How we could shift the focus of our teaching from Media Language & Form to Audience Expectations of texts, building confidence and fluency in deconstruction. Students can more effectively analyse technical elements of texts in context, considering what audiences want from the texts and how the text meets or challenges those 'wants'.

1. THE CRITICAL MASS
AUDIENCE
AS
A
CRITICAL
COMPONENT
IN
DECONSTRUCTING
TEXTS
Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif

2. WHERE DOES AUDIENCE 'FIT' INTO THE KEY CONCEPTS OF
MEDIA STUDIES? WHERE DO YOU PLACE IT IN YOUR S.O.W?
NarraOve
Audience
Genre
InsOtuOon
Media
language
RepresentaOon
Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif

3. THE SESSION
q
What
is
a
common
start
point
for
acquiring
media
decoding
skills?
q
What
is
a
common
start
point
for
acquiring
reading
decoding
skills?
q
What
is
an
area
of
difficulty
for
students?
q
Using
a
formula
for
deconstrucOng
unseen
texts
Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif

4. WHERE DO WE START OUR TEACHING?
Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif

5. MEDIA TEXTS AND SCHEMES
•
OWen
start
with
media
language
-­‐
deconstrucOon
of
media
texts
as
a
starOng
point
• OWen
teach
other
key
concepts
as
disOnct
teaching
points.
=
TEXT
‘BLINDNESS’
Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif

6. WHERE DO WE START READING?
• Schema
–
our
pre-­‐exisOng
knowledge
of
the
world
• Chunking
–concepts
to
build
a
bigger
picture
• AutomaOcy
–
fluency
of
decoding.
Codes
require
liNle
aNenOon
Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif

7.
“The whole is greater than the
sum of its parts”
Aristotle
Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif
BoNom
Up
decoding
places
too
much
demand
on
working
memory
–
fluency
requires
a
more
top-­‐down
approach

8. MEDIA/MEDIUM: INTERMEDIATE AGENCY BETWEEN TWO
Text
Audience
Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif
Producer
Meaning/Value
of
the
text
depends
of
audience
interpretaOon
To
make
sense
texts,
audiences
acOvate
schema

9. WHAT DO YOU TEACH OF AUDIENCE?
• Uses
&
GraOficaOons
• Hypodermic
needle
• Two-­‐Step
Theory
• CulOvaOon
theory
• Effects
• Passive
Audiences
• AcOve
Audiences
Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif

10. RESEARCH ON SIGNIFICANCE OF AUDIENCE:
‘Viewing
as
a
purposeful,
seeking
sensaOon,
a
highly
moOvated
acOvity’
(Shimpach,
2005)
‘Viewing
(being
an
audience)
implies
'deliberate,
contemplaOve
pracOce…in
a
sustained,
more
or
less
intenOonal
encounter'
(Shimpach,
2005)
‘Context
factors
rather
than
textual
ones
account
for
the
experiences
that
spectators
have
watching
films
and
television'
(Staiger,
2000)
Gaze
theory
of
cinema
compared
to
glance
theory
of
television
and
contemporary
media
Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif

11. 'Discourses
on
media
audiences
are
polarised
into
images
of
an
ideal
public
of
educated,
informed,
culOvated
and
civic-­‐minded
ciOzens…
Versus
uneducated,
ill-­‐informed,
pleasure
seeking,
suggesOble
crowds
or
mass'
(Butsch,
2008)
'In
the
triangle
of
author,
work
and
public,
the
last
is
no
passive
part,
no
chain
of
mere
reacOons
,
but
rather
itself
an
energy
formed
of
history'
(Jauss,
1982)
'The
value
of
a
given
text
derives
from
the
gap
or
aestheOc
distance
between
the
text
and
the
audience's
horizon
of
experience
and
expectaOon
….value
is
no
longer
text
immanent,
but
always
dynamic’
(Jauss,
1982)
Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif

12. STUDENT WORK
Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif

13. Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif

14. John Lewis
adverSsement
‘More than a
Woman’
1. Media Forms
How is the
woman’s life
compressed into
60 seconds?
Consider
the
student
response
in
terms
of
…
1. Language?
2. Focus
on
QuesOon?
3. Quality?
Why?
Why
not?
Courtesy
of
AQA

15. Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif
Courtesy
of
AQA

16. ‘The
whole
is
greater
than
the
sum
of
its
parts’
‘The
value
of
a
text
derives
from
the
gap
or
aestheOc
distance
between
the
text
and
the
audience’s
experience
and
expectaOon
….’
Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif

17. WHAT ARE AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONS? -­‐ BASIC LEVEL
• To
be
entertained
• To
be
shocked
• To
be
lectured
• To
be
excited
• To
be
scared
• To
see
something
we
wouldn’t
usually
have
access
to
• To
be
informed
Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif

18. Analysing unseen
texts in Media
focusing on
Audience
ExpectaSons.
Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif

19. Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif

20. Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif

21. Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif

22. CONCLUSIONS
• Audience
ExpectaOons
is
key
to
deconstrucOng
texts
• Needs
higher
profile
• Cultural
canon
for
Media
–
Unseen
texts
• DeconstrucOon
taught
in
isolaOon
reduces
students
ability
to
see
the
bigger
picture
and
acOvate
their
sophisOcated
Media
Literacy
• Ideas
for
AcOviOes
?
Good
pracOce
shared
?
Kate
McCabe
BFI
2014
St
Gregory
the
Great
Catholic
School,
Oxford
@mediaradarguru
and
@evenbeNerif