Create. Then manage.

I wrote this piece in 2010 as part of the requirements for my Masters degree at Ryerson University. My professor laughed at me initially – but then I got an A…I was happy.

(And just in case you don’t know..I live, breathe, love Madonna).

The creation and management of audiences – the success of Madonna’s career.

Written by: Elena Iacono 

Wednesday December 15^th, 2010

Presented to: Professor Dan Rowe

Course: Audiences and the Public

Program: Masters of Professional Communication, Ryerson University

“Let’s forget your life, forget your problems, administration, bills and loans. Come with me…”

    – Madonna, lyrics from Future Lover, Confessions on a Dance Floor, 2006.

Madonna, pop culture, epic icon, self-marketer, business mogul, political advocate, has over the course of three decades defined the meaning and essence of audience adaptation and message creation. Her constant transformations, or reinventions as she has herself branded, have helped shape her audience base and their loyalty. For the purposes of this paper, key audience theories including Uses and Gratifications, Popular Culture, Popular Discrimination and Popular Text will be used to explore Madonna’s success with building and sustaining audiences for the purposes of building her career. As a result, this paper will examine the correlation between audiences, media content and the message deliverer – seeking to examine if all three elements are separate entities or if they are mutually exhaustive.

Uses and Gratification Theory

The Uses and Gratification theory is a prominent key theory in the area of media studies, and also, is a key theory to explain audience behaviour – its approach to media studies and media effects is that it “assumes the audience brings their own needs and desires to the process of making sense of media messages.” (Williams, 2003). Major media theorist Katz (1959) believes the following:

“Such an approach assumes that even the most potent of mass media content cannot ordinarily influence an individual who has no use for it in the social and psychological context in which he lives. The uses approach assumes that people’s values, their interests, their associations, their social roles, are pre-potent and that people selectively fashion what they see and hear to these interests.”

This theory suggests that audiences are active in the process of making sense and meaning of mediated messages – that the media do not simply implant messages but are rather enablers to entertainment, information, political understanding and so forth. Along with this though, the Uses and Gratification theory also examines how and why media forms along with content appeal to their audiences (Williams, 2003). Hezog (1944) by way of studying why women enjoy listening to radio soaps, discovered that the media provide a sense of belonging – acquiring insight into self and others, providing the opportunity for wishful thinking and experiences emotional release. McQuial, Blumler and Brown (1972) later added that there are four types of uses and gratifications.

1. Diversion: Media and content allow people to escape from the constraints of the routine that make up every day life. They provide emotional release and while perhaps for a short amount of time, happiness and escape from “it all”.
2. Personal relationships: Media and content may provide, for some people, companionship. “The characters may become or appear to be real, knowable and cherished individuals and their voices are more than just a comforting. background which breaks the silence of an empty house.” (McQuial et al. 1972). The content may also be a conversation starter, helping people break tension with other when in social silence.
3. Personal identity: Content may be a point of reference for people, acting as a way for introspection and internal voice of guidance/reason when faced with troubling issues or situations. Imaging what a media character would do in a similar situation provides the encouragement and motivation for coping.
4. Surveillance: Media content can be used to help audiences keep abreast of pertinent, relevant and timely social, political or economic issues. A vehicle for information, media forms and content act as knowledge banks.

What is interesting about the Uses and Gratification theory is that it places emphasis on the audience, as opposed to the media (as noted above). It suggests that an audience is very active; capable of controlling how and when it consumes media, is selective and drives the popularity and social acceptance of content.

The Audience

Keeping with this theme, audience theory in the Rhetorical school of thought presents a complementary case on the role of the audience when consuming message.

Charles Perelman and Lucy Olbrechts-Tyteca have written that the “most important thing is not knowing what the speaker regards as true or important, but knowing the views those he is addressing.” (Herrick, 2007). Stemming from the notion of audience adaptation, Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca argue it is imperative that a speaker (or entertainer, politician or social advocate) involves continual adaptation of themselves to an audience – without this, message delivery; presentation, content and relevancy will be lost and ignored. Central to this thought, Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca deeper explore the role of audiences in their book The New Rhetoric – while this book focuses almost exclusively on rhetoric, one key section reviews audiences. As the authors point out, “the audience will determine to a great extent both the direction {a message} will take, and the character, the significance that will be attributed to them.” (1958). Building upon ancient rhetoric theory, more specifically Aristotle’s concepts of ethos logos and pathos[1], Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca remain firm that a message creator must affirm what real audiences think, believe, hold as the truth and value – and to adapt and position messages to the beliefs of these audiences. “Every social circle or milieu is distinguishable in terms of its dominant opinions and unquestioned beliefs, of the premise that it takes for granted without hesitation.” (Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca, 1958). The point made on audience theory then, is that when a message is created with the intention of persuading an audience or enabling message adoption, the message must naturally be adapted to that particular audience. As Herrick (2007) summarizes, “some effort to estimate one’s audience has always been and remains a crucial component in the communication process.”

The next important concept as it relates to audience theory that came out of The New Rhetoric was Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca’s most famous concept – the Universal Audience. Appealing to the universal audience is done when a message speaks to a multitude of audiences – norms and values are proposed to everyone. The universal audience then becomes important to consider as it speaks to all, but takes into account very specific and individual perspectives; made holistic. The universal audience also seems to mirror ancient rhetoric and audience theory, more specifically, Cicero’s recognition that a communicator, along with the message, must always look to speak to, capture and interest the ordinary citizen. For this ordinary citizen will pay attention and be interested in a message only when it beckons them to. Perhaps then, does this suggest that the ordinary citizen is the citizen who makes a message mainstream? As Malcolm Gladwell identifies in The Tipping Point (2000), the popular always becomes popular first in the streets, by the everyday person. Consequently, for Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca, audiences are at the root of a successful message and without acknowledging the very particular nature of an audience base (while at the same time keeping things holistic) then a message (or for the purposes of this paper, media content) will flourish.

What makes the popular popular? 

Keeping with the theme of media content, John Fiske – father of popular culture – very famously articulates the role of the audience in message adoption Understanding Popular Culture (1989). In the body of work, Fiske introduces three key theories that position his take on the role of the audience in message adoption – along with the reasons why some messages are paid attention to over another. Popular Culture, Popular Discrimination, Popular Texts; all three theories identify the role and importance of the audience from a media content perspective. At the very fabric of contemporary North American culture lies popular culture – it is an ideology that consists of message encoders and message decoders. To be successful, Fiske maintains popular culture has to be relevant and be of the immediate social situation of the people. Again, the concept of the audience – the populace – is raised, complementary to the Uses and Gratification theory and Audience theory as defined by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca. At the core of popular culture, Fiske explains ‘as plaisir’ – it is the loss of self by way of message adaptation. Pleasures are further organized into two categories; evasion and producing meaning. The former suggesting an out of body experience or loss of the every day life. The latter helping the message decoders make meaning, understanding of the world around them. As Fiske explores in his book, the activity and production of popular culture involves recognition of social differences and an “assertion of the sub-cultural rights and identities of those on the subordinate end of these structures of difference.” (p. 58). The point here is that there is a distinction between message creator or producer and message receiver or consumer.  The distinction lies in the relationship between the two; of understanding the other and catering to them.

From here, Fiske builds on the idea of popular texts and his curiosity between why some texts are selected and some are rejected. Presenting two types of texts, readerly and writerly, Fiske compares the difference between a very passive and a very active audience (p.103). The differences between the two ideas are presented below:

• Readerly text: this type of content is created and passed on to an audience, with the intention of inviting a very passive, receptive response.

• Writerly text: this type of content is disseminated to an audience, however, the audience is challenged to re-write, make meaning and understanding through different iterations. The audience is left to question, re-examine and extrapolate meaning as it relates to them.

“In popular culture, texts as objects are merely commodities and as such they are minimally crafted, incomplete and insufficient unless and until they are incorporated into the everyday lives of the people.” (Fiske, p. 103). Fiske later articulates, “Popular meanings are constituted out of the relevance’s between the text and everyday life, popular pleasures derive from the product of these meanings by the people, from the power to produce them.” (p.126). Naturally, this complements the Uses and Gratification theory – the people in this case, the audience, are able to take from a message as they think relate to them. When popular culture or the products of popular culture (which are created with purpose and intention) is examined in this view, does it suggest that the audience and how it responds to a message is what lies at the cracks of the popular culture system? Does this play up the validity of Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca concept of audience reception theory – again, to influence or shape meaning, must a message be created as it relates to the specific audience?

The ideas represented in Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca work connects with Fiske once again as Fiske identifies the idea of popular discrimination. Popular discrimination is concerned with the functionality of content; moreover the ‘what can I do with this’. As Fiske (1989) argues, “popular discrimination is concerned with the potential use of the text in everday life.” To be popular, content needs to offer points of pertinence; relevance and meaning is time and place bound, subjected and contingent upon the environment to which it is presented and consumed. Regardless if one person (or one group of social members) derives meaning from content, does this mean it is popular? To be popular, Fiske suggests that it must have points of relevance to a variety of readers in a variety of contexts and so “must be polysemic – capable of producing multiple meanings and pleasures.”  Cultural products (or media content to be fair) must not only be polysemic but must also be “distributed by media whose modes of consumption are open and flexible.” (Fiske, 1959, p. 158). Taken further, a text is popular insofar as it provides what is wanted and expected – and must allow the audience to participate in their choices of its meanings. For Fiske, popular discrimination extends itself beyond choice of the texts and the points of pertinence within them. Also, to cover the medium that best delivers the text and mode of consumption that best fits the consumer’s socio-cultural position and requirements.

Who pulls the strings then on content adoption – the creator or the audience? Additionally, who is in control of how meaning is made? And how does this lead to popularity? Would popular culture be less popular if the audience was not first understood to offer very relevant products? The question also then becomes, what is involved in the process of offering a writerly text; moreover, content that is diffused, accepted but then made popular? Is popularity solely based on the message, the words or visual elements? Or, is the style to which it is delivered along with the deliverer responsible? What makes media content popular – the audience? The content? The person responsible for delivering it?

Leveraging the power of the audience – Madonna

As we saw previously, an audience is a very proactive group of people who controls what they give their attention to, when and how. Actively involved with making meaning and understanding, an audience best identifies with media content that they can relate to, identify with and use in their daily lives. One iconic media play who best knows this and has managed audiences successfully is Madonna. Over the years Madonna has continuously changed her image, or rather reinvented herself, in order to keep her audiences wanting more. This section of the paper will review Madonna’s career spanning almost 30 years of milestones while also suggesting that her clever antics were made popular by way of audience theories as previously explored – a combination of Uses and Gratifications, Popular Discrimination, Universal Audience, Popular Texts.

Looking back – chronological review of Madonna’s work

In Celebrity/Culture (2006), Ellis Cashmore documents Madonna’s career from the time of her inception to the present. Cashmore organizes Madonna’s reinvention by category, starting with the 1980’s and onwards. What remains a constant through this time line is that Madonna appealed to her audiences by playing up timely norms and values to capture and keep her fan bases. Breaking the scene in 1983, Madonna immediately turned heads, capturing attention and intriguing millions. Her first album Madonna was followed by devoted audiences and millions of dollars – marrying movie star Sean Penn helped propel a movie career; while continuously unsuccessful at the box-offices, Madonna managed to make her way into the Hollywood scene. Moving on to the late ‘80s, we see Madonna ending her marriage with Sean Penn, signaling her strong sense of sexual maturity. “Its momentum was such that it carried her through over two decades as a leading show business performer.” (Cashmore, p. 43). Teenage abortion was Madonna’s high priority issue to pinpoint in 1986, challenging the taboo surrounding the issue, while creating awareness. 1989 was made famous by Madonna’s extremely contentious video Like a Prayer. Portraying a prostitute who witnesses a rape and murder, Madonna flees to a church to seek religious refuge; at the same time, falling in love with a black priest. Burning crosses, prostitution, inter-rational relations definitely caused a social-political stir – as a result, Madonna was dropped from a multi-million dollar Pepsi commercial deal and MTV refused to air the video. As Cashmore (2006) explains, the frenzy placed Madonna at the front of international debate – exactly where she wanted to be. Leveraging the momentum, the new decade was kicked off with the controversy over the Justify My Love music video. This time, Madonna played up cross-dressing, homosexuality, depicting very explicit, sexual shots. 1991 was marked with her feature documentary Truth or Dare, where Madonna allowed cameras into her bedroom and personal life – depicting a very up close and personal feel; allowing her audiences to get to know the real her (Cashmore, 2006). Ringing in 1992 was celebrated with the launch of Madonna’s book entitled Sex. In it, Madonna very openly portrayed her very, what appeared to be, private fantasies, inviting her audiences to partake in the sharing of her subconscious desires. Staying consistent with the sexual theme, 1994 saw the release of her music video Secret. In it, Madonna once again challenged conceptions such as transexuality that was at the time still far from being on the mainstream agenda.

Over the next decade, Madonna in a way cleaned up her act, perhaps attempting to attract a different audience base – “Madonna transformed from grande amoreuse to grande dame.” (Cashmore, 2006). In 1996, Madonna won a Golden Globe for her role in Evita; 1998 marked the start of motherhood and with that, the album Ray of Light echoed her new founded perspectives and religious associations (Kabbalah.). In 2000, nearly 20 years after she hit the music scene, Madonna was playing with her deeply rooted stardom qualities; racy, quintessential Madonna acts. Collaborating with major fashion houses like Versace and Jean Paul Gaultier, Madonna proved she could be many things to many people. Usher in 2003-2010, Madonna returned to her dancing days, releasing international hit albums Confessions on a Dance Floor and Hard Candy. Toying with audiences, Madonna reverberated her starting point, playing homage and tribute to her audiences who supported her nearly close to 30 years by once again giving them the beats they grew up with. As the eve of November 4 2008 approached[2], Madonna urged Americans to take action at the poles; rousing up the emotions of her audiences by appealing to American prosperity and values. Finally as the first decade of the millennium comes to a close, Madonna fortifies her hold on the international scene by opening a series of fitness clubs; giving her audiences and fan bases yet another way of living and breathing (and toning alongside) the icon. Besides creating millions of dollars and pleasing audiences, the above mentioned examples have allowed Madonna to craftily keep her grasp on the very people that fueled her success.  Flipping through Madonna’s career then, we see her deep-rooted fascination with challenging social, culture and political norms; explicitly questioning and rejecting authority, sexual and gender inequalities and spear-heading anti-patriarchal arguments through her lyrics, appearances and antics.

A popular subject amongst media theorists for her natural ability to woo and lock in audiences, Madonna for Fiske (1989) represents a popular reading, “something that is contradictory, encompassing both what is resisted and the immediate resistances.” Additionally, popular culture is a “commodity that must bear the interests of the people.” (Fiske, 1989). Bearing the interests of the people did Madonna do! Speaking out against sexual oppression, supporting gay and transsexual rights, inter-relational relationships, abortion and so forth, Madonna captivated the everyday people, ordinary citizen, to offer a sense of relief and satisfaction to an otherwise chaotic and mean world. Bringing in the Uses and Gratifications theory, we see that Madonna captivated a sense of release, regardless of the audience she was seeking to stimulate; she invited them into her world, be it music, fashion or video – to explore with her the many adventures she experienced, offering life and happiness.

No doubt, with 14 albums, 5 compilations, 17 books, memorabilia, paraphernalia and concert DVDs sold, Madonna has in some capacity made an impact on her audiences – if as the audience theories explained earlier on in this paper, albums are not simply purchased for the sake of being purchased. Videos and books are not consumed for the sake of consumption. Rather, they provide a vehicle for escapism, for a chance to control meaning in a mediated-rich world. In popular culture, texts as objects “are merely commodities, and as such they are minimally crafted, incomplete and insufficient unless and until they are incorporated into the every lives of the people. They are resources to be used.” (Fiske, 1989). Additionally, Fiske presents an interesting approach on Madonna as a pop culture icon:

“Madonna as a text, or even as a series of texts, is incomplete until she is put into social circulation. Her gender politics lie not in her sexuality, but in her functionality. She is an exemplary popular text because she is so full of contradictions – she contains the patriarchal meanings of feminine sexuality and the resisting ones that her sexuality is hers to use {and share} as she wishes in ways that do not require any approval….she is excessive and obvious; she exceeds all norms…Madonna is only the intertextual circulation of her meanings and pleasures – she is neither a text nor a person, but a set of meanings in process.”

Moreover, Madonna is polysemic, offering herself in as many ways as possible to create interest in and be relevant with as many people as possible – all while playing up the idea that her audiences are in control of meaning making and identity formation. For feminists, she demonstrates anti-patriarchal views; for men (and predominantly homosexual men), she is an object of voyeuristic pleasures; young girls, an agent of empowerment, liberation and escapism from adolescent, pre-adulthood and adulthood tribulations; for the unsure political voter, a voice of alternate perspectives urging for democratic participation.  Bringing in Fiske’s concept of popular texts once again, in order to be popular, then content (or a media icon) must offer points of pertinence; moreover be relevant to the audience it is addressing. Madonna recognized this – she capitalized on the varieties of her audiences. What worked in New York for example (typically associated with a very left-wing liberal arts oriented mind frame) may not have worked internationally, for example in a more conservative environment. To that, Madonna offered the polished Versace-suit totting, children’s book author version. More recently, Madonna opened a gym in Mexico; signaling that she continues to stay dominantly in the limelight by tapping into yet another audience base – the gym-donning health fitness guru type.  It is important to keep in mind the fact that Madonna employs countless PR and personal branding and marketing professionals to hone her image and to keep it intact – a multi-million dollar superstar never truly gives up control to her audiences. Madonna in fact remains more in control over her audiences as she feeds them exactly what they want – relevant content that enables them to feel like they know her, that she can save them from their everyday woes and that they are capable of achieving the level of success she has. As we are reminded in Understanding Popular Culture (1989), fans are in control of whom they are fans of; who they ascribe with and who they choose to idolize (Fiske, 1989). The secret to success then lies in being able to break into the world of an audience, to be accepted, revered, idolized and incorporated into the daily fabrics of people’s lives.

Audience management – concluding remarks

This paper has examined various audience theories and has provided an example of how to successfully manage audiences to not only stay relevant but popular over time. As we saw with the case of Madonna, she has always been something to everyone, addressing patriarchy, sexuality, racism, political advocacy. Brilliantly, she has leveraged the social, political and economic norms of people across the nations, capitalizing on their fan base to remain relevant and timely. As a recap, when managing an audience for the purpose of influencing or inducing a particular way of behavior, it is important to:

1)    Create a timely message

2)    Appeal to the populace

3)    Speak to many, speak to all

4)    Sustain by changing as appropriate

Bringing it back to a question posed earlier in this paper – what makes media content popular? The audience? The content? The person responsible for delivering it? It appears, with the case of Madonna (and it is a very good case as she is the quintessential visual communicator of modern times) that it is a mélange of all three elements. All three taken together – the audience, the content and the person responsible for delivering the content – remain in a continuum and are related and contingent upon the next. Without an audience, content cannot exist and without content, a deliverer has nothing to say or do.

The success of Madonna’s career is not based on the fact that she had a wildly wicked fashion sense or knew how to write an album and mix hypnotic beats – the success of her career lies in her continued ability to know her audience, understand who she is addressing while giving them what they want to pump through their Sony boom box systems, cassette players, Walkmans and now ipods that blare over the speakers of international fitness clubs.

References

Berger, A. (2005). Making Sense of the Media. Australia: Blackwell.

Cashmore, E. (2006). Celebrity/Culture. New York: Routledge.

Ciccone, C. (2008). Life with My Sister Madonna. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc.

Colbey, P. (1994). Throwing out the baby: populism and active audience theory. Media, Culture & Society, 677-687.

Fiske, J. (1989). Understand Popular Culture. New York: Routledge.

Gladwell, M. (2000). The Tipping Point. Back Bay Books.

Herrick, J. A. (2007). The History and Theory of Rhetoric. Boston: Pearson.

Hezog, H (1944). What do we really know about day-time serial listeners? In Lazarsfeld,             P. (ed.) Radio Research. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce.

Jensen, K. B., & Rosengren, K. E. (1990). Five traditions in search of the Audience. European Journal of Communication, 207-238.

Katz, E. (1959). Mass Communication Research and the Study of Culture. Studies in Public Communication. 2, 1-6.

Kellner, D. (1995). Media Culture: Cultural studies, identity and politics between modern and postmodern. England: Routledge.

Lee, C. (1999). Madonna: Transgression and Reinscription. Mediated Women, Representations in Popular Culture, 205-224.

Livingstone, S. (1998). Audience research at the crossroad. The implied audience in media and cultural theory. European Journal of Cultural Studies , 1 (2), 193-217.

McQuail, D., Blumler, J. and Brown, R. (1972). The television audience: a revised perspective, in McQuail, D (ed.), Sociology of Mass Communication. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Williams, K. (2003). Understanding Media Theory. New York: Arnold .

The post Create. Then manage. appeared first on EPICOMM.