Search results

The concept of participatory journalism draws attention to the shortcomings of established journalism by emphasising the role of the audience for boosting pluralism, transparency, deliberation and media accountability. Drawing on filed theory, the study attempts to shed light on whether the former audience can disrupt the field of journalism. To do so, it investigates the level and preferred forms of participation and provides evidence on how users perceive of the participatory affordances offered through news media websites. Although users assign public discourse functions to participatory avenues, the study confirms the reluctant audience paradigm, and the popularity of tools enabling low editorial capacity. From a field perspective, it is argued that although users' doxa denotes democratising ideas about participation, their behaviour is ultimately driven by their weak habitus (position) in the field. To use Bourdieu's metaphor, the power in the journalistic game still lies in the hands of professionals; users are not willing or capable of disrupting the norms and practices of mainstream journalism.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of the “audience exchange” approach for audience development and research, and to highlight the insights offered by peer-to-peer dialogue in understanding experiences of unfamiliar arts.

Using a case study with contemporary arts audiences, and setting this in the wider context of studies with other first-time attenders at a range of arts events, the paper explores the use of the “audience exchange” method, in which facilitated conversations after performance events allow newcomers to reflect upon and deepen their first-time encounters with live arts.

The study demonstrates the way in which conversations about arts events can enrich audience experience, and shows how participants use exploratory and emotional language to articulate their understanding of unfamiliar arts events. Peer-to-peer learning occurs through these conversations, in ways that could be further supported by arts organisations as a valuable tool for audience development. The audience exchange discussions also reveal the varieties of participation from “drifting” to full attention that are all part of audience engagement.

This is a small-scale, qualitative study, and the method has potential to be tested in future studies with a greater variety of participants (e.g. younger or more ethnically diverse groups).

Use of the audience exchange for enriching experiences of first-time attendance could be adopted by arts organisations as a regular part of their audience engagement. Greater understanding of how new audience members draw on prior cultural experiences in finding the language to articulate their first impressions of an unfamiliar arts event could be valuable for targeted marketing and increasing accessibility.

The originality of this study lies in its elaboration of the audience exchange method, and its focus on the language and peer-to-peer learning evident in the facilitated post-performance discussions.

Professional journalism has recently been studied through the lens of audience participation in the production of news online. While initial enthusiasm for democratisation and community reinforcement was significant, empirical evidence points towards unwillingness for fundamental reconstruction of journalistic practices. This chapter aims to map participatory journalism in Greece through the synthesis of accumulated research on the adoption of participatory features and practices in online news media and on audience perspectives of engaging in new roles during news process. Professionals seem hesitant to support a different but the traditional relationship with the users, while even users themselves get involved in activities that require little time and effort, not challenging journalistic norms via creative content production. However, both journalists and audience are positive towards a new collaborative way of managing and exploiting user-generated content, which can support participatory environments that reshape the incorporation of users' contributions in the daily workflows.

This paper aims to demonstrate the applicability of a theatrical framework for improving the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer of service research findings to practitioners.

A case study approach is adopted. The operation of a practitioner-oriented seminar is examined through a theatrical lens to establish the extent to which direction, audience participation and creativity, emotions and visual aesthetics can contribute to bridging the academia-practitioner divide.

Planning a practitioner-oriented seminar performance is as important as planning the program content. Effective knowledge transfer requires active audience engagement, activation of favorable audience emotions and an enjoyable learning process. The lack of these requirements can render written dissemination by journal papers relatively ineffective in reaching and engaging practitioners.

Findings are based on one case study: a seminar delivered to practitioners on “service theater”.

In addition to face-to-face seminars, contemporary dissemination methods (webinars, podcasts) can apply the theatrical lessons introduced and evaluated. Practitioners do not respond positively to only written declarative information, through academic papers and/or PowerPoint slides, from academicians.

The article recognizes that dissemination of service research findings is, itself, a service, requiring depth of thought and understanding.

Theatre Engine is a three-phase project exploring the integration of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers as user interaction mechanisms for live theatrical performances. This paper aims to describe the technical details for the first performance in the series: transitions, including system design, user interface details, and lessons learned.

The Theatre Engine project consists of a network of mobile Android-based devices that communicate with a server managing a live theatrical performance. Additional systems provide projected graphics within the performance space, dynamic instructions to live musicians, and control of theatrical equipment including robotic lighting. The system is under the live control of a stage managers and show runner. The first phase produced the performance transitions, where live and virtual dancers interacted with audience members.

The user activities are described in the context of manipulations and the effects of those manipulations and a classification of the roles of users as active participants in the performance is proposed. The concept of blurring the distinction between real and virtual is explored.

Technological advances make it possible for the audience to be an active participant in a performance, converting a passive theatrical experience to an active and immersive experience. Theatre Engine is a new approach to the integration of mobile devices into the theatre and a test-bed for new user interface ideas.

Evidence of the link between major sports events and increased participation at grassroots level is somewhat mixed. The purpose of this paper is to examine attitudinal changes to sport participation among spectators associated with seven sports events held in Great Britain in 2014.

Primary data were gathered from 4,590 spectators aged 16 and over who attended one of the events. Both positive (inspiration) effects and negative (discouragement) effects were considered through the lens of the transtheoretical model (TTM).

The evidence from this research indicates that event audiences belong primarily to the latter (more active) stages of the TTM. It was also found that attending sports events can further fuel the existing desire of contemplators to increase participation, whereas the catalytic effect among pre-contemplators is arguably less potent. Virtually no discouragement effects were observed across the different TTM stages.

The research stops short of measuring actual changes in sport participation post-event of individuals in the different TTM stages and any attribution of such behaviour changes to events. This is both a limitation of the current research and a natural direction for future research.

The main implications for promoting sport participation through the medium of sports events include attracting more people in the early stages of the TTM, greater collaboration between different event stakeholders and the building of sport participation strategies into the event planning phase.

Models of behaviour change such as the TTM have seldom been applied to document the current and/or planned sport participation behaviour of individuals in a sport event context or to examine attitudinal changes towards sport as a result of attending an event. An adapted version of the TTM has been proposed to overcome the limitations of the traditional model.

The purpose of this paper is to review the concept of audience development, analysing differences between a number of countries and identifying common elements that underlie the concept regardless of the context.

In addition to the literature review, fieldwork has been conducted in the UK, Denmark, Italy, and Spain applying qualitative methodology. The study has been structured in two phases. The first phase comprised 26 in-depth interviews with European experts in audience development while the second phase consisted of six focus groups with European experts.

The paper reveals differences between countries, ranging from the definition of the term audience development to the approach undertaken. Despite this, a number of aspects, independent of the context and considered key to a successful audience development, are identified. These aspects are related to the consideration of the development of audiences as a transversal long-term strategy supported by the top management of the organisation.

The value provided is twofold. First, thanks to the empirical data used, the paper analyses the socio-cultural aspects that affect the emergence of country-specific approaches to audience development and it individuates general features and ideas that contribute to the better understanding of the concept itself. Second, it is one of the few academic works carried out in Spain on this issue.

El propósito del artículo es revisar el concepto de desarrollo de audiencias, analizando las diferencias existentes entre diversos países e identificando los elementos comunes que subyacen al mismo independientemente del contexto.

Además de una revisión bibliográfica, se ha llevado a cabo un trabajo de campo en Reino Unido, Dinamarca, Italia y España. El estudio, de carácter cualitativo y con finalidad exploratoria, se ha estructurado en dos fases. En la primera se han realizado 26 entrevistas en profundidad a expertos en desarrollo de audiencias europeos, mientras que en la segunda se han llevado a cabo 6 grupos de discusión con expertos.

El artículo evidencia diferencias entre los distintos países que oscilan desde la consideración del propio término desarrollo de audiencias hasta el enfoque desde el que se entiende el desarrollo de audiencias. A pesar de ello se identifican una serie de aspectos, independientes del contexto, y considerados clave para un desarrollo de audiencias exitoso. Dichos aspectos están relacionados con la consideración del desarrollo de audiencias como una estrategia transversal de largo plazo, apoyada por la dirección general de la organización.

El valor aportado es doble. En primer lugar, gracias a los datos empíricos utilizados, el artículo analiza los aspectos socio-culturales que afectan a la aparición de enfoques de desarrollo de audiencias específicos para cada país y al mismo tiempo identifica aquellas características generales e ideas que contribuyen a una mejor comprensión del concepto en cuestión. Por otro lado, se distingue por ser uno de los escasos trabajos académicos realizados en España sobre este tema.

This work investigates how digital technologies and artistic resources interact in order to bring different Creative and Cultural Industry (CCI) actors together in networks. As the stage of this work, the authors investigate the musical collective Postmodern Jukebox (PMJ), a digital-based enterprise which is intensive in the use of social media platforms.

The study adopts a qualitative approach, based on a case study and netnography.

The findings demonstrate how the technology available to CCI enterprises can be used to leverage business through the engagement of its audience in collaborative processes. The analysis also evidences collaborative dynamics resulting from the integration of three key operant resources in CCI: artistic, technological and co-creative resources. Finally, the case shows the role of a CCI enterprise as an engagement platform that capture people’s emotions trough artistic content.

From a managerial perspective, the study demonstrates how a digital CCI enterprise manages the flow of resources and knowledge drawn from several networks in order to engage actors in co-creating value. Our analysis also suggests that emotions are not only drivers in bringing actors closer to the value cocreation process but also collectively created outputs within these interactions. In this process, the artistic resources of CCI's enterprises play a fundamental role in capturing and transforming these emotions by putting actors from different networks in contact.

This paper aims to investigate the viability of blogging over the summer holidays as an intervention to ameliorate the Summer Learning Effect (SLE) in writing. The SLE is the impact on achievement of taking a break from school over summer, and has been documented to affect differentially those students who come from low socioeconomic status (SES) communities compared with their more affluent peers. However, previous studies within similar communities suggest that the effect is not inevitable, and is amenable to intervention.

The present study is set in a group of low SES schools where students already have individual learning blogs. The Summer Learning Journey was designed by the research team in consultation with students and teachers from the schools and trialled in January 2015. The design of the programme drew on previous research that suggested that students would be motivated by interest, rather than achievement, and that literacy activity over summer should be leisure-based.

Initial evidence suggests that students who participated made measurable improvements compared with their own progress over the previous summer and also compared with a matched control group of students, and that the observed difference continued over the 2016 school year.

The study provides initial evidence of quite substantial differences in achievement for those students who were active bloggers.

The study provides an alternative direction from current summer learning programmes and indicates the potential for designing digital opportunities for learning at times when the school is not in session.

The live streaming of theatrical performances to cinemas has become increasingly common in recent years. The practice offers potentially positive returns for audience reach, audience development, revenue streams and global cultural exchange (Cochrane and Bonner, 2014; Nesta, 2011; King, 2016). However, the conceptualisation of live performance transmissions remains under-explored. The purpose of this paper is to review critically selected literature on event experience and apply it to the growing practice of live-streaming theatre (LST). In doing so, the paper develops a new conceptual model that can be used to guide future research on audience expectations, motivations and experience of LST.

A comparative historic case study approach combines a structured review of relevant academic literature and industry sources. Theories of live cultural experience and authenticity are critically reviewed. The opportunities and threats of LST to performing arts companies are summarised. The approach considers cognitive, affective and behavioural factors in probing themes of audience awareness, perceptions, expectations and experience of LST. The paper uses these factors to develop an original conceptual model for LST.

The research finds that the practice of cinematic live transmission of performing arts challenges existing conceptual categories and marketing strategies. Fundamental events studies factors such as “attendance”, “authenticity” and “experience” are re-evaluated. The model suggests that despite improvements in digital technology traditional theatre and broadcasted theatre are two different experiences, not substitutes.

As a conceptual paper, the results are subject to being tested in the field. The findings reveal implications for the evolving future of hybrid and mixed event experiences. The potential for LST screenings to attract new audiences requires further study.

The implications of the research reflect the changing business models and supply side dynamics of theatre production and touring. The results suggest that live streaming is of limited effectiveness in addressing the capacity limits of Baumol and Bowen’s (1966) “cost disease” in live arts performance. LST allows major brands to penetrate regional markets thereby potentially squeezing out smaller touring companies and restricting innovation.

The findings reveal implications for the evolving future of hybrid and mixed event experiences.

The influence of digital technology on live arts experience is currently under-explored and under-theorised. This paper develops a new conceptual model that captures in greater detail than previously the various factors that may determine audience engagement with, and experience of, LST. The paper contributes to knowledge by expanding the discourse on the gaps between the competing aims of access and authenticity. The analysis expands the academic understanding of hybrid and virtual event experiences.