Page 183 - Decoding Culture

176 D E C O D I N G C U L TURE

an approach to research which recognizes that all methods for
generating descriptive accounts (participant observation, ethno­
graphic interview, questionnaires, historical narrative, statistical
analysis, etc.) constitute starting points, individually and collec­
tively, for explanatory analysis. That is to say, our goal should be
to model social processes in such a way as to establish the mech­
anisms which underlie observed patterns. If, let us say, survey
research into audiences suggests a finite set of response patterns
in relation to particular television programming, then we would
seek to show that the model that we have developed of audience
activity in, say, a class context, provisionally makes sense of those
patterns. We would then redescribe the situation in terms of the
model and design further research (perhaps in-depth ethno­
graphic interviews) that would allow us to examine and refine the
theory. And so on, in a constant interaction of accounts generated
by diverse methodologies with attempts to make theoretical sense
of those accounts. There is no end to this process, of course, no
final account, but through constant refinement, systematic com­
parison with alternative models and continuing reformulation we
would seek to maximize 'ontological depth' - a richer, explana­
tory understanding of the patterns that characterize audience
activity.
I am in agreement, then, with those who insist that we need
empirically to examine the modes of audience activity. However, I
do not consider that this purpose is best served by exclusive or
even predominant use of 'ethnographic' methods. Some
researchers clearly believe that audience ethnographies will pro­
vide privileged access to the inner workings of television viewing.
This is simply not the case. What they can provide - in parallel with
other methodological approaches - are accounts of patterned activ­
ity that provide grist for the explanatory mill. Such accounts,
whatever the methodology used to generate them, are necessarily

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