Audience Theory Research Articles

Mobile telephony and changing patterns of audiences’ engagement with global media in Africa

This article explores the patterns and consequences of transnational audiences’ engagement with global media in the digital age, focusing on experiences in Africa. It examines Nigerians’ interactions with the BBC World Service, and draws on active audience theory and Joseph Nye’s soft power concept to unpick their complex relationship. Using documentary analysis, focus groups and individual interviews, the study unpacks how Nigerians deploy digital devices to engage with the BBC – and how the broadcaster leverages this to extend its influence. The impacts of digital technologies on participatory programming and audience interactivity – and the theoretical implications – are also analysed.

Elizabeth Gaskell: An overlooked political economist and proto theorist in the field of industrial relations

AbstractThis polemical essay argues that Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, and her novels North and South, and Mary Barton, portray her as an overlooked, early political economist. The objective of the paper is three‐fold: (1) to dismantle taken‐for‐granted truth claims that Alan Fox is the preeminent thinker on pluralistic forms of employee engagement (2) encourage further development and enlargement of the field and what constitutes its history, and (3) to argue for the recognition of Elizabeth Gaskell as an early political economist. Guiding this exploration is the question: How do we also make sense of Fox’s privileged situatedness in scholarship and the absence of potential early theorists like Gaskell? The paper adopts a feminist reading and polemical writing to engage in feminist critical historiography. The author draws on audience theory to help readers reorient themselves to Gaskell and to help see her as an overlooked political economist. Feminism is conceptually presented as ontology, epistemology, method, and style of writing. Despite the ongoing credit Alan Fox receives as first theorizing the frames of reference and pluralistic forms of engagement starting in the 1960s, Elizabeth Gaskell was contemplating and critiquing the employment relationship starting in the 1850s. She not only provided a rich historical understanding of the inequalities of class and wealth, but her ideas and insights remain unacknowledged in industrial relations scholarship. The paper offers a unique feminist perspective on Elizabeth Gaskell and makes the case that she is neglected early political economist. Further, the paper makes a link between the world of Victorian era fiction as historical understanding of early capitalist society and demonstrates how ideas are taken up by the field in unconscious and unjust ways.

Reading In‐Between: How Women Engage with Messages of ‘Superstar’ Business Role Models

AbstractWith role models being seen as central for developing women as leaders, recent research has been critical of messages that contemporary elite businesswomen role models promote. But how do women actually relate to female business ‘superstar’ role models’ messages? We argue that the implicit assumption that role models’ effects may be understood through exploring exclusively the kind of messages they send is problematic. Through introducing active audience theory, specifically de Certeau's concepts of ‘tactics’ and ‘strategy’, to analyse interviews with women who read autobiographies of business celebrity role models, we identify three key tactics in which female role aspirants engage with role models’ messages: tactics of confirmation, namely a selective adoption of intended messages; tactics of challenge, namely a contestation of messages; and tactics of change, through which unscripted meanings of collective consciousness and support for other women emerge. In doing so, the paper offers a novel way of theorising the influence of distant role models – as emerging from a process of co‐creation in the ‘in‐between’ space. We argue that theorising the role of models’ influence as co‐creation allows us to systematically incorporate role aspirants’ perceptions into the role‐modelling process and to further understand the unscripted and unforeseen effects of role models.

ANALYSIS OF VIEWERS' COMMENTS ON A VIRAL VIDEO ON YOUTUBE

YouTube is a medium for two-way communication, where a variety of videos are shared on social media every day. Viewers are making various videos viral by sharing on social media and those videos are also becoming the focus of discussion at the national and international levels. In this study, the comments on YouTube have been investigated to understand the viewer’s opinion, ideology and their thinking. Active audience theory has been used as the theoretical framework of the study. The study has been conducted by the discourse analysis method. As a sample of the qualitative research, a viral video is selected by purposive sampling from YouTube and all comments (N=365) of the viewers have been analyzed from the YouTube comment box. The results of the study show that viewers have responded extensively to the viral video and the issues. Some comments are very informative which create a huge meaning for thinking and learning and show many unknown and hidden issues which are not directly available in the video. In the comment box, viewers post some data visual evidence to prove their argument and sometimes share an information source. Most of the comments are in Bangla, but there are also comments in English sentences using English words. There are memes, photos, data visual, screenshots, other video links, and Emoji which shows emotion like anger, and sarcasm in the comments. The average word count of the comment is one to three words. But the word count of the meaningful comment is 10-20 words. Viewers provide comments on the entire video, focus on specific parts and related issues, or sometimes even comment on irrelevant matters using slang and meaningless words; considering those issues, commenters are divided into three categories. Below the video, the light and deep natures of comments have been found in the comment box. It is essential to understand the natures of comments and viewers in order to prevent disinformation and misinformation. Recently, social media has witnessed an increase in rumors, hatred, and bullying through comments, and such comments should be minimized to promote a decent and more positive society.

“You Know There’s No ‘It’ Right? ‘It’ Was Just Us”

“You Know There’s No ‘It’ Right? ‘It’ Was Just Us”

Zulu masculinities in South African soap opera: Uzalo, Imbewu and Isibaya

ABSTRACT This paper explores the production and consumption of contemporary Zulu masculinities presented in three South African soap operas by Zulu male audiences living in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Exploring the interpretations of the constructions of Zulu masculinities in Uzalo, Imbewu, and Isibaya by the situated Zulu male audience provides insight into their various forms of identity and social experience, bearing in mind the dominant societal and media discourses on Zulu masculinities. Data was collected via three face-to-face semi-structured interviews with soap opera producers and thirty focus group participants who represent the soap opera audience. The analysis is conceptually guided by cultural studies active audience theory and masculinity theory, both from a constructionist perspective that explores the connection between discourses, masculinities, and popular culture. The argument is based on the idea that masculinity is not fixed and is constructed within a social context and that meanings bestowed upon objects and events are influenced by the audience member's frameworks of interpretation. The resulting analysis demonstrates that although there are deliberate attempts in soap opera's preferred messaging to subvert the dominant discourses of Zulu masculinities founded on machismo entrenched in Zulu tradition, as well as negative stereotyping, the audience participants predominantly decode these according to a hegemonic understanding of an ideal Zulu masculinity based on patriarchy. This negotiation of meaning is presented according to four themes, namely; opposing homosexuality, hegemonic masculinities vs “the sensitive man”, absent fatherhood as a (post) struggle identity, and polygamy as divergent decoding.

Entrepreneurial CEO’s Intended Public Language Clarity as a Strategic Tool for Corporate Communication: Linguistic Analysis of Automotive Industry Leaders

Despite various efforts in management studies, the literature has neglected to explore the strategic use of public language, defined as the external communication by the CEO, in entrepreneurial settings. This study hypothesizes that entrepreneurial strategic intent leads to the intended clarity to achieve the desired business goals on a theoretical basis of upper echelons theory, sense-making and active audience theory. The analytical procedure included linguistic analysis for readability and simplicity of the public language of Tesla and four other incumbents based on the corpus spoken by CEOs under official settings. The findings reveal that Tesla’s CEO delivered intended clarity, delivering the most comprehensible information to the stakeholders, as hypothesized in the research design. This article contributes to the literature by suggesting a novel S-P-I model that investigates the ‘Strategic intent– Public language–Intended clarity’ flow. Managerial implications advise organizations adequately manage their public language to have desired results.

Bad Faith and Freedom in Theater -- An Observation on J-P Sartre’s <i>The Flies</i> --

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the characteristics of Sartre’s audience theory in his theater theory through a reading of The Flies. Sartre wrote The Flies in 1943 and this work was performed at Théâtre de Cité directed by Charles Dullin. Paris was under German occupation for about four years from June 1940 to August 1944. In 1943, when The Flies was performed, Sartre also published Being and Nothingness. Sartre is known as a philosopher of freedom, and this concept of freedom is depicted as an important theme in The Flies, as well as in Being and Nothingness. This paper aims to investigate his theater from the perspective of bad faith and freedom based on Michel Contat who read Being and Nothingness as a book about resistance against Germany. Freedom in The Flies is embodied by the protagonist Oreste, as pointed out by Robert Lorris and Fronçois Noudelmann. Oreste, the only free human being in Argos, kills Égisthe and Clytemnestre to take the suffering and regret of Électre and the citizens of Argos, which then restores the absence of his soul. From the perspective of bad faith, the analysis will focus on Électre and the citizens of Argos. Électre, who was complicit in the murder of her mother, could not escape from the guilt and denies Oreste, the direct perpetrator, and was attracted to the sweet words of Jupiter, the god of flies and death, and finally falls into madness. The citizens of Argos were portrayed as cowardly citizens who followed those in power and as neighbors who accused their allies. Reading The Flies as a play about the allegory of Paris under occupation, we can think of the citizens of Argos as anguished Parisians, while Électre becoming mad as a Parisian who has joined the German side in order to survive but is experiencing unstable everyday life. In Sartre’s lecture “Le style dramatique” (1944), he said that there is an “absolute distance” in theater and that the audiences, because of this distance, have the desire to go outside themselves in order to see themselves better. When an audience is watching a play and is emotionally attaching themself to an actor, he or she is in a state where he or she sees the actor as the character of the performance within themself. This paper will conclude that when the audiences understood the Other as such a person and invited the Other into the Self, the audiences were able to apart themselves from being alone and enter a state of non-uniqueness. By watching The Flies, the citizens of Paris, who went in a state of bad faith under German occupation, were able to know not only their own painful experiences but also the suffering of people from various walks of life, and they were able to gain freedom which meant a state of non-uniqueness apart from themselves.

Fundamental Issues in Mass Media Audience Research

The overriding influence of internet-enabled technologies has greatly disrupted the media ecosystem, resulting in new realities like audience segmentation, media convergence and mass media demassification. With the geometrical increase in the number of mass media channels, competition for audience and the growing culture of consumer sovereignty, the survival of the mass media is becoming more and more dependent on satisfying the diverse needs, tastes and preferences of the audience than ever before. Beyond the deployment of creative personnel and sophisticated media facilities, the key to satisfying the media audience lies on understanding the needs of the audience; such understanding basically comes through research. This article discussed the primacy of the mass media audience research and drew support from two theories: Active Audience Theory and Consumer Sovereignty Theory. It is a discourse in which data were mainly gathered from secondary sources like books, journals and other relevant recorded contents. While elucidating the concept of mass media audience research and its necessity, it identifies various forms of mass media audience research and offers a recipe for conducting one. The article also made an in-depth discussion of four challenges of mass media audience research. Findings revealed that audience research is indispensable in mass media practice. It is therefore recommended that for greater utilization of mass media audience research by media organizations, greater attention should be paid to the teaching of audience research by communication training institutions and greater interest in the learning of required mass media audience research skills by media professionals.

The dissemination effect of human-computer interactive advertising news-Using the theory of media audience and emotion management.

The development and application of network media has seriously impacted the social information dissemination environment dominated by traditional media. To break the dissemination barriers encountered by traditional media, this work probes into the dissemination effect of human-computer interactive advertising news. An in-depth analysis of the current dissemination situation of interactive online advertising (IOA) is firstly conducted, and then the methods to effectively guide and manage audience emotions are studied. Finally, an improved LeNet-5 model is established to identify audience emotions. The improvement of the LeNet-5 model in this work is composed of the following four points. (1) The convolution module sets Inception_conv3 and Inception_conv5 are adopted to replace the third convolutional layer Conv3 and the fifth layer Conv5 of the LeNet-5, respectively. (2) The size of the convolution kernel is changed. The original convolution kernel is replaced by two 3 × 3 convolution kernels in the Inception_conv3 and Inception_conv5 module sets. (3) The number of convolution kernels is reasonably changed. (4) The Batch Normalization (BN) layer is used. The experimental results show that interactive advertisements have the better dissemination effects among the audiences with older age, higher education, and in more developed cities. The improved LeNet-5 network can effectively solve the over-fitting and gradient disappearance, with a good robustness. The recognition rate reaches more than 81%, which is higher than the traditional LeNet-5 network by 3%. It can be known that the accuracy of the improved LeNet-5 network image recognition is significantly promoted. This research provides a certain reference for the optimization of news dissemination.

Postawy internautów wobec szczepionek w dobie pandemii na przykładzie wybranych memów internetowych

The aim of this article is to discuss the attitudes exhibited by internet users to vaccines during the pandemic. It is assumed here that the activities of internet users fall within the general category of the activity of media users, while memes are a way to manifest the users’ attitude to specific issues. The article employs the active audience theory and elaborates on the phenomenon of internet memes as a key category of research. The research material comprises messages posted on Demotywatory.pl that are subject to content analysis. The material is first categorized on the basis of its connection to the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, the internet users’ attitudes are determined – whether they support or reject vaccinations – and the implications of particular messages are analysed. The research results make it possible to pinpoint the attitude of a given group to the issue of vaccination. Further, they show that health issues are often a starting point for a broader discussion (and critique) on the level of political communication.

Decoding Representation of Ethnicity Identity and Ideology in ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’: An Audience and Critical Analysis

For a decade now, Nigeria’s Nollywood, like such other social institutions as education, government and religion, has continued to attract popular discourses about issues and social groups in the country. Considering that media narratives are part of the complex processes involved in the construction of meanings by informing the ways we make sense of the world around us. This study therefore questioned the point of intersection between theories and Nigerian’s pragmatic experiences in the face of socio-cultural constructions around identity, ideology and representation of ethnic difference through BiyiBandele’s movie an adaptation of Chimamanda Adichie’s literary narrative entitled ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’. However, the assumption that the media (films) can bring about certain deliberate and unwitting characteristics and behaviors anchored this study on critical reader and active audience theory. The research therefore focused on Decoding Audience representation of ethnicity, identity, and ideology in Half of a Yellow Sun. This study employed a mixed research instrument FGD and critical thematic analysis to determine the audience perception of ethnicity, identity and ideology in the movie. However, 24 super fans of the movie were selected through the snow balling technique and determined from among the three major ethnic groups of Nigeria for the FGD. Findings from the study indicated that the dominant themes of ethnicity, identity and ideology expressed and were largely perceived by the southeastern discussants as inciting, as the movie brought back unpleasant memories of the war and Nigerian’s ethnic diversity. As a result of the inciting nature of portrayals in the movie according to the Focus Group Discussants, the study therefore recommended that it is high time stakeholders in the Nigerian media industry especially Nigerian censorship board made genuine and conscious effort to change certain inciting and divisive contents featured in most Nollywood movies before they are taken to the market.

Plotting earthquake emergency maps based on audience theory

Emergency response and rescue is an important way to mitigate the loss caused by earthquakes. Various maps containing information about earthquakes provide effective guidance and references for individuals undertaking such action. However, the production of earthquake emergency maps aimed at the “right” user in an effective manner is challenging. In this study, we focus on two questions: (1) Who are the users of earthquake emergency maps and what information do these individuals need? (2) How can the maps be produced quickly and efficiently according to the requirements of different users? To answer the first question, we classify the users into four categories under the guidance of audience theory: earthquake emergency decision-makers, auxiliary decision-making technicians, emergency rescue workers, and the public. The map contents are also described according to the requirements of different audiences. We depict the methods used for representation in such earthquake emergency maps for different audiences, which places a foundation for answering the second question. Following that, a template-matching mapping method is proposed for the rapid production of emergency maps, including two phases: before the earthquake templates of emergency maps for different audiences are prepared; after an earthquake, the template is updated with information from seismic models, so that the emergency maps are automatically plotted. Finally, a case study is provided to verify the mapping method. We conclude that the application of audience theory and the related template-matching method for map production not only answers the two questions but also will benefit the emergency mapping of other disasters.

Brand recall of skippable vs non-skippable ads in YouTube

PurposeBy integrating the evidence of various audience theories, a comparison is made of viewers’ information processing of new interactive video advertising formats (skippable video ads) with traditional, non-skippable formats. The purpose of this paper is to focus on how exposure to a brand name at different moments during online video advertisements influences viewers’ recall.Design/methodology/approachA neuroscientific pre-test supported the selection of an arousing video, and a subsequent pre-test confirmed the scenario validity. Using a broader sample, the main study applied a 3×2 experimental design of different ad designs and formats.FindingsDistinctions should be made between formats and audiences that lead to different information processing methods. Users exposed to skippable ads (active audiences) exert a higher control over advertising and tend to process the information presented in the initial part of an ad. In turn, users viewing non-skippable ads (passive audiences) should be exposed to the high arousal stimulus before presentation of the key information that the advertiser wants them to remember.Practical implicationsAdvertising managers and content creators can use these results to improve the design of their online videos, and to achieve greater effectiveness in terms of information recall.Originality/valueSkippable online videos have become a commonly used advertising format, but research into their effects is scarce. This study offers the first comparison of viewers’ reactions towards skippable vs non-skippable formats, in terms of brand recall and economic performance. Further research might extend this underdeveloped field of study and enhance the knowledge of video format processing in social media.

PEMAKNAAN JANJI POLITIK CALON PRESIDEN PRABOWO SUBIANTO-SANDIAGA UNO DI KOMPAS TV

Abstract
 Presidential candidate Prabowo - Sandi promised to fight for Emak-enak. The political promise to fight for Emak-emak is highlighted in the mass media coverage, both electronic, print and online. Election campaigns using mass media are very optimally utilized. Prospective couples use mass media to convince voters to offer a vision and mission as well as work programs. Like one of them is Kompas Tv coverage. The purpose of this study was to understand the meaning of the members of the Berhijab Journalist community regarding the reporting of political promises after candidate number 02 at Kompas Tv. This study uses qualitative research with interpretive paradigms. The method used is reception analysis. Data is collected through interviews and observations. The informant of this study was a member of the Berhijab Journalist Community. The results of this study indicate that the acceptance of political pledge promises 02 by KJB was accepted differently. The background of work, family to experience in the past was a decoding factor towards the pledge of Politics of candidate pairs 02. The results showed that informants were spread in three public positions which referred to Stu Hall Hall's theory of audience that the analysis of audience receptions was divided into three meaningful positions namely dominant-hegemonic reading , negotiated reading and oppositional reading.
 Keywords: reception, election, Emak-emak, kompass TV, politic communication

Film Marketing Technique in Bangladesh-is YouTube Trailer the Most Effective Tool?

In recent times, the film industry is becoming precisely phenomenon worldwide. But formerly gathering knowledge about this specific issue, film marketing theory,strategy, policy, and hierarchical procedure should maintain while practising. The research undertakes the historical analysis of films from the very past, several marketing policies and practice of Bangla movies and tries to identify their strategy of marketing. The questionnaire includes in-depth interviews of the audiences, and the sampling procedure is purposive sampling. The samples collected throughout the study explores the ethical issues of the essential film marketing techniques. Drawing on, the uses and Gratifications model of Active Audience Theory, this study discovers the methods and conclude that YouTube Trailer is the most compelling film marketing technique. Therefore, identification of the marketing strategy is supportive of the film to be blockbuster orsuccessful in the theatre, and marketing of a movie generates countless impact to be widespread in the audience.

Programmatic trading: the future of audience economics

ABSTRACTCommunication researchers examining how audiences are commoditised in the audience marketplace by commercial media providers and advertisers have been using audience economic models that were applied to commercial television, radio and print audiences. New digital technologies are transforming the way audiences are commoditised and previous models of the audience marketplace are not applicable to the new audience marketplace. This paper examines how audience economy and audience marketplace theories evolved and describes how programmatic advertising—the automated trading of the audience commodity—differs from previous audience theories requiring a need to re-examine these theories. New digital technology is being used to not only find audiences online but also uses data to create profiles of individuals audience members. The datafied audience plays a central role in the programmatic trading of the evolving audience commodity and the new audience marketplace that has emerged.

The Keys of Power: The Rhetoric and Politics of Transcendentalism

The Keys of Power: The Rhetoric and Politics of Transcendentalism

IDENTITY POSITIONS AND HALAL COSMETICS IN INDONESIAN MIDDLE-CLASS MUSLIM WOMEN

<p>Creations can become meaningful when there are audience who pay attention towards the<br />products, enjoy and show their appreciation or even evaluation towards them. The meaning produced within a<br />media is considered incomplete without the understanding of the audience and the meaning the audience<br />produces in appreciating as well as responding to the media text. To understand more on the meaning of text<br />media, therefore, it is paramount to consider and gain a thorough understanding of the meaning produced by the<br />media audience through studying the way the audience reads, uses, and responds to the media. Utilizing Hall’s<br />Cultural Studies of dominant and oppositional readings, this paper endeavours to showcase the understanding of<br />audience and how meaning is constructed. Locating the issue of audience research in the context of Halal<br />Cosmetics and the Middle-Class Muslims in Indonesia, a brief overview on the theories of audience is outlined<br />and relevant theories to the case of integrating advertisement in Indonesian cinema is employed.</p>

Side Effects of Crowdfunding on Entrepreneurial Performances

This paper focuses attention on entrepreneurial performance after the collection of money through crowdfunding. Building on the theories of entrepreneurial learning, social capital, and audience ex...