Audience Analysis

Whatever the text whether a film or an still picture it is evident that people relate to the narratives that they see represented on television. This supports the idea that people are active viewers proving what Lawrence Grossberg said best when he said, "audiences interpret messages by articulating them into their own codes".

The action of watching a television show is not passive due to the fact that people must put what they see and hear into a context. In fact some television programs operate by using cliches to draw the viewer into a television program. It is possible to get a glimpse at how people interpret a text by asking them, this method is called audience analysis. What I have done to find out how people are interpreting the text of "That 70's show" is create a survey.

The aim of this survey is to find out how people are interpreting the text of "That 70's show". Due to the nature of the medium I felt that it was nessary to focus in on what our reseach question is trying to get at.The questions in the survey are aimed at trying to figure out if the more television a person watches the more likely they will get the intended interetation of the show. Therefore if as a group the high television viewer are found to all have the same intepration of the text I would have to conclude that as the amount of televison viewing goes up so does the reading televison as a text. I feel that this is a good way to look at our research question becauseit is more likely that these high television viewer have been exposed the modes and conventions that television uses to create meaning. thus making them more able to decode the text in the fashion that the encoders have intended. which would lead to my conclusion (link to my conclusions) that television viewers would have to be actively participating when they watch television.

Kz