Reception Context

Where an audience views a text is known as the Reception Context. This is an important part of the study of the text because it can have a substantial influence on how the audience interprets the the text. The following points cover many of the factors that the context of viewing can have on a viewer.

Place. The place where we view a text can vary from an Imax theatre to our mobile phone on the train. The most common context is still the television in the lounge room or bedroom, but computer screens are increasingly used. Feature texts, such as those we are studying were made to be shown in a cinema/theatre. This generally means a large screen and high quality sound. (Fargo is 5.1 surround, North by Northwest is mono - although 6 track surround was available in the mid 1950s.) You are lucky enough to be able to view the text in a context that is close to how the original audience would have viewed it.

However, by viewing a text in a cinema/theatre there is more than simply the big screen and sound. The cinema is dark and the light is reflected off of the screen. The other people in the space are also generally engaged by the text and there is a shared experience that is free from distractions.

Watching a text at home on television - even a fairly large one - will provide a different experience. (Unless you are lucky enough to have dedicated home theatre with a BluRay player and high definition projector.) The light is not reflected but shone straight at you and there might be a lot more light in the room. You may have brothers and sisters doing other things around you, you may stop the text to get a drink or answer the phone. There will also be subconcious distrations such as pictures on walls, the ability to look out the window etc. All of these things will reduce your concentration and you will miss parts of the text. Nonetheless, if the text is recorded in some way, you will be able to pause and rewatch the text a number of times and you will develop a deeper understanding of the text than a person who has viewed the text a single time at the cinema, even if you have been distracted a number of times.

The size of the screen is also important. Perhaps the best example of this is older television programmes. Original television sets from the late 1940s to early 1960s had quite small screens and low resolution. This meant that the makers of the programmes tended to use more closeups to show the expressions on peoples faces. Details in long shots were simply lost on the viewers screens. The introduction of wide screen cinema in various formats was something that cinema had over television until the 1980s. Today, as television screens are generally much larger with greater resolution it is no longer necessary for television to stick to this formula and television is often shot like a film intended for the cinema.

Production period. (This looked at in detail in the context of Unit 4 Outcome 2 - Social Values.) What an audience brings to viewing of a text is important, you understanding will be different to everyone elses. When a text is originally produced the makers will bring a knowledge of that time to the text. (North by Northwest was produced in the context of the Cold War between Russia and the United States. Get Smart is also influenced by this long term event, but seeks to send up the James Bond films that were popular at the time.) A knowlege of the events under which a text is produced is not a necessity, but it helps in the understanding of the text.

Disclaimer - These pages are not endorsed by the VCAA and are intented as a guide for the students that I teach. Reference should be made to the Study Design for Media which can be found here.