1. Audience Responses
Cultural Competence
In every day life, we interpret signs and symbols and relate them
with specific cultures and people without even realizing. For
example, if we take this Norwegian Pine tree with snow on.
Typically, in the British culture, almost instantly it would be seen a
something related to Christmas but it other cultures, it would be
seen as just a normal tree. The way different cultures perceive
colours is also a part of cultural competence. If we look at the colour
red, in Britain it is seen as a colour for danger or a warning symbol,
which is why fire engines and fire extinguishers are red. Although,
we see red as a dangerous and negative colour, in China, it is seen as
a colour that symbolizes happiness and good luck and at Chinese
New Year, red packets are given out as a sign of prosperity in the coming year. It
is also a popular colour at weddings and it is seen to be a sincere colour. Another
part of cultural competence is attaching meanings to items such as clothes or
even cars. For example, if you see somebody dressed in leather clothes and big
boots with a mo-hawk, it will instantly be seen as a sign of rebellion, whether or
not that is the case.
Fan Culture
Fan culture takes a very active role in media as it can make or break a product.
Fan culture describes a community of people who share a common interest of an
anything from a film, a TV program, a band/singer or a book or game. Fan
culture transcends language, cultural and geographical barriers by connecting
people from various backgrounds over a love of a particular thing through use of
social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. People all around
the world created accounts dedicated to their interest. One example of a fan base
are the Beliebers, who are seen to be one of the most powerful, hardcore fan
bases around. The fan base is partially due to the Internet as fans can connect via
it. Fan fiction plays a big role throughout fan bases. Fan fiction is where fans of a
particular thing write stories about characters or settings from it. Fan fiction
stories are never professionally published but are instead publicly available for
all to read on websites such as Wattpad.