Assignment 6: Reception Study

Observe and analyze the reception of a mediated text by an audience.

This text can be a television show, a movie, or an online video, but I would recommend choosing something that allows you at 30+ minutes of observation, because you will be studying how people relate to or interact with the media text. I would also recommend observing an audience of 2 or more people. Public spaces with televisions (e.g., Memorial Union, Jitters, sports bars) are excellent research sites for this assignment. If you decide to observe the reception of a film in a theater, make sure to sit somewhere where you can observe audience reactions.

Some issues / questions to get you started:

- Attention level of the audience (How attentive are they toward the media text?)

- Non-verbals (What are the non-verbal responses?)

- Proximics (What is the arrangement of the audience like? How does this affect reception?)

- Interactivity (Do they "talk" to the text? What is this communication like?)

- Control (How much control do they have over the media text? how does this affect reception?)

- Commentary (Are they talking about the media text with others? What is being said?)

- Uses and gratifications (What do they seem to be getting out of the media text?)

You don't have to consider all of the above, just those questions that are most relevant to your research site.

Remember what we discussed regarding the conversion of field notes into a "story" of our research. Your final write-up should be a narrative retelling of your observation, a synthesis of the highlights rather than a chronological description.

It should be no more than 5 paragraphs in length. Remember that brevity is the soul of wit.

Your reception study should be posted to the course blog by 12 p.m. next Tuesday. Please bring your field notes to class.