Reality TV And Audience Reception

So far,Reality TV has been developing for more than a decade around the world,but American Reality TV— "American Idol" has got an enormous success. "American Idol" has a great impact on global Reality TV shows since it premiered in 2002.Meanwhile, it has broadcast live in over 100 countries. As a result, the thesis takes "American Idol season 13" as an example to research Reality TV and audience reception.The writer analyzes Reality TV taking "American Idol Season 13" as an Example.The thesis makes a study of the audience reception of "American Idol Season 13" based on Stuart Hall’s theory of encoding and decoding. The purpose of the thesis is to explore whether the audiences decode "American Idol Season 13" as producers expect, when audiences watch the program.The thesis is on the analysis of encoding strategies and decoding models of "American Idol Season 13" according to literature method and case study method. As thus, it draws a conclusion that audiences don’t fully accept producers’ ideologies, when they watch the program. They decode messages in the light of their backgrounds and social values. They don’t passively receive messages any more, but they play an important role in programs. They directly influence the ratings of programs, and therefore producers take into account audiences’ interests to produce favorite Reality TV shows.