Audiences and Consumption

In this weeks lecture we discussed how audiences are consuming different media products and how sometimes they are also engaging consumers in order to make choices on which media products they will be consuming. Audience is a very important part of media research as they can be an influence on cultural studies within media. In the lecture we looked at different ways to study an audience and different techniques such as focus groups and virtual ethnography in order to gain an understanding about a certain audience. The four ways in which we learnt that we would be able to find out more about a certain audience are –questionnaires, interviews, focus groups and ethnographies.

We also looked at subcultures in our lecture very briefly - “Subcultures are identifiable, if not necessarily immediately ‘visible’, minority groups society who share particular values and habits that are distinct to that group” (long & Wall, 2012).

Media texts generate a following of interest and it can now be seen on blogs and sites like tumblr.com which is filled with fandom. Some of the images or texts used in these sites influence the consumer and the viewer ‘’fandom’’ to join and get involved in communities and be a part of a sub group in some cases. People today are seeking for connections and internet is often their way of connecting for some it might be video games and for others following their favorite fashion blogger and feeling almost like their friend because of the amount of constant posts they have- these people who are fans and audience for the content producers create a group of similar fans which they also might feel connected to because of their similar interests. “The internet can be a great communication tool for those who have a hard time meeting friends owing to physical handicaps, diseases or even poor social skills (Wallace P., 1999

For my research I would like to look at how audience tries to interact with their ‘’idols’’ and how often do they try to get in touch through public social media-often fans show their interest through cosplay, actually looking at how often and in how many cases people do this would be interesting. Questionnaires would also form a part of my research in order to gain more in depth analysis of the audience.

Reference:

Long, Paul and Wall, Tim (2012) Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context. London. Pearson, pp. 300-341

Wallace, P. (1999) The Phycology of the internet. New York: Cambridge University Press