AUDIENCEGrace & Amy

Definition…

Audience

“The assembled spectators or

listeners at a public event such

as a play, film, concert, or

meeting.”

History

Analysis of the media realised that some account needed to be taken of the consumers of media products.

Audiences would have been examined as a significant factor in the equation of how meanings were communicated.

Ethnographic studies of how audiences receive media products placed primary emphasis on the consumers. The most radical perspective in this field was that only among audiences are meanings generated. Most researchers felt that this was over stepping the mark.

Early studies of audience responses were often driven by fears of passive and non-discriminating reception of media products.

Active audiences

Attention has turned increasingly to the study of audiences themselves as a key component in the phenomenon of the mass media.

Noam Chomsky the American professor of linguistics who has studied many facets of media manipulation contents that the real product in the media enterprise of today is in fact the audience itself.

Theories & Theorists…

Theories and Theorists… Maslow - Hierarchy Of Needs (1943)

Maslow wanted to understand what motivates people. Maslow stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfil the next one, and so on, working there way up the 5 stages in the triangle.

This five stage model can be divided into basic needs (e.g. physiological, safety, love, and esteem) and growth needs (self-actualization).

The basic needs are said to motivate people when they are unmet. Also, the need to fulfil such needs will become stronger the longer the duration they are denied, hence giving one motivation. For example, the longer a person goes without food the more hungry they will become.

One must satisfy lower level basic needs before progressing on to meet higher level growth needs. Once these needs have been reasonably satisfied, one may be able to reach the highest level called self-actualization.

Every person is capable and has the desire to move up the hierarchy toward a level of self-actualization. Unfortunately, progress is often disrupted by failure to meet lower level needs. Life experiences including divorce and loss of job may cause an individual to fluctuate between levels of the hierarchy.

Maslow noted only one in a hundred people become fully self-actualized because our society rewards motivation primarily based on esteem, love and other social needs.

Maslow – Hierarchy of Needs

Uses and gratifications theory… The uses and gratifications theory is a popular approach

to understanding mass communication.

It is said that the uses and gratifications theory has to fulfil one of the following when we choose a form of media:

Personal Identity – being able to recognise a product in front of you, role models that reflect similar values to yours, aspiration to be someone else.

Information – being able to acquire information, knowledge and understanding.

Entertain - what you are consuming should give you an enjoyment and also some form of escapism enabling us to forget our worries temporarily.

Social interaction – the ability for media products to produce a topic of conversation between other people, sparks debates

The nature of the audience has changed

throughout history, evolving from a

participatory crowd to a group of people

sitting behind an imaginary line, silently

observing the performers. The audience is

continually growing and changing. There

has always been a need for human beings

to communicate their wants, needs,

perceptions and disagreements to others.

This need to communicate is the

foundation of art and the foundation of

theatre’s relationship to its audience.

MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS…

A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera - Say Something…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2U0Ivkn2Ds&safe=active

Analysis… Say Something is a narrative and performance based music video which includes a range of shots and story

lines interlinking. The characters within the music video narrative can be seen to take and represent many different audiences that would listen to the song or be able to relate to the lyrics themselves. The song itself comes under the pop genre yet is a slow song focusing on the lyrics.

When considering the music video in terms of camera, the clip begins with a pan up, taking the main artist into focus. The pan up movement conveys the audience looking up to the artist themselves as iconic and following in their footsteps, being able to relate to the lyrics and emotions portrayed. Furthermore, at 14 seconds into the clip a birds eye view shot of a young couple is shown, enforcing the type of audience and emotions that will be shown within the song. The audience is almost looking down on the couple having an outside viewer of the negative emotions that are being portrayed yet still able to relate to them due being in previous relationships that have not worked out or the other person has ‘given up’.

The Mise en Scene of the room is dark, being dimly lit, this symbolising the ‘sad’ emotions that are shown within the lyrics. Moreover, the bed during the performance part is broken symbolising the difference between the two sides of the music video and that the bed symbolises the hope that the characters had but lost and everything has almost fallen apart and the relationship or trust has been broken.

The child character and the dog allows children as well as adults to relate back to a time when they felt they were only about to trust certain people and having feelings of vulnerability shown when they felt lost. This is enforces through the body language of hiding under the duvet as well as covering her face; childlike traits which many children feel when they are finding their way. The colours of the bed are dirty white or pinks when considering the child to show that little is maintained and looked after to emphasis the lyrics that one is giving up almost and to illustrate reality that objects and living around people drop when one gives up. This highlighting the emotions through the objects around the characters.

The close up shot of the water droplets can be seen as a tear, enforcing the song lyrics which are sad and heart felt. Allowing the audience to understand a moment when they gave up and were upset. The target audience of one that is able to relate to the lyrics at some point in their life and pin point a moment when they felt the same emotions would be able to relate due to a typical human trait is to cry when losing one you love; the mid shot when the old male loses his wife to old age in the hospital bed.

In conclusion the target audience for the music video is a range of ages but people that are able to relate to the emotions within a time in their life; when someone has either given up or lost someone they adore.