[Core Post] Ellen Sure is Great

It goes without saying that Ellen is brilliant, but I really enjoyed reading a piece that gets down to the brass tacks of methodology in such a clear, understandable way.  Audience studies, thusfar, have not been a huge part of my research; I tend to look at things historically and try to make sense of what people said in the limited sources available to me.  The sort of strenuous, interview-based qualitative approaches that Ellen discusses in this piece are fairly foreign to me, so it was great to have the pros, cons, and complications laid out.  Even having Stuart Hall's encoding-decoding model describes so perfectly is a wonderful resource to have in print!

Ellen's piece has encouraged me to think about how I can incorporate some of her approaches in my work.  Particularly, the question "What is the best way to get people to talk about the meanings they derive from television programmes when they may be unaccustomed to interpreting TV material explicitly" (461) is a reminder to not extrapolate out own subjective, myopic theoretical ideas.  That is, at least for me, a constant concern.  How everyday audiences make meaning should be at the core of our work, but producing "a holistic description of a culture" (462) seems impossible.  Especially, as in my case, when the project is historical.  We are brought back to that boondoggle of what "culture" is and to whom it is relevant.

Of particular relevance to this class is the evolution of reception models.  Anything more nuanced than the hypodermic model is a welcome improvement, but if the alternatives are the uses and gratifications-style approaches that emphasize "active engagement and the ways the media could be employed by individuals to satisfy needs and accomplish personal goals," (462) I worry that (to steal a phrase from neopagnism) we get too "love and light" for our own good.  It is, admittedly, a fear I circle when I read Henry Jenkins.  Ellen balances this with a lot of theory that I think counters being too hopeful about communication, but I would love to hear from folks who do more with audiences.