Audience Matters Exam 3

What is aggression?

Any behavior intended to harm another person who is motivated to avoid that harm

What is violence?

An extreme form of aggression with severe physical harm as its primary goal

What is media violence?

Any media depiction of intentional attempts by individuals to inflict harm on others

Difference between aggression and violence?

Violence is a severe form of aggression involving physical harm

Why is having a TV in a bedroom considered harmful?

It can reduce sleep, increase sedentary behavior, lower academic performance, and increase exposure to inappropriate content

What is aggression?

Any behavior intended to harm another person who is motivated to avoid that harm

Define audience fragmentation

The division of audiences into smaller groups because of the large number of media options

Define audience segmentation

Internally homogeneous fragmented audiences grouped by shared characteristics or interests

Four types of market segmentation?

Demographic, geographic, psychographic, behavioral

Demographic segmentation?

Grouping by age, gender, income, race, etc

Geographic segmentation?

Grouping by location

Psychographic segmentation?

Grouping by values, personality, lifestyle

Behavioral segmentation?

Grouping by consumer behavior and habits

Why do audiences fragment?

New platforms, diverse interests, increased options, enhanced targeting

Implications of audience fragmentation?

Increased polarization, fierce competition for attention, more analytics, highly active audiences

Relationship between analytics and fragmentation?

Analytics help media companies track audience behavior and target fragmented audiences more effectively

Why are media and social rules important in the domestic sphere?

Media use is shaped by household relationships, routines, and power dynamics

What is gendered technology in the home?

Technology use and control often reflect gender roles and expectations

What is mobile privatization?

Technology allows people to remain socially connected while physically isolated

What is time-space distanciation?

Media collapse distance by allowing communication across space and time

Define ritual

Regular habitual activity with cultural significance

Define liminal ritual

A ritual outside normal social interaction that marks a transition or rite of passage

Examples of societal liminal events?

9/11, Pearl Harbor, COVID-19, George Floyd protests

Why are media events called “high holidays”?

They unite audiences in collective attention and emotion

Two theories of media coverage during major events?

Media help society collectively reflect.

Powerful institutions shape dominant narratives about events.

Who developed audience reception theory?

Stuart Hall

What is encoding?

The process of creating a message shaped by beliefs, production roles, and technology

What is decoding?

The audience interpreting the message using their own experiences and perspectives

Three elements shaping encoding/decoding?

Framework of knowledge, relations of production, technical infrastructure

Four stages of communication in audience reception theory?

Production, circulation, use, reproduction

Dominant reading?

Audience interprets the message exactly as intended

Oppositional reading?

Audience rejects the intended meaning

Negotiated reading?

Audience partly accepts and partly modifies the intended meaning

Structuralism/Semiotics?

Examines underlying structures, signs, symbols, and themes in texts

Formalism?

Focuses only on the text itself, ignoring author and audience

Postmodernism/Deconstruction?

Rejects fixed meanings and embraces multiple interpretations

Feminist criticism?

Examines gender, patriarchy, and representation of women

Marxist criticism?

Focuses on class conflict, capitalism, and power structures

Queer theory?

Examines sexuality, gender identity, and heteronormativity

Critical race theory?

Examines how race and racism shape society and texts

Reader-response criticism?

Meaning is created through the audience’s interpretation

Psychoanalytic criticism?

Analyzes unconscious desires, fears, and motivations

Why is liveness important?

It creates immediacy, authenticity, emotional connection, and shared experience

What did Peggy Phelan argue about performance?

Performance’s only life is in the present

Fascinating elements of audience interaction in new media?

Real-time participation, feedback, co-creation, and interactivity

What is audience empowerment?

Audience ability to choose, interpret, co-create, and respond to media

Four elements of audience empowerment?

Knowledge, risk, authenticity, collective engagement

Four levels of risk?

Functional, economic, psychological, social

Ways fandom is measured?

Engagement, participation, purchases, online activity, community involvement

Why study fandoms?

Fans influence culture, markets, identity, and media production

Roles of fandoms?

Community building, identity formation, content creation, promotion

What is digitalization?

Converting media into digital formats

Why is user-generated content important?

Audiences actively create and distribute media content

Define participatory culture

Audiences actively engage in producing and sharing media

Define crowdsourcing

Using audience participation to generate ideas, labor, or content

Why is attention a limited resource?

Humans have limited time and cognitive capacity

Main players in the marketplace of attention?

Users, groups, and media organizations

How do media compete for attention?

Intrigue, storytelling, credibility, multiple media platforms, momentum

What is content fatigue?

Audiences becoming overwhelmed or disengaged from too much content

Why is content fatigue important?

It makes maintaining audience attention harder

Define Internet of Things (IoT)

Network of internet-connected devices that collect and exchange data

Why is IoT important?

Increased convenience, automation, data collection, efficiency, connectivity

Difference between data and metadata?

Data = actual information; metadata = information about the data

Examples of modern audience tracking tools?

Cookies, GPS tracking, heatmaps, facial recognition, social media analytics

Why is attention essential to audience studies?

Media compete for limited human attention, making audience engagement central to communication

Echo chambers vs overlapping culture?

Echo chamber theory argues fragmentation increases division; overlapping culture theory argues audiences still share common experiences

Why analyze competitors when building an audience?

To identify strengths, weaknesses, trends, gaps, and effective strategies

Why might media violence increase aggression but not crime?

Aggression can increase short-term thoughts or behaviors, but crime depends on broader social/legal factors

Aggression can increase short-term thoughts or behaviors, but crime depends on broader social/legal factors.

It shapes media consumption, targeting, polarization, and communication strategies

Why is liveness important to audiences?

It creates immediacy, emotional investment, and shared social experiences

Future of online interactive audiences?

Increasing participation, personalization, AI integration, and audience influence over media