Communication Studies 169, Fall 2009

Writing handout

Annotated Bibliography

B/H paper due next week

Audience Centered EthnographyAudience Centered Ethnography

Magic bullet/Hypodermic needle theory

Mixed results

The audience is “active”

Polysemy

Audiences “read” television texts

AE = how do audiences read texts, and what strategies do they use to make sense of what they read

1. Text-based approach to break down the text

2. Go “into the field” with various traditional qualitative methods

Open-ended questions

Beware the interviewee who gives you what you want (you know what you want…control your non-verbals)

Again, control those non-verbals

What if the group gets out of control?

Team up?

- Interpretation- Bias

Question?

Do things change if you are studying fans?

Do things change if are studying people who have never seen your text?

Do things change if YOU are a member of the population being studied?

Observation In-depth interview

Half of your group will observe the group watching the text

Your group will develop interview questions while you watch

When your group knows what is going on, it is difficult to control them…

…please let me know sooner rather than later!

Have a good week!