Gill’s reading discusses audience studies specifically
looking at the encoding/decoding moment of the audiences, the pleasures
audiences receive from the media they view, and the shift to studying
information and communication technologies in the context of everyday
life. The encoding/decoding moment
describes the way a person takes in and understands a message they receive from
the media. Gill talks about how a
message can have more than just one meaning and sometimes we may not understand
the true meanings behind a message. With
looking at audience pleasure, Gill discusses the idea that many women who read
romances enjoy fleeing from their own, real life and falling into the heroine’s
life in their imagination.
This leads
into Radway’s article “Women Read the Romance.”
This article describes a group of romance readers, whom she calls the
Smithton women, who enjoy reading romance novels in order to escape their real
life. In order to feel happy and
content, many of these women turn to romance novels because “reading the novels
gives them hope [and] provides pleasure” (Radway, 49).
It was
interesting to me how both of these articles stated the idea that women become
more comfortable and find reading or watching television more pleasurable when
they are by themselves. Women want to be
loved and treated right and sometimes they do not receive that attention so
they turn to romances in order to make them feel better about themselves. Many women treat men with care and respect,
and many men do not reciprocate those actions, which is why it is unfair that
women have to turn to romance novels in order to become happy. It is also noted that some women have to
watch their favorite television show by themselves to make it an enjoyable
activity. Women see romances as an
escape from their real life and if your wife, girlfriend, or partner, whatever
you would like to call them, is turning to romances to be happy, maybe you
should check your relationship and the way you are treating her.
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