Professor Yuan's Lecture

Professor Yuan’s lecture brought me back to a previous chapter discussed in class concerning schemas and perception. Yuan’s main focus is on media. It was particularly concerning the viewers partake in what Yuan refers to as fragmentation, polarization, as well as their loyalty toward a favored movie, channels, or program. With today’s wide variety of programs, and most importantly the vast amount of channels offered to the public, one would think that favoritism toward a few designated channels is non existent, however, according to Yuan’s research this is certainly not the case.

 As we previously learned, schemas and perception play a large role in the shift of one’s mentality toward a particular event, person, place and in this case, toward media. Individuals are more prone to lean toward an event, topic, person and in this case toward a channel or program based on their perception of it. Yuan mentions that during the earlier years when television was limited to only a few channels, the audience perception of the world and their view on things were based off of the negativity seen on television. Today, due to the wide variety of channels offered, we encounter what Yuan refers to as audience polarization, which means that viewers choose what is most appealing to them by selecting their favorite programs or channels which in turn, leads to audience loyalty. This simply means that we are more focused on what is most appealing to us as viewers and we tend to use favoritism toward given programs over the wide variety of different programs that are being offered to us.

 In summary, certain channels gain favoritism from their audience. This may be due to the framing of the content or even a hidden message that allows the audience to form a particular perception of what is being presented to them. This allows the viewers to take a more favored approached toward one program over another, which in turn, leads to audience loyalty. 

Personally, I find it interesting  how today’s media is capable of capturing their viewers attention toward one program over another. This can be through a hidden message or anticipation on what is to follow. Ratings are a crucial aspect of keeping the continuity of  a program and in order to achieve those ratings, viewers appeal and the ongoing interest is of great importance.