Response to Ch. 1, 8, 9 of Audience Analysis by McQuail

The book chapters served as a good introduction to the topics we will be diving into, and I especially liked how chapter eight gave us a good explanation of what was (and is) happening to the audiences and how chapter nine looked at the future of new media audiences.

In chapter eight, the concepts of audience segmentation and fragmentation made a lot of sense when applied to new media, especially in looking at the lowered "quality" of attention as the media exposure increases (pg. 132). I am intrigued by the idea that the trends give power to the audience as they reduce power of the media, especially on pages 135-136 where the author writes

The media themselves may not be so concerned about the reduced "quality" of the relationship with audiences, because the numbers are what matter most. However, for ... advocates of all kinds who want to influence behavior and opinion, the emerging media situation does represent a potential problem. Much greater ingenuity is now required to catch attention and engage an audience.

I got hung up on this quality vs quantity statement and am curious whether this is truly the case when it comes to how new media content producers view their audiences. I know the number of likes and page views is important, I'm curious to what level quality is still emphasized.

A lot of what the author covered in chapter nine reminded me of an article (Questions are the new Comments) recently published where they challenge newsrooms to re-think how coverage is handled- Mainly by understand the role of the new audience and how much more active they are.

They write how the traditional passive audience doesn't get involved until the story has been completely produced and published, and their role increases as the author(s) roles decrease:

https://medium.com/matter-driven-narrative/questions-are-the-new-comments-5169d0b2c66f

However, their suggested model takes into account this new version of an audience that McQuail writes about and puts their involvement much earlier in the process in what they call the "Public-powered story cycle" (might as well be the "Audience-powered story cycle"):

https://medium.com/matter-driven-narrative/questions-are-the-new-comments-5169d0b2c66f

I feel this is what McQuail is referring to when he writes that new electronic media "opens up new possibilities for active relations between senders and receivers" (147). While the Public-powered story cycle could certainly have worked in traditional media, new media allows for it to occur much more easily and hopefully in a way that captures the attention of the fragmented and segmented new media audience.