The Research Of Active Audience Theory Of Birmingham School

Audience research has always been the focus of communication research.The empirical school's cognition of audience has experienced a change from "magic bullet theory" to "use and satisfaction" theory,while the critical school has gradually developed from "cultural industry theory" to "positive audience theory".But the development vein of the latter has been neglected in the academic circles.In 1964,the Center for Contemporary Culture Studies(CCCS)of the University of Birmingham was established,and cultural studies became the theoretical tradition of the Birmingham school.Popular culture,identity,cultural imperialism,working class and feminism are all its research topics.It covers almost everything,and audience research is also seen in the discourse of various scholars.From Richard Hogart to Raymond Williams,Stuart Hall,David Morley,John Fiske,etc.,they all discussed the audience in their works.Among them,the consistent thinking is the affirmation of the positivity of the audience.It can be said that the active audience theory is the theoretical tradition of Birmingham school,which has been constantly improved through the efforts of several generations of Birmingham scholars.These research results are both inherited and independent,but they all indicate,directly or indirectly,that the audience are not passive and negative as described in the "cultural industry theory".On the contrary,the audience is an active reader and participant.The development of social economy,political change,the change of media technology,the evolution of western cultural theories and the growth environment of scholars have jointly promoted the transformation of audience research from "negative audience theory" to "positive audience theory".From the perspective of culture,Birmingham school believes that the audience is a positive meaning constructor and has created a path of audience research different from American empirical school and Frankfurt school.By comparing and analyzing the negative audience theory of the Frankfurt School,we explored the reasons why the audience research turned positive.And then choose Richard Hoggart,Stuart Hall,John fiske three academics according to the intergenerational order of Birmingham scholar to analyze the historical evolution process of the active audience theory,strive to clarify the logical transformation of active audience theory between different historical stages.In the book the Use of Literacy,Richard Hoggart describes the daily life of the working class in the 1930 s.In his view,the working class culture is a highly adaptable culture,the working class is not a passive acceptance in the face of American popular culture invasion,they achieve the negotiation with the existing cultural world by absorbing what they want in the mass culture,this is the infancy of active audience theory.Stuart Hall,another leading figure of Birmingham school,based on Marxist political economy,pointed out that the production and dissemination of the "meaning" of the TV discourse is a cyclical process,rather than following the traditional linear communication mode.At the same time,he also proposed the encoding-decoding mode,which opened a new era of audience research.John fiske put forward the "producer text" and the pleasure theory,which followed the example of Stuart hall,fully affirmed the enthusiasm and initiative of the audience,opened up new ideas for the mass research,and greatly enriched the active audience theory.The research on the evolution process of the active audience theory is conducive to breaking the shackles of the empirical school,and providing a new perspective for us to understand the audience,and thus promoting the further development of audience research in China.At the same time,the active audience theory emphasizes the audience audience standard,so that ordinary people and vulnerable groups have received more humanistic care,which is also instructive for understanding some cultural phenomena in the current urbanization process in China.