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Questions and Answers
How were audiences initially perceived in mass communication research?
What defines an active audience according to the provided content?
What does the term 'couch potato' imply in the context of audience perception?
What role does prior experience play in media consumption for active audiences?
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Which of the following best describes the cognitive activity of audiences during media consumption?
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How should media consumers not be viewed, according to the active audience model?
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What is implied about an audience's media consumption choices?
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What makes audiences considered 'polysemic'?
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What does the encoder do in the process of meaning-making?
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Which of the following is NOT one of Stuart Hall's identified possibilities of decoding?
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How does the social position of an audience member affect their decoding of a media text?
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What is meant by 'negotiated meaning' in the context of media decoding?
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What factor significantly influences how a media message is constructed, according to media theory?
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How does technical infrastructure affect media messaging?
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Why might children use language from 'Prisoner in Cell-Block H' as secret codes?
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What primarily leads to the differences in encoded and decoded meanings?
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What is the first quality identified by Frank Biocca that reveals an engaged audience?
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How do active audiences typically engage with serials or soap operas?
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What does the characteristic of 'utility' imply about active audiences?
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Which of the following describes 'effort or involvement' in audience engagement?
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What does the term 'intentionality' indicate regarding an active audience?
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What is a sign of resistance to influence in an active audience?
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Which factor indicates a lack of selectivity in media consumption?
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Which quality reflects an audience's ability to engage cognitively with media content?
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Study Notes
Active vs. Passive Audience in Mass Communication
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Early mass communication research viewed audiences as passive, undifferentiated masses targeted for persuasion and information, essentially consumers of media products. They were considered conformist, gullible, and vulnerable.
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The passive audience model conceptualizes individuals uncritically absorbing media messages without engagement.
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Later research shifted to recognize audiences as active, comprised of real social groups with interpersonal relationships mediating media effects. The active audience is viewed as individualistic, rational, and selective.
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Active audiences engage with media content, influenced by prior experiences, beliefs, social circles (family, friends, work), and their environment.
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Even seemingly passive behaviors (e.g., watching TV) involve cognitive activity: focusing attention, processing images, interpreting narratives, and making sense of messages. Audiences actively use media for their own purposes (e.g., using newspapers for purposes beyond reading).
Making Meaning and Decoding
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Audiences construct meaning from media products differently from how producers encode (frame) meaning. Decoding is not just about misunderstanding, but about the communication process as a negotiation of meaning based on social positions. Factors such as backgrounds, social situations, and frameworks of interpretation influence decoding.
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Stuart Hall proposed three decoding positions: dominant (assenting to the preferred meaning), oppositional (explicitly opposing the dominant ideology), and negotiated (a position between assent and opposition).
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Differences between encoded and decoded meaning are attributed to differences in the encoder’s and decoder's frameworks of knowledge (ideology, education, experiences), relations of production (power hierarchies, influence of creators), and technical infrastructure (live vs. recorded, viewing vs. reading).
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Media consumption influences one's sense of identity, sometimes fostering emotional relationships with characters (e.g., soap operas).
Qualities of an Engaged Audience (Biocca)
- Frank Biocca identified five traits of an engaged audience:
- Selectivity: Active audiences choose media based on preferences and demonstrated patterns of choice. Heavy, indiscriminate media use suggests passivity.
- Utility: Active audiences use media to fulfill specific needs and objectives.
- Intentionality: This refers to the deliberate and conscious use of media content.
- Effort/Involvement: Engaged audiences show high levels of involvement, including "talking back" to the media. Involvement or "affective arousal" indicates active engagement.
- Resistance to Influence: Active audiences tend not to be passively influenced by media alone, remaining in control of their interpretations.
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Description
This quiz explores the evolution of audience roles in mass communication, highlighting the differences between passive and active engagement with media. Discover how early models viewed audiences and how later research identified the complexities of active audience behavior in interpreting and interacting with media content.
