Pleasure, disaffection, ‘conversion’ or rejection? The (limited) role of prefiguration in shaping audience engagement and response

What is it about?

Using Q methodology, this paper compares the 'before and after' responses of viewers of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It shows that while many respondents expressed prior loyalties - to Tolkien's original novel or wider body of work, to Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, to particular actors, and so on - their post-viewing receptions varied considerably and unpredictably, being shaped by a complex interaction between individual, textual and intertextual factors. The relationship between pre-viewing anticipation and expectation and actual receptions warrants further investigation; this paper illustrates the kinds of insights that can be derived from a new methodological approach to studying audience engagement and response.

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Why is it important?

The research presented in this paper is highly innovative in theoretical and methodological terms, being a large-scale longitudinal Q methodology study of audience receptions of a blockbuster film franchise underpinned by an explicit analytical framework - Michelle's (2007) Composite Model.