ABSTRACT
In Chapters 2 and 3 we have examined historical accounts of science fiction texts and audiences. Yet, of course, audience theory itself has a history; and any audience project (like the Doctor Who one) which extends over a number of years is likely to be influenced by its changing paradigms and key texts. David Morley’s ‘Nationwide’ Audience 1980 study was one such key text. It addressed head-on problems associated with the position of British film theory then dominant in the journal Screen. Although there were variations within this film theory tradition of textual analysis, its dominant emphasis is well addressed by Justin Lewis, who argues that Screen
frequently granted films, programs or discourses more power than was dreamed of by even the most misguided members of the ‘effects’ tradition. Audiences disappeared from the construction of meaning altogether, to be replaced by a witless creature known as the ‘textual subject’. The textual subject, like the unfortunate mouse in the behaviorist’s experiment, was manipulated and forced (by the text’s structures and strategies) to adopt particular positions. Once in position, the inexorable meaning of the message (produced with consummate wizardry by the analyst) would manifest itself.2
