolution, pollution, and other events is
changing everything. (McLuhan Fiore, 1967
24) ? how so?
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• Political Implications? from voyeurs to
  participants
• non-simultaneous newspapers vs simultaneous
  TV broadcast
• you see events as they happen
• you are involved right now
• the human community has expanded a global
  human tribe or human family

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• Ethical Implications? Our new environment
  compels commitment and participation. We have
  become irrevocably involved with, and responsible
  for, each other. (McLuhan and Fiore, 1967 24)
• like village life, you (can) know everything
  thats going on
• this brings responsibility, like it or not
• ? you become involved in the lives of distant
  people the emergence of global issues and
  interdependence

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• A Global Utopia?? electronic media force
  involvement and participation on us
• but responsibility doesnt necessarily bring
  harmony and peace
• more exposure more disagreement
  (discontinuity and division)
• print coherent nation states
• new media global factions
• I dont approve of the global village. I say
  we live in it.

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Wikipediahttp//www.wikipedia.org/? online
encyclopaedia? launched 2001 ? 19.9 million
articles? 282 languages ? one of top 10
websites ? 365 million readers worldwide ? e.g.
Videodrome
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Wikipedia? users can be editors? a global
audience of participants ? thus completely
up-to-date ? wiki Hawaiian for quick? a
simultaneous happening ? e.g. Videodrome (edit)
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Problems? quality is patchy anyone can edit
it ? vandalism anyone can vandalise it
(discarnate individuals?) ? e.g. Marshall
McLuhan, Wikipedia ? solution anyone can fix it,
and quickly
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Wikipedia Village? huge, international,
global project? anyone can contribute from
spectator to participant? new ethical
awareness responsibility not to mess it up?
dispute, disagreement and division Any Questions?
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• Week 7 Directed Study
• ? Identify your case study topic
• Source and begin reading theoretical texts about
  the topic.
• Identify your media or technological example.
• Bring all information along to week 9 session
• The forum deadline 1pm, Friday 31st October

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For week 8 ? Read Branston Stafford (2010)
Ch. 13 on Documentary and reality debates