Drama production and audiences as ‘affective superaddressee’ in an illiberal democracy

TY - JOUR

T1 - Drama production and audiences as ‘affective superaddressee’ in an illiberal democracy

AU - Fong, Siao Yuong

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2021.

PY - 2022/8

Y1 - 2022/8

N2 - There is a long history of television and film research that highlights the essential roles audiences play in everyday production decisions. Based largely on Western media industries, these studies’ investigations of producer–audience relationships have revolved predominantly around the market concerns of liberal media models. So how do producer–audience relationships work when it comes to illiberal contexts of media production? Using Singapore as a case study, this article argues that existing approaches to producer–audience relations largely based on liberal media industries like Hollywood are insufficient for thinking through audience power in everyday media production in illiberal contexts. Drawing on insights from affect theory, I examine the materials gathered during an immersive ethnography of the writing process of a Singaporean television drama and propose conceptualizing audiences as an ‘affective superaddressee’, as a productive way to think about the work that situational audiences do in everyday media production in illiberal contexts.

AB - There is a long history of television and film research that highlights the essential roles audiences play in everyday production decisions. Based largely on Western media industries, these studies’ investigations of producer–audience relationships have revolved predominantly around the market concerns of liberal media models. So how do producer–audience relationships work when it comes to illiberal contexts of media production? Using Singapore as a case study, this article argues that existing approaches to producer–audience relations largely based on liberal media industries like Hollywood are insufficient for thinking through audience power in everyday media production in illiberal contexts. Drawing on insights from affect theory, I examine the materials gathered during an immersive ethnography of the writing process of a Singaporean television drama and propose conceptualizing audiences as an ‘affective superaddressee’, as a productive way to think about the work that situational audiences do in everyday media production in illiberal contexts.

KW - Affect theory

KW - audience power

KW - illiberal media

KW - media ethnography

KW - producer–audience relation

KW - production studies

KW - Singapore television

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104659599&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/13675494211008642

DO - 10.1177/13675494211008642

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85104659599

SN - 1367-5494

VL - 25

SP - 1066

EP - 1082

JO - European Journal of Cultural Studies

JF - European Journal of Cultural Studies

IS - 4

ER -