Audience

This lectorial fitted perfectly into my Media studies schedule. Not only is my Project Brief 4 topic Audience, but our focus is on Fandom which was conveniently discussed. I particularly liked the way Fandom lovers were described as

“…Obsessive, freakish, hysterical, infantile and regressive social subjects; is playing such attention to detail on text that are seen as not worthy…”

It is this notion that texts that are studied so intensely and obsessively and are loved by so many should be of a ‘high culture,’ but because they are seen as trivial, irrational and of a ‘low culture’, this fandom is deemed odd.

However, the scrutiny and examination of a text by, say, Virginia Woolf, is deemed acceptable because it is associated as being a part of a ‘high culture’ but the obsession caused by the latest T.V series Game of Thrones is seen as ‘ridiculous’ and almost childish and deemed a part of ‘low culture.’

Another thing that grabbed my attention in this lectorial was the way today’s technological audience is referred to as:

‘People formerly known as the audience’ – the public made realer, less fictional, an active audience, user involvement

And another thing…

taste: taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier. Everyone can’t help but tell about their own personal taste, its human nature. It is this taste that gives people an identity; it builds and contributes to a high and low culture.