Audience In The Popular Culture:Analyzing American Idol With John Fiske's Popular Culture Theory

In recent years, popular culture has been increasingly prosperous. Audience in popular culture take part in the culture broadcasting and meaning making process as participants. The reality show American Idol, as a trend pioneer, can be a desirable research text of popular culture. This thesis aims at analyzing the cultural element of audience behind American Idol's popularity with John Fiske's popular culture theory from the relationship between audience and contestants, judges as well as host and trying to shed light on the mechanism behind audience activation in meaning, pleasure and identification. It includes introduction, body, and conclusion.The first chapter analyzes the relationship between audience and contestants. Producer-ly text and subjective audience enable audience to read actively. The second chapter analyzes the relationship between audience and judges, focusing on inter-textuality and carnival. The third chapter is about the relationship between audience and host. Audience is passive in financial economy and active in cultural economy.Finally, the thesis proposes that the popularity of popular culture represented by American Idol lies in its effective activation of audience's ability in meaning, pleasure, and identification production.This thesis tries to supplement and improve domestic popular culture studies.