Vehicle Strand Audiences

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Vehicle StrandAudiences
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Audiences? BS bobo dolls, voyeurism,
content and quantitative analysis, encoding
and decoding, ethnography, negotiated
readings, cultural competences, audiences as
producers? Module Forum? time to address
audiences
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Audiences? what is the relationship between
a media text (artefact) and its audience
(consumer)? ? U75139 Media Audiences ? 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 EffectsE.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 model? the media inject a
message? audience are drugged, passive,
manipulated recipients? power lies with the
message ? remember the Killer Mouse
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(quoted in McLuhan, 1964, p. 3)
Any Questions?
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Uses ModelKey questions ? how do audiences
use the media?? what motivates an audience??
what needs do they seek to gratify? ? a.k.a.
gratification model ? four uses
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The Uses(1) Surveillance ? people seek
awareness, fear ignorance e.g. news (e.g.
computer virus) e.g. CrimeWatch and
RogueTrader ? use 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. The OC, Desperate Housewives,
etc e.g. holiday shows ? 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 ? 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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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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Audiences DebateThe 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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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 isnt
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, p. 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, p. 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, p. 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, p.
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, p. 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 e.g. tsunami (Xmas 2004)
  e.g. famine, Ethiopia (1985)

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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. Any Questions?
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Wikipediahttp//www.wikipedia.org/? online
encyclopaedia? launched 2001 ? 10 million
articles? 253 languages ? one of top 10
websites ? 20 thousand hits per second ? 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. 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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Tomorrow? hand in your Case Study before
12.30pm, postbox by Refectory? Cover Sheet
(required)? SAE (optional) Next Week?
Nothing Reading WeekWeek After Next? Read
Branston Stafford (2006) Ch. 6 on
Ideologies and Power (required)