How has the digital age changed the audience, and what do Jenkins and Shirky argue about fandom, participation and the end of the passive audience?
Audiences: fandom and participatory culture (Henry Jenkins) and the end of audience (Clay Shirky). Textual poaching, convergence culture, prosumers, user-generated content and the collapse of the producer-audience divide.
An OCR A-Level Media Studies guide to fandom and participatory culture (Henry Jenkins) and the end of audience (Clay Shirky). Covers textual poaching, convergence culture, prosumers, user-generated content and the collapse of the producer-audience divide, with the application skills the audiences essays reward.
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What this dot point is asking
OCR names two theorists of the digital audience: Henry Jenkins (fandom and participatory culture) and Clay Shirky (the end of audience). Both argue the passive audience is over: audiences now participate, share and create. You need each theory, the ability to apply them to participatory set products, and the judgement of how far the producer-audience divide has really collapsed.
The answer
Jenkins: fandom and participatory culture
Fans form communities that circulate and produce content, and Jenkins's convergence culture describes how the boundaries between producers and audiences blur as content flows across platforms and audiences help shape it. The audience is not just active in interpretation (Hall) but active in production.
Shirky: the end of audience
Shirky's end of audience theory argues the internet and digital tools have ended the traditional broadcast model in which a few producers spoke to a passive mass. People are now prosumers (producers and consumers at once): they publish, share, comment on and create content (user-generated content) and collaborate at scale. The old one-way relationship between institutions and audiences has become a two-way, participatory one.
The collapse of the producer-audience divide
Both theories see a collapse of the producer-audience divide. This connects audiences directly to media industries (convergence) and to identity (Gauntlett: audiences select and create their own identities). The participatory set products and forms (a game with user creation, a brand with active social media) are the clearest evidence.
How far has the divide really collapsed?
The evaluative question is how far this is true. Professional producers still control major content and platforms (Curran and Seaton, Hesmondhalgh), participation is unequal (not everyone creates, and platforms profit from user labour), and effects and reception theory show audiences are still influenced and guided. So audiences have become far more active and productive, but within platforms and industries still controlled by powerful producers.
Examples in context
A strong answer applies Jenkins or Shirky to a participatory set product, shows the participation in action, and judges how far the producer-audience divide has really collapsed.
Try this
Q1. Explain what Jenkins means by "textual poaching". [5 marks]
- What the marker wants. Fans actively taking, remixing and building on elements of media texts to create their own meanings and products in communities (AO1).
Q2. Explain how Shirky's "end of audience" applies to one participatory set product or form. [10 marks]
- Cue. Apply prosumers, user-generated content and the two-way model to the product, showing the collapse of the producer-audience divide, and note that producers still hold power (AO2).
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of OCR exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
OCR H409/02 202110 marksExplain how Shirky's 'end of audience' theory applies to one set product or form. [10]Show worked answer →
An Explain question (AO1 and AO2). The marker rewards accurate use of Shirky applied to the product.
Method. Set out Shirky: digital technology has ended the traditional passive audience; people are now prosumers who produce as well as consume, sharing and creating content.
Develop. Apply to a participatory set product or form (a game with user creation, a brand with social media). The top band shows the collapse of the producer-audience divide with named detail.
OCR H409/02 202320 marksDiscuss the extent to which audiences have become producers in the digital age. Refer to set products you have studied. [20]Show worked answer →
An extended essay (AO1 and AO2), shown at the 20-mark cap, marked by levels of response.
For. Jenkins's participatory culture and Shirky's end of audience argue audiences now poach, remix, share and create; convergence collapses the producer-audience divide. Apply to named participatory set products.
Against. Professional producers still control major content and platforms (Curran and Seaton, Hesmondhalgh), participation is unequal, and effects and reception theory show audiences are still influenced and guided.
Judgement. Audiences have become far more active and productive, but within platforms and industries still controlled by powerful producers. A judgement grounded in set products reaches the top band.
Related dot points
- Audiences: targeting, categorising and reaching audiences. Demographics and psychographics, mass and niche audiences, mode of address and positioning, and uses and gratifications as a model of the active audience.
An OCR A-Level Media Studies guide to targeting and categorising audiences. Covers demographics and psychographics, mass and niche audiences, mode of address and positioning, and uses and gratifications, with the application skills the audiences questions reward.
- Audiences: media effects. Bandura's social learning theory (observation, imitation and vicarious reinforcement) and Gerbner's cultivation theory (long-term exposure, mean world syndrome), and the debate over passive versus active audiences.
An OCR A-Level Media Studies guide to media effects theory. Covers Bandura's social learning theory (observation, imitation, vicarious reinforcement) and Gerbner's cultivation theory (long-term exposure, mean world syndrome), and the passive versus active audience debate, with the application skills the audiences essays reward.
- Audiences: reception theory (Stuart Hall). The encoding/decoding model, the preferred (dominant), negotiated and oppositional reading positions, and the idea that meaning is completed by the audience, not fixed in the text.
An OCR A-Level Media Studies guide to reception theory and Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model. Covers encoding and decoding, the preferred, negotiated and oppositional reading positions, and the idea that meaning is completed by the audience, with the application skills the audiences essays reward.
- Theoretical perspectives: applying the audience theories. Choosing and applying Bandura, Gerbner, Hall, Jenkins and Shirky to set products, structuring the active-versus-passive audience debate, and reaching the judgement the essays reward.
An OCR A-Level Media Studies guide to applying the audience theories. Covers choosing and applying Bandura, Gerbner, Hall, Jenkins and Shirky to set products, structuring the active-versus-passive debate, and reaching the judgement, with the exam skills Component 02 rewards.
- Set products: radio (BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show) and video games (Minecraft). Industry and audience analysis covering public service broadcasting, regulation, ownership, convergence, participation and the active, productive audience.
An OCR A-Level Media Studies guide to the radio and video game set products, the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show and Minecraft. Covers industry and audience analysis, public service broadcasting, regulation, ownership, convergence, participation and the active, productive audience, with the exam skills Component 02 Section A rewards.
Sources & how we know this
- OCR A Level Media Studies (H409) specification — OCR (2023)
- Textual Poachers; Convergence Culture — Henry Jenkins (2006)