Reading up on Active Audiences was really eye-opening for
me, and actually made Chapter 8 my favorite chapter to read so far. I read the
prompt for this blog post before I read the chapter and I was like “…I definitely
don’t consider myself active when I’m
watching television,” because I was picturing those people who like get up and
lift weights during commercial breaks and stuff. Honestly, more power to you if
you do that. The only action involved when I’m watching TV is usually my hand
lifting Doritos to my mouth. But then I read the chapter and realized that you
don’t actually have to sweat (or even, like, move at all) to be considered an “active”
audience member.
We all engage in interpretive audience activity (textbook
definition: part of the process whereby media messages come to mean something
to us… how we derive pleasure, comfort, excitement, or a wide range of
intellectual or emotional stimulation) with every form of media that we
consume, usually without realizing it. You watch TV and you laugh to your
favorite sitcom, you play a video game and get really stoked when you make it
to the next level, you listen to the radio when you’re stuck in a traffic jam
on I-85 and when “7 Years” by Lukas Graham comes on you end up crying in your
car and the guy on the motorcycle next to you stops to make sure you’re okay.
(Just me? Oh.) Point is, we have some sort of emotional or psychological
reaction to every piece of media we consume, which makes us “active” audience
members. No gym membership necessary.
Another point I wanted to make in this post was in reference
to audiences that are collectively active (textbook definition: when
[audiences] organize collectively to make formal demands on media producers or
regulators). I’ve been seeing a great (and ongoing) example of this all over my
social media lately in regards to the show The
100. I have never seen this show. I haven’t even the slightest idea what it’s
about. But the people that I follow in social media have been up in arms over
the death of an LGBT character on the show, calling out the writers and
producers for isolating and cutting off their LGBT viewers. The fact that I
know so much about it and had never even heard of the show prior to the episode
in question says enough about how intense the audience reaction was. I’ve never
seen anything like it. The closest thing I can remember is the general outcry
of despair over the death of a main character on the last season of Grey’s Anatomy, and that was nowhere
near as politically charged as this. This article goes more into detail about
the intense fan reaction and backlash, and also touches on the stigma
surrounding LGBT deaths on daytime television (but beware of spoilers before
you click it). It’s an interesting read, and it made me think that while media does
have an effect on us, as active audiences, we can also have quite a profound effect
on media.
