|
Mass media: everyday life
|
|
|
Mass media: everyday life
|
Still working on this, I'm afraid. In the meantime some of the information under the general heading of 'recent developments' may be of some use to you
Thompson (1990) sets out what he considers to be some of the essentials of a study of what he refers to as the everyday appropriation of mass-mediated products. I don't want to suggest that his programme is flawless or all-embracing, but his proposals certainly form the basis for a programme of study, which you might like to bear in mind as you investigate reception studies and the whole vexed question of 'everyday life':
We need to examine the ways in which mediated products are 'received and appropriated by individuals and groups situated in particular social-historical contexts', identifying some of the characteristic ways in which products are taken up by individuals.
We need to regard the reception of mediated products as situated practices. Thompson suggests that, in examining the reception of TV, for example, we need to examine
|
the spatial and temporal features of reception contexts | who watches what, when, where and for how long |
|
|
the relations of power and the distribution of resources amongst receivers | who controls the choice of programmes, who has the capacity to acquire the technical means of reception |
|
|
the rules and conventions which govern reception practices and related patterns of interaction | who is allowed to watch when, how does viewing fit in to the routines of everyday life |
|
|
the social intstitutions within which receptive activity takes place | particular families, for example |
|
|
the systematic asymmetries and differentials which characterize the contexts of reception and the relations among recipients | men and women, adults and children, differentials between one context and another |
|
|
the technical media employed for reception and the ways in which they affect the activity of reception | TV, VCR, satellite, cable etc. |
TV may be watched while preparing dinner, while doing one's homework, while simultaneously listening to a CD etc. we need to avoid the 'fallacy of internalism' and examine the ways in which 'the ways of receiving mass-mediated messages are ways of acting' and how these ways of acting may be meaningful for the individuals concerned.
What conventions do individuals draw upon to enable themselves to decode and interpret the mediated messages? How do they evaluate them? How do the resources they draw upon relate to their social-historical context?
The reception, decoding and interpretation of messages is not an end point. Indeed, the interpretation of a message may not coincide with its reception at all. There may often be an ongoing process of 'discursive elaboration' of the message - on the phone, in the family, in the workplace etc. - which may involve a plurality of participants.
We need to examine the interaction that may take place between recipients and non-recipients within the primary interaction region, between, for example, two viewers while they are watching a TV programme. We then need to consider the interactions in the process of 'discursive elaboration' discussed above. 'Quasi-interaction' refers to involvement with the individuals who produce mediated messages (for example the author of a sequence of novels) or with the individuals represented in them (e.g. the characters in soaps) and we need to understand how such quasi-interaction can affect our understanding and appraisal of mediated messages. A part of this examination may require that we examine recipients' experience of belonging to a 'virtual community' of recipients. Recipients may never meet the other members of this community, but their awareness of belonging to it may be an important factor in the pleasure they derive from the activity as well as, perhaps, any loyalty they may show to the media artefacts in question.
|