Audience Perceptions Research Articles

A perspective on BBC television news in India

This provocation gives an overview of the BBC in India in terms of television news. It discusses the BBC's sensibilities in relation to the interests and perceptions of Indian audiences through two methods: one, a review of available secondary literature; and two, brief conversations with media professionals who have previously or currently work with the BBC in India. It briefly comments on the conflicting journey of the BBC in India but argues that despite the colonial legacy and the initial narrative of privileging the imperial voice, the BBC is largely viewed as a fair and impartial news source by Indian audiences.

Audience Perception of Pornographic Elements in Nigeria’s Indigenous Film Industry, Nollywood: A Study of Young Viewers in Two Tertiary Institutions in Imo State.

Purpose: The research work was carried out to ascertain the views of young audience of our home videos on the pornographic elements in some of the movies they watch.
 Methodology: The study which was anchored on the perception theory employed the survey research technique and drew its population from young viewers in Imo State University and Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, both in Owerri. Of the target population of 5000 students from the two institutions, 350 students were randomly selected for the exercise, out of which 302 respondents completed and returned their questionnaire.
 Findings: The result shows that many of our youngsters copy the scandalous elements they view on our home videos, resulting in their pornographic appearances in public, and display of lack of respect for cultural norms and values.
 Recommendations: It is therefore recommended the producers of home videos should de-emphasize the inclusion of pornographic materials in their videos. It is also recommended that our youngsters should reject the scandalous and pornographic elements in Nollywood videos and accept the good lessons which the home videos also teach their audience.

Auditory Cuteness in Sports Podcasting: A New Lookism?

A major challenge facing female sportscasters resides in their being frequently judged based on physical appearance. However, little is known about the influence of audience perceptions of female sports podcasters’ physical attractiveness when their image is unavailable. Drawing from source credibility and social role theories, the present study employed a posttest-only quasi-experimental design to examine whether Chinese female sports podcasters’ auditory cuteness influences audience perceptions of their credibility, information satisfaction, and podcast continuance intentions. Results demonstrate that female podcaster auditory cuteness is positively connected with audience information satisfaction and perceived attractiveness, both of which further predict perceived expertise. Moreover, audience gender role beliefs dampen their perceived expertise, which along with information satisfaction, is positively associated with podcast continuance intentions. Finally, stronger gender role believers rely more on perceived attractiveness when rating the female sportscaster’s expertise—and less on perceived expertise—when evaluating their podcast continuance intentions.

Evaluation of Creativity in Contemporary Dance in Terms of Audience Perception

ABSTRACT Today creativity is increasingly recognized as an essential component of success. The purpose of the study is to test a method of consensus assessment of contemporary dance, which allows a viewer to subconsciously assess the manifestation of creativity in contemporary dance. The sample of participants was formed on the basis of users of Chinese social networks (WeChat, Weibo, Qzone, Youku) and consisted of 46 dancers, 12 choreographers and 123 spectators. The methodology of the experiment is based on the LAVAAN package. The results showed that the presence of creative experience of a rater has a positive effect on the rating score of the creativity component. At the same time, self-proclaimed experts in creativity gave lower points to the creativity in dance videos. It can be argued that the understanding of contemporary dance is much greater for those who have had experience of choreographing dances; simply teaching dance does not necessarily develop the ability to comprehend its meaning. The use of the Likert scale has demonstrated its effectiveness in the analysis of contemporary dance. The results of the study can be useful in the field of choreography, pedagogy, sociology and psychology in the aspect of creativity and culture.

Perceptions of Physical, Sexual, and Psychological Violence Stories: A Registered Report

Survivors of sexual violence have shared their stories with the public through social media in growing numbers. Recent research shows that sexual violence (versus other, less stigmatizing trauma) stories are perceived as more difficult to tell, and their storytellers as less likeable. This is true even when stories have redemptive endings, contradicting an established U.S. cultural preference for redemptive stories. However, it is unknown if sexual violence perceptions generalize to different types of interpersonal violence (IPV) and if audience perceptions vary across 3 major types of IPV (sexual, physical, psychological). This pre-registered replication and extension study investigates these questions with a vignette-based experimental design modeled after 2 published studies by the first and last authors. Broadly, we hypothesized that cultural invalidation of sexual violence stories would extend to any IPV story (vs. non-IPV traumas such as natural disasters), and that within the realm of IPV, cultural invalidation would be more pronounced for psychological violence stories (vs. sexual/physical). Three samples of U.S. adult participants (N=1,045), 2 Nationally Representative and 1 University-based, were randomly assigned online to read 1 of 12 first-person trauma story vignettes and complete self-report surveys of story and storyteller perceptions in a 6 (trauma story: IPV [k=3], non-IPV [k=3]) x 2 (ending: negative, redemptive) between-subjects design. Support for our hypotheses was mixed. IPV (vs. non-IPV) stories were perceived as more difficult to share (η2p = .068) and their storytellers as having less positive personality traits (η2p = .043), even when stories ended redemptively. However, among the 3 IPV types, psychological violence storytellers were not robustly more stigmatized, and sexual violence stories were recognized as particularly difficult to disclose. IPV survivors face obstacles to telling their stories that may hamper both personal recovery and collective momentum for systemic change.

Inside the Black Box of Green Companies: Organizational Identity of Certified B Corporations

Pursuing prosocial certifications has become an increasingly popular strategy for organizations to obtain social support from their external audiences. However, little is known on how the certifications shape perceptions of the key audience inside the organizations: employees. Reviewing the literature reveals that the current stream of research on prosocial certifications and organizational identity poses several limitations. Through a qualitative study of Certified B Corporations, I build a model of organizational identity outcomes throughout the process of prosocial certifications. The findings suggest that the degree to which a business is embedded in prosocial values, in conjunction with reflexivity during and after the certification process, differentially shapes employees’ prosocial identity. The prosocial identity held by employees is then manifested via various forms of workplace behavior. This research contributes to the literature streams on prosocial certifications identity moving beyond the cross-sectional relationship between the antecedents and outcomes of organizational identity.

Redefining Ngurek Bali: Analysis of Audience Perception in The Cyber World

The problem in this research is the public response against the Balinese ngurek tradition. This research discusses the reinterpretation of a Hindu religious ritual in Bali, namely the ngurek ritual or often referred to as ngunying. This religious ritual is quite unique and extreme so it has many meanings. This type of research is a qualitative research with reference to Stuart Hall's encoding-decoding theory. This data collection was obtained through youtube with comments and also the results of interviews with one of the informants. Data analysis with data reduction, data presentation and conclusion drawing. The results of this study indicate that the topics that appear in the comments are not limited to traditional rituals. The material also involves involvement and controversy between the religious rituals of ngurek and Hindu rituals in Bali simultaneously. The new thing that can be known is that the ngurek tradition is an ancient Balinese custom, where a spirit invitation ceremony is held. The spirits are asked to enter into the designated body and be a sign that the invited spirit will be present. The ngurek tradition is also believed to invite Ida Bhatara and Rereancang (his soldiers) to receive offerings during the ceremony.

Citizen Journalism and Security Challenges: Audience Perception of Ethical and Security issues in Nigeria’s online Journalism Practice

Citizen journalism has transformed the face of journalism practice in Nigeria and the rest of the world. The Internet has basically restructured the mode of news and information gathering and distribution. Unfortunately, not complying by the ethics of the profession has become its main challenge, a circumstance that is put down on some identified factors. Today, there is no distinct difference between the function of conventional journalism and citizen journalism. Conventional journalism, which is the established career of journalism, calls for different kinds of trainings, which could be through education or apprenticeship, for them to carry out their social responsibility function. This is a contrast in the case of citizen journalism, which is currently assuming the role of conventional journalism. This situation foretells undesirable effects to the journalism profession and has equally contributed to the rise of security challenges around the country. Situated within the framework of Source Credibility Theory, this study was designed as a survey. The population of study were residents of Awka metropolis from which a sample size was selected. Finding shows that major issues associated with the credibility of citizen journalism are issues of ethics, professionalism, and training which pose a security threat to the stability of the country. The study recommends that these challenges require to be crucially addressed before they cause mayhem and chaos in the country

"My People Already Know That": The Imagined Audience and COVID-19 Health Information Sharing Practices on Social Media.

This article examines how imagined audiences and impression management strategies shape COVID-19 health information sharing practices on social media and considers the implications of this for combatting the spread of misinformation online. In an interview study with 27 Canadian adults, participants were shown two infographics about masks and vaccines produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) and asked whether or not they would share these on social media. We find that interviewees’ willingness to share the WHO infographics is negotiated against their mental perception of the online audience, which is conceptualized in three distinct ways. First, interviewees who would not share the infographics frequently describe a self-similar audience of peers that are “in the know” about COVID-19; second, those who might share the infographics conjure a specific and contextual audience who “needs” the information; and finally, those who said they would share the infographics most frequently conjure an abstract audience of “the public” or “my community” to explain that decision. Implications of these sharing behaviors for combatting the spread of misinformation are discussed.

Evaluation of Factors Influencing Audience Perception of Nollywood Movies

The Nollywood phenomenon has remarkably become an international moviemaking culture, serving as one of the determinants of Nigerian perception formation on social and educational behaviours. Globalisation in the film industry impacts audience taste and perception, not only in the global free market but also among niche audiences. This audience segmentation occurred due to globalisation, enabling cross-border production or transnational cinema. This research investigates how the Nollywood audience in Nigeria perceives its movies and the factors that influence their perception. Audience perceptive elements in this research are classified as tripartite (education, entertainment, information). Using a semi-structured questionnaire, 387 were distributed, but only 367 were valid. The study employs a descriptive and regression analysis to showcase the frequency of audience perception and compare how effectively the factors affect audience perception. Based on the descriptive analysis, the results showed that Nollywood movies are mostly entertainment, followed by educative and informative. In addition, the regression results revealed that factors such as the level of income, occupation, tribe, the language of movies watched, triggers watching movies, genre, streaming platforms, time (weekdays, weekends, and times watching movies in a week) significantly influenced audience perception. Whereas time constraints (watching during weekdays and weekends) weakly influence audience perception. The findings suggest a need for Nollywood movies to pay more attention to audience expectations and experience in their dissemination to enhance audience perception of the movie industry. Keywords: Audience perception, education, entertainment, information, media studies, Nollywood.

Challenges of digital advertising from the study of the influencers' phenomenon in social networks

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to study the challenges of digital advertising from the characterization of the influencer phenomenon based on the perceptions of two different and non-consecutive generations, explored from the perspective of parasocial relationshipsDesign/methodology/approachUsing a quantitative methodology design and a descriptive approach, a study is presented on a sample of 449 individuals belonging to two generational niches, generation Z (N = 227) and generation X (N = 222). For the study, characterization parameters have been defined based on existing literature, defining five-dimension conceptualization: strength, fairness, engagement, trustworthiness and social role.FindingsThe results point to a different perception of the phenomenon in some aspects that allow an intergenerational portrait of the figure of the influencer to be made. The findings of the study are innovative because they were not previously available and transcend academia to serve the companies that proliferate in the representation and management of influencers, as the characterization of this figure is important for the identification of key aspects in the adjustment of products and messages offered to a certain public of a specific population niche, both for advertising companies and for media and institutions.Originality/valueThe study reveals interesting challenges for digital advertising from the audience's perceptions about influencers, highlighting the relevance of influencers which clearly contributes to a better understanding of more efficient strategies on digital advertising.

INEC-Sponsored Media Messages and Voters’ Turnout during the 2019 General Elections in Nigeria: A Study of Perception of Warri Voters

The media are partners in a democracy because they ensure political participation in the democratic process. Audience perception of the media is vital as it affects credibility and believability of the media and their messages. Credibility and believability of the media are predicated to an extent upon the source of media messages. These issues prompted this study which examined the INEC-Sponsored media messages during the 2019 general elections in Nigeria with specific reference to Warri voters. The study which adopted survey research methodology sampled 384 respondents and used questionnaire to collect data. Data collected were analysed by simple percentages and measures of central tendencies, while hypotheses were tested by Regression Analysis. The study found among others that voters in Warri metropolis perceived that the INEC-Sponsored media messages during the 2019 general elections were credible and thus created the expected level of awareness and sensitization about the general elections. This consequently and significantly influenced voters’ turnout in Warri metropolis during the 2019 general elections. The study thereafter recommended among others that INEC should continue to sponsor unbiased media messages to voters as this will strengthen elections and democracy in Nigeria.

The spread of modern Russian female novel in China

The article is devoted to the problem of the spread of Russian female novel in China from the end of the 20th century to the present day. The subject of the study is the translation and publication of modern Russian female writers in China. The purpose of the article is to identify patterns of the spread of modern Russian female novel in Chinese society. Using descriptive, analytical and comparative methods, the author tries to analyze the phenomenon of the spread of Russian female novel in China on the basis of Leo Leventhal's theory of literary communication. The author examines in detail such aspects of the topic as the peculiarities of the periodization of the spread of Russian women's prose in China, the main influencing factors in the distribution process, as well as the evaluation of the works of Russian female writers by the Chinese audience. Many studies discuss the perception of the Chinese audience of the works of such Russian writers as L. E. Ulitskaya, T. N. Tolstaya, but the general pattern of the spread of Russian female novel in China has been little studied. The scientific novelty of this work lies in the fact that it for the first time comprehends the process of the dissemination of the works of Russian female writers in China from the point of view of communication. Chinese Russianists are still the dominant force in the distribution of Russian female literature in China, but as the Chinese reading market of Russian female novel is being formed, the influence of readers is becoming stronger.

Effects of fine art print artworks on the art viewer in contemporary art presentation

The social and cultural changes brought about by industrialization and the Industrial Revolution highlighted the value of printmaking as a new means of expression in artistic presentation. The innovative mechanical production methods influenced their artistic production through the interest and experimentation of many artists, whose numbers should not be underestimated. On the other hand, the transfer of examples of traditional Japanese printmaking (Ukiyo-e) to Europe in 1700-1900 caused profound effects on Western art, beginning with Impressionism, one of the modern art movements. Especially in the last two decades, rapidly digitalizing technology has also provided radical changes in many social-cultural and economic fields. As a reflection of this, it has caused a change in the presentation of contemporary art and caused the formation of an innovative attitude that transforms-triggers the perception of the audience. Two effective factors are emphasized in the context of the effect of fine art print works on the phenomenon of art. One is the artist of the time, who uses all the media tools of his time with pure intuition to transform his artistic expression, his dreams into reality, and another is the audience of the artwork, who accepts only a part of his artistic presentation, which is helped by all technological tools, by discussing, and few of which will be praised by future generations. In this context, digital technology promises a free space to thousands of artists who produce screen presentations or artistic prints on many different media, enabling us to see them everywhere. It has indisputable that digital technologies are a new tool with a different line for artists, apart from the usual art presentation of contemporary art, which is in different quests with an innovative attitude in every period. From this point of view, in addition to the dynamic visual presentations in different places and platforms where the art audience can be involved and integrated into the contemporary art environment, the innovative attitude that fine art print artworks brings to the effect and behavior of the audience should also be considered. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how digital print technology and print works influence audience perception. The survey data analysis is interpreted in this article through excerpts from the dissertation titled “Effects of fine art printmaking on phenomenon of the art” which is still in progress.

News Media Image: A Typology of Audience Perspectives

The premise of this study is the timeliness of interdisciplinary approaches in news media research, specifically including the perceptions of news audiences. Using a multidisciplinary literature review and qualitative and quantitative analysis, this study adopted a multidimensional construct— news media image—to investigate how news audiences perceive news media organizations. The respondents studied here, who were representative of the general U.S. population, referenced the news media in general in their evaluation of news outlets. Results of focus groups and online surveys (factor analyses) indicated that news audiences evaluate the content and practices of news media overall based on perceptions related to seven specific criteria: usefulness, credibility, empathy, personality, usability, news selection bias, and social responsibility. Image perception encompasses rational, cognitive judgment, and affective evaluation. That news audience respondents commonly employed multiple evaluation criteria related to news media points to the need to broaden the scope of journalistic research in the direction of a new heuristic. Examining news media image, that is, investigating how “the general public” views news media as an institution in a continuously changing—and challenging—news media landscape adds value to media research. Results from a confirmatory factor analysis used in this study suggest that a positive news media image can enhance audience satisfaction and, subsequently, loyalty.

Echoes In Familiar Spaces: Audio Styling and the Audience’s Invitation to the Worlds of Limetown and Within The Wires

Podcasts are useful for influencing the way the audience thinks – audio drama especially lends itself to this application, with writers being able to cloak stronger political messages within the fictionalized worlds of their narratives. Podcasts like Limetown and Within The Wires can effectively tell stories about political and social issues through their involvement of the audience in the world of the work. The familiarity of the audience with the auditory styling of the podcast as well as the clear audio signposting used in both podcasts gives the audience a touchstone to their everyday life that makes it less strenuous to situate themselves in the fictional world and focus on the narrative despite other potential distractions. Through close listening examinations of both podcasts, I analyze and discuss the impact that the scripting and use of audio elements have on the audience's perception of the narrative and the implications for audio drama and podcasting as a whole. While Within the Wires is slightly more effective in the use of formats that are fairly universal in their recognizability to the audience, Limetown is more familiar to those who have listened to other podcasts before; this combined with Limetown's similarities to the critically acclaimed investigative journalism podcast Serial had significant impacts on each podcast's popularity.Keywords: podcasts, audio drama, Limetown, Within the Wires, Serial, audience perception

Audience Perception of Outdoor Advertisement use by Herbal Remedies Providers in South-east Nigeria

This study investigated how residents of South-East Nigeria felt about the use of outdoor advertisement by herbal remedies providers to persuade patronage. The survey research method was used to study 384 respondents selected across the five South East states using the purposive sampling technique. The objectives of study are to find the level of exposure of residents in South-East Nigeria to outdoor advertisements made on herbal remedies, to know the extent to which those exposed to the advertisements understand their message as to persuade trails and use, to ascertain how receivers of the advertisements on herbal remedies react to presented messages, and to know if outdoor advertisement of herbal remedies persuade product consumption as measurement for patronage. The study found that oudoor advertsiemnts on herbal remedies persuaded residents of South East States to patronize the products. Among the reecommendations are attractive and infromative packaging of advertised herbal products should be used to differentiate the products and awareness should be created on specific herbal products to make it easier for audience members to make purchasing decision

Audience perceptions of news media on the Covid-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT – This article pairs journalism studies and social psychology to investigate, with a quantitative method, audience perceptions of news media in the initial stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil by verifying the relations among media credibility, subjective well-being (SWB), and fear of missing out (FoMO). All told, 306 Brazilians took part in this study, answering a questionnaire to elicit demographic data, perceptions of media credibility, and behavioral characteristics. The findings revealed high averages of measures of news media credibility, with over 70% of respondents evaluating the work of the press as excellent or good. People with higher averages of negative affects tended to perceive the news media as more reliable. Furthermore, individuals who reported fear of missing out on the news during Covid-19 experienced more negative affect, and attributed greater credibility to news media. These findings show that in a time of fear and uncertainty, citizens seem to trust solid institutions more, accepting their reports less critically. We also found that unknown risks can attract attention more than regular events, tending to keep vigilance on specific news. Future studies can add additional measures of FoMO and use more diverse samples in different contexts. RESUMO – Este artigo aproxima os estudos de jornalismo e a psicologia social para investigar, com um método quantitativo, as percepções da audiência sobre a mídia noticiosa nos estágios iniciais da pandemia Covid-19 no Brasil, verificando as relações entre credibilidade da mídia, bem-estar subjetivo (BES) e fear of missing out (FoMO). Participaram deste estudo 306 brasileiros, que responderam um questionário demográfico, uma escala de credibilidade da mídia e questões sobre características comportamentais. Os resultados revelam que as médias das medidas de credibilidade da mídia são altas, com mais de 70% dos entrevistados avaliando o trabalho da imprensa como excelente ou bom. Pessoas com médias mais altas de afetos negativos tendem a perceber a mídia como mais confiável. Além disso, os indivíduos que relatam medo de perder notícias durante a Covid-19 experienciam mais afetos negativos e também dão mais credibilidade para a mídia. Argumenta-se que, em uma época de medo e incerteza, os cidadãos parecem confiar mais em instituições sólidas, aceitando seus relatos de forma menos crítica. Também é discutido que eventos com riscos desconhecidos podem atrair mais atenção do que acontecimentos regulares e isso mantém a vigilância sobre notícias específicas. Estudos futuros podem adicionar medidas adicionais de FoMO e usar amostras mais diversas em diferentes contextos. RESUMEN – Este artículo aborda los estudios de periodismo y psicología social para investigar, con un método cuantitativo, las percepciones de la audiencia sobre los medios de comunicación en las primeras etapas de la pandemia de Covid-19 en Brasil, verificando las relaciones entre la credibilidad de los medios, el bienestar subjetivo (BES) y el fear of missing out (FoMO). En este estudio participaron 306 brasileños, quienes respondieron un cuestionario demográfico, una escala de credibilidad mediática y preguntas sobre características de comportamiento. Los resultados revelan que los promedios de las medidas de credibilidad de los medios son altos, con más del 70% de los encuestados calificando el trabajo de prensa como excelente o bueno. Las personas con promedios más altos de afecto negativo tienden a percibir los medios como más confiables. Además, las personas que reportan miedo a perderse noticias durante el Covid-19 experimentan más efectos negativos y también dan más credibilidad a los medios. Se argumenta que, en una época de miedo e incertidumbre, los ciudadanos parecen confiar en instituciones más sólidas, aceptando sus cuentas de manera menos crítica. También se discute que los eventos con riesgos desconocidos pueden atraer más atención que los eventos regulares y esto mantiene al tanto de noticias específicas. Los estudios futuros pueden agregar medidas adicionales de FoMO y utilizar muestras más diversas en diferentes contextos.

Perceived communication effectiveness in implementation strategies: a measurement scale

BackgroundCommunication-based activities and products (i.e., training programs, webinars) are a critical component of implementation strategies that relay information to various audiences. Audience perceptions of communication effectiveness contribute important insight into the processes and mechanisms through which an implementation effort may succeed or fail. To advance research on this front, a psychometrically sound instrument for measuring perceived communication effectiveness (PCE) is needed.MethodsAn expert panel identified the theoretical foundations and conceptual domains of PCE and drafted preliminary items. Five focus groups of correctional professionals who had recently completed an implementation leadership training reviewed the items and provided feedback for refinement. Revised items were then included in a survey-based evaluation of an ongoing eLearning curriculum designed to improve the practices used by front-line probation officers in supervising individuals in the field. The factorial structure of a final 6-item scale as well as its convergent, divergent, and predictive validity was evaluated using data from the evaluation surveys (Nfollow-up = 358, Nbaseline+follow-up = 159).ResultsConfirmatory factor analysis of the final scale of PCE demonstrated adequate fit. PCE was strongly correlated with measures of implementation outcomes (acceptability, r = .819, p < .001; appropriateness, r = .809, p < .001; and feasibility, r = .754, p < .001), yet uncorrelated with a scale of need to evaluate (r = − .051, p = .422), demonstrating both convergent and divergent validities. The predictive validity of PCE was evidenced by significant associations between PCE and key training outcomes, including perceived staff use of evidence-based practices (β = .230, p < .05), agency climate (β = .261, p < .05), and value concordance (β = .209, p < .05), after controlling for baseline values and other confounders.ConclusionsThe PCE scale is psychometrically sound and can be a useful tool for gauging audience receptivity to and the potential impact of communication-based implementation activities and products.

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