G235: Critical Perspectives in Media

Theoretical Evaluation

of Production

1b) Audience

Aims/Objectives

• To reinforce basic audience theory.

• To have a basic understanding of how to evaluate your coursework against a consideration of your target audience.

Audiences• Julian McDougall (2009) suggests that in the

online age it is getting harder to conceive a media audience as a stable, identifiable group.

• However – audiences still clearly make sense and give meaning to cultural products.

• An audience can be described as a “temporary collective” (McQuail, 1972).

• Key terms: Mass / Niche & Mainstream / Alternative

Task 1. Audience• You have 3 minutes to write down who

your target demographic/audience/subculture is.

• Pick at least 3 examples from your work that signify how you have targeted this demographic as part of the mode of address.

Ien Ang (1991) detailed that media producers have an imaginary entity in mind before the construction of a media product.

“Audiences only exist as an imaginary entity, an abstraction, constructed from the vantage point of the institution, in the interest of the institution”.

Ang (1991) states that 'audiencehood is becoming an ever more multifaceted, fragmented and diversified repertoire of practices and experiences'.

You must detail the social demographic of this target audience (gender, age, ethnicity, social class).

Hartley (1987) also suggests that institutions must produce “invisible fictions of the audience which allow the institutions to get a sense of who they must enter into relations with” .

e.g. they must know their audience so they can target them effectively.

Task 2. Imaginary Entity.

• You have 3 minutes to write down how you constructed a an imaginary entity (audience profile)?

• Where did you go to get the figures/information about your demographic?

John Hartley (1987) “institutions are obliged not only to speak about an audience, but –crucially, for them – to talk to one as well; they need not only to represent audiences but to enter into relation with them”

Task 3. Building a relationship with audience.

• You have 5 minutes to write down how you constructed a relationship with your audience.

• What ways did you ‘speak’ for this audience – what did you suggest they wanted to consume?

Gaining Feedback from your Audience

• Clark et al(2007) states that in media industries it is important to carry out “regular audience research” using methods such as ratings collection, questionnaires, surveys screen tests

• You attempted to gain feedback from your target market in order to get their opinions.

• You used the blogs, forums etc in order to share ideas and images.• You also conducted polls to tailor the product better for your audience.• Write down how you did this.

Task 4. Feedback

• You have 5 minutes to write down how you gained audience feedback and why this was very important to you in terms of targeting your audience.

• Media Effects (Hegemony V. Pluralism)• Passive’ audience/hypodermic theory are

sometimes referred to overall as ‘Media Effects Theory’, i.e. the media has a direct and powerful effect on its audience. – for your coursework this can relate directly to music videos – debate at the moment concerned with rap/gangster videos, Marylin Manson etc, computer gaming.

• Moral Panics And Folk Devils• Stanley Cohen in his book Folk Devils And Moral Panics

(1972) defines a ‘Moral Panic’ as:• “…a mass response to a group, a person or an attitude

that becomes defined as a threat to society.” • Cohen argues that the media, especially news media,

often create and/or reinforce moral panics in the public.

• The term ‘Folk Devil’ is the name given to the object of the moral panic, i.e. it is another name for a scapegoat.

Pluralist Model and the Active Audience Theory • This is the idea that the audience have an active role to

play in the understanding of, and creation, of meaning within a media text.

• Predictably enough, the pluralist idea is the exact opposite of a hegemonic one. A pluralist model argues that there is diversity in society (everyone is different) and therefore there is also choice (we can choose what to believe and what not to believe.)

• So in media terms, because the audience (society) is diverse, with different points of view, the media is influenced by society.• Because the media need to please the audience they will try to reflect the values and beliefs that are predominant in society. •In other words, they give us what we say we want rather than telling us what to think and believe, in order to make us stay ‘in our place’.

McQuail’s Uses And Gratifications TheoryDennis McQuail (1972)

1. Diversion/Escapism2. Personal Relationship: A talking point3. Personal Identity: identifying with the

representations on display4. Surveillance: Information

Task 5. Audience uses and gratifications.

• You have 5 minutes to write down how your audience might have influenced the content of your text (pluralism).

• What uses/gratifications did your audience gain from your product (repeat from genre…)?

• Parkin’s/Hall’s Audience Readings Theory• Frank Parkin (1972) and later Stuart Hall (1980)

analysed the readings within audiences as either:• 1.Dominant or Preferred Reading: The meaning they want

you to have is usually accepted. • 2.Negotiated Reading: The dominant reading is only

partially recognised or accepted and audiences might disagree with some of it or find their own meanings.

• 3.Oppositional Reading: The dominant reading is refused, rejected because the reader disagrees with it or is offended by it, especially for political, religious, feminist, reasons etc.

• You must think about the meanings behind the text and how you encoded and they decoded (Hall, 1980) according to their ‘situated culture’ (personal, small scale communications and interactions we have on a day to day basis).

• Most importantly, we need to consider our MODE OF ADDRESS THROUGH THE CODES AND CONVENTIONS WE USED.

Task 6. Audience Readings

• You have 5 minutes to write down the preferred meaning, the negotiated readings, any oppositional readings your audience might have and why (examples!)

Essay

“Analyse one of your media productions in relation to audience.