KMT 2022 nr 4 Download PDF

In search of the spectator’s identity… Grounded theory in the audience analysis of audio-visual texts

Cite: , W poszukiwaniu tożsamości widza… Teoria ugruntowana w badaniach nad odbiorcami przekazów audiowizualnych, "Kultura - Media - Teologia", 2022( 52) nr 4, s. 50-72.

DOI: 10.21697/kmt.52.3

The article aims to present the main assumptions and procedures of grounded theory methodology and discuss some of the arguments for its application to audience and reception studies. Special attention was paid to the constructivist perspective, in which people are perceived as active participants in social life. This approach strongly corresponds to an assumption derived from cultural studies work that the actual meaning of the text is not contained solely in it but results from constant negotiations between the text and its reader. Applying grounded theory methods in audience studies will, in the author’s opinion, bring about a multidimensional analysis of how audio-visual texts are read and interpreted by their viewers. Nevertheless, it can also help raise the theoretical aspects of such a study to a formal, more abstract level that cuts across different substantive areas. The proposed methodological perspective may become a significant step in developing a coherent approach to spectatorship in contemporary film studies. Its great value is that it emphasises researchers’ engagement in reconstructing hidden meanings, which may encourage them to a more conscious exploration of new substantive areas within film and audience studies and formulate empirically testable hypotheses.

About authors

Patrycja Chudzicka-Dudzik

Uniwersytet Łódzki

ORCID: 0000-0003-3430-0581