In this week’s lecture, the topic was audiences - specifically how media affects them and how they interact with it. We covered many familiar theories such as Uses and Gratifications (Blumer and Katz, 1974) and the ‘Bashing Bobo’ study of media effects (Bandura, 1961). The key reading covered how audiences engage with TV, but also examines how Asian women use the show Neighbours (Gillespie, 2003).
In the main reading, the writer talks with participants about how they engage with the Australian soap, Neighbours. The general consensus seemed to be that the fictional trials and tribulations of the characters in the show helped them to navigate their real world problems, whether this was through learning about normally censorious topics, ventilating family issues or imitating the character’s behaviour in certain situations to produce the same rewards they viewed on the screen. My found reading also came to a conclusion that TV affects the way that audiences understand things but that this differs depending on ethnicity and culture.
Hurley et al conducted audience research into how viewers across different ethnicities interacted with portrayals of black criminal suspects and white criminal suspects in the news. Results showed that racial minorities showed less support for police in black criminal suspect news stories (Hurley et al, 2015). The reason for this could be explained using Livingstone’s theory mentioned in the key reading; viewers identify with certain characters, seeing themselves in their shoes (Gillespie, 2003). It could be that the participants identified more with the suspect in these stories, but I think more likely the authors of the found reading are correct in their prediction that ‘these attitudes emanate from real and perceived perceptions of police bias against blacks (and other racial/ethnic groups).
The main reading has a positive outlook of media use and audience interaction, but it only focuses on young people, soap operas and the results of cultural change in TV. Hurley et al’s results show that the audience’s view is sometimes slightly negative, especially in news media.
For my own research, I would want to look at how different racial minorities interact with TV soaps or sitcoms with predominantly ethnic minority characters. For example, I would investigate how black men and women engage with ‘A Different World’ (1987), to see if the three thematic areas in Gillespie’s participants conversations about viewing (family & kinship relations, romance & courtship rituals and neighbourly relations in the community) are still relevant.
Gillespie, Marie (2003) “Television, Ethnicity and Cultural Change” IN Will Brooker and Deborah Jermyn (eds.) The Audience Studies Reader. London: Routledge
Hurley, R.J., Jensen, J.(., Weaver, A. & Dixon, T. 2015, "Viewer Ethnicity Matters: Black Crime in TV News and Its Impact on Decisions Regarding Public Policy", Journal of Social Issues, vol. 71, no. 1, pp. 155-170.
No comments:
Post a Comment