- Code
- JMC 220
- Name
- Audiences
- Semester
- 4
- Lecture hours
- 2.00
- Seminar hours
- 1.00
- Laborator hours
- 0.00
- Credits
- 3.00
- ECTS
- 5.00
- Description
-
The focus of the course will be issues related to audiences. What is an audience, why is it usually talked about as heterogeneous, which forces us to talk about many types of audiences, about publics, what characterizes them and the role of functional and demographic analysis in penetrating these types of features. What will be emphasized and explained during the course is closely related to technological changes and the emergence of new media, a development that has been followed by a change in the position of audiences; the concept of “user generation content” and the current situation in the Albanian terrain.
- Objectives
-
1. Providing the necessary knowledge about audiences. 2. Explaining the concepts and equipping students with the skills to apply these concepts in practice. 3. Enabling students to analyze audience characteristics and enabling them to segment the market. 4. Providing knowledge about the role that audiences have in the era of technological development, and why it is necessary to know audiences
- Java
- Tema
- 1
- Course Introduction During this week, students are introduced to the syllabus, discussing the topics that the entire course will contain, the assessment items, including tests, and projects. Also during this lecture, students are introduced to the basic and supporting literature, the tools needed during the course, and the necessary programs for the continuation.
- 2
- Introduction to Media Audiences: Debates, Theories, and Methods This lecture begins with an exploration of the term audience by explaining two different scholarly views of audiences: an information-based view and a meaning-based view. First, the constructivist view of audience studies is analyzed. This is followed by an overview of the field of audience studies, which can be divided into at least three distinct categories. To better understand how our notions of audience have changed over time, we then explore some of the historical roots of the term from the Greeks and Romans to the 20th century. The lecture concludes by examining how the notion of audience is closely linked to issues of power in society. “Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power,” John L. Sullivan, Sage Pub, London 2019, pp. 1-28
- 3
- Audience Research: The Bounded Effects Tradition This lecture will provide an overview of some of the major trends in media effects theories, beginning with the origins of mass society theory in the early 20th century. It will then focus on early concerns about film and radio. The lecture then moves on to review some key studies on media exposure and persuasion in the post-World War II era. The final section will focus on concerns about mediated violence and its effects on society, particularly children. This has been examined through studies of television violence in the US from the late 1960s and early 1970s. The lecture concludes with some examples of more recent research on the effects of mediated violence on children, particularly that of video games and mobile media. "Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power," John L. Sullivan, Sage Pub, London 2019, pp. 29-59
- 4
- Public Opinion and Audience Building This lecture explores the definition of public opinion by first tracing the development of notions of "the public" from ancient times to the 20th century. The lecture then turns to an overview of some of the major organizations and measurement techniques responsible for assessing public opinion today. The lecture then focuses on some of the impacts of public opinion polling on audiences. In particular, it will examine how our views on politics can be shaped by our perceptions of the opinions of others. Finally, the lecture returns to the example of Brexit and the 2016 election to examine how the prospect of "fake news" and social media bots can create online echo chambers that mislead the public about the nature of public opinion itself. "Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power," John L. Sullivan, Sage Pub, London 2019, pp. 67-93
- 5
- Audience Creation and Management, Media Organizations, and Audience Management. This lecture explores the ways in which the broadcast industry measures and tracks its audiences and touches on the kinds of knowledge these practices produce. The lecture also considers academic theories regarding the media industry’s view of audiences. Do the media provide audiences to advertisers? Are they slaves to the media? How is audience measurement? Why is it important? What are the levels of audience measurement? This lecture then examines how audiences are produced; identifies the forms of audience work; explores the processes by which audiences are becoming more fragmented and flexible as media organizations gather, watch, and respond to them in real time. Finally, the lecture aims to answer the questions of how audiences are created; What work do audiences do and how have platform media changed the production and management of audiences? “Media and Society; Power, Platforms and Participation”, Nicholas Carah, Sage Pub, 2nd edition, London 2020, pp. 219-246
- 6
- Measuring Media Audiences and the Political Economy of Audiences: Television Audiences This lecture will briefly outline the field of political economy of communication in broad terms and explore how it relates to audience studies by outlining the theory of the “commodity audience.” We will then examine some of the methods by which large corporations such as The Nielsen Corporation (formerly A. C. Nielsen) and Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) measure and therefore imagine media audiences. We will then explore newer forms of targeted marketing and “relationship marketing” through the use of personal consumer information. What does the collection, analysis, and strategic use of this audience information mean for us and for the economy? The end result is not necessarily the kind of consumer- or audience-oriented media environment that corporations often tout as a reward for increasingly intrusive forms of audience surveillance. "Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power," John L. Sullivan, Sage Pub, London 2019, pp. 99-131
- 7
- Media Audiences: Uses and Gratifications This lecture outlines the theory of uses and gratifications by reviewing historical and current research. It will first explore the genesis of uses and gratifications, beginning with the Payne Fund Studies of the 1930s and Herta Herzog’s work on radio listeners in the early 1940s. It also outlines the main tenets of the theory, followed by an explanation of some important additions to the theory in the 1980s. Finally, the uses and dependency model is explored, which once again draws attention to the role of media in generating some of the needs that individual audience members bring to their media experiences. “Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power,” John L. Sullivan, Sage Pub, London 2019, pp. 137-159
- 8
- Semi-final exam
- 9
- Interpreting and Decoding Mass Media Texts This lecture will focus on audience interpretations of popular media. It will begin with semiotics, the study of meaningful signs in society. Semiotics explores how individuals come to understand their reality through the creation and use of signs. This approach became central to the work of cultural studies scholar Stuart Hall, who focused on the process of audiences’ “decoding” media texts. The chapter will conclude with an examination of the legacy of major debates about the relative power of audiences to interpret media content by examining recent comparative work on popular television programs such as Friends, The Cosby Show, The Simpsons, and The Bold and the Beautiful. The lecture will also examine how theories of audience interpretation are being re-dimensioned in a digital age. "Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power," John L. Sullivan, Sage Pub, London 2019, pp. 163-203
- 10
- Media Reception Contexts and Rituals This lecture focuses on research on media reception patterns, the study of audience interpretations of media that occur in specific contexts. Our media experiences occur during specific periods and in specific physical spaces, and these contexts can play a powerful role in shaping our understanding of media content. The first part of the lecture looks at how television technology fundamentally changed the physical and social environments of American homes beginning in the 1950s. It then explores research by David Morley and other media reception scholars in the 1980s, who examined the role that television has played in patterns of family communication. It then examines how technology connects the private sphere of the home with the public events and personalities outside our walls. Finally, the contextual approach to audiences will be continued by examining how the experiences of media reception themselves are intertwined with rituals. "Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power,” John L. Sullivan, Sage Pub, London 2019, pp. 207-232
- 11
- Fan Culture and Media Audiences This lecture builds on the theories of audience interpretation and decoding presented in and explores the ways in which media audiences use their interpretive power to actively subvert, distort, and even reimagine mainstream media content to suit their needs and desires. The lecture begins with the concept of media worship: exploring how fan communities extend their interactions with media texts by engaging in online discussions, collecting objects related to their media interests, and even participating in fan conventions and other related social activities. Although there are numerous examples of these types of fan activities in relation to soap operas, mystery novels, and musical artists, etc., this lecture explores previous research primarily on science fiction television programs. The lecture concludes with an exploration of the latest research on fans, which redefines the concept of a "fan" and questions the emancipation of audiences from media and cultural hierarchies in our society. "Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power," John L. Sullivan, Sage Pub, London 2019, pp. 237-261
- 12
- Online Audiences and Digital Media This lecture will look toward the future of media audiences by examining some of the newest forms of interactive online media and how they complicate our understanding of media audiences. Initially, the lecture will focus on some of the key trends that are driving audience change, such as media fragmentation, platformization, and new forms of audience autonomy. Next, it will examine tools that have been developed to measure forms of audience activity online, including social media. It will then examine how a new kind of audience agency and creativity is evident in current forms of online media. In particular, the lecture will address the practices of “blending” audio and video and examine how these forms of audience activity add new interpretive layers to existing mass media products. Finally, it will examine how these new forms of online creativity may change journalism and other forms of media production. "Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power," John L. Sullivan, Sage Pub, London 2019, pp. 265-299
- 13
- Platform Media; Power and the Circulation of Meaning This lecture examines the role that new information and communication technologies, otherwise known as “platforms,” are playing in reshaping our understanding of media audiences and the extent to which they are replacing or supplementing audiences for traditional media. Now that audiences can also be content producers through blogs, wikis, and their own home pages, what does such a shift in signal means for understanding audiences, media effects, and the very notion of a ‘mass media’? The lecture then attempts to answer questions such as: What are media platforms? How do media platforms organize social life? What makes media platforms similar to and different from mass media? What is platformization? How do media platforms exercise power? This lecture then examines the role that social media are playing in reshaping our understanding of the world. “Media and Society; Power, Platforms and Participation”, Nicholas Carah, Sage Pub, 2nd Edition, London 2020, pp. 143-165
- 14
- Audience Studies in the Age of Big Data This lecture will return to some of the key themes, including individual agency, institutional constructions of audiences, and changes in the media landscape that are shaping our interactions with information and entertainment today. The lecture will continue by examining the impact of transmedia experiences and the shrinking of video screens on our understanding of contemporary audiences. The lecture then moves on to institutional constructions of audiences to explore how audience fragmentation is catalyzing some significant changes in the audience measurement industry. The final part of the lecture will examine recent audience research that points the way to the future of the field. "Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power," John L. Sullivan, Sage Pub, London 2019, pp. 303-319
- 15
- Revision and exam preparation
- 16
- Final Exam
- 1
- Students will be able to identify types of audiences.
- 2
- Distinguish the characteristics of audiences.
- 3
- Critically analyze content about target audiences.
- 4
- Demonstrate basic skills in audience segmentation.
- Quantity Percentage Total percent
- Midterms
- 1 30% 30%
- Quizzes
- 2 10% 20%
- Projects
- 0 0% 0%
- Term projects
- 0 0% 0%
- Laboratories
- 0 0% 0%
- Class participation
- 1 10% 10%
- Total term evaluation percent
- 60%
- Final exam percent
- 40%
- Total percent
- 100%
- Quantity Duration (hours) Total (hours)
- Course duration (including exam weeks)
- 16 3 48
- Off class study hours
- 14 5 70
- Duties
- 0 0 0
- Midterms
- 1 4 4
- Final exam
- 1 3 3
- Other
- 0 0 0
- Total workLoad
- 125
- Total workload / 25 (hours)
- 5.00
- ECTS
- 5.00