Croteau&Hoynes: Media/Society, 5th Edition Instructor Resource
Chapter 8: Active Audiences and the Construction of Meaning
Purpose and Goals of the Chapter
Chapter 8 is intended to explore the ways that audiences interact
with and use mass media. The chapter focuses on various forms of audience activity, with a
particular emphasis on the ways that audiences interpret media messages. In accordance with
our sociological approach, the chapter examines both the interpretive activity of audiences and
the ways that social factors shape the discursive resources available to audiences in different
Outline of Key Chapter Themes
Audiences are active, not passive, in their relationship to media.
Different audiences, drawing upon different interpretive frameworks, can construct different
meanings from the same media text; media texts are at least partially open to such different
readings.
Social structure shapes the distribution of cultural resources that audiences use to interpret
media texts.
The social context in which we use media helps to constitute the meaning of those media.
Audiences can produce oppositional readings of media texts; when coupled with collective
Chapter Outline
1. Active audience
Media consumers are competent
An active audience can use media texts as material to fashion their own narratives
An active audience can become a creator
The line between producer and consumer is blurred
oProsumers, users, user-generated contents
A focus in recent media research
In what way audiences are active?
oInterpretation
Audiences may not construct the meaning intended by the producer
oSocial context of interpretation
Media use is not just individual but also social
oCollective action
Make formal demands on media producers
Protests, boycotts, campaigns, lobbying
2. Meanings: Agency and structure
1
Croteau&Hoynes: Media/Society, 5th Edition Instructor Resource
Polysemy
oMedia texts have multiple meanings
oHuman agency makes sense of the meanings
oOpenness of interpretation is a desirable characteristic in the commercial media
Example: Antiwar films
Example: The case of The Cosby Show
Example: Chappelle’s Show
Structure and interpretive constraints
3. Decoding media and social position
Encoding-decoding theory (Stuart Hall)
Audience’s decoding models
oDominant reading
oOppositional reading
oNegotiated reading
The case of Nationwide
oBank managers – said the program was commonsensical
oLabor unionists – said the program favored management
oSocial class does not dictate interpretation; instead, it provides audiences with
cultural tools for decoding
“Discursive community”
Gender, class, and television
oMiddle-class women were more receptive to depictions of women on television
oWorking-class women were consistently critical of the image
Race, news, and meaning-making
oNews coverage of 1992 riots in LA
oDifferent groups bringing different resources to their decoding
International readings of American TV shows
oThe role of culture in interpretation
oThe case of Dallas
Different receptions based on nationalities
oThe case of Friends
Different interpretations between Americans, Indians, and Chinese
oThe case of The Bold and Beautiful
4. Social contexts of media use
2
Croteau&Hoynes: Media/Society, 5th Edition Instructor Resource
oDifferences in gender
5. Active audience and interpretive resistance
Oppositional readings of popular media texts
oCulture jamming
Parody or criticism of mainstream culture
oThe case of “No Comment”
6. The pleasure of media
Romance novels
oLiberate women
Women’s enjoyment of Dallas
oAs a fantasy
Audience and fantasy
oMedia audiences incorporate media texts into complex fantasies that can make
daily life much more enjoyable
Celebrity games
oMass-mediated pleasure of the celebrity world
oAudience adopts a playful attitude toward the celebrity world
Pleasure and resistance
oThe act of interpretive resistance itself produces pleasure
oAssertions of independence by audiences
oResistance is fun, because it empowers those who do not wield power in their
daily lives
Media fans
oFans, not as fanatic or eccentric
oFan activities
Active interpretation of media
Social activities
From audience to user
oUser” is used today to describe our contemporary media activity
Media-making
Meaning-making
o“Second Screen” phenomenon
3
Croteau&Hoynes: Media/Society, 5th Edition Instructor Resource
4