The study of media viewership comes from how well the people perceive the material being shown and how it’s getting it across. For this study, I want to see if a person’s personality trait and media viewing attitude can affect how well a movie’s intended message or experience can be received. Certain movies are made with the intent purpose of delivering an intended message or giving a unique memorable experience. With this in mind, an individual’s experience towards a movie or tv show can be predetermined because the movie itself planned it. For example, how Dunkirk was able to capture the feeling of being inside a warzone and how viewers felt that experience, or how Avatar’s message about nature over mankind was more obvious to some than it was to others that were more focused on the effects. With that said, would these examples be the same for people that view movies in completely different ways. Also connecting these passive and active viewing personalities, does the Uses and Gratification act work for both of them. Can a person interpret a movie in a completely different way because of their viewing traits and does a movie’s message becoming stronger or weaker depending if a person is a passive viewer or an active viewer.

How media is viewed is a lot easier than it was when movies were a new and much bigger concept; now families can watch movies and TV shows quick and simply in the comfort of one’s own home. Because of this, it’s important to verify what an audience is; a proper definition describes an audience as ‘’ In simple words, audience refers to the spectators, listeners, and intended readers of a writing, performance, or speech. Every example shown connects it back to the activity of watching a form of entertainment’’, so by extension, audiences are drawn to forms of media because of their entertaining aspects. What use to be a collective experience can now be viewed individually as well, meaning audiences can be both large and small in size. With all that said, an audience member can be impacted by a film’s overall atmosphere and message, and it can be either influenced or decreased depending on the viewers form of response, leading back to two forms of audience members, Passive and Active audience members. Passive audience members tend to be those who aren’t overly interactive with the movie experience, focusing more of simply viewing the movie rather than actively pursuing the film’s deeper meanings. They often accept obvious film messages for how they are stated, and they are more interested in a movie’s technical and its structure rather than the emotional sides. This is the complete opposite to an active audience member, who actively engages in the media. They aren’t ones who accept movie messages for what they are clearly shown as and instead like to pick apart various details about the film and become more vocal about their favoured likes and dislikes. Most of these attitudes on both sides can be drawn back to a person’s characteristics, life experiences, family and cultural experiences, essentially being an individual’s personality coming through in how they view media. With that in mind? Do these two forms of media experience a film in different ways.

Through studying the actions and behaviours of both types of viewers while watching different kinds of movies, it’s very clear that an active audience member is often the one that exhibits the most emotional reactions to a movie; showing signs of sadness, anger, shock, and excitement, they are clearly the most expressive out of the two when it comes to viewership, while a passive audience member is far more laid-back and remains mostly stagnant when watching something; remaining quiet and composed while the film is on, not necessarily uncaring but more focused on the viewing aspect than getting involved. With these two varying reactions, the question is raised if a movie’s purpose, message or specific atmosphere can be interpreted differently when seen through either of these two viewing methodologies. To pinpoint the exact differences, two examples were chosen; Dunkirk, the recent war movie based around the actual event for its brutally realistic atmosphere through heightened audio and claustrophobic shots, and Avatar; with its obvious environmental message along with its very prominent visual style and 3D effects. With these two examples, what do the results show for both different sets of viewers. Starting with Dunkirk, the passive audience member that was interviewed was much older and was therefore closer to the period of time when Dunkirk was a real event and therefore the movie had a closer connection than just a fictionalised entertaining picture. He wasn’t an avid visitor to the cinema and therefore, he was able to pick up on the movie’s intense tone and sound effects, even pointing out how many of them startled him during the screening. Even though his posture and focused attitude didn’t change the viewing process, his inner reactions were more direct and slightly frantic compared to most other movies, therefore the movie was able to get itself across to a passive audience member. The active audience member was much more into the more stereotypical aspects of the movies than the actual realism and practicality of the film. While the intensity and realistic filming was clearly noticed, she was more focused on the emotional scenes with the characters. In conclusion, it seems that the passive audience members were able to connect with the movie’s atmosphere though not being common movie goers, while the active audience members were not as bothered by the pronounced atmosphere and were still caught up in their traditional connectable attributes. On the opposite approach, Avatar was a movie heavily based in fiction, the various clichés and recognisable tropes were easily spotted by the active audience member, along with the message about the nature vs mankind element. The message is more familiar to her as they are more well-versed in films, so the message is not new, therefore it’s a lot harder for them to easily accept it. The passive audience member on the other hand was more drawn to the visual effects than the actual story, allowing himself to become engrossed in the spectacle of the picturing and thereby ignoring everything else connected to it. The message was also something that barely even fazed him, noticing that it was a part of the movie and was sometimes pushed too obviously, but was not able to connect it with fictionalised world and characters. For a movie with an obvious message that is meant for the audience to take in, the active audience member was able to pick up on it but was left underwhelmed by its use and handling in the story, while the passive audience member felt the visuals were able to overshadow his care for the story and especially the message. These two different forms of viewing media do seem to result in different attitudes when confronted with a film’s goals and purposes; active audience members are more inclined to focus on the emotional aspects of a movie and become more engrossed in the storylines and the characters as well as recognising the messages more openly than others, while the passive audience members would lean more towards the technical aspects of a movie and view the messages as blankly as they’re shown, often only giving as much as the movie puts into it.

Theories based around cinema viewing seem to be more geared towards a person’s mentality and emotions, often leaking into their own lives as watching a movie can provide an individual with feelings of self-satisfaction and enjoyment. One such theory that is heavily popular in the media theories line-up is the Uses and Gratification theory. This theory, created in the 1940s, came up with the idea that people use media to gratify specific wants and needs and feel that people that view media have an active involvement in what they watch and how much they consume overtime. While it can be viewed as unhelpful and unreliable due to the influence the examiners having influence on the results as well as various different age ranges, it can still work due to the large mass of new viewing options nowadays. The theory is said to lean more towards audience members who are active participants in their media viewing experience, but passive audience members still watch longer media options like tv shows to fulfil some form of entertainment, but to what length? From a study on the topic of audience gratification when looking into soap operas, the 1944 study done by Herta Hertz found that the audience sought after three different kinds of satisfaction; Emotional, Wishful Thinking, and Learning. Using these three qualifications, do passive and active audience members get these out of watching a TV show, and how equally do both receive these qualities. Using the example of the popular TV show, Game of Thrones, the show was not something that was ‘’likeable’’ as the overly gruesome and heavily realistic world would often leave people feeling browbeaten and sometimes deeply saddened, yet the show is still beloved by many. With this show in mind, how do these two types of audience members get gratification out of such a bleak show. Much like the study and the theory states, the active audience member ticks all the categories. She was engaged enough in the world that the notion of learning was something she yearned for. She was clearly emotionally attached to the picture as it ticked off the correct Hollywood-trope boxes to connect with her active audience mentality all the while keeping the intense atmosphere in her mind. The active audience was also a heavy wishful thinker. Wishful thinking is defined as ‘’decision making, and the formation of beliefs based on what might be pleasing to imagine’’, it focuses on imagination more than hard facts. An active audience likes to take more than what is given and theorize on it, which explains why there are so many fan theories and group events held in the show’s name. It would seem that the Uses and Gratifications theory does connect more with audience members that are active, but how does it affect those who are passive. It appeared that when viewing the show, he was mostly the exact opposite in terms of learning. He wasn’t invested in anything that wasn’t obviously displayed to him on-screen in the moment, not connecting well with a show so focused on packed hidden lore. The wishful thinking element didn’t click with him either as he was mainly focused on the more realistic elements than the fanatical side, which divided his viewing experience. However, he was still emotionally invested in the story and characters, which means at least one aspect of the three was gained from the experiment. It seems that passive audience’s way of the Uses and Gratification theory is everything that is presented front and centre, and not things that need digging around to care about.

Audiences take media to a more personal level in modern times, to the point where their personalities can affect the way they view the product. Both passive and active audience members are similar in ways that the prospect of watching a movie or a tv show is a form of entertainment, but both can differ in how much they can be impacted by the piece of media. Active audience members are more emotional driven, focus on the more creative aspects, more familiar with the cinematic tropes and are overall more passionate, while an passive audience member is more focused, controlled while viewing the picture, less focused on the deeper meaning behind the picture and more on the mere activity of viewing, appreciate more of the technical aspects of the product, and isn’t going to become more engaged in a product other than for pure viewing entertainment. This study has shown that both types of audience types have their own set guidelines to how they experience media and how the Uses and Gratifications Theory affects both of them in different ways as well; both use it for entertainment, but active members can stay invested for longer and care enough to dig deeper, while passive ones are less inclined to search and can’t always stay around. People experience media the way that they experience their own lives, with the same attitudes and the same passion.

References:

https://www.buffalo.edu/content/dam/cas/communication/files/Stefanone/rui%202016.pdf (Uses and Gratification Theory)

https://www.learning-theories.com/uses-and-gratification-theory.html

https://prezi.com/2sb7v8a_s07z/active-vs-passive-audience/ (passive vs active audience)

https://literarydevices.net/audience/ (audience)