ZUR 393k: Effects of Mass Media Outline: Reader-Response Theory (Lewis & Ang) 1. historical background 2. FIVE key questions (R.Allen) 3. Reception Theory production text audience return to audiences 1. more careful definition of “active” audiences 2. direct focus on media CONTENT 3. examine interplay between texts and audiences in the creation of MEANING I l(a le af fa ll s) one l ines s Historical traditions • Theorizing texts/textual meaning • Plato and Aristotle • divine inspiration of author and text New Criticism (1920s-1950s) 1. works of art are unique and possess value New Criticism (1920s-1950s) 2. meaning is contained solely in the words on the page (or image on the screen and dialogue spoken) “intentional fallacy” New Criticism (1920s-1950s) 3. “close reading” means the reader sublimates the self in order to release the meaning held entirely in the text “affective fallacy” New Criticism (1920s-1950s) 4. special training in the critical process is required in order to grasp the full extent of meaning in any work of art challenges to New Criticism • Wolfgang Iser • reader is a co-creator of a work of art; must fill in the “gaps” • reader is always answerable to the constraints imposed by the text challenges to New Criticism • Stanley Fish • literature isn’t a fixed object, but a sequence of events that unfold within the reader’s mind • the reader must be at the center of the scholar’s attention • the site where meaning is made is not between the covers of a book, but inside a reader’s mind • meaning is governed by “interpretive communities” Stanley Fish “interpretive communities” • readers who bring similar experiences, expectations, and skills to the text are likely to interpret it in similar ways Robert Allen: 5 questions about audiences 1. What is the extent of the determination exercised by the text itself? • dominant or hegemonic reading: reader accepts and reproduces the preferred reading (meaning encoded by creator/sender) • negotiated reading: reader’s interpretation/ response is in partial agreement with encoded meaning (modification & resistance) • oppositional reading: interpretation/response is in direct contradiction, rejects encoded meaning competing views on relative power of audiences vs. texts John Fiske • all texts are “open” • “polysemy” = many meanings • audience members derive pleasure from reading “against the grain,” crafting their own meanings from a text competing views on relative power of audiences vs. texts Celeste Condit • “polyvalence” = same meaning, different responses to that meaning • denotative meaning is understood, but audiences differ in their valuation of that denotative message Celeste Condit audience’s ability to shape different meanings is constrained by: 1. access to oppositional codes (repertoire of available texts) 2. historical contexts 3. ratio of work : pleasure https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Uj4MzMK6F9k https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=_5d2g7fbCJU Celeste Condit audience’s ability to shape different meanings is constrained by: 1. access to oppositional codes (repertoire of available texts) 2. historical contexts 3. ratio of work : pleasure Robert Allen: 5 questions about audiences 2. What forces condition the activation of texts within individual readers and among groups of readers? https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=L5mftDPfxoA Robert Allen: 5 questions about audiences 3. What levels of the reading process are available to empirical investigation and what methods are appropriate to that study? https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=_5d2g7fbCJU https:// www.you tube.com /watch? v=_5d2g 7fbCJU https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=L5mftDPfxoA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5mftDPfxoA https:// www.youtube. com/watch? v=lUtnas5ScSE Robert Allen: 5 questions about audiences 4. What is the role of the investigator vis-a-vis both the text s/he wishes to study and the reader who consumes the text? Robert Allen: 5 questions about audiences 5. What is the epistemological status of articulated responses of readers in understanding the relationships between reader, text, and institution? Reception Theory • specific to communication/media studies • adds CONTEXT to the investigation of meaning: the site where reader/text interactions occur • we can no longer separate interpersonal and mediated communication final caution David Morley: • we must keep in mind the distinction between having power over an individual text (as an active reader) and power over the agenda in which the text is produced and presented David Morley: “The power of individuals to reinterpret meanings is hardly equivalent to the discursive power of centralized media institutions to construct the texts that the viewer then interprets, and to imagine otherwise is simply foolish” (“Active Audience Theory,” 1993, p. 16).