Concept of imagined audience

What is concept of imagined audience?

• “We present ourselves differently based on who we are talking to and where the conversation takes place – social contexts like a job interview, trivia night at a bar, or dinner with a partner differ in their norms and expectations. The same goes for socializing online. Participants have a sense of audience in every mediated conversation, whether on instant messenger or through blog comments. This audience is often imagined and constructed by an individual in order to present themselves appropriately, based on technological affordances and immediate social contexts.”

Research question:

What are certain users’

concept of imagined audience

when creating status updates on Facebook?

Imagined audience:

• Friends, we communicate with or reach out to

• Referred to by how we choose to phrase and create the status update

• Smaller than the invisible audience

Invisible audience:

• Depending on the user’s privacy settings, EVERYONE who

• Uses the internet or

• Uses Facebook or

• Friends the user has accepted or

• Friend of Friends or

• Groups the user has chosen to include in status updates (by locking)

Audience according to old rhetoricstradition

• Present an argument and direct it to someone

• You want acknowledgement from your audience

• Contact between speaker and audience

• The audience is a variable

On Facebook:

• We like to provoke an interaction such as likes and comments

• We get surprised by comments or the lack hereof

• We think about our audience when we post

• The audience announces itself

• The imagined audience is a variable but according to our privacy the invisibleaudience is a constant

Virtual physical walls

• Our audience on Facebook consists of collapsed contexts

• We construct an audience in accordance to how we socially interact offline

• We create virtual physical walls

• The imagined audience has a direct influence on how we choose to present ourselves through status updates

Four ways we choose to deal with collapsed contexts

• Being passive

• Navigation through privacy settings

• We can care less

• Inventing an imagined audience

How I approached the research

(methods)

Quick polls and questions on Facebook

Who do you think about when

you write your status update?

Do you share videos

on Facebook? What kinds?

Does it sometime surprise you

who comments on your status update?

www.conceptofaudience.blogspot.com

Interviews

• Three semi-structured qualitative interviews with (very) different personalities,

who:

• Use Facebook daily

• Have +200 friends

• Frequently create status updates

• Frequently have likes and comments

On the status updates

My findings … so far

We DO have a concept of imagined audience

“I do not always think of the exact same group when I update; so I guess I have a broader range of topics, issues, etc. that I post.. I might think “my family would enjoy this video”; or “my high school friends would really get this story”; or “my church friends would appreciate this funny thing that happened to me”, etc. “

Our imagined audience consists of specific friendscrossing different networks and sometimes changes

according to our interactions offline

“it is a certain social network that is a mix between people from university, high school, orchestra etc. If I have to define them more specifically, it is people, that know about my every day life and who I talk to regularly .. and about everything.”

Our imagined audience is determined by whowe interact with offline

“It is the same people that tend to comment. Primarily two -those I write my master thesis with. I see them every day and the crazy thing is, I write things they already know, and then we sit in the same room and comment on eachothers status updates. I think it has something to do with interest as well”.

Lets say you went to a high school reunion and you created a status update about it – who would comment do you think?

“Some from high school who use Facebook a lot, and then the two girls I write my master thesis with”.

….. But the imagined audience is also createdby the audience announcing itself throughcomments and ”likes”:

“My imaginary audience is also effected by who is active on Facebook. I have a tendency to think about those who are active, and will get surprised, if somebody is not usually active suddenly comment on a status update".

We direct the status updates to our imaginedaudience by language, cryptic, knowingly terms etc.

“When I write status updates, they are at times directed to a narrow group of Facebook friends, who I see offline on a day to day basis. I.e. a kind-of: "I had a good time when we hung out" or "Can't wait to see you!", when I write what I am doing, or what I am about to do in the near-future. These updates can be esoteric at times .. Sometimes it is just outburst, I have to yell out. for those who are inclined to be interested in that”.

What kind of articles do you link to?

”Cultural or about middle eastern conditions, islam, things that the regular danish society might not be aware of that could be enlightening to read.”

Who do you think about when you link to such an article?

“Friends and aquaintences. And then it is rare that I link to satirical and funny things, but again, the last time I did it, it was an egyptian stand up comedian who did a thing about Facebook. “

Something that was funny?

”Yes”

Who do you think of your friends would find it funny?

“The ones that could understand the video because it was in arabic”.

Even though we have an imagined audience, we are in the back of our minds aware of the invisible audience

“I think a lot of what I say and what I do, would probably bore a lot of people if they don't know me or they don't know my kids. And so I just feel like, well they can hide me, if it gets too mundane, or something they are not terribly interested in. One time I did hide.. one status update from some people. But that was just one time.”

Why?

“I hid older people from my husband's family, and then in my church. Because it was inviting my friends to a belly dance class, and I didn't know exactly how they would view that. So, that’s the only time I have done it”

OR if we weren’t aware we BECOME aware

” I have cleaned up in my friendslist. I had a shock when I saw somebody I remotely know, that said to me: "Oh, you were in IKEA the other day". Then it occured to me that people actually sit out there and witness my life, and after that I deleted a lot of "friends"”

Imagined audience comes into place accordingto how we navigate and understand the medium

Did you lock your status update so that it was only your friends who know Arabic that can read it?

”No. I only use Facebook for things I can vouch for, in accordance to my boss, or school.”

So you wouldn’t lock your status update?

“To a specific group?”

Yes

”I didn’t know you could do that”.

Thank you.

www.conceptofaudience.blogspot.com