American culture
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AMST101_Lecture_Audiences.pptx.zipAMST101_Lecture_Audiences.pptx
A Community of Fans
Audiences & the Interpretation of Texts
What is an audience?
the people, considered as a group, who watch or listen to a performance, movie, public event, etc., either together in one place or separately. (Cambridge Dictionary)
Why do we care about the audience?
Question to consider: Can you think of any instances where the media audience response may have been different than the creator’s intent—i.e., where he or she came out and said “that is not what I meant?”
Some ways to break down an audience:
Gender
Age
Class
Race/Ethnicity
Sexuality
Religion
Interpreting a text
There can be a difference between the creator/author’s encoding and the audience/reader’s decoding
Cultural background might explain some of the reasons why people might consciously or unconsciously distort the author's encoded or intended meaning for a text. Different signs might mean different things for different ethnic groups; different classes might interpret a scene in an advertisement differently.
