During this lecture we discussed audiences and their place within media.
We discussed various key debates and characteristics of the broadcast era such as
Television institutions/major players
Technologies of production, distribution and consumption
Audience practices
Aesthetic sensibilities
This was particularly useful for me as it links into my assignment that is focusing on institutions. As we have focused on television as an institution, the broadcast era and audiences play a large role in both broadcast and the institution of television.
The readings on the other hand were incredibly difficult to get through. I am not sure as to wether it was due to the time of the year (where every piece of work becomes twice as hard) or wether the topic didn’t interest me as much as the previous ones have but these readings were not easy.
Henry Jenkins text ”Rethinking ‘Rethinking Convergence/Culture” was not only 26 pages long but it had very little titles to break it up, which made it difficult for me to keep interested. He did focus on some good points on convergence and working with others to avoid the ‘same old’ and to create a less bias culture.
Ray Rosen’s text ‘The People Formerly Known as the Audience’ was much more structured, with titles and dot points to clearly represent the contention and main points. It focuses on YOU as the audience giving examples that are easy to relate to.
Although Rosen’s text was easier to read it was still a great task to get through these.
BUT
There is a positive to a hitting this struggle in studies.
That positive is the great motivation you get from the low point, when you realise that you are how close you are to the end.