MED4107 New Media and Photography | Week 8 | Audiences and Consumption

Audiences and Consumption Reading Response

Long and Wall (2012) talk about the ways audiences make meaning and respond to media, how audiences actually consume media, active audiences, and ways to research the audience. Whiting and Williams (2013) talk about the importance of uses and gratifications theory to social media.

Long and Wall (2012) considers how audiences are active. Active audiences interact with others in the audience, comment on media products, dedicate further activities to their media consumption, and so on.  Long and Wall (2012) says that we should think about “in what contexts does media consumption take place and how does this impact upon how we make sense of media meanings and values for us as individuals?” This makes audiences seem active, rather than passive figures who await direction by media messages (Long and Wall 2012).

Long and Wall (2012) talks about the uses and gratifications concept, that derives from ‘functionalist’ theories of society.  “Audiences approach texts out of a purposeful desire to satisfy or ‘gratify’ necessary personal and social needs, or they ‘use’ media for a variety of purposeful and rational ends within a comprehensible and explicable model of social activity”.  Whiting and Williams (2013) add to this by saying “uses and gratifications theory can also be relevant in helping to explain social media issues”.

Long and Wall (2012) talk about only four categories that summarise the uses and gratifications that audiences pursue. These are surveillance, personal identity, personal relationships, and diversion. In contrast to this, Whiting and Williams (2013) talk about seven categories, which are social interaction, information seeking, pass time, entertainment, relaxation, communicatory utility and convenience utility.

Although uses and gratifications framework offers one approach to understanding what audiences do with media, it does not address a number of important issues that are factors of media consumption that are worthy of investigation (Long and Wall 2012).  While Whiting and Williams (2013) look at a general view of why people use social media, it doesn’t give any detailed meaning made by media texts, or any social and domestic contexts and relations.

For further study, I would be interested in researching why people use photography sharing sites like Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest and Photobucket. Looking at this would cover my interests in both new media and photography. Although similar to Whiting and Williams (2013) research, my research would be more specific. I would use questionnaires and interviews as my methodology.

Long and Wall (2012) say how surveys will allow me to reach a larger sample than any of the other audience research methods. I think this is appropriate as photography sharing sites have a high volume of users, and the more responses the better. A disadvantage to this methodology however is that “what one makes up for in quantity tends to be lost in quality” Long and Wall (2012).  By conducting questionnaires, it could allow me to find participants for individual interviews. Individual interviews will mean that people will tell me things about themselves – “they are an invaluable method for exploring the feelings and reactions that audience members have for their preferred pleasures” Long and Wall (2012). This means my research will combat the problem that Whiting and Williams (2013) had with not having detailed answers from the audience.

References

Long, P. and Wall, T. (2012) Media studies: texts, production, context. 2nd edn. Oxon: Taylor & Francis.

Whiting, A. and Williams, D. (2013) Why people use social media: a uses and gratifications approach. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 16(4), pp. 362-369.