This article is an audience ethnography, focusing on the documentary The Work (dir Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous, US, 2017), which depicts a four-day therapeutic programme involving men from the community and men from a high security prison. The film was screened to audiences of people who live and work in an English prison-based therapeutic community. Previous prison-based audience studies have highlighted the significance of the media text and the characteristics and experiences of the audience, but have not specifically addressed the salience of the context in which the media is consumed. By conducting the research in an atypical penal environment, the intention is to illuminate how consumption is affected by different penal contexts. The audience offered macro, meso and micro level responses to the documentary. At a macro level, they recognised the reforming intentions of the film, but also revealed the limitations of popular culture, with its emphasis on spectacle. At a meso level, the audience offered a sophisticated and expert analysis of the content and omissions of the film’s representation of therapeutic processes and cultures. At a micro level, those serving prison sentences used the content of film as therapeutic material, reflecting on their own emotions and experiences, while the prison staff used the content to explore their professional identities. The audiences viewed the film through a therapeutic habitus, and media consumption was a way of enacting and reinforcing the expectations and practices of therapeutic community life. By highlighting the salience and variability of penal contexts, the study extends prison-based audience scholarship, but also highlights a factor that should be considered in the planning and design of media and arts programmes in prison.

中文翻译：

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记录监狱治疗：内部观众对《工作》的看法 (2017)

本文是一部观众民族志，重点关注纪录片《工作》（Jairus McLeary 和 Gethin Aldous，美国，2017 年），该片描述了一个为期四天的治疗计划，涉及来自社区的男性和来自戒备森严的监狱的男性。这部电影向在英国监狱治疗社区生活和工作的人们放映。以前的监狱受众研究强调了媒体文本的重要性以及受众的特征和经历，但没有具体解决媒体消费背景的显着性。通过在非典型的刑罚环境中进行研究，目的是阐明不同的刑罚环境如何影响消费。观众对纪录片提出了宏观、中观、微观三个层面的回应。在宏观层面上，他们认可了电影的改革意图，但也揭示了流行文化强调奇观的局限性。在中观层面上，观众对影片所表现的治疗过程和文化的内容和遗漏进行了复杂而专业的分析。在微观层面上，服刑人员将电影内容作为治疗材料，反思自己的情感和经历，而监狱工作人员则利用这些内容来探索自己的职业身份。观众通过治疗习惯观看电影，媒体消费是制定和强化治疗性社区生活的期望和实践的一种方式。通过强调刑罚背景的显着性和可变性，该研究扩展了监狱观众的学术研究，但也强调了在监狱媒体和艺术项目的规划和设计中应考虑的一个因素。