Audience Studies



The best way to understand how Project Runway and Models of the Runway affects our culture is to analyze the audience that watches the show. To understand how these shows can be interpellated into our routine life Rose helps explain that "audiences do not just passively absorb the messages contained in the media...rather, they actively make sense of them" (Rose, p. 200). Project Runway has a way of bringing in audience members who believe that "appearance is everything". Reality television doesn't always look to improve their audience but instead the forms of improvement, which in this case would be fashion (Roberts).

Within any audience who watches a particular show you have a wide range of viewers. Fans translate viewing into some kind of cultural activity that show a new meaning of just being able to watch the show for their own pleasure (Rose, p. 270). Fans are the ones who express their emotions about a certain show through blogs, social media sites, and other forms of media. Because of fans television shows that share news and feelings about reality television can then get a sense of how our culture is feeling. When applying this to Project Runway the fans are given the chance to express who they believe to do be the next top designer with the hope that they will win the show. The same thing goes towards the models in Models of the Runway. It is most common for females to watch these shows because they're the ones being represented. There has never been a time where there has been a male model modeling work from the designers, but that doesn't mean that males aren't drawn to show as well.


When looking at the two photographs of Heidi Klum she is meant to get viewers into watching the upcoming season of Project Runway. But, if a viewer were to decode these images they would get a completely different message due to her being almost completely naked in both photographs. In one picture Klum is only wearing black lingerie and heels. Her body position and hands on her skin make it out to be a very sexual picture. Instead of advertising for the show she could be going back to her old days of modeling for Victoria Secret. In the other photograph she is only wearing a pink tie. The tie isn't even complete in length as we can see that it has been cut off possibly with the scissors she is holding. This image gives viewers a chance to see Klum also nude since she is the one covering herself up. These two images are drawing away attention from the show and puts enfaces on her to lock in viewers based on what she looks like.

Some female viewers may look at Project Runway and Models of the Runway with a lesbian gaze. Thus meaning that women could either find it offensive that the fashion industry goes into making a television show about creating clothing for a competition and making it seem like that was the hot new trends. Or females could see the shows and identify with them. They would think if males believe that models that are all dressed up is what a male desires then they should also be what a male desires. The audience members who inhibit the lesbian gaze will be more likely to watch the show on a regular weekly basis as well as possibly become a fan of the show.

The audience has to deal with materiality of how the show translates into real life. When the designers and models are on the show they are viewed only on the television. Viewers see them during their weekly time slot on Lifetime. During this time it is most effective if the audience sees the show in their own home on a larger television screen because a fashion reality show deals with a lot of detail. Audience members have to be able to see what they are creating in order to get wrapped into the show. Another way of looking at it is when the winning designer then gets published in a top-selling magazine such as Marie Claire. This brings in the idea of what the effects of seeing the designer and model on television verse magazines. Once in the magazine it is a lot more person. Audience members can see the winners up close and can actually hold something in their hands meaning that the picture of the designers clothing won't go away in a few seconds like it will on television.

Home	Pyschoanalysis	Discourse

Bibliography:

Roberts, Martin. "Interrogating Post Feminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture." Feminist Media Studies 4.3 (2004): 255-64. Print.

Rose, Gillian. "Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials". 2nd ed. London: SAGE, 2012.

Rose, Gillian. "Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials". 2nd ed. London: SAGE, 2007.