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Ranjana Das

University of Leicester, Media and Communication, Faculty Member

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Using collaborative resources from a multi-country network I direct, I research and write, broadly speaking, about the social, cultural and interpretive outcomes of audiences, users and creators, engaging with a rapidly transforming digital and mobile media landscape.

Against this backdrop, three specific strands of research in my portfolio include the (1) mediation of early years parenting in a digital/networked landscape, (2) and public communication and controversy in 'multicultural' Western democracies (3) young people between 11-18 and their capabilities in an complex and mediated environment.

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Sonia Livingstone

London School of Economics and Political Science

Vítor Reia-Baptista

Universidade do Algarve

Shakuntala Banaji

London School of Economics and Political Science

David Buckingham

Loughborough University

UCL Institute of Education

Rebekah Willett

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Birmingham City University

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Papers by Ranjana Das

PUBLIC ATTITUDES, TASTES AND STANDARDS A Review of the Available Empirical Research A Report for BBC

by Ranjana Das and Sonia Livingstone

Soap Operas and Telenovelas

Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture, 2011

Digital youth, diversity and heterogeneity

In a rapidly diversifying media environment, where children and young peo-ple commute rapidly bet... more

Interpretation: from audiences to user

In this thesis I primarily address those within media and communications studies who research mas... more

Interpretation/Reception

Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets, 2000

New Genres – New Roles for the Audience? : An Overview of Recent Research

The task of interpretation

An appropriate inheritance: On being, and not being – An audience researcher

International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 2014

POLIS media and family report

Public attitudes, tastes and standards: a review of the available empirical research

2. SUMMARY.......................................................................................... more 2. SUMMARY.......................................................................................................... 4 Aims ...................... ................................................................... ... ... 3. AUDIENCE ATTITUDES TOWARDS TASTE AND STANDARDS.............. 6 Review of the Empirical Evidence.......................................................... ...

(with Sonia Livingstone) Existential Field 8: Media, Communication and Information Technologies in the European Family

by Ranjana Das and Sonia Livingstone

There are four key stages to the project. The first is to chart and review the major trends of co... more There are four key stages to the project. The first is to chart and review the major trends of comparative family research in the EU in 8 'Existential Fields' (EF). The second is to critically review existing research on the family, and the third is to build on our understanding of existing issues affecting families and predict future conditions and challenges facing them. The final stage is to bring the results and findings of the previous three stages together, and propose key scientific research questions about families to be tackled with future EU research funding.

Meaning at the interface: New genres, new modes of interpretative engagement

As audience reception scholars commute from audiences to literacies, both of which share the conc... more As audience reception scholars commute from audiences to literacies, both of which share the concept of interpretation, this article sets out to draw together themes around the changing nature of interpretive work, from 6 texts that have reflected recently, in different ways, on interpretation in new media environments. In reviewing a multithreaded conversation across 4 books from literacy studies, media and communications, and user studies, I select 2 essays, written at a crucial moment for reception studies, to provide her a narrative. Speaking from diverse fields, these works suggest a widespread agreement that there is a need to rethink terminologies and concepts from mass-mediated communication in the age of interactive media, not because they no longer prove useful, but because they provide constructive intellectual challenges in thinking through the changing natures of texts and readers, genres and interpretation, literacies, and legibilities, as we await new modes every day, for all of these, but also perhaps, new modes of interpretative engagement.

Converging perspectives in audience studies and digital literacies

Engaging with a set of ideas proposed in an article published in this journal in 2004, this artic... more Engaging with a set of ideas proposed in an article published in this journal in 2004, this article transposes concepts from one mediated condition to another, as it applies selected theories from audience reception studies to research on media and digital literacies. In approaching multi-method qualitative data from a project that researched youthful digital literacies on social networking sites, the article presents a discussion on anticipations of genre and modes of interpretative engagement. It is concluded that the text-reader framework of audience reception studies pushes the digital literacies discussion away from treating literacies as practical skills, encouraging a critical examination of people's interpretative engagement with media texts. By doing this, the article also explores how concepts lying at the core of the reception studies repertoire need to be retained and revised in the age of the internet.

The end of audiences?: theoretical echoes of reception amid the uncertainties of use Book section

by Ranjana Das and Sonia Livingstone

The task of interpretation: Children walking facebook streets

In this paper, I ask in what ways our knowledge about the interpretation of genres, emergent from... more In this paper, I ask in what ways our knowledge about the interpretation of genres, emergent from many decades of empirical research with mass media audiences, is useful in understanding engagement with new media. This conceptual task is pursued empirically by applying a conceptual repertoire derived from reception analysis to interviews with youthful users of the online genre of social networking sites (SNSs). A conceptual repertoire from audience reception studies is used to analyse findings from conversations with children using the online genre of social networking sites. Drawing a parallel between audience interpretation and new media use, in this paper, the roles, responsibilities and tasks involved in navigating an online genre are outlined with the help of four mutually intersecting categories. The tasks are those of collaboration, critique, intertextuality and tackling textual interruptions, and their borders interact in messy relationships. The interpretative contract which symbolises a relationship of mutuality between text and reader, media and audience, technology and user, is mobilized to conclude that there are significant parallels between audience reception and new media use, at both theoretical and empirical levels.

Children reading an online genre: Heterogeneity in interpretative work

In this article, a conceptual repertoire from audience reception studies is mobilized to interpre... more In this article, a conceptual repertoire from audience reception studies is mobilized to interpret findings from conversations with children navigating the online genre of social networking sites. Divergence and consensus across age, in children's perception of authorial presence and intention, perceptions of other readers/users, and their collection of stories around the text, is indicated with the use of a repertoire derived from many decades of research with audience reception analysis. It is concluded that the act of interpretation was always one that involved a range of responsibilities (literacies) on the part of the audience/spectator and in the case of textually unstable, immersive media, new media literacies as interpretive work continue to involve a range of responsibilities in navigating textual conventions, figuring out opportunities, coping with contextual resources and restraints, and tackling interruptions in the text.

To be No. 1 in someone's eyes! Children's introspections about close relationships in reading Harry potter

Audience aesthetics and responses to popular culture genres which were once considered low brow h... more Audience aesthetics and responses to popular culture genres which were once considered low brow have now long occupied the interests of the academy. This is a point to be taken seriously especially within children's literature circles, where reading and reception is often generalised about under the theoretical umbrella of 'the reader' and 'the spectator' who is 'drawn' into a range of largely unproven pathways by the text. This article explores youthful perceptions of real-life, close relationships, the projection of these relationships onto those seen in the media text and the resulting mediation of relationship ideals, desires and wishes. Analysing data from fieldwork with teen audiences of the Harry Potter series, this article argues that there is more to the mediation of relationships than the undoubtedly rich discussions of the media bringing people together at the moment of reception/use, whether online or offline. The findings presented in the article reveal the intricate and often perplexing ways in which children continue to introspect long after the act of reception, drawing parallels between relationships in their own lives and those they read about or view. The article draws attention to the introspective depth with which children use screen/text relationships as raw material to ponder emotional questions, ones, for instance, on love, hate, detachment, attachment and friendship, and the many ways the media mediate real-life relationships not by setting unreachable ideals to emulate but by offering interpretive pathways.

An appropriate inheritance

Is there an author behind this text? A literary aesthetic driven approach to interactive media

by Ranjana Das and Tereza Pavlickova

In this paper we employ a conceptual repertoire from philosophical hermeneutics and literary aest... more In this paper we employ a conceptual repertoire from philosophical hermeneutics and literary aesthetics to examine people's expectations of and trust in interactive media. Drawing on data from two projects, first, with young professionals on their perceptions of the informational value of various media, and second, with youthful users of the online genre of social networking sites, we present findings on perceptions of authorial presence and constructions of an imagined author. We conclude that an (imagined) author plays a key role in media users' ability to critically use interactive media and evaluate the relevance and reliability of media content, rather than functioning as an authoritative originator of the meaning. We argue that this is important not only for contemporary research in critical digital literacies, but also for the intrinsic importance of trust in any act of communicative engagement. Interactive media and interpretive users Amidst the diversity of approaches which have informed reception studies, it seems evident that audience studies is primarily interested in how meaning is produced in a

After the excitement: An introduction to the work of CEDAR

PUBLIC ATTITUDES, TASTES AND STANDARDS A Review of the Available Empirical Research A Report for BBC

by Ranjana Das and Sonia Livingstone

Soap Operas and Telenovelas

Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture, 2011

Digital youth, diversity and heterogeneity

In a rapidly diversifying media environment, where children and young peo-ple commute rapidly bet... more

Interpretation: from audiences to user

In this thesis I primarily address those within media and communications studies who research mas... more

Interpretation/Reception

Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets, 2000

New Genres – New Roles for the Audience? : An Overview of Recent Research

The task of interpretation

An appropriate inheritance: On being, and not being – An audience researcher

International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 2014

POLIS media and family report

Public attitudes, tastes and standards: a review of the available empirical research

2. SUMMARY.......................................................................................... more 2. SUMMARY.......................................................................................................... 4 Aims ...................... ................................................................... ... ... 3. AUDIENCE ATTITUDES TOWARDS TASTE AND STANDARDS.............. 6 Review of the Empirical Evidence.......................................................... ...

(with Sonia Livingstone) Existential Field 8: Media, Communication and Information Technologies in the European Family

by Ranjana Das and Sonia Livingstone

There are four key stages to the project. The first is to chart and review the major trends of co... more There are four key stages to the project. The first is to chart and review the major trends of comparative family research in the EU in 8 'Existential Fields' (EF). The second is to critically review existing research on the family, and the third is to build on our understanding of existing issues affecting families and predict future conditions and challenges facing them. The final stage is to bring the results and findings of the previous three stages together, and propose key scientific research questions about families to be tackled with future EU research funding.

Meaning at the interface: New genres, new modes of interpretative engagement

As audience reception scholars commute from audiences to literacies, both of which share the conc... more As audience reception scholars commute from audiences to literacies, both of which share the concept of interpretation, this article sets out to draw together themes around the changing nature of interpretive work, from 6 texts that have reflected recently, in different ways, on interpretation in new media environments. In reviewing a multithreaded conversation across 4 books from literacy studies, media and communications, and user studies, I select 2 essays, written at a crucial moment for reception studies, to provide her a narrative. Speaking from diverse fields, these works suggest a widespread agreement that there is a need to rethink terminologies and concepts from mass-mediated communication in the age of interactive media, not because they no longer prove useful, but because they provide constructive intellectual challenges in thinking through the changing natures of texts and readers, genres and interpretation, literacies, and legibilities, as we await new modes every day, for all of these, but also perhaps, new modes of interpretative engagement.

Converging perspectives in audience studies and digital literacies

Engaging with a set of ideas proposed in an article published in this journal in 2004, this artic... more Engaging with a set of ideas proposed in an article published in this journal in 2004, this article transposes concepts from one mediated condition to another, as it applies selected theories from audience reception studies to research on media and digital literacies. In approaching multi-method qualitative data from a project that researched youthful digital literacies on social networking sites, the article presents a discussion on anticipations of genre and modes of interpretative engagement. It is concluded that the text-reader framework of audience reception studies pushes the digital literacies discussion away from treating literacies as practical skills, encouraging a critical examination of people's interpretative engagement with media texts. By doing this, the article also explores how concepts lying at the core of the reception studies repertoire need to be retained and revised in the age of the internet.

The end of audiences?: theoretical echoes of reception amid the uncertainties of use Book section

by Ranjana Das and Sonia Livingstone

The task of interpretation: Children walking facebook streets

In this paper, I ask in what ways our knowledge about the interpretation of genres, emergent from... more In this paper, I ask in what ways our knowledge about the interpretation of genres, emergent from many decades of empirical research with mass media audiences, is useful in understanding engagement with new media. This conceptual task is pursued empirically by applying a conceptual repertoire derived from reception analysis to interviews with youthful users of the online genre of social networking sites (SNSs). A conceptual repertoire from audience reception studies is used to analyse findings from conversations with children using the online genre of social networking sites. Drawing a parallel between audience interpretation and new media use, in this paper, the roles, responsibilities and tasks involved in navigating an online genre are outlined with the help of four mutually intersecting categories. The tasks are those of collaboration, critique, intertextuality and tackling textual interruptions, and their borders interact in messy relationships. The interpretative contract which symbolises a relationship of mutuality between text and reader, media and audience, technology and user, is mobilized to conclude that there are significant parallels between audience reception and new media use, at both theoretical and empirical levels.

Children reading an online genre: Heterogeneity in interpretative work

In this article, a conceptual repertoire from audience reception studies is mobilized to interpre... more In this article, a conceptual repertoire from audience reception studies is mobilized to interpret findings from conversations with children navigating the online genre of social networking sites. Divergence and consensus across age, in children's perception of authorial presence and intention, perceptions of other readers/users, and their collection of stories around the text, is indicated with the use of a repertoire derived from many decades of research with audience reception analysis. It is concluded that the act of interpretation was always one that involved a range of responsibilities (literacies) on the part of the audience/spectator and in the case of textually unstable, immersive media, new media literacies as interpretive work continue to involve a range of responsibilities in navigating textual conventions, figuring out opportunities, coping with contextual resources and restraints, and tackling interruptions in the text.

To be No. 1 in someone's eyes! Children's introspections about close relationships in reading Harry potter

Audience aesthetics and responses to popular culture genres which were once considered low brow h... more Audience aesthetics and responses to popular culture genres which were once considered low brow have now long occupied the interests of the academy. This is a point to be taken seriously especially within children's literature circles, where reading and reception is often generalised about under the theoretical umbrella of 'the reader' and 'the spectator' who is 'drawn' into a range of largely unproven pathways by the text. This article explores youthful perceptions of real-life, close relationships, the projection of these relationships onto those seen in the media text and the resulting mediation of relationship ideals, desires and wishes. Analysing data from fieldwork with teen audiences of the Harry Potter series, this article argues that there is more to the mediation of relationships than the undoubtedly rich discussions of the media bringing people together at the moment of reception/use, whether online or offline. The findings presented in the article reveal the intricate and often perplexing ways in which children continue to introspect long after the act of reception, drawing parallels between relationships in their own lives and those they read about or view. The article draws attention to the introspective depth with which children use screen/text relationships as raw material to ponder emotional questions, ones, for instance, on love, hate, detachment, attachment and friendship, and the many ways the media mediate real-life relationships not by setting unreachable ideals to emulate but by offering interpretive pathways.

An appropriate inheritance

Is there an author behind this text? A literary aesthetic driven approach to interactive media

by Ranjana Das and Tereza Pavlickova

In this paper we employ a conceptual repertoire from philosophical hermeneutics and literary aest... more In this paper we employ a conceptual repertoire from philosophical hermeneutics and literary aesthetics to examine people's expectations of and trust in interactive media. Drawing on data from two projects, first, with young professionals on their perceptions of the informational value of various media, and second, with youthful users of the online genre of social networking sites, we present findings on perceptions of authorial presence and constructions of an imagined author. We conclude that an (imagined) author plays a key role in media users' ability to critically use interactive media and evaluate the relevance and reliability of media content, rather than functioning as an authoritative originator of the meaning. We argue that this is important not only for contemporary research in critical digital literacies, but also for the intrinsic importance of trust in any act of communicative engagement. Interactive media and interpretive users Amidst the diversity of approaches which have informed reception studies, it seems evident that audience studies is primarily interested in how meaning is produced in a

After the excitement: An introduction to the work of CEDAR