Audience Discourse Research Articles

Strategies, tactics and the question of un lieu propre : what/where is “media theory”?

This paper uses the work of Michel de Certeau (1988) to argue that it is possible to distinguish between “expert” or “authorised” approaches to media theory, construed as existing “strategically” within the “proper place” of the academy, and “tactical” appropriations of media theory operating in audience discourses. It takes media fan audiences as one case study in relation to this process, arguing that fans should be viewed as “poaching” from “official” media theory as well as from “official” media texts. It then goes on to suggest that we should not univocally celebrate or romanticise fans' uses of media theory, but should remain alert to the sociological and cultural reproductions that otherwise “tactical” media theory can participate in. This means rethinking fans' “tactics” not merely as the “arts of the weak” (de Certeau 1988, 37), but simultaneously as forms of appropriation that might enact forms of (sub)cultural power for fans.

Making sense of audience discourses

This article discusses the empirical and theoretical challenges facing reception researchers in their encounter with qualitative audience data. It does so by criticizing the one-dimensional theoretical framework set up by Stuart Hall in his famous encoding/decoding article. This framework has resulted in an exclusive focus in reception studies on ideology, as study after study has asked whether audience readings accept, negotiate or oppose the hegemonic thrust supposedly inscribed in the media text. Over the years empirical audience research has demonstrated that actual readings are more complex than that, but these studies have not taken the step of developing a multidimensional model of audience discourse. The article attempts to set up an empirically based general model of media reception with six dimensions: Motivation, Comprehension, Discrimination, Position, Evaluation and Implementation. This model may help open our eyes to the complexity of actualized readings while still enabling a politically committed audience research concerned with the role of the media in processes of social reproduction and, not least, social change.

Using informant directed interviews to discover risk orientation: How formative evaluations based in interpretive analysis can improve persuasive safety campaigns

Abstract This essay demonstrates how qualitative analysis of a target audience's discourse can identify themes and issues that need to be targeted in an effective persuasive campaign. The text for analysis was obtained by conducting informant directed interviews with Texas farmers who live in regions identified as having high injury and death rates associated with farm equipment. Thematic analysis of the resulting transcripts indicated that farmers view themselves as gamblers who have a high risk tolerance. The information gathered in this field study suggests persuasive campaign strategies that are likely to be most effective in reducing injuries related to farm equipment. Further, researchers can adapt the method used to other situations in which health practitioners need clear information about how best to motivate voluntary behavior change.

“The case of the midnight judges” and multiple audience discourse: Chief Justice Marshall andMarbury V. Madison

Rhetorical theory and criticism offer scant advice on approaching multiple audiences, despite that fact that much discourse addresses heterogeneous audiences. This analysis of Chief Justice Marshall's Supreme Court opinion in the case of Marbury v. Madison illustrates the use of separation and incorporation (a form of integration) in a multiple audience situation. It also offers insight on a landmark case in the development of our tripartite system of government.