Das, Ranjana
(2011)
Interpretation: from audiences to user.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
In this thesis I primarily address those within media and communications studies who research mass
media audiences and their engagement with a diverse range of texts. I ask in what ways our knowledge
about the interpretation of genres, emergent from many decades of empirical research with mass media
audiences, is useful in understanding engagement with new media. This conceptual task is pursued
empirically by applying a conceptual repertoire derived from reception analysis to interviews with
youthful users of the online genre of social networking sites (SNSs). The thesis presents findings on the
heterogeneity of children’s experiences in using SNSs following their perceptions of authorial presence,
their notions of others using the text, their expertise with the interface and pushing textual boundaries. I
explore four tasks involved in the act of interpretation – those being intertextual, critical, collaborative
and problem-resolving. In analysis, I also reflect on a selection of the core conceptual tools that have
been animated in this thesis, in research design as well as analysis and interpretation. It is concluded that
inherited concepts - text and interpretation, continue to be useful in extension from the world of
television audiences to the world of the internet. Second, inherited priorities from audience reception
research which connect clearly to the conversation on media and digital literacies prove to be important
by connecting resistance and the broader task of critique to the demands of being analytical, evaluative
and critical users of new media. Third, the notion of interpretation as work is useful overall, to retain in
research with new media use, for there is a range of tasks and responsibilities involved in making sense
of new media.
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