The rest of the story: Sociocultural patterns of story elaboration

POETICS ELSEVIER

Poetics 28 (2000) 21-45 www.elsevier.nl/locate/poetic

The rest of the story" Sociocultural patterns of story elaboration" Karen A. Cerulo* Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA

Abstract In getting the day's news, many individuals never move beyond headlines, story leads, and sound bytes. Rather, in their attempts to apprehend and evaluate matters, readers and viewers process these brief media summaries and proceed to 'fill in the blanks'. They construct the details that media summaries fail to provide. This action embodies a unique practice to which I refer as story elaboration. Story elaboration involves the enhancement, and most importantly, the extension of professionally constructed media materials. When engaged in elaboration, readers and viewers become storytellers themselves. Faced with limited data, they choose to build a narrative of their own - a narrative guided not by professional storytelling strategies, but by rules and scripts located in an audience member's sociocultural context. Using data derived from an exploratory study of media messages and their effects, this article explores four specific elements of story elaboration practices. First, I distinguish story elaboration from interpretation, and I provide a full illustration of the practice. Second, I highlight the social profile of those who typically engage in elaboration and I contrast this profile with that of individuals who refrain from elaborative practices. Next, I examine the theme of media stories, and I probe the links between this dimension and readers' and viewers' propensity towards elaboration. Finally, I explore the 'conventions' that guide subjects as they create story elaborations. © 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Active audience; Media; Narrative; Story elaboration; Textual interpretation

An earlier draft of this paper was presented at Woward a Sociology of Culture and Cognition', a conference held at Rutgers University in November 1999. Special thanks to Christine Nippert-Eng, and Robert Kubey for their feedback on the presentation and to Janet M. Ruane for her very helpful comments on various drafts of this work. * Please direct all correspondence to: Karen A. Cerulo, 343 Spruce Ave., Garwood, NJ 07027, USA. E-mail: cerulo@ rci.rutgers.edu

0304-422X/00/$ - see front matter © 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PI: S0304-422X(00)00011-15

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1. Introduction Headlines, story leads, and sound bytes: for a significant proportion of media users, these abstracts constitute their primary exposure - in many cases, their only exposure - to the news events of the day. 1 Such brief information sketches can provide readers and viewers with the 'bare bones' of a story - i.e. who said or did what to whom; how, why, and with what effect. Yet, rarely do such abstracts present the detail needed for the full understanding of an event. Despite the drawbacks, many individuals never move beyond headlines, story leads, and sound bytes. Rather, in their attempts to apprehend and evaluate matters, readers and viewers process these media summaries and proceed to 'fill in the blanks'. They clutch a mere outline of a phenomenon and actively author 'the rest of the story'. In so doing, media users engage in a process to which I refer as story elaboration. Story elaboration involves the enhancement, and most importantly, the extension of professionally constructed media materials. The practice of story elaboration is remarkably widespread and it represents an important component of meaning attribution. Yet to date, the process has received little attention from media and culture scholars] Instead, those studying audience meaning-making activities have focused strictly on readers' and viewers' interpretations of text and image. Current works on interpretation adhere to a clear agenda. Such studies typically examine fully developed and often complex media messages, comparing the producer's intended meaning with that assigned to the message by various audience members. (See e.g. Ang, 1985; Bobo, 1988; Carey, 1988; Comer et al., 1990; Fiske and Hartley, 1978; Hunt, 1997; Jensen, 1986; Livingstone and Lunt, 1994; Long, 1986; Lull, 1988; Morley, 1980; Press, 1991; Radway, 1984; Schlesinger et al., 1992; Steiner, 1988). To be sure, research on audience interpretation has been invaluable to our understanding of media effects. However, it is important to note that interpretation represents only one facet of the meaning-making process. Confining our inquiries to readers' and viewers' interpretive activities may provide an incomplete picture of the audience's role in the media experience. A full understanding of the 'active audience' requires us to explore a broader array of readers' and viewers' meaning-making strategies. The study of story elaboration is central to this goal, for the process represents a unique dimension of media-audience interaction. Specifically, story elaboration embodies a form of audience meaning-making that occurs without the benefit of detailed text, clear reference, or developed plot. Thus, the conditions of elaboration require more aggressive efforts than those involved in interpretation. Story elaborators

t Michael Schudson (1978:103) discusses the historical roots of this phenomenon. For additional discussions of individuals' reliance on headlines, leads, and sound bytes, see Jamieson (1986: 22). Also see Bittner, 1996: 33; Cerulo, 1988, 1995: 64, 1998: Ch. 4; Clayman, 1995; Griffin, 1992; Maffesoli, 1996; Scheuer, 1995; Trejo Delarbe, 1994. 2 The literature on rumor represents a notable exception to this pattern. See e.g. Allport and Postman (1947), Bartlett (1932), and Shibutani (1966).

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move beyond the media producer's intended guidelines and parameters; they become creative agents vigorously completing the brief story abstract before them. When engaged in elaboration, readers and viewers become storytellers themselves. Faced with limited data, they choose to build a narrative of their own - a narrative guided not by professional storytelling strategies, but by rules and scripts located in an audience member's sociocultural context. Using data derived from an exploratory study of media messages and their effects, this article explores four specific elements of story elaboration practices. First, I provide a full illustration of the story elaboration phenomenon. Second, I highlight the social profile of those who typically engage in elaboration and I contrast this profile with that of individuals who refrain from elaborative practices. Next, I examine the theme of media stories, and I probe the links between this dimension and readers' and viewers' propensity towards elaboration. Finally, I explore the 'conventions' that guide subjects as they create story elaborations. These conventions include the intensification of detail, the application of widely embraced cultural stereotypes, the integration of concurrent media stories, and subjects' use of their unique personal experiences.

2. The active audience revisited

For several decades, the literature defined mass media audiences as passive recipients, subjects often dominated and controlled by those transmitting information their way. The 'Magic Bullet Theory', and later, the 'Two Step Flow Theory' initiated such images. These theories, along with the empirical works they inspired, explicitly framed media users as unsuspecting victims, individuals who were unknowingly molded in compliance with the self-interests of media message senders and powerful opinion leaders. 3 During the 1960s and the 1970s, social scientists began to question the standing image of media users. By 1980, many were aggressively challenging the notion of audience passivity. An 'active audience' grew central to the study of media effects.4 Current works suggest that audience members do not simply accept the meaning imputed by message senders; rather, readers and viewers contribute in significant ways to the interpretation of message meaning. David Morley was among the first social scientists to firmly establish the active audience as integral to our understanding of the process of media reception.5 In The DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach (1982) give a thoughtful review of this literature. 4 Many credit art analysts, literary critics, and philosophers for igniting social scientists' attentions to audience reception. Semiotician Roland Barthes (1982), for example, provides a strong voice on such matters, arguing for unique cultural products born of the interaction between creator and consumer. As any creator's product is projected across space and time, Barthes contends that its meaning is reshaped and revamped by the experiences of those who read or view it. Halley (1996) provides a careful review of Barthes' position as well a good review of the broader literature in this area. 5 Of course, Stuart Hall's work on decoding and encoding laid an important foundation for Morley's research.

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'nationwide' audience (1980), a classic study of viewers' reactions to a British 'television magazine' program, Morley deconstructed the mass audience, considering the different social 'pockets' that constitute any group of media users. His research illustrated the ways in which those in contrasting social locations (specifically, bank managers versus trade unionists) differentially interpreted the text and images projected by the Nationwide's professional communicators. So, for example, while the bank managers in Morley's sample felt that Nationwide's coverage of economic issues presented an accurate and common sense view of the world, his trade unionists saw the program's economic coverage as highly biased in favor of management. In reviewing such findings, Morley notes: "[T]hese examples of the totally contradictory readings of the same programme item, made by managers and trade unionists, do provide us with the clearest examples of the way in which the 'meaning' of a programme or 'message' depends upon the interpretive code which the audience brings to the decoding situation." (Morley, 1992:112)

In essence, Morley's work provides precise documentation of the ways in which audience characteristics change attributions of meaning. A series of important studies followed in the wake of Morley's work: Andrea Press's (1991) extensive study of working versus middle class women's reactions to TV programming, research by Tamar Liebes and Elihu Katz (1993) on international audience interpretations of the TV show Dallas, or Darnell Hunt's (1997) work on differently raced groups and their interpretations of the news, etc. These projects and others like them 6 destroyed long held conceptions of media audiences as unified, passive receivers. Rather, these works documented the involvement of readers and viewers in the reception of a message. Via such works, we learned of the vastly disparate visions members of different social classes bring to media messages; we learned too that those of different genders, nations, races, ethnicities, and age groups bring different 'readings' to identical materials.

2.1. Beyond interpretation Work on audience interpretation has revolutionized our understanding of media messages and their effects. Such research brings center stage the importance of the audience within the meaning-making process. At the same time, most audience interpretation studies impose two important limitations on the field. First, studies of interpretation are confined to readers' and viewers' understandings of the specific text or images forwarded by a professional narrator. Meaning is treated as something audiences construct in response to a specific message. Thus despite the audience's meaning-making capacity, current studies of audience interpretation continue to place the broader parameters of any discourse under the control of the media professional. 6 For other excellent examples of this line of research, see Ang, 1985; Bobo, 1988; Carey, 1988; Corner et al., 1990; J. Fiske and Hartley, 1978; Jensen, 1986; Livingstone and Lunt, 1994; Long, 1986; Radway, 1984; Schlesinger et al., 1992; Steiner, 1988. Croteau and Hoynes (2000), Comer (1996), and Lindlof and Grubb-Swetnam (1996) provide insightful discussions of this literature.

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Because interpretation is responsive, audience activity remains confined by the guidelines and boundaries established by the professional narrator. Second, studies of audience interpretation often politicize readers' and viewers' meaning-making activities. Many works frame audience interpretation as an act of resistance, approaching interpretation as an effort circumscribed by broader identity politics. This perspective casts readers and viewers as soldiers fighting a daily war against the power of the media industry. With each report, with each 'status quo' media script, audiences must stand poised to counter attack. Indeed, counter attacks become the only means by which audiences can carve out legitimate space for views and groups excluded in a media narrative. Media hegemony and identity politics are important dimensions of audience meaning-making. However, the construction of meaning involves other important factors as well. Moving our inquiry beyond the process of interpretation helps us to see such factors at work. 2.2. Insights afforded by studying story elaboration

The study of story elaboration provides us with two important insights on meaning-making. First, while interpretation builds meaning in response to a detailed narrative, story elaboration builds meaning in lieu of sufficient narrative material. In this way, the process takes us beyond corrections or oppositions to an existing media message. The practice finds readers and viewers shedding their role as message receivers, and functioning instead as self-appointed members of a storytelling team. Elaborators take the broad story strokes of a headline, story lead, or sound bite and, without hesitation, provide the details and background that constitute story plot and outcome. They extend or continue a story abstract, building a seemingly new and original account. Thus, story elaborators establish the parameters of a story rather than carving out space within a pre-established script. In this way, the practice provides insight into 'grassroots' narrative construction - storytelling as it occurs among non-professional narrators. Second, because story elaboration demands more than resistance to media material, the practice usually involves factors that supersede identity. The meanings established through story elaboration appear to be contextually rather than politically based. For example, some elaborations are informed by widely embraced cultural stereotypes. Others are linked to meanings established in concurrent media stories. Still others reflect readers' and viewers' expectations regarding the kind of stories routinely covered by the media. By charting elaborators' considerations of these extra-political aspects, we gain new insight into the contextually based nature of everyday knowledge production.

3. Background of the study The story elaboration study is part of a larger research project addressing the ways in which individuals think about and evaluate media-reported violence (Cerulo,

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1998). Data for this study were derived from twelve focus group discussions. Subjects in each group reviewed and discussed three newspaper and television leads, each of which described a different type of violent act.

3.1. The sample The focus groups ranged from 6 to 12 members, with a median group size of 9. Overall, a total of 109 individuals participated in the study. I recruited subjects by placing a display ad in two New Jersey daily newspapers. Thus, all individuals were self-selected and the subjects constitute a non-probability sample. Within this limitation, however, I maximized the heterogeneity of the sample by soliciting via newspapers that served highly varied populations. Thus the demographic profile of my subjects displays substantial variation with reference to age, economic status, education, gender, and race: 7 (1) Subjects ranged in age from 19 to 73, with an average age of 41. Those between the ages of 21-30 (29%) and 51-60 (26%) constituted the two largest groups in the sample. Only a small number of participants were under age 21 (5%) or over the age of 60 (6%). 8 (2) With regard to economic status, subjects classified themselves within one of five categories: upper class (6%), upper middle class (27%), middle class (46%), working class (16%), or lower class (5%). (3) Subjects' level of education ranged from some high school (10 years of education) to the advanced degree level (18 or more years of education). Those with some college exposure constituted the largest group in the sample (39%). 9 (4) The sample was nearly evenly divided with reference to gender: 54% of subjects were female and 46% were male. (5) Whites constituted the largest racial group in the sample (72%). However AfricanAmericans (19%), Asians (5%), and Hispanics (4%) also were represented. Because this study focused on media depictions of violence, I collected data on subjects' media usage habits. This information helped to locate the study's participants with reference to the media behaviors exhibited by the broader national population. Subjects' self-reports suggest that their use of media is quite similar to that reported by the U.S. population at large. In concert with the national population, subjects in the sample watch approximately three hours of television per day. ~° Sample

7 The total sample displayed great demographic variety. However, in assembling each particular group, I maintained sufficient homogeneity so as to facilitate discussion. See Morgan (1988: 46--48). Sixteen percent of subjects were between 31 and 40 years of age, while 18% of subjects were between 41 and 50 years of age. 9 In reporting their years of education, 2% of subjects reported some high school education, 16% reported a high school degree, 39% reported some college, 23% reported a college degree, and 20% reported an advanced degree. ~0 The sample mean for daily television viewing was 3.04 hours. According to the General Social Survey (1996), the general population averages 2.84 hours.

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members also report renting/viewing an average of 1 videocassette per week and attending an average of one film every two months; both statistics are aligned with national consumption patterns. ~j Reflective of the national population, subjects in my sample report reading an average of one magazine per week and slightly less than one book per month.12 Newspaper exposure, however, distinguishes the study's participants from the U.S. population at large. While a full 100% of the study's participants reported reading a newspaper daily or several times per week, only 72% of a national sample located themselves in these categories. ~3 I attribute sample members' inflated rate of newspaper exposure to my method of recruitment. Securing subjects via newspaper ads nearly assures subjects' frequent exposure to the medium.

3.2. Methodology As previously mentioned, focus group discussions revolved around newspaper and television news story leads. Leads, of course, represent the opening sentences or images of a factual account; they are designed to provide a precise, definitive statement of the action. Story leads occupied my primary analytic attention for two reasons. First, such segments are typically identified as the guiding frames of factual narratives. Indeed, most journalists argue that the lead "steers the rest of the narrative" (Harrington and Harrington, 1929: 68). Second, the media literature tells us that, more often than not, most readers and viewers confine their exposure to such material. Readers and viewers move from lead to lead, stopping for details only at those few stories that hold special interest for them. In this way story leads capture most readers' and viewers' prototypical media experience (see e.g. Bittner, 1996: 33; Cerulo, 1988, 1995: 64, 1998: Ch. 4; Clayman, 1995; Griffin, 1992; Jamieson, 1986; Maffesoli, 1996; Scheuer, 1995; Schudson, 1978; Trejo Delarbe, 1994). The story leads selected for this study addressed a variety of violent events. For example, several subjects watched a television lead detailing a barroom brawl: TEXT Matthew Snow was assaulted last night by this man, Steven Becker. The incident occurred as the m e n c o m p e t e d for the attentions o f Lily Gunther. All three were at a local club called The Bulldog

VIDEO Picture of a heavyset man in his 30s. He is wearing denim work clothes. Picture of a man in his 30's wearing casual leisure clothes. Picture of a young, attractive, blonde woman in her 20s. Picture of the entrance to a small, n e i g h b o r h o o d bar.

t~ Figures on film and video viewing are published annually by the Motion Picture Corporation of America. L2 Figures on magazine consumption are available through the Audit Bureau of Circulations. 13 National figures are taken from the General Social Survey (1996).

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Other subjects read a newspaper lead that described a police shooting: MANSFIELD, Ohio (AP) - It happened in front of PS 419 following a grueling chase that pitted police against a white male driving a stolen car. As the suspect attempted to flee the vehicle, he was shot in the foot by Officer William Mahoney. The Officer says he fired his weapon in an effort to stop the man from escaping arrest. Additional leads described an authorized public execution occurring in Pakistan, a husband-to-wife domestic assault, a parent-to-child spanking, and the public spanking of a nursery school child by her teacher. ~4 Following a group's exposure to each story lead, I asked subjects to consider and evaluate the violent event as (1) an act of justifiable violence, (2) an event too ambiguous to classify, or (3) unacceptable violence. I provided subjects with two different means for making these evaluations. The first was a five point scale, where " 1 " signified justifiable violence, and " 5 " indicated unacceptable violence. (Note that I reviewed this indicator with group members, instructing participants that ratings in the middle of the scale (3) would indicate ambiguous violence.) The scale is re-produced here: Please rate the violent act above (the execution) using the scale below: I 1 Justifiable

I 2

)

I 3 Ambiguous

4 4 ~

I 5 ~Unacceptable

Subjects also provided a categorical rating of the violence in question. Each rating sheet presented subjects with three choices for this task: lf I had to choose one word to describe this violence it would be (circle one): Unacceptable Justifiable Can't Decide When all participants had completed their written ratings, the group engaged in open discussion.15 3.3. Measuring elaboration While the leads used in this study displayed thematic differences, all leads provided four common components. Each lead furnished information on (1) who, (2) did what, (3) to whom, and (4) in what context. This structure gave readers and viewers four specific points upon which to expand. My goal was to examine these possibilities, noting both the number of story components upon which readers and viewers elaborated and the content of those elaborations. ~4 Note some technical aspects of this data. First, I prepared these leads such that half were audiovisual accounts and half were print accounts. Second, each lead was used six times over the life of the study. ~5 Focus group discussions lasted from 70-100 minutes, with an average length of 86 minutes.

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With the full permission of subjects, I created audiotapes documenting each focus group discussion. In analyzing the content of the tapes, I discovered that subjects displayed three distinct approaches to story leads.

A) No elaboration: Subjects never embellished or added information to the text and/or images before them. Rather, they reacted to and evaluated events using only the limited information provided by the professional narrator. B) Some elaboration Subjects zeroed in on one-to-two of the lead's four components (i.e. who, did what, to whom, in what context). They then elaborated on these story aspects, building a new narrative that they used to evaluate the event. C)

W i d e s p r e a d elaboration: Subjects focused on three or more of the lead's four components. Again, they elaborated on these components, creating a selfauthored story upon which to build evaluations of the event.

Reviewing some prototypical responses offered by members of each category illustrates the differences in these three elaborative practices. For example, several subjects in the study discussed a video clip reporting the public spanking of a nursery school child by her teacher. The story lead is listed here: TEXT After being accused of reckless play in a local grammar school classroom, Amy Henderson was publicly spanked today by her teacher, Joyce Williams of Bedminster, Massachusetts. The case is being reviewed by the school's principle.

VIDEO Picture of a classroom with overturned desks, paper, coats, and paint strewn throughout the room. Four year old female child sitting at desk, crying. Female, approximately 35 years old, shown addressing a class.

Characteristic of story leads, this abstract provides nothing more than four basic informational components: who, did what, to whom, in what context. Non-elaborators operated within these constraints, using only this limited information to evaluate the story. Comments from Dina, 16 a 35 year old office administrator, typify the "No Elaboration" position: "I don't have much to go on here. I don't really know why Amy did this. I don't know the teacher's frame of mind. I don't know what Amy is like. You know, the story tells me very little. If I have to make a judgement call, I guess I will. (Sighs) I guess I don't believe a teacher has the right to hit a child, so I rate Joyce Williams' actions to be unacceptable." Similarly, Matt, a 48 year old supervisor, refused to elaborate on the story lead:

~6 Subjects' names have been changed in order to protect their anonymity.

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"This is a very short clip. It says very little - almost nothing. There's too little here to go on. I'm ambivalent about the aggressive act." Widespread elaborators reacted quite differently to the spanking lead. Such subjects utilized all four components of the abstract to construct a detailed story of their own. Arnold, a sixty-one year old sales representative, illustrates the p h e n o m e n o n : "You can read many situations into this information. For example, I couldn't help but notice a teddy bear lying on the floor in the picture of the classroom after the child had disrupted the situation. Possibly, the child was abusing the toy. The teacher may have admonished her. Maybe she was instructing the child, and the child was not responding. And the teacher, perhaps wrongly, decided to give the child a spanking - a measured spanking. In other words, it was not an eruption on the part of the teacher. She was trying to teach the child something." Arnold continued: "One also wonders - perhaps the child had witnessed her father hitting his wife, and (the child) was taking out her trauma on the toys. The teacher may or may not have been alert to this situation, but she realized that the child was going berserk and she did something to stop it." Donna, a 47 year old, self-employed caterer, also elaborated on all four components of the lead. She then used her highly elaborate scenario to evaluate the incident: " I ' d say the teacher snapped. This was a kid who was always doing this type of thing. She was a brat. The teacher had put up with this day after day. She just finally snapped. I'm not saying it's right. But this Amy is a brat! You can see it. She thought this was allowable. She must be doing this kind of thing at home, the same way. And if she left her room like this, and if somebody else picked up after her - then, she always does it." Subjects engaging in ' S o m e elaboration' took a middle ground position. For example, Carol, a 52 year old teacher, indicated that she found the story lead less than informative: "It's hard to judge this incident. We aren't told anything and you don't want to read into it." Yet, as the group discussion developed, she targeted one specific component of the lead and began to build an elaborative scenario: "We don't know very much at all about what happened here. Where was the teacher ... uh, Joyce . . . . where was she through all of this? I mean, that room we saw was trashed! There are a lot of unanswered questions and you don't want to speculate. But I will say this. That Joyce must have had a short fuse. I'm sure she was inexperienced. That's no way to handle a situation like this. She must have been new to teaching." A content analysis of each focus group discussion allowed me to classify subjects within one of the three elaboration categories. To determine the reliability of m y

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coding scheme, an independent researcher re-coded 10% of the focus group discussions. Intercoder reliability was 91%.

4. Findings The data show that a majority of my focus group subjects engaged in some level of story elaboration. Fig. 1 indicates that 52% of the sample practiced widespread elaboration, and an additional 20% engaged in some elaboration. Only 28% of subjects refrained from using elaborative strategies. Note, however, that the practice of elaboration was not equally distributed across demographic lines, nor was it equally associated with the study's various story leads.

Subjects Grouped by Elaboration Level. 60 50

40,

% of 30 Sample 20

10

None -- 28%

Some-- 20%

Widespread -- 52%

Elaboration Level Fig. 1. Does elaboration occur?

4.1. Who elaborates?

In these data, story elaboration systematically varied with reference to subjects' social profiles. Subjects of different ages, economic classes, education levels, genders, and races exhibited different elaborative practices. For example, story elaborators were concentrated in certain age groups. Table 1 shows that 82% of the 31-40 age group, 64% of the 51-60 age group, and 56% of the 21-30 age group engaged

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in widespread elaboration. In contrast, only 50% of those over 60, 45% of those 41-50, and 13% of those under 21 practiced widespread elaboration. ~7 (See Table 1 for more detail.) Table 1 Elaboration levels by age groups Age

Under 21 21-30 31-40 41-50 51--60 Over 60

Elaboration levels

Total

None

Some

Widespread

37% 19% 18% 45% 25% 33%

50% 25% 0% 10% 11% 17%

13% 56% 82% 45% 64% 50%

100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

(N = 30)

(N = 22)

(N = 57)

(N = 109)

(N = 6) (N = 32) (N --- 17) (N = 20) (N = 28) (N = 6)

Table 2 Elaboration levels by economic class Social class

Lower Working Middle Upper middle Upper

Elaboration levels

Total

None

Some

Widespread

0% 11% 24% 44% 67%

40% 17% 16% 23% 33%

60% 72% 60% 33% 0%

100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

(N = 30)

(N = 22)

(N = 57)

(N = 109)

(N = (N = (N = (N = (N =

5) 18) 50) 30) 6)

Table 3 Elaboration levels by education.Education level

< H.S. H.S. degree Some college College degree Graduate degree

Elaboration levels

Total

None

Some

Widespread

0% 18% 0% 40% 32%

33% 0% 45% 8% 27%

67% 82% 55% 52% 41%

100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

(N = 30)

(N = 22)

(N = 57)

(N = 109)

(N (N (N (N (N

= = = = =

3) 17) 42) 25) 22)

~7 Subjects self-reported their ages. For these data, Chi-square = 18.90; p < .05. Because this sample is a non-probability sample, the statistical tests of significance provided here should be viewed simply as tools for assessing noteworthy trends in the sample data. However, one cannot use these data to make inferences about a broader population.

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Table 4 Elaboration levels by gender Elaboration levels

Total

Gender

None

Some

Widespread

Female Male

20% 38%

24% 16%

56% 46%

100% (N = 59) 100% (N = 50)

(N = 30)

(N = 22)

(N = 57)

(N = 109)

Table 5 Elaboration levels by race Race

African American Asian Hispanic White

Elaboration levels

Total

None

Some

Widespread

19% 0% 0% 33%

38% 40% 0% 18%

43% 60% 100% 49%

100% 100% 100% 100%

(N = 30)

(N = 22)

(N = 57)

(N = 109)

(N = (N = (N = (N =

78) 21 ) 5) 5)

The practice of elaboration also varied by economic class. Note that 60-70% of subjects in the lower, working, or middle class engaged in widespread elaboration. In contrast, only 33% of upper middle class subjects and 0% of upper class subjects adopted this practice, t8 (See Table 2 for more detail.) Education bore an inverse relationship to subjects' use of story elaboration. Less than 20% of those with less than a college degree refrained from some form of elaboration. In contrast, one third or more of those with a college or post college degree refrained from elaborative practices. (See Table 3 for more detail), t9 The data revealed significant gender differences in the practice of story elaboration. Table 4 shows that 56% of female subjects engaged in widespread story elaboration, while only 47% of males adopted the practice. Further, note that male subjects were nearly twice as likely as female subjects to completely refrain from elaborating the stories presented to them in focus groups. (See Table 4 for more detail.) 2° Elaborative practices also varied by race. According to Table 5, Hispanics and Asians were most likely to engage in story elaboration. Indeed, 100% of Hispanic ~s Subjects self-classified their economic class using one of the five categories provided. For these data, Chi-square = 18.82; p < 0.05. t9 Subjects self-classified their level of education using one of the five categories provided. For these data, Chi-square = 25.98; p < 0.01. 20 Subjects self-reported their gender. For these data, Chi-square = 4.33; p < 0.05.

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subjects and 67% of Asian subjects practiced widespread elaboration. Black and White subjects were much less likely to engage in widespread elaboration (43% and 49% respectively), with 33% of white subjects refraining completely from all active story construction. (See Table 5 for more detail.). 2~ What explains the elaboration choices made by those with different social profiles? To answer that question, we must consider an important aspect of social location. Specifically, we must examine the social location adopted by professional narrators relative to that occupied by different audience members. Journalism and media scholars argue that most media materials reflect a society's dominant cultural values and goals. In the U.S., for example, professional narrators most often adopt upper-middle class, college educated, generally white, often male, often youth-oriented interests (see e.g. Baran and Davis, 2000). Consider this claim in light of the non-elaborator's social profile. My data suggest that members of this group are most likely to share professional narrators' interests (see tables 1-5). Professional narrators and non-elaborators occupy a similar cultural mindset; their common cultural background helps to constitute a sense of cognitive 'we-ness'. As such, professional narrators and non-elaborators may find themselves 'on the same page', making audience elaboration a needless contribution to the communication process. Now consider the social profile of the elaborators in my study - particularly the widespread elaborators. In so doing, one finds a very different relationship in the making. The elaborator's social profile stands in contrast to that adopted by professional narrators; their profile suggests a set of interests at odds with those of the professional narrator. Such discrepancies establish considerable social distance between elaborators and professional narrators, and this distance may be at the heart of one's decision to elaborate. Story elaboration may represent a tool of involvement in the media experience; the practice may offer some sectors of the audience a vehicle by which to close the sender-receiver gap. 4.2. What role does theme play in elaborative practices ? Individuals occupying certain social locations are more likely than others to engage in elaboration. But what of the material that stimulates elaboration? Are certain themes more likely than others to trigger the practice? I examined subjects' elaborations with reference to the various themes presented in the six story leads. The data suggest that certain violent themes were associated with more audience activity than others. For example, 100% of subjects elaborated on the parental spanking lead. No one refrained from continuing that particular narrative. Similarly, 86% of subjects elaborated on the barroom brawl lead; only 14% of subjects refrained from continuing that story. Contrast these patterns with subjects' treatment of the remaining themes. Only 61% of subjects elaborated on the husband-to-wife assault lead; a sizable group - 39% - failed to continue that narrative. Similarly, sizable groups of subjects

21

Subjects self-reported their race. For these data, Chi-square = 12.53; p = 0.05.

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Table 6 Elaboration levels by story themes Themes

Barroom brawl Husb/wife assault Parental spanking Police shooting Public execution Teacher/Student

Elaboration levels

Total

None

Some

Widespread

15% 39% 0% 27% 23% 33%

37% 5% 43% 15% 28% 16%

49% 56% 57% 58% 49% 51%

100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

(N= 75)

(N = 79)

(N = 173)

(N= 327)

(N = (N = (N = (N = (N = (N =

54) 54) 55) 55) 55) 54)

refrained from elaborating on the leads devoted to the nursery school spanking, the police shooting, and the public execution (33%, 27%, and 23% respectively). 2z To be sure, this research dealt with a limited number of topics. Different violent themes, as well as themes beyond the realm of violence, may have a varying impact on subjects' propensity to elaborate. Nevertheless, the present findings do establish an important point. Readers' and viewers' use of elaboration is not automatic. Rather, the practice is differentially applied within various thematic contexts. Future studies must explore the factors that link theme to elaborative practices, for story elaboration may be a function of broader experiential patterns. For example, a theme's familiarity may be linked to elaborative practices. The more or less familiar a topic, the more or less likely audience members may be to practice elaboration. Similarly, direct experience with a particular theme may also be related to elaborative practices. The greater one's actual contact with the subject matter, the more likely one may be to engage in elaboration. Clearly, a variety of empirically base questions surround the relationship between story theme and the practice of elaboration. Additional research is required if we are to fully understand the ways in which audiences interact with thematic materials.

4.3. Conventions of story elaboration For professional narrators, storytelling is a systematic, patterned activity. An important literature documents the conventions that guide professional narrators in the inclusion and exclusion of narrative material, the emphasis versus de-emphasis of information, the relationship of content to dramatic climax, and parallel positioning of story content and general cultural myths. 23 z2 Chi-square = 45.82; p < 0.001. 23 James Carey, David Eason, John Fiske, Michael Gurevitch, Michael Schudson, and Gaye Tuchman have made critical contributions to this literature. See Cerulo (1998: Ch. 4) for an extensive review of this literature.

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The present study suggests that audience members too are guided by strict storytelling conventions. When engaged in story elaboration, subjects uniformly invoked certain storytelling tools - strategies of action that directed the ways in which elaborators continued the narratives before them. These tools included the intensification of detail, the application of widely embraced cultural stereotypes, the integration of concurrent media stories, and the use of personal experience. The prevalence of these conventions suggests that story elaboration, like professional narration, is an orderly process. Elaborators invoke specific cultural frames and scripts, using them as tools that facilitate the creation of new narrative material. Intensification o f detail: When faced with the brevity and sketchiness so characteristic of story leads, elaborators asserted their presence by coloring and shading the information before them. Consider this sparse account of a public execution: PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) Two Pakistani men were executed today by the relatives of their murder victims. The two men were previously convicted for the murders. Crowds of thousands looked on, many shouting please for mercy. The executions were in accord with Islamic law. This story lead presented a mere outline of the event. However, elaborators provided specifics and particulars by intensifying various components of the account. For example, Maggie, a 31 year-old editor, built her story by intensifying the image of the criminals and their executioners: "When I read this story, I definitely saw the victims as small, huddled together, dark hair, bearded, and poor - poor with ragged clothing. I saw the crowd as angry. They were closed in around them (the victims), and throwing stones at them. I saw a lot of women and I think it's because when I saw the word relatives, I thought of wives and mothers. It was polarized for me. I completely forgot about the pleas for mercy. I didn't see tears of participation. I saw one angry crowd all intent on killing these men." Lily, a 30 year old lab assistant followed a similar strategy, intensifying details on victims, perpetrators, and setting: "I saw a crying mother, and the son and father of the peopled murdered were doing the killing. The convicted murderers were being overwhelmed by a large crowd of people - 100 to 200 people at least. It was hot and dusty. There was lots of screaming, crying - people throwing themselves on the ground." David, a 21 year-old undergraduate, adopted the same approach: "The guys being executed - I pictured their victims as children, so I pictured the people doing the shooting as being parents or close relatives, like maybe sisters or brothers. I pictured a courtyard with a lot of people encouraging the act. I saw the executioners as older. They were definitely older. It was sunrise, and in the midst of quiet came this cloud of chaos." Elaborators greatly intensified the details of other leads as well. Recall the barroom brawl story:

K.A. Cerulo / Poetics 28 (2000) 21-45 TEXT Matthew Snow was assaulted last night by this man, Steven Becker. The incident occurred as the men competed for the attentions of Lily Gunther. All three were at a local club called The Bulldog

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VIDEO Picture of a heavyset man in his 30s. He is wearing denim work clothes. Picture of a man in his 30's wearing casual leisure clothes. Picture of a young, attractive, blonde woman in her 20s. Picture of the entrance to a small, neighborhood bar.

This lead provided only a sketchy portrait. But elaborators took each of the story lead's components, and provided the thick description that brought the event to life. For example, Bill, a 31 year old librarian said: "This was a big, big bar. Steve and Matthew were probably driving big trucks and drinking bottled Bud. It's a bar where people get drunk. The big guy through the first punch. The victim had to retaliate." Similarly, Blanche, a 43 year old secretary, said: I saw them (Matthew and Steve) both as big. They were big and they had denim jackets with cut-offs. Lily was scantily clad and she had too much make-up on. Lily was not involved. She was sitting there minding her own business. The guys may have been competing for her attention, but she wasn't having any part of it. The way I saw it, Lily was sitting, facing the bar, head in her glass. The two men were behind her. A full 100% of elaborators engaged in the intensification of detail. Via this strategy, readers and viewers produced telescopic portraits from professional narrators' wide-angle images. These portraits were rich and highly specific. But because elaborators used the original narrative as a mere springboard, elaborations were sometimes only loosely related to the originally reported event. Applying cultural stereotypes: The intensification of detail requires an informational source from which subjects can draw their material. A large majority of the elaborators in my sample (81%) used widely embraced cultural stereotypes for this purpose. Consider, for example, subjects' discussion of the police shooting story. Recall the story lead: MANSFIELD, Ohio (AP) - It happened in front of PS 419 following a grueling chase that pitted police against a white male driving a stolen car. As the suspect attempted to flee the vehicle, he was shot in the foot by Officer William Mahoney. The Officer says he fired his weapon in an effort to stop the man from escaping arrest. Several subjects embraced an 'it's a jungle out there' stereotype, using it as a foundation for their elaborations. Stories emerging from this stereotype focused primarily on the alleged car thief. The suspect's actions were used to concretize and verify all of the behaviors typically linked to deteriorating social order. As such, the alleged

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car thief functioned as a legitimating symbol, one that clearly signified the need for stricter social control. C o m m e n t s from Janet, a 49 year old w o m a n on disability, illustrate this line of thinking: "He (Officer Mahoney) tried everything, it sounded like. It's his job to stop him (the suspect) and get him. The suspect probably ran red lights. He probably killed people on the way to the school. He could have been planning to hurt the kids in the school. The officer had to stop him. This guy was breaking the law. Why shouldn't he be shot at? He was no clean cut 'Mr. Nice Guy'. God knows how many crimes he'd already committed. It probably went well beyond just a stolen car. You don't know, maybe he murdered a suspect. Maybe he stole the car fleeing from the scene of a murder. The poor cops are faced with hundreds like this guy every day." Charlie, a 60 year old retired bus depot worker, provided a similar elaboration: "The police officer is a good guy. He's just trying to preserve some order. He just wanted to wound the carjacker - to stop him. It was a grueling car chase. This guy wanted to get away. And he would have done anything to get away. You know how people like this are. It's a new world, baby. If the cop tells somebody like this to stop, he's gonna keep going anyway. If he had a gun, he probably would have gotten out of the car and come after the cop. That's how it goes these days." Other elaborators invoked a 'police brutality' stereotype in completing this lead. Here, subjects focused on the officer's intentions and motives while de-emphasizing the actions of the alleged suspect. Consider c o m m e n t s from Robert, a 33 year old carpenter: "I saw the suspect as skinny and scared. The kid was definitely confused, and he was probably innocent. I saw the cop as older, lazy, gray hair, pink cheeks, flushed from running. The officer says he fired his gun because the suspect was attempting to flee. I'm suspicious of the officer. I think the officer is making things up here. The man was already guilty in the officer's eye. The policeman shot. He didn't care where he hit the guy." Jill, a 35 year old sales manager, used the police brutality stereotype to build her story as well: "I had the image of a cop obsessed with 'bad guys'. The suspect was apparently unarmed, yet the cop came on like gangbusters. He just shot, without saying stop. He didn't give the suspect a chance to surrender." Active cultural stereotypes appeared in elaborations o f other story leads as well. In discussion o f the barroom brawl story, for example, elaborators frequently launched their accounts from negative stereotypes o f the working class. Nancy, a 27 year old engineer, said: Frankly, I decided all of these people were working class. I don't think they would have recognized a better solution if they saw one. I think the woman was kind of enjoying this, like

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the attention. The women looked like she was enjoying the two guys fighting over her. She was probably the perpetrator of the whole thing. She was probably sleeping with both of them. And Todd, a 36 year old graphic artist noted: "The guys seemed like pretty happy guys, not threatening in their general lives. It was just the bar setting that brought this out. The guys had a hard day on the construction site. They both walked up to her; they both tried to pick her up. One guy was staking a claim, another challenged him and there it went. Two big, dumb, 'he-men' needing to stake their claim." Elaborators' comments suggest that widespread cultural stereotypes represent one source of story elaborations. These stereotypes provide subjects with a body of 'knowledge' upon which to anchor their contributions to a narrative. Once selecting a specific stereotype from the available cultural repertoire, subjects use the stereotype as a guide, allowing them to 'fill in the blanks' of an account. Integrating c o n c u r r e n t media stories: High profile news events provided another resource for subjects' story elaborations. Indeed, 60% of the elaborators in my sample couched the details of their elaborations in the 'hot topics' of the day. The data provide several examples of this strategy. Consider a story lead devoted to a husband-to-wife assault:. TEXT Mary Waiters of Baltimore, MD suffered several injuries, including a black eye, when she was assaulted by her husband John Waiters.

The assault allegedly occurred when Mr. Waiters learned of his wife's affair with this man, Brian Sommers.

VISUAL Picture of a young female, approximately 25 years of age 5'8" and 130 lbs. A portrait style picture presents her at home, in a reclined position. Picture of a heavy set male, approximately 35 years of age, 6" and 190 lbs. A portrait style picture presents him at work in a seafront area. Picture of a male construction worker, approximately 35 years of age, 6' and 175 lbs. The picture presents him on the job, turning away from the camera.

When elaborating on the lead, subjects liberally borrowed from the recent OJ Simpson murder trial. John, a 48 year old factory worker, had this to say: "This case reminds me of the OJ trial. This guy's just like OJ. OK, these two were still married, but in essence, the guy was jealous over another man and he went berserk and beat up on his wife. If he hadn't been arrested, he probably would have gone after Brian Sommers as well." Beatrice, a 59 year old secretary, anchored her elaborations in the OJ Simpson case as well:

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"I have one word for you: OJ. When you hear about a case like this, it's still hard to think about anything else. But it's all jealousy. It was that way with him (OJ), and it's that way in this story. Some men still treat their women as property and they don't want anyone else messing with their property." Concurrent news stories informed subjects' elaborations of other leads as well. Recall the public execution story: PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) Two Pakistani men were executed today by the relatives of their murder victims. The two men were previously convicted for the murders. Crowds of thousands looked on, many shouting please for mercy. The executions were in accord with Islamic law. Several subjects referred to the Timothy M c V e i g h case in continuing this lead. Note these comments from Sue, a 51 year old secretary: "I believe in capital punishment. Just like that McVeigh guy. He deserves to die. He probably never will, but - that's another story. Anyway, that's the same thing with this execution. These guys were tried. They were found guilty. They did the killing. Now they deserve to die. They probably killed children too - innocent people - just like McVeigh." And in elaborating on the police shooting story (previously presented), Millie, a 42 year old accountant, referred to a recent, local police case as evidence for her claims: "This cop didn't do anything wrong. You know, you've got to have lots of respect for cops. Granted, there are some bad ones. But as a whole, they take a lot. This story reminds me of that case in _ _ (town name omitted). Does anybody remember it? The cop was accused of shooting this woman in the leg, and everybody made such a big thing about it. But, you know, that woman had AIDS ... and she bit him (the cop). As far as I'm concerned, that's murder. That cop is gonna have to live with that year after year. He tried to break free from her and that's why he shot her. She wouldn't let go of him and then she bit him and he couldn't get her teeth out of his finger. Finally, he shot her in the leg, you know, to free himself. That's self-defense. That's how I feel about this case. You don't know what this guy was up to. He's running away. He probably had a gun. Maybe he was a drug addict. Maybe he had AIDS. The cop was just protecting himself." For the elaborators in m y sample, concurrent news stories provided a reference point by which to build new accounts. As subjects struggled to complete and continue sparse story leads, high profile cases o f the day provided models with which to organize the facts at hand. Subjects simply changed the names and faces of the high visibility players, thus acquiring credible scripts that supported their new scenarios. P e r s o n a l experience: Professional narrators are encouraged to maintain objectivity in their reporting. In their efforts to remain impartial, such narrators typically exclude personal experiences from the storytelling process. Contrast this stance with that adopted by most story elaborators. For 71% of the elaborators in m y sample, personal experiences helped to guide the direction in which a story elaboration evolved. Elaborators linked aspects o f a story lead to current life events or significant events

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in their pasts. In this way, personal experience provided elaborators with context; such experiences gave elaborators a perspective with which to drive their new accounts. Personal experiences played a prominent role in subjects' elaborations o f the teacher-student spanking story. Recall the story lead: TEXT After being accused of reckless play in a local grammar school classroom, Amy Henderson was publicly spanked today by her teacher, Joyce Williams of Bedminster, Massachusetts. The case is being reviewed by the school's principle.

VIDEO Picture of a classroom with overturned desks, paper, coats, and paint strewn throughout the room. Four year old female child sitting at desk, crying. Female, approximately 35 years old, shown addressing a class.

Michele, a 22 year old student, tied her elaboration to materials she was currently reviewing in one o f her college courses: "I started wondering why Amy did this. I'm taking this abnormal psych class right now, (laughs) ... no really, and I'm sitting here thinking about all these disorders and of what might be wrong with this girl. I think it's very likely that Amy has an emotional disorder, and it's making her react in this way. And Joyce too. She's obviously reacting from severe frustration, so she's kind of deviant as well." In another instance, Melanie, an accountant in her thirties, used a childhood experience as the foundation for her elaboration: "I can't believe this, (laughs) but I find myself right now actually thinking about my father and mother and the way in which they punished me as a child. I hated it when my parents would hit me in public. It was, well ... so humiliating. Maybe this teacher was a bit too strict or sort of cruel to the students. Amy may be reacting to that kind of treatment ... Well, granted she's over-reacting, but there's that kind of humiliation element here." Danny, a 21 year old student, related a personal family event to the teacher-student spanking story: I have these two cousins, and ... well, they're ... they're just bad, really bad kids. They're out of control. And there are times when I feel like hitting them. That's what's going on here. This Amy. I think she's just a really bad kid. I mean, look at what she did to that room. I think you could tell her and tell her to stop doing this or that and she wouldn't pay the least bit of attention to you. She's just bad. I would hate to see her house, because she probably does this kind of thing all the time ... just wild, trashing stuff and not listening to anybody. Elaborators weaved their personal experiences into other story leads as well. Note the way in which John, a 22 year old college student, brought his personal experiences to the socially distant setting of a Pakistani execution:

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"I kinda related this whole thing - as if they (the prisoners) were two, like, young adults. I compared it to maybe a scenario - like here in the United States. Like they did something stupid. Maybe they just happened to like, like they didn't murder purposely, like they murdered because say it was a robbery and they ended up murdering and they were sorry about it. They murdered people, but like they didn't mean for it to happen. I could imagine that happening with some of the guys I grew up with. Like, they do bad things, but they're not really bad deep inside. I know that sounds weird." Finally, consider this lead, the introduction to a feature story on parental spanking: The crystal vase lay in pieces on the floor. It was inevitable. The children had been told on countless occasions not to play ball in the dining room. But today, Brian disobeyed his parents' directions. That's why Brian's father paddled him when he arrived home and discovered the mess. Russ, a 32 year old high school teacher, used his daily encounters to continue this lead: Brian, Brian, Brian. You know, I have kids like this in my classes. No matter what you tell them, you know they're going to end up doing something stupid. This Brian sounds something like that. He just didn't think before he acted. He probably deserved a spanking, although I wouldn't advocate paddling. But I think I'd loose my cool over a kid doing something stupid like this. And Pat, a 48 year old nurse, built her elaboration by delving into her childhood: "Oh boy, this sounds familiar. My sister and I did something like this when we were kids. So I can tell you that Brian's really a decent kid. When you're 5 or 6 years old - well, I'm assuming he's just a little kid - you don't consider consequences. It's not that you're mean or evil. You're just a kid. Brian probably just got carried away. He was having fun with his brother or with some friends, he started showing off, and before he knew it, something bad had happened." These examples highlight the role of the ' I ' in elaborative practices. The data show that personal biography provides readers and viewers with unique story-building material. At the same time, the u s e of personal experience represents a sociological phenomenon. Reaching into one's past or one's private sphere for narrative direction constitutes a storytelling convention that non-professional storytellers utilize openly and frequently.

5. Discussion and conclusion At present, research on the active audience focuses exclusively on the process of interpretation. This study, however, alerts us to another relevant phenomenon: story elaboration. Story elaboration stands in contrast to interpretive activity. When

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engaged in the practice, media users move beyond a professional narrator's text and image. Like members of a relay running team, story elaborators take the narrative baton of the professional communicator and they carry that baton, aggressively forging their own communication route. This study suggests that story elaboration is a widespread practice. The data also show that elaboration is a patterned phenomenon. For example, a clear social profile distinguishes elaborators from non-elaborating subjects. Certain themes also are more frequently associated with the phenomenon than others. Finally, specific storytelling strategies inform subjects' elaborations. Elaborators intensify detail, apply cultural stereotypes, integrate concurrent media stories, and weave personal experiences into their accounts. Thus elaborators, like others who create stories (e.g. journalists, filmmakers, authors, etc.), follow strict conventions in building their messages. To be sure, my subjects do not constitute a random sample. Consequently, these findings are exploratory and cannot be generalized beyond the scope of this project. However, if these patterns are replicated using a larger probability sample, they would raise important considerations for the ways in which we conceptualize mass communication. Consider that dominant mass communication models cast participants in single and strictly defined roles. Trained professionals occupy the role of sender; untrained readers and viewers occupy the role of receiver. Further, when current models focus on audience generated information, that information typically is defined as 'feedback'. The information is treated as responsive and directed solely toward the original message sender. The parameters I have just described suggest a closed and strictly ordered communication loop. In this loop, senders initiate interaction and provide the system's primary information. Audience members provide auxiliary information which ultimately falls under the sender's full control. The study of story elaboration, however, suggests a different mechanic at work. This is because the practice casts audience members in a dual role. Elaborators continue to function as receivers of professional constructed messages. But via elaboration, these individuals function as message senders as well - senders transmitting not to the original source, but to audiences of their own. In this way, story elaboration fractures the communication loop, creating instead a communication chain. In such chains, information moves beyond its original target. Messages are extended by the elaborator, and in the process, they become broader, more varied, and f l u i d . 24 Because elaboration is not a universal practice, we must consider a communication environment in which both closed loop and information chain models co-exist.

24 The Two-Step Flow theory, popular in the 1940s, promoted the notion of an information chain. However the operation of that chain proved quite different from the image I am promoting here. In the Two-Step Flow theory, receivers became transmitters only if they possessed specialized knowledge in a particular field. Such individuals, labeled as Opinion Leaders, served as intermediaries between sender and target. Opinion leaders engaged in the translation of media material, not the original construction of media messages. And while they expedited the diffusion of a sender's message; they did not broaden or surpass the sender's original target.

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Such an environment presents us with a series of important research questions. For example, what social and cultural conditions favor one model over another? What are the relative pros and cons of each mode of transmission? Under what social and cultural conditions are the effects of each model maximized? Clearly, patient empirical inquiry will be needed to dissect these complex issues.

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Lindlof, T.R. and A. Grubb-Swetnam, 1996. Seeking a path of greater resistance: The self becoming method. In: D. Grodin and T. R. Lindlof (eds.), Constructing the self in a mediated world, 179-205. Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage. Livingstone, S. and P. Lunt, 1994. Talk on television. London: Routledge. Long, E., 1986. Women, reading, and cultural authority: Some implications of the audience perspective in cultural studies. American Quarterly 38,591-612. Lull, J., 1988. World families watch television. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Maffesoli, M., 1996. The time of the tribes: The decline of individualism in mass society. (D. Smith, trans.). London: Sage. Morgan, D.L., 1988. Focus groups as qualitative research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Morley, D., 1980. The nationwide audience. London: British Film Institute. Morley, D., 1992. Television, audiences, and cultural studies. London: Routledge. Press, A., 1991. Women watching television: Gender, class, and generation in the american television experience. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Radway, J., 1984. Reading the romance. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. Scheuer, J., 1995. The television thing. Dissent 42 (Summer), 299-301. Schlesinger, P., R.E. Dobash, R. P. Dobash and C. Weaver, 1992. Women viewing violence. London: British Film Institute. Schudson, M., 1978. Discovering the news. New York: Basic. Shibutani, T., 1966. Improvised news: A social study of rumor. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill. Steiner, L., 1988. Oppositional recoding as an act of resistance. Critical Studies in Mass Communication 5(1), 1-15. Trejo Delarbe, R., 1994. Videopolitics vs. mediocracy? The media and the democratic culture. Revista Mexicana de Sociologia 51 : 211-255.

Karen A. Cerulo (Ph.D. Princeton University) is Associate Professor of Sociology at Rutgers Univer-

sity. Her research interests include media and technology, symbol systems, and culture and cognition. Professor Cerulo's articles appear in a wide variety of journals and annuals including the American Sociological Review, Annual Review of Sociology, Social Forces, Sociological Forum, Sociological Inquiry, and Communication Research. She also is the author of Deciphering violence: The cognitive order of right and wrong (Routledge: 1998) and Identity designs: The sights and sounds of a nation - winner of these Culture Section's 'Best Book Award, 1996'" (The Rose Book series of the ASA, Rutgers University Press: 1995). Second thoughts: Seeing conventional wisdom through the sociological eye (a book co-authored with Janet M. Ruane) was just released in its second edition (Pine Forge/Sage: 2000). Currently, she is at work on a new book entitled Individualism ... Pro-tern: The scripting of American social relations.