ECREA16-Abstract

Saturday, November 12

1 1 : 0 0 – 1 2 : 3 0

PP 612

Reality TV, Affect and Psychoanalysis: A New Perspective on Audiences

J. Johanssen

University of Westminster, Communication and Media Research Institute, London, United Kingdom

My paper will discuss parts of my PhD thesis which examined viewers’ engagements with the British Channel 4 programme ‘Embarrassing Bodies’

(2007-present). I sought to investigate if and how they make connections between their biographies and the show. The paper will essentially discuss some

interview data. In drawing on the psychoanalytic technique of free association (Hollway and Jefferson 2012) in my interviews, I facilitated moments in

the participants' narratives that allowed free flowing narratives to emerge. Firstly, more social motives were articulated such as that Embarrassing Bodies

is a programme that is about the advancement of medical education and knowledge. All participants stressed that they watch it for educational purposes.

The interviewees also spoke of moments of voyeurism that are marked by surprise, shock and sometimes disgust. However, there was also a sense of com‑

passion and respect towards the patients on‘Embarrassing Bodies’but only to a certain degree because there may be a latent fear of being like the unhealthy

or embarrassing patients on the show.These ambivalent motives were largely unconscious and were only made conscious in the interview situation through

talking about them. I draw on the psychoanalytic notions of affect (Freud) and Bion’s container-contained model to explore these ideas further. It is also

noteworthy that many of my interviewed participants expressed aspects of their biographies that point to troubling and in some cases traumatic bodily

experiences.The showmay aid them in working through those in the reception process.While there has been virtually no empirical audience research using

psychoanalytic theories and methods within media and communication studies, my data may be in line with work by Skeggs/Wood as well as Sender who

have stressed the complex and nuanced ways audiences engage with reality television. I end my paper by offering a reflection on how audience research

may be enriched by psychoanalysis.

PP 613

The Differences of Movie Reception in Open-Air Cinemas vs. Traditional Cinemas in Germany

S. Sobieraj

, M. Schlaus

University Duisburg-Essen, Social Psychology: Media and communication, Duisburg, Germany

University Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany

There are 563 open-air cinemas in Germany, which have become increasingly popular (Filmförderungsanstalt, 2014). The main difference between the tra‑

ditional cinema and open-air cinema is the location, which offers additional external stimuli that could distract the moviegoer. However, there is a lack

of empirical evidence for the behaviour in open-air cinemas in audience and reception studies. For this reason the present study focusses on the audience’s

reception behaviour in an open-air-cinema. Referring to the Movie-Going Research (Austin, 1981), the Uses and Gratifications Approach (Katz, Blumler, &

Gurevitch, 1973), the Mood Management Theory (Zillmann, 1988) and the Sad Film Paradox (Oliver, 1993) the study aims to figure out differences with

regard to the choice of certain film genres in traditional cinemas and in open-air cinemas. To examine differences a qualitative telephone interview study

with 24 participants (12 females, 12 males) was conducted in summer 2015 in a regional German open-air cinema. Participants were interviewed after

their reception of either an action/science-fiction movie or a dramatic movie. With regard to the identified motivations based on the movie-going research

(Austin, 1981) and the Uses and Gratifications Approach (Katz et al., 1973), we found differences in the reception of films in a traditional compared to

an open-air cinema. In a traditional cinema setting, participants watch a movie with certain anticipations referring to this film genre. In an open-air cine‑

ma, the interviewed persons explained that they would also watch movies they usually would not watch in traditional cinemas, due to the event character

of the open-air cinema, created by for instance the specific location or/and the entertainment program supported by gastronomical offerings. Participants

are willing to take a loss in the film choice (i.e. due to limited amount of tickets for each film), only to spend one night in the open-air cinema. In the con‑

text of Zillmann’s Mood Management Theory (1988) results show that in some cases the conjunction of the surroundings could lead to an intensification

of the cinematic experience. In opposite to this and referring to Oliver (1993), the investigation reveals that the surroundings could also reduce oppressive

feelings in dramatic films. Taking all results into account this qualitative and explorative survey provides a starting point for the analysis of film receptions

in outdoor cinemas. To explain the underlying motivations, the topic should be further investigated in regard to audience studies.

PP 614

Reimagining Television Audiences. An Empirical Interview Study of Institutionalized Audiencemaking at TV3

S.S. Lai

University of Copenhagen, Department of Media- Cognition and Communication, Copenhagen S, Denmark

The paper is based on an empirical study involving qualitative research interviews at the Danish commercial broadcaster TV3, a part of the international

enterprise MTG-TV. It examines how digital technologies – affecting television consumption dynamics and audience information systems – transform

the ways in which TV3-stakeholders understand the audience they cater to. Departing from an institutional research perspective it joins a small number

of existing studies on howmedia organizations imagine their audiences (Ang 1991; Baym 2013; Ettema ogWhitney 1994; Napoli 2010;Webster 2014).They

leave the usual research perspective in audience studies – the audience point of view; and instead, focus on what is perhaps best known as the 'institu‑

tionally effective audience': a concept constructed through audience measurements designed for the media to understand their audiences. The commercial

case of TV3 is both original in a Danish academic context and a national counterpart to critical discussions of institutionalized audiences. The THEORETICAL

FRAMEWORK establishes first the audience as an ontologically unstable concept, and then audience formation as a relational social construction between

the media and audiences in a structurational process (Giddens 1985). The notion of 'imagined communities' (Anderson 1991) is extended to audiencemak‑

ing, and to audience measurements as resources of that imagination. Discussed is how television industry stakeholders resist and negotiate changes that

cause transformations of media consumption, which in turn form the basis for new audience information systems, and so, a reconceptualization of the in‑

stitutionalized television audience. The KEY FINDINGS focus on two points. Although the interviewees are able to imagine audiences as disintegrated,

autonomous, disloyal users, their institutional understandings seem to linger on the concept of a coherent and unified audience measured in terms of ex‑