Film Audiences: Theories, Methods and Contexts

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Theories and debates about film audiences
• Methods and sources used to study audiences
• The cultural and economic significance of audiences within film industries and cultures
• Contexts in which audiences engage with film

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Present your findings in the appropriate format
• Collect data using appropriate methods and sources
• Analyse your research findings
• Design a research proposal
• Deliver work to a given length, format, brief and deadline

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Collect data on audiences using appropriate methods and sources
• Analyse your research findings with reference to relevant theories and debates about how audiences engage with film in particular contexts
• Present your research findings in the appropriate format
• Obtain ethical approval for your research project
• Design a proposal for a short piece of audience research

This module examines the cultural and economic significance of audiences within film industries and cultures. Lectures will explore how the film industry attempts to measure, target and build audiences through strategies like advertising, previews screenings, exit polls and algorithms, along with the different spaces, technologies and practices through which audiences engage with film. They will also consider debates about censorship and ‘media effects’ and explore different academic theories about how audiences engage with film, including concepts like reception, taste, pleasure, affect and fandom. Workshops will examine the practical and ethical implications of studying audiences through surveys, focus groups, ethnography, social media, archives and other research methods, with a view to designing and carrying own your short piece of audience research.

Teaching methods include:

• Lectures, used to introduce key theories and issues
• Workshops, focusing on specific methods of audience research
• Individual consultations with tutor in office hours

Learning activities include:

• Independent study/research
• Designing a short research project
• Collecting and analysing research data
• Writing up the findings of a short research project
• Contributing to discussions in lectures and workshops

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.