Live Audience Research Articles

Ode to a Blackbird

ABSTRACTTo access in written form, or even through a recording, that which was once performed in front of a live audience is akin to looking at an old picture. Both documents leave a trace of that which has passed, but they cannot recreate or capture the lived experience; they can only house the haunting. In the mid‐20th century’s swirl of audiovisual and written documentation of poetry, one may identify a pressing hunger or impulse to preserve an oral tradition which has historically, at least for the most part, been lost—and an attempt on behalf of poets to legitimize and record their life’s work. Sung poetry may be forgotten—it leaves no physical trace behind. In the end, it is the material that prevails, at least in the eyes of history.

Scientific Research in Nova Scotia

On the evening of Monday, March 4, 2024, the Nova Scotian Institute of Science (NSIS) held a student symposium as part of its public lecture series. This year’s theme was Scientific Research in Nova Scotia, welcoming talks from all scientific disciplines.One goal was to highlight the diversity and breadth of research currently being conducted by students across the province. The NSIS Council therefore decided, as part of its lecture series, to invite short, 3-minute talks from students with projects at any stage of com-pletion. The focus was to attract young researchers to contribute more to NSIS activities. The limited time enabled the session to maximize the number of presenters. Many strong applications to present were received, and eight students were selected from various academic levels (from undergraduates to doctoral students) to give talks about their research. They also answered questions from the live audience and those watching and listening online. At the end of the evening, awards were presented to selected contributors, and all students were commended for very well-presented and interesting talks.The abstracts for the talks are provided below.

The Dynamics of Slido to Promote Learning in Rural University Classrooms

Slido is an interactive online platform facilitating active learning in rural university settings. Rural universities often need more resources, including access to technology and opportunities for diverse pedagogical approaches. Traditional lecture-based teaching predominates due to these constraints, which can hinder student engagement and learning outcomes. Slido offers a solution by leveraging technology to enhance interaction, collaboration, and participation within the classroom environment. This study, therefore, adopted the Slido application to promote active learning in one of the rural university classrooms within South African higher education. Active learning methodologies have gained widespread recognition for their effectiveness in engaging students, fostering more profound understanding, and promoting critical thinking skills. However, implementing such strategies, especially in rural university classrooms, can pose unique challenges. Through features such as live polls, quizzes, and audience Q&A sessions, Slido enables instructors to create dynamic learning experiences that encourage active participation from students. In rural contexts where class sizes may be smaller and student diversity limited, Slido provides an avenue for inclusive participation and allows even the most reserved students to contribute anonymously. Hence, the qualitative study adopted a transformative paradigm as a lens and approached it through active learning designed by Action Research. Furthermore, the study was a two-year project involving third-year business studies students and their transition to, and completion of, their fourth year of study. Seven students were selected as the participants, and data was generated through a Focus Group discussion and analyzed using Thematic Analysis. The study revealed that Slido promotes activeness among students in the module selected in the rural university. In conclusion, Slido offers a promising solution for promoting active learning in rural university classrooms. The study recommends that lecturers should be empowered in terms of resources and training to infuse technology into teaching.

With flow comes beauty

Most paintings are static images created by artists in private. Sidney Perkowitz explores the work of Akiko Nakayama, who uses her feel for the behaviour of fluids to create beautiful dynamic pictures in front of live audiences.

Cortical oscillations are modified by expertise in dance and music: Evidence from live dance audience.

Over the past decades, the focus of brain research has expanded from using strictly controlled stimuli towards understanding brain functioning in complex naturalistic contexts. Interest has increased in measuring brain processes in natural interaction, including classrooms, theatres, concerts and museums to understand the brain functions in the real world. Here, we examined how watching a live dance performance with music in a real-world dance performance setting engages the brains of the spectators. Expertise in dance or music has been shown to modify brain functions, including when watching dance or listening to music. Therefore, we recorded electroencephalography (EEG) from an audience of dancers, musicians and novices as they watched the live dance performance and analysed their cortical oscillations. We compared intrabrain oscillations when participants watched the performance (with music) or listened to the music alone without the dance. We found that dancers have stronger fronto-central and parieto-occipital theta phase synchrony (4-8Hz) than novices when watching dance, likely reflecting the effects of dance experience on motor imagery, multisensory and social interaction processes. Also, compared with novices, dancers had stronger delta phase synchrony (0.5-4Hz) when listening to music, and musicians had stronger delta phase synchrony when watching dance, suggesting expertise in music and dance enhances sensitivity or attention to temporal regularities in movement and sound.

‘Brain fry’ in Just a Minute: the challenges of talking without hesitation, repetition or deviation

This article combines the insights of an academic and a professional comedian, Paul Merton, in exploring how players attempt to mitigate cognitive overload or ‘brain fry’ in the popular BBC radio panel game Just a Minute (JaM). JaM requires players to present one minute of entertaining fluent spoken narrative on a specified subject, in front of a live audience. However, they have to navigate three rules: not to hesitate, repeat or deviate. These constraints impede the strategies that speakers customarily use to sustain fluency. They also undermine some of the classic tools of comedy. With reference to the role of fluency in regular speech, and how risks to fluency are usually mitigated by speakers, we show why the game’s rules build such a cognitive burden. We explore the various tactics of players for managing that burden so that they avoid brain fry, and we draw in particular on the approach taken by the co-author, a regular and successful player for over 35 years. His solution to the challenge of cognitive overload is to reframe the purpose of the game. This article is the first to offer a theory-based account of the mechanisms of this internationally popular game show.

Explaining the gift-giving intentions of live-streaming audiences through social presence: the perspective of interactive marketing

PurposeLive streaming has become an extremely popular form of online service and allows live audiences to give virtual gifts or money to their favorite streamers. This study aims to investigate the impact of the audience's multidimensional social presence on their attitudes toward live streamers and intentions to give money or gifts to streamers, based on the interactive marketing perspective. This study considers live audiences' gift-giving intentions by integrating the theory of multidimensional social presence, which includes awareness, cognitive social presence and affective social interaction, and the theory of reasoned action (TRA).Design/methodology/approachThis study invited audiences who had watched live streaming from several popular live-streaming platforms to respond to a web questionnaire. The unit of analysis was at the individual level. This study applied the purposive sampling technique for data collection. A sample of 258 eligible responses to the online survey was analyzed using SPSS software and the causal relationships between the measurement variables of this research model were verified through structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results indicate that the audiences' awareness of participating in live streaming enhanced their cognitive and affective social presence, which positively affected their attitudes toward live streamers. These attitudes had a further significant effect on their gift-giving intentions. Cognitive social presence and affective social presence were found to play significant mediating roles in the relationship between awareness and attitudes toward live streamers.Originality/valueThis study examines audiences' intention to give gifts to their favorite live streamers, based on the interactive marketing perspective. The interactive relationship between live streamers and online audiences is developed by audience members through the process of inner psychological transformation, which is measured through the multidimensional construct of social presence. This occurs through a mutual influence relationship in which awareness simultaneously influences cognitive social presence and affective social presence, and cognitive social presence impacts affective social presence.Research limitations/implicationsThe study contributes three noteworthy findings to the theory development through the integrated perspective of the TRA and the theory of social presence. (1) Exploring the influence of belief factors on internal psychological responses and intention in live streaming to expand an innovative application of the TRA. (2) Adopting the multidimensional social presence can help researchers more clearly describe various live-streaming situations and extend the research scope of the social presence theory to live-streaming interactive marketing strategies. (3) From the perspective of live-streamer marketing, this study broadens the research fields of electronic commerce and interactive marketing.Practical implicationsThis study provides four practical implications for platform managers and live streamers. (1) To induce favorable attitudes toward live streamers, live streamers initiate various interactive activities sequentially to establish a social presence with the audience. (2) Live streamers should devote themselves to forming a joyful atmosphere for their followers, as this will trigger audiences' affective social presence to generate positive attitudes and increase followers' intentions. (3) To attract and retain young followers, live streamers must devise interesting content and provide fresh services. (4) Platform managers must create useful widgets to assist live streamers in managing their channels and followers.Social implicationsBuilding friendly real-time interaction between the live streamer and the audience is an important task in live streaming and further influences the income of the live streamer and the platform. The study provides an effective approach to building friendly real-time interaction for the live streamer and manager of live-streaming electronic commerce through the interactive marketing perspective. The approach can help the live streamer manage nice communication with their audience and obtain virtual money and gift-giving from the audience.

Performing Presidential Age

During a February surprise appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, President Joe Biden whipped out his trademark aviator sunglasses and traded quips with Meyers about a supposed conspiracy with Taylor Swift, much to the delight of the younger live audience. The next day, reviews were mixed about whether the president was trying too hard or did in fact manage to look hipper. To look younger. While US presidential nominees have been consciously performing their campaigns for decades, during this cycle, considering age as a performance has been especially prominent. Commentators and critics have specifically addressed the careful staging of persona that is central to presidential politics but is not always acknowledged as such.

Testing social impact and self-attention predictions with live audiences and co-actors

This experiment examined the influences of number of co-actors and audience size on manual dexterity task performance and subjective reactions such as perceived effort and arousal. Predictions derived from social impact theory and the self-attention perspective’s other-total ratio indicated that both number of co-actors and audience size should influence responses. Undergraduate students (N = 128) responded as 1, 2, 4, or 8 group members who were observed in counterbalanced fashion by 1, 2, 4, or 8 audience members for four performance trials. The predictions of increased task performance with larger audience sizes and decreased performance as number of co-actors increased were not supported. Participants’ rated arousal was somewhat consistent with the predictions from the self-attention perspective and social impact theory. Self-reported effort was consistent with the predicted patterns, but not always significantly so. The influence of number of others is moderated by the objective-subjective nature of responses of real co-actors performing in front of live audiences.

Does similarity matter? Investigating the relationship between live streamer' communication style similarity and user purchase intentions during live streaming

This study investigates the influence of communication style similarity between streamers and viewers on purchase intention within the framework of similarity attraction theory and cognitive-emotional system theory. Live marketing, utilizing online streamers for real-time interaction with consumers, has become a prominent sales strategy. A quantitative approach was employed, using questionnaire data collected from live marketing audiences. The survey measured communication style preferences of both viewers and streamers, along with viewers' perceived level of quasi-social interaction during the live stream, immersive experience, and purchase intention. The research demonstrates that when a streamer's communication style aligns with a viewer's preference, viewers perceive a stronger sense of quasi-social interaction. This heightened sense of connection fosters a more immersive live streaming experience, ultimately leading to a greater purchase intention. Furthermore, the study reveals that viewers with a higher need for cognitive closure-the desire to minimize ambiguity-experience an amplified effect of both communication style similarity and immersive experience on their purchase intention. This research contributes to the evolving body of knowledge on live marketing communication. By highlighting the importance of communication style matching between streamers and viewers, the findings offer valuable guidance to live streaming platforms and companies. Tailoring streamer communication styles to align with target audience preferences can enhance audience engagement, create a more immersive experience, and ultimately drive higher conversion rates.

Perspectives on robotic HPB training in the UK: a survey analysis

BackgroundWe Published a step–up approach for robotic training in hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) surgery has been previously. The approach was mostly based on personal experience and communications between experts and needed appraisal and validation by the HPB surgical community. At the Great Britain and Ireland HPB Association (GBIHPBA) robotic HPB meeting held in Coventry, UK in October 2022, the authors sought consensus from the live audience, with an open forum for answering key questions. The aim of this exercise was to appraise the step-up approach, and in turn, lay the foundation for a more substantial UK robotic HPB surgical curriculum. MethodsThe study was conducted using VEVOX online polling platform at the October 2022 GBIHPBA robotic HPB meeting in Coventry, UK. The questionnaire was designed based on a literature search and was externally validated. The data were collated and analysed to assess patterns of response. ResultsA median (IQR) of 104 (96–117) responses were generated for each question. 93 consultants and 61 trainees were present Over 90% were in favour of a standardised training pathway. 93.6% were in favour of the proposed step-up approach, with a significant number (67.3%; p < 0.001) considering three levels of case complexity. ConclusionThe survey shows a favourable outlook on adopting step-up training in robotic HPB surgery. Ongoing monitoring of progress, clinical outcomes, and collaboration among surgeons and units will bolster this evidence, potentially leading to an official UK robotic HPB curriculum.

For love and money: Navigating values at the antiques roadshow event

AbstractAntiques Roadshow Events are held in historic locations across the United Kingdom. On site, experts evaluate objects brought in by attendees, who are often cast as passive recipients, while edited highlights make up the long‐running BBC TV program. Through Collaborative Event Ethnography at one Roadshow Event we show how object stories are navigated through “value talk” between attendees and experts in front of live audiences. Value is not a measurement but a dimension of the thing and its context. Stories and money are both integral in understanding worth, and final valuations are only partially shaped by given expertise.

Dreaming of new musical interaction – the interactive music in the project Dream

ABSTRACT Dream was an online live performance in early 2021 and was a collaboration between several partners, among them Royal Shakespeare Company, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Marshmallow Laser Feast, Manchester International Festival and EPIC Games. The stated goal of Dream was to explore new ways of interacting with audiences while bridging the disciplines of theatre, music, video games and other forms of digital media. The musical goals were to enable a high level of musical interactivity while at the same time coupling that with the use of high-quality recorded orchestral music. This article is not a study of the Dream project as a whole, but focuses on the interactive music that was generated in realtime by the actors and powered by Reactional Music. Apart from briefly discussing the technology itself, this article will describe and analyse some of the working processes involved in composing interactive music, as well as discuss some of the future implications of the use of technology from the video game industry in new areas such as live performances and audience interaction. The aim of this is to see if it’s possible to envision what kind of new artistic output that can come from these new technological environments.

Media Framing of Women’s Issues on Television Continental (TVC)’s Your View and its Influence on Public Perception in Nigeria

This study investigates the media framing of women’s issues on Television Continental (TVC)’s Your View and its influence on public perception. The study objectives include determining the extent of women’s issues covered by the show, analyzing the framing of women’s issues, identifying factors influencing the framing, and investigating women’s perceptions of the framing in shaping public discourse. The study was guided by the Framing Theory, Priming Theory, and Feminist Theory. The study utilized a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative research methods. Content analysis, in-depth interviews, and surveys were used to gather and examine data. Purposive sampling was used to select items and participants based on specific criteria. The study analyzed a total of 25 episodes of the television show Your View on TVC, spanning a period of 6 months from May 29th, 2023, to November 10th, 2023. In addition, 71 questionnaires were administered to women who had been part of the live audience at any of the episodes, and 3 in-depth interviews were conducted with crew members. Findings from the study provide valuable insights into the portrayal of women’s issues on Your View and the show’s influence on public discourse. It highlights the need for media programs to promote gender equality, challenge stereotypes, and ensure inclusive representation of women.

ON THE CHALLENGES OF ENGAGEMENT AND DOING ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH IN CONFLICT ZONES

Catherine Wanner invited several anthropologists to come together to discuss the challenges of conducting fieldwork in a region ravaged by war. The group consisted of four anthropologists, two who conduct research in Serbia and two in Ukraine. The group discussed the ethical complications that arise for anthropologists whose field site is or was the site of war as well as the responsibilities war creates for anthropologists who respond to the outbreak of armed combat by writing about state-sponsored violence and the process of enduring violence. Sandra King-Savic moderated this conversation, which took place on 7 July 2022 at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland before a live audience. The transcript of this two-hour conversation was shortened to fit this article and edited for clarity.

A SWOT Analysis of Hot Topics in Plastic Surgery Resident Education: Consensus From the ACAPS 10th Annual Winter Meeting.

With the aim of facilitating a critical self-reflection on how to align plastic surgery education with making excellent plastic surgeons, a rotating small-group session followed by live interactive audience polling was used to perform a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis at the 10th Annual American Council of Academic Plastic Surgeons Winter Meeting. The final day of the conference included a 3-hour session of rotating small groups followed by live interactive audience polls discussing the following six relevant educational topics: the Plastic Surgery Common Application and resident selection, aesthetic surgery education, leadership development and business education, embedded fellowships and focused training, mentorship, and faculty retention. A total of 60 individuals participated in the activity. A SWOT analysis was successfully performed for each educational topic, and a minimum of four opportunities were identified per topic to help guide future endeavors. Examples of opportunities include releasing recommendations for the implementation of holistic review; developing formal guidelines for aesthetic surgery education in residency via collaboration between ACAPS, American Society of Plastic Surgeons, and The Aesthetic Society; creating extended focused elective rotations; integrating business education into formal curricula for all training levels; enforcing transparency regarding position expectations and offerings including salary, call schedule, and current challenges; and more. The results of this study will help guide future initiatives by the ACAPS to improve resident education and academic retention.

Encouraging participant embodiment during VR-assisted public speaking training improves persuasiveness and charisma and reduces anxiety in secondary school students

Practicing public speaking to simulated audiences created in virtual reality environments is reported to be effective for reducing public speaking anxiety. However, little is known about whether this effect can be enhanced by encouraging the use of gestures during VR-assisted public speaking training. In the present study two groups of secondary schools underwent a three-session public speaking training program in which they delivered short speeches to VR-simulated audiences. One group was encouraged to “embody” their speeches through gesture while the other was given no instructions regarding the use of gesture. Before and after the training sessions participants underwent respectively a pre- and a post-training session, which consisted of delivering a similar short speech to a small live audience. At pre- and post-training sessions, participants’ levels of anxiety were self-assessed, their speech performances were rated for persuasiveness and charisma by independent raters, and their verbal output was analyzed for prosodic features and gesture rate. Results showed that both groups significantly reduced their self-assessed anxiety between the pre- and post-training sessions. Persuasiveness and charisma ratings increased for both groups, but to a significantly greater extent in the gesture-using group. However, the prosodic and gestural features analyzed showed no significant differences across groups or from pre-to post-training speeches. Thus, our results seem to indicate that encouraging the use of gesture in VR-assisted public speaking practice can help students be more charismatic and their delivery more persuasive before presenting in front of a live audience.

The Magic of Media and Culture

The Magic of Media and Culture

Live-Sound Pressure That Is Not Measured In Decibels

Audio engineer choice is affected by the influences and pressures within the live sound culture. This study analyzes the data from a 2020 international survey of audio engineers and focuses on live sound interpersonal interactions through the lens of social responsibility. As live sound participants, audio engineers, event organizers, performers, and audiences often have differing expectations due to their knowledge, preference, bias, ego, financial investment, sense of responsibility, proclivity towards risk or safety, and more. At live sound events, the final gatekeeper between the sound source and sound reinforcement is the audio engineer, who consciously or subconsciously weighs these expectations against the pressure they feel, their own motivations, and their knowledge and ability. Within the decision-making process, an audio engineer’s performance benefits not from the absence of interpersonal pressure, but instead from an appropriate balance of influences and pressures. This balance affects audio engineer development, investment, focus, enjoyment, satisfaction, and audio mix choices, which then impacts other live sound participants’ experience, health, well-being, and event viability.

Video as a Vehicle for Astronomy Education and Outreach

Video is an excellent vehicle for astronomy education and outreach. Usage patterns and user demographics are presented for short videos covering a variety of astronomy topics, delivered to public audiences from three websites, three YouTube channels, and three massive open online classes, or MOOCs. The data spans over a decade in some cases. The modality of the content ranges from short lecture presentations of sub-topics in astronomy to longer scripted pieces created by students to Q&amp;A sessions held by the MOOC instructor with live audiences of 100-200. In the aggregate, the videos have attracted 1.2 million views, and those viewers have watched 77,300 hours of astronomy content. Most of the viewers are not based in the United States. Viewership rose dramatically at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels. The videos watched by lifelong learners taking a MOOC show a decline in usage as they progress through the online course. But on these YouTube channels, when viewers can choose among the topics, the most popular are cosmology and exoplanets. Suggestions are made for the effective ways to create and disseminate astronomy videos.