Draft:Viewership Theory
Submission declined on 17 June 2025 by LEvalyn (talk).
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| Submission declined on 16 June 2025 by Bunnypranav (talk). This draft's references do not show that the subject qualifies for a Wikipedia article. In summary, the draft needs multiple published sources that are:
Your draft shows signs of having been generated by a large language model, such as ChatGPT. Their outputs usually have multiple issues that prevent them from meeting our guidelines on writing articles. These include: Declined by Bunnypranav 9 days ago.
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Comment: According to this article, the theory is one proposed by a single scholar and quite recently. Until it is a theory used by dozens of scholars, it is not really necessary for it to have its own standalone article. One or two sentences on this concept could plausibly be added to reception theory, though too much detail there would be WP:UNDUE. ~ L 🌸 (talk) 06:58, 17 June 2025 (UTC)
- Comment: Please provide page numbers for the books cited. Ca talk to me! 15:59, 16 June 2025 (UTC)
Viewership Theory is a proposed idea in film studies that focuses on how people watch films in different ways depending on their cultural background and historical context. Rather than treating viewing as just a mental process of understanding meaning, this theory looks at the deeper, older roots of watching — including rituals, light, shadow, and early visual traditions. It suggests that the experience of seeing itself is shaped by long-standing cultural practices, not just by the content of the film.
Origins and Development
[edit]The idea was introduced by Iranian writer and filmmaker Alireza Kaveh [1] in his book Film Genre: Tone and Ideology.[2] He suggests that cinema is not just a modern invention, but part of a longer history of how people have gathered around sources of light — such as fire, sunlight in caves, or shadow plays — to experience stories visually. These early ways of looking, shaped by ceremonies or social rituals, form what Kaveh calls the foundation of cinematic spectatorship.
Theoretical Context
[edit]Viewership Theory is related to ideas from reception theory, which often focuses on how people interpret media and make meaning from it. But instead of concentrating on interpretation, this theory puts more emphasis on what it means to "see" — and how that act of seeing has developed through culture and history.
It shares some ground with psychoanalytic film theory, especially ideas from Jacques Lacan about the "mirror stage" and how viewers identify with images on screen.[3] It also overlaps with the work of Slavoj Žižek, who explored how films reflect unconscious desires and ideologies in The Pervert's Guide to Cinema.[4]
Postcolonial thinkers like Robert Stam and Ella Shohat have talked about how Western ideas of film viewing are not universal.[5] Viewership Theory builds on that by paying attention to non-Western traditions, ceremonies, and ways of seeing that have shaped visual storytelling long before cinema existed.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Mansour, Layla (2025-05-29). "Reframing Genre through Iranian Lens: Alireza Kaveh's Cinematic Taxonomy". Medium. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
- ^ Kaveh, Alireza. Film Genre: Tone and Ideology (in Persian). Rozanehkar.
- ^ Metz, Christian (1982). The Imaginary Signifier: Psychoanalysis and the Cinema. Indiana University Press.
- ^ Žižek, Slavoj (2006). The Pervert's Guide to Cinema. Verso.
- ^ Shohat, Ella; Stam, Robert (1994). Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media. Routledge. ISBN 0415063256.
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