Publika, konzumace
PhDr. Monika Metyková, PhD
University of Sussex
Email: 32153@mail.muni.cz; m.metykova@sussex.ac.uk

Audiences
- active audience since the 1980s
- a shift away from what media do to people and to what people do with media
David Morley: Nationwide Audience – key study that tested Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model
- reception of texts – ideology, pleasure, in more recent years a widening of agenda – reception of
media texts within a variety of contexts, socio-cultural, ethnic groups and also the use of media
within the context of everyday life

Readings
Morley: Changing paradigms in audience studies
- a key overview of developments

Primary data collection
nQuantitative (positivist) vs. qualitative (constructivist, critical theory) options
nGeneralisability vs. transferability:
nCan you generalize from your examples to a wider group of people? Vs. Are you trying to understand
individual cases – considering examples from defined groups or looking at instances of a process?

Sampling and populations
nSampling:
 – in positivist parlance – selecting a smaller group that represents a larger one
– more loosely understood it describes any process of selecting subjects for study incl. cases and
instances without the aim of generalizing

Sample size
nDepends on research objectives, research design, research question
nIs big always beautiful?
nChallenged by qualitative studies – these are less concerned with extensive perspective
(generalizable) than with providing intensive insights; samples seen as illustrative rather than
strictly representative.

Asking questions
nFrom highly structured and standardized to highly non-structured and non-standardized
nStructured questioning – minimize the influence of human factors on data-gathering
nNon-structured – stress on interactive dialogue with interviewees that conforms to the normal
conventions of conversation

Types of questions
nBehaviour – what people do
nBeliefs – what people believe to be the case
nAttitudes – what people would prefer to be the case
nAttributes – background info about the respondent’s characteristics

Types of questions – cont.
nClosed questions – limit possible responses:
1.Limited choice (Yes/No)
2.Multiple choice (a. b. c.)
3.Checklist questions
4.Partially closed (a set of responses that includes other and space for elaborating on it)
5.Attitudinal questions (a scale on which the respondent indicates level of agreement/disagreement
with a statement)

Types of questions – cont.
nOpen questions – respondents answer in their own words:
1.Opener questions
2.Follow-up questions
3.Suggestions questions
4.Argument questions
5.Reasons why questions
6.Opinions/values questions
7.Feeling/behaviour questions

Observation
nA range of research methods that allow direct access to the social behaviour being analyzed
nTypes of observational methods
1.Simple observation – ‘fly on the wall’
2.Participant observation – the researcher is taking part – to some extent – in the activities of
the people being observed
3.Ethnography – any qualitative research involving extended observation over a period of time
Note: structured experimental observation – in laboratory, e.g. on effects of violence in media