In my qualitative research class, we are currently discussing when to use certain labels for the audience. The audience refers to people in a society, but the way they are depicted has a huge impact on how we envision who they are.
Is it an audience or consumers? Consumers or media users? Audience or "the public"? The public or the masses? Citizens or people? Readers and viewers and listeners, or users?
All of these conscious labeling decisions are important for semiotics and word selection in writing. Each term carries implications and definitions of who the term incorporates. While some choices might be easier than others, it's rare that one is wrong--but vital that the word you choose is most accurate and representative of who you want to portray.
The simplest choices are describing an audience as readers, viewers or listeners because those refer to the manner in which something is consumed. But deciding whether an audience is a consumer or a user becomes tricky. I encourage you to think about how you reference people in your writing, especially in media, and how it influences the holistic meaning of the piece!
No comments:
Post a Comment