Audiences of Mass Mediated Communications

Notes from a course in communication theory by John Lye, Brock University

Question: what is an 'audience'? Think of what we mean when we say 'target audience.'

Some considerations

• different media tend to create their own audiences
• different people interpet media texts in different ways
• the audience 'constructs' or interprets the media text

Question: what qualities or attributes in an interpreter might alter the way in which she constructs, or interprets, meaning? Which of them would constitute an 'audience'?

Some ideas:

• genre and genre expectations
• the purpose of the 'reading'
• competence in that mode of communication
• gender
• social class
• education
• personality
• degree of involvement/commitment
• personal experiences
• sharing of knowledge frames -- common frames
• cultural perspective

Some distinctions suggested by Sonia Livingstone:

• popular vs 'high' culture
• ideal or model readers vs actual readers
• nonfictional vs fictional communications
• texts which construct a unified subject position vs texts which construct multiple subject positions
• closed vs open works