Response to Martin Barker's 'Rise of the Qualiguants'

Abstract

In what follows, we respond to Martin Barker’s (2018a) review essay entitled ‘Rise of the Qualiquants,’ published in the previous issue of this journal (15:1). In his review, Barker offers an admittedly not disinterested assessment of our recent book Fans, Blockbusterisation, and the Transformation of Cinematic Desire: Global Receptions of The Hobbit Film Trilogy (Michelle, Davis, Hardy and Hight, 2017), and raises a number of questions relating to our ontological commitments and methodological approach, along with a critique of Q methodology more generally. We wish to express our sincere thanks to Martin for such a detailed and thoughtful review – evidently the first in what is to become a new section in Participations dedicated to much-needed debates on methodological, epistemological, and ontological issues in audience research. His essay generously draws attention to the contribution and significance of our project, and introduces our theoretical and methodological approach to a wider audience. The issues and questions he raises are certainly worthy of further clarification, discussion, and debate, and we are fortunate to have access to a highly suitable forum for this in Participations. We also fully share his commitment to the advancement of audience and reception research.