A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the field of Cultural Policy and Management, 2016 / Without an audience, theatre is meaningless; however, getting that audience to the theatre can be challenging; especially for small scale independent theatre organisations that often don’t have access to the necessary skills and budgets. This research report considers the potential place of Facebook in audience development. It investigates whether Facebook, as a social networking platform, can function as an effective tool to help small scale independent theatre organisations to broaden, deepen and/or diversify audiences. Additionally, it explores audience motivations, key drivers and barriers, and how they influence theatre attendance especially in a South African context. The research report follows a mixed method approach which includes in-depth interviews, focus group discussions as well as an online (Facebook) survey to try and find ways to curb the issue of declining audiences. It concludes that audience development requires a thorough understanding of audience needs, drivers, trends and barriers as well as commitment from the entire organisation and sector; that developing audiences is about building on-going and mutually beneficial relationships between audiences and organisations, and that appropriate monitoring and evaluation systems need to be put in place. The report also concludes that Facebook can be effective in helping organisations to reach new audience segments, providing a platform for communication between organisations and their audiences, and for marketing; but proposes that Facebook should be included as one aspect of the holistic audience development plan. / MT2017

The thesis begins by acknowledging the writer's status as a fan. The stimulus for the enquiry emerges from the discrepancy the writer encounters between his fan experience and the ways in which the academy conceptualises fandom. Such theories serve to position the fan at extremes of the field of reader response: as either a passive, cultural dupe or as a radical, textual freedom fighter. By contrast, this thesis aims to take the diversity of fan response into consideration, and situate its analysis in very real concepts of people's lives. In the first of three parts, a typology is developed that examines the contested and disputed nature of fandom. Reference points are drawn from academic writing, popular media and a focus group session with fans of diverse interests. The second part is devoted to fieldwork. Fan conversations, observations and reflections are combined to create six intimate pen-portraits that convey differing ideas of fandom. Topics covered include fans of Doctor Who, The Adventure Game, Sheffield Wednesday football club; the users of archive TV website The Mausoleum Club; attendees at a Kirsty MacColl get-together;Panopticon( a Doctor Who convention); Forbidden Planet (a collector's shop). The final part, `Fandom and Modem Life', draws together the ideas of the thesis to propose a series of maxims on how fandom operates that emphasise complexity, diversity, the significance of emotional attachment, and fandom's interrelation to capitalism (of it, but not about it). Fandom's role is considered in relation to notions of religiosity and sexuality. Fandom is defined ultimately as a form of social identity possible in contemporary western society. The thesis concludes by speculating on how fandom may evolve in the future.

Sentiment Analysis has been researched in a variety of contexts but in this thesis, the focus is on sentiment analysis in Twitter, which poses its own unique challenges such as the use of slang, abbreviations, emoticons, hashtags, and user mentions. The 140-character restriction on the length of tweets can also lead to text that is difficult even for a human to determine its sentiment. Specifically, this study will analyze sentiment analysis of bilingual (U.S. English and Spanish language) Tweets. The hypothesis here is that Bilingual sentiment analysis is more accurate than sentiment analysis in a single language (English or Spanish) when analyzing bilingual tweets. In general, currently sentiment analysis in bilingual tweets is done against an English dictionary. For each of the test cases in this thesis’ experiment we will use the Python NLTK sentiment package. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-62). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-62). Also available on the Internet.

Not available / text

School children have often been regarded as lacking competence when it comes to using media texts. Some researchers refer to them as less active audience or uncritical media users because of their short attention span and because they often perform other activities while using the media. They are not considered as the critical media users a democratic society requires. Children's access to the media has also raised a lot of questions like what and which media they have access to and who selects for them. Their selection and access to the media will relate to their social, economic and cultural background and their race and gender. This research explores the type of media school children have access to and what media texts they select from the range they have access to. This research is premised on a belief that a knowledge of the selection and access of media texts is immediately relevant to education and critical literacy. This will help media educators to assess what learners already know. This research is not intended to judge any learner in relation to their access and use, it aims to get better insight into the types and genres of media learners engage with depending on the race, social class and gender of the learner. I examine the topic against the theoretical understandings of audience reception theory. This discusses how theorists have considered whether the audience are passive or active or critical. The research process involves participation by learners between the ages of 15 and 18 from three different schools of Crawford College in La Lucia, Rossburgh High School in Rossburgh, and Clairwood Secondary School in Clairwood and investigates the nature of media engaged with over a short period of time. Research findings reveal that the type of media accessed by various learners varies in relation to background factors of the learner such as economic background, race and gender. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

Periods of crisis communication are uncertain, at best, for any organization dealing with a product tampering. This study examined how the public would use the media to gain information about the product tampering, if there would be a difference between newspaper and television usage, and what gratifications the public would seek from the media.The hypothesis stated that there would be no significant difference in media use during product tampering cases between newspapers and television. Three hundred eighty-eight households, the number needed for statistical reliability, were surveyed by telephone in the Muncie, Indiana, area. Results of the data supported the hypothesis. / Department of Journalism

Within the context of debates concerning the impact of media on audiences, this study takes the form of a qualitative audience reception analysis; to investigate how a particular group of female audiences situated in Zimbabwe interprets televised HIV/AIDS prevention advertisements. It examines the extent to which the social context influences the audiences’ acceptance or rejection of preferred readings encoded in the texts. The study is situated within the broad theoretical and methodological framework of both the communication for development and the cultural studies approaches to the study of the media. Data for the investigation was collected through the focus group and in-depth interview methods as well as through the websites and organisational documents produced by the encoders of the advertisements. The findings indicate that the female audiences’ interpretative strategies were informed by their lived experience as well as pre-existing knowledge. Based on the findings it can be deduced that, contrary to earlier beliefs and media theories such as that of the “hypodermic needle” theory the audience of public communication is not a passive homogenous mass that easily succumbs to media influences, rather the audience is active in the production of meaning, but under determinate conditions in particular contexts. The texts, the producing institutions and the social history of the audiences supply these conditions.

M.A. (Communication Studies) / To firstly formulate, from the literary review, an integrated model which describes the mass communication process. Specifically the relationship between orientation needs, media usage and agenda-setting in the broader context of the individual, the media, and society. The model was delineated to define the woman as individual, Rapport as medium, and orientation needs and agenda-setting in terms of media figures. The second aim was to conduct an empirical investigation using 197 female subjects (99 Rapport-readers and 98 non-readers). Two factorial scales for personal and social orientation needs in respect of media figures were constructed. Media usage in terms of media ,figures was measured with frequency scores. The agenda-setting effect with regard to specific media figures were determined by means of the Kendall correlation coefficient and Spearman rank order correlation. Media usage of Rapport by Rapport- . readers was determined. In addition, a factorial structure of Rapport-reader gratification in terms of media figure representation in Rapport was measured. In this investigation the importance of information about media figures in orientation needs, media usage and agenda-setting has been reaffirmed. Specific orientation needs (personal and social) and their respective dimensions have been identified. A marked agenda-setting effect with respect to media figures was determined, and possible relationships between orientation needs, media usage and agenda-setting were pointed out. Certain areas do, however, require further research. One fruitful area for investigation is the explanation of significant relationships between individual orientation need gratification, media usage and agenda-setting (with regard to media figures) within a specific societal context