What is an audience? According to CTI Reviews (2019), an audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature, theatre, music, video games, or academics in any medium. While some mediums/ events invite overt audience participation, others only allow clapping, criticism and reception.
In a world where media is being consumed more frequently and at a greater level, the ideas surrounding what an audience is are constantly developing.
So, what does it mean to be a part of an audience? To be a part of an audience in the modern world means to be a part of a group that experiences/ consumes the same thing, regardless of the time and place.
The idea of what an audience is, is constantly changing as new medias are developed and introduced.
“Even though we might reliably assume that a lot of people are reading the same magazines, listening to the same radio stations and accessing the same websites, it is unlikely that they will be doing so in the same place or necessarily at the same time.” – Susan .E Turnball “Imagining the Audience”
What do we do when we are a part of an audience? Well this depends on the type of audience, sometimes we observe, listen and take in the content. Whilst other times we actively engage with the content, whether that be by liking, sharing, or commenting our own ideas.
Check out this article to find out more…
My Audience Experience:
In 2017, I was lucky enough to be able to go to Hawaii with my family. We stayed on the island Oahu and spent the time there exploring the culture and beautiful landscape. One day from that trip I will never forget is when we went to The Polynesian Cultural Centre.
It was amazing! I would recommend visiting it if you ever get the chance.
While we were there we decided to get tickets for the night time show they produced called “Ha: the Breath of Life”.
The show was incredible it was so professional and entertaining and the story line was fantastic! It explored all the different Polynesian Island cultures and their histories through song and dance, showing me a new world that I previously knew nothing about.
Like any live theatre experience, there were some negatives such as the baby in the row behind me crying every now and then and it was a little hard to see sometimes because of where we were seated. But the positives definitely outweighed all this, there’s something very special about being apart of a physical theatre audience, you are sharing the experience, sharing emotions and there is almost a feeling of community when a part of an audience like this.
I took away so much knowledge from this performance, before visiting Hawaii I didn’t even know which islands made up the Polynesian islands, much less there history or culture. I was totally clueless!
So Mahalo (thank you) to the Polynesian Cultural Centre for providing me with this experience and to opening my eyes to so much beautiful and vibrant culture!
https://www.shakatourshawaii.com/Tours/Tour-Details/polynesian-cultural-center
Be sure to let me know your best (or worst) audience experience in the comments below!
ALINA HAGER 
Alina this blog post is very clearly set out and easy to read which is great. The definitions at the beginning give a good amount of context for the reader to understand where you are heading with this post. This clear set out and the use of short paragraphs makes it easy for the reader to stay focused and interested when reading your post. The moving images spread out between the paragraphs draws the eye and adds more humor to your post such as the SpongeBob one. These moving aspects kept me interested in your post and give you a break from reading which is good. Your actual experience was very interesting and unique which was cool to read as i have not experience an event like that, the pictures of your experience helped with giving more context. Yet another idea you may want to incorporate into your post may be a video of the “breath of life” performance or a video with similar aspect to truly incorporate your audiences fully with your experience.
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Hi, thank you so much for your feedback! Photography was banned during the performance so I wasn’t able to record anything but I might look and see If I can find something similar. Thanks for your advice!
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This post was so captivating because I think you really painted the picture of the Polynesian Cultural environment for your readers. I also liked the post because I think being a part of an audience in a cultural setting is extremely important as it allows us to gain a greater understanding of varying cultures and peoples. I found it very evocative, making me reminisce, as it would with others, about my own travels and the cultural customs that I have been introduced to. My only critique would be to maybe reference other cultural audience experiences you have had to contrast the diverse experiences we can have in different places and cultural settings.
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Hi Jack, thanks for sharing your thoughts! I’ll be sure to take your advice into consideration:)
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That’s really meaningful.You just explaining all aspects of media audience
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