oa De mondiale receptie van The Lord of the Rings: een methodologische uitdaging / The worldwide reception of the lord of the rings: a methodological challenge

Abstract

Omwille van historische redenen zit onderzoek naar filmpublieken gekneld tussen de communicatie- en mediawetenschappen enerzijds en de filmstudie anderzijds. Vertrekkend vanuit een poging om perspectieven van beide disciplines te combineren, geeft dit essay een overzicht van de uitdagingen vervat in een internationaal onderzoeksproject naar de prefiguratie en receptie van het derde deel van de Lord of the Rings-trilogie (The Return of the King, 2003).

Abstract

For historical reasons, research into audiences of film seems to sit uneasy, both within communication and media studies, and film studies. Trying to combine approaches from both disciplines, this essay gives an overview of the methodological challenges posed by the implications of an international audience research project into the prefiguration and reception of the third part of The Lord of the Rings trilogy (The Return of the King, 2003). Comprised of more than 24000 questionnaire responses (in 14 languages) and several thousands of other materials, from research teams in 20 countries, the data required a rethinking of methods combining qualitative and quantitative data (the size of integral analysis), of data obtained before, during and after a film's release (the reception trajectory), of the combination of data from different cultural contexts (cross-cultural comparisons), and of the combination of reception and textual analysis (the issue of a film's modality). This essay points to ways in how to rethink these issues when confronted with audience responses to globally released popular culture texts.