MA Film Studies

The relationship between screen texts and their audiences has been a preoccupation of screen culture for decades. Taking a broad look at this key concern, this course introduces students to some of the key debates and approaches to ‘audiences’ and ‘fans’ as contested terms. How do industry producers and institutions imagine, target and measure their audiences? How have scholars conceptualised the audience as abstract 'spectators' as well as socially situated individuals and groups? What do audiences actually do with screen texts? Students will critically engage with scholarship on industry and audience practice across screen culture in various contexts, including ideological issues and the social audience; 'reading against the grain'; participatory fandom and transmedia; and disruptive 'anti-fandom' counter-approaches. The course will be structured around blocks of two weeks in which central topics and approaches will be discussed, followed by a session in which students explore their own research ideas developing these themes. The course aims to equip students with both knowledge of the history and practice of audience research, alongside an awareness of the latest developments, practices and concerns. 

• Introduce students to key concepts and approaches in audience theory and fan studies within screen culture
• Critically reflect upon how screen texts invite audience reactions, and how actual social audiences and fandoms respond to them
• Develop a critical understanding of how audiences and fandoms are imagined and constructed in screen industry practice
• Critically engage with key debates and approaches in the field, and apply audience/fan theory to specific case studies in student research. 

• Demonstrate a critical understanding of audience and fan studies: students will gain a thorough knowledge of the key theoretical and critical frameworks within these fields
• Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between audience practices and broader cultural, industrial, and technological contexts 
• Assess the ideological and social dimensions of audience engagement, including issues of identity, power, and resistance in media consumption. 

• Make effective use of research whilst applying concepts to individual work  
• Synthesise and analyse information from a range of sources and use this to engage with existing scholarship in the field 
• Integrate interdisciplinary insights from film studies, cultural studies and industry research to form nuanced perspectives on audience engagement.

• Demonstrate advanced critical writing skills  
• Undertake research design and presentation at Masters’ level   

• Exercise independence in self-directed learning
• Demonstrate advanced ability to articulate ideas and argument cohesively, comprehensively and effectively.  

Critical essay or audience research project proposal, including outline, aims, methodology, and justification  100%

Plan for Summative Assessment - Formative

Formative in-class student presentations - Formative

Critical essay or audience research project proposal - written feedback

Plan for Summative Assessment - formative feedback given in class and via written feedback on individual plans

Formative in-class student presentations - formative feedback given in class through peer responses and tutor feedback

• Athique, Adrian (2016). Transnational Audiences: Media Reception on a Global Scale. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Barker, Martin (2014), ‘Crossing Out the Audience’, in Ian Christie (ed) Audiences, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 187-205
• Barker, Martin and Ernest Mathijs (eds) (2008), Watching the Lord of the Rings:   Tolkien’s World Audiences, New York: Peter Lang. Introduction.  
• Barker, Martin (2006), ‘On Being Ambitious for Audience Research,’ in Isabelle     Charpentier (ed.) (2006), Comment sont reçues les œuvres, Versailles: Créaphis, pp. 27–42.
• Barker, Martin and Kate Brooks (1998), Knowing Audiences: 'Judge Dredd', Its Friends, Fans and Foes, Luton: University of Luton Press. Chapter 4.  
• Morley, David (2006), ‘Unanswered Questions in Audience Research’, The           Communication Review, 9.2, 101-21
• Buckingham, David (1991), ‘What are Words Worth?: Interpreting Children’s Talk about Television’, Cultural Studies, 5.2, 228-45.
• Click, Melissa [ed] (2019). Anti-Fandom: Dislike and Hate in the Digital Age. New York: NYU Press.
• Fiske, John (1992), ‘The Cultural Economy of Fandom’, in Lisa A. Lewis (ed.), The    Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, London and New York:         Routledge, pp. 30-49.  
• Gaut, Beryl (1999), ‘Identification and Emotion in Narrative Film’, in Carl Plantinga      and Greg M. Smith (eds.), Passionate Views: Film, Cognition and Emotion,          
• Baltimore: John Hopkins Press, pp. 200-16.
• Gray, Jonathan (2021). Dislike-Minded: Media, Audiences and the Dynamics of Taste. New York: NYU Press
• Hills, Matt. (2002). Fan Cultures. London: Routledge
• Jenkins, Henry (2006a), Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture,  New York and London: New York University Press.
• Jenkins, Henry (2006b), Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, New York: New York University Press.  
• Jenkins, Henry (2007), ‘Afterword: The Future of Fandom’, in Jonathan Gray, Cornel  Sandvoss and C. Lee Harrington (eds), Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World, New York: New York University Press, pp. 357-64.
• Morley, David (1980), The Nationwide Audience, London: British Film Institute.
• Schrøder, Kim, Kirsten Drotner, Stephen Kline and Catherine Murray (2003), Researching Audiences, London and New York: Hodder Arnold.
• Staiger, Janet (2005), Media Reception Studies, New York and London: New York University Press.
• Reinhard, CarrieLynn D., and Olson, Christopher J. (2016) (eds), Making Sense of Cinema: Empirical Studies into Film Spectators and Spectatorship, London  and New York: Bloomsbury/Continuum. Introduction.
• Thomas, Lyn (2002), Fans, Feminisms and Quality Media, London and New York: Routledge.
• Waldron, Darren (2009), Queering Contemporary French Popular Cinema: Images and their Reception, New York: Peter Lang.