A Path Towards Ethical Spectatorship

The project “A Path Towards Ethical Spectatorship” will analyze ethical approaches to media consumption, developing a theory and a practice of individual ethical engagement with entertainment.

Crucially, this will be addressed from the perspective of the audience member, rather than society at large, so displacing the traditional focus on the ethics of the author of the content.

Grounded in 20th- and 21st-century philosophical and sociologic analyses of the ways in which meaning is constructed, found, and extracted from the materials we read, listen to, and consume, “A Path towards Ethical Spectatorship” will build upon the researcher’s decade-long work on Inheritance and Legacy in the cultural space.

Adapting the framework of reception theory to the sphere of contemporary entertainment media, the project will create a new model for the critical discussion of ethical spectatorship for secondary schools that will be presented to two of the schools involved in the ACCESS UCC Plus programme.

Upon analysis of the results of these activities, the model lesson plan on ethical spectatorship will be perfected and made available to schools beyond Cork, as well as to members of the general public in their lifelong learning.

The goal is to provide terminology and conceptualization to help the audience make sense of instances of cancel culture, author denunciation, and cultural boycotts, and to understand whether these correspond to a responsibility of the individual audience member as they participate to the development of an inclusive and peaceful society.