AUDIENCE

Audience identification and grouping

Component One Section A - Analysing media language and representation (Tide, WaterAid, Kiss the Vampire)
Component One Section B - Industry and audience (Tide, WaterAid

Media is preoccupied with audience because;

• spend money on media product
• audience influences producer

TARGET AUDIENCE  who the producer is aiming at 

PRIMARY AUDIENCE  the specific group that the producer is targeting 

SECONDARY AUDIENCE  the less specific group that the producer is targeting 

    T A P        producer >>>> text >>>> audience

                                   producer encodes text      audience decodes text

TARGETING  creating a media product that is aimed towards a certain group of people

ATTRACTING  how a media product appeals or draws in a specific audience

REACHING  how the producer promotes their product to a wider audience 

ADDRESSING  how the audience of a media product is spoken to 

CONSTRUCTING  constructing an audience (the way in which a producer makes their audience e.g. classy female smokers instead of prostitutes)

Who is it aimed at? young adult, male, heterosexual

Secondary audience? teenagers, male and female, heteroexual

• young characters
• dark mise en scene
• survival genre (run down, abandoned, city)
• young girl who may be found attractive (subverts stereotype as she is carrying a gun, not sexualised)
• mystery (proairetic code as camera is on a tilt) (audience is involves as characters are looking in audience's direction)

DEMOGRPAHICS  the classification of people according to class 

The issues with this stratification is that you are born into a certain demographic, it's not very well defined, unfair, too reductive, people may be one demographic but act like another, tells us very little about the audience 

PSYCHOGRAPHICS  the classification of people according to attitudes and aspirations

AUDIENCE MANIPULATION

ALBERT BANDURA

MEDIA EFFECTS the hypodermic needle model

Watching too much tv/youtube/video-games

• may accept biased ideologies
• may change personality
• may take the world less seriously (video-games)

The Effects Model aka the hypodermic needle model (brainwashing)

Producers are brainwashing audiences with ideologies, but audiences have no control over it

MASS MEDIA  media which can be spread to mass audiences (e.g radio, tv)

One reason why this theory is believed is because it is very simple, however, it is incorrect

GEORGE GERBNER

CULTIVATION THEORY (allowing an ideology to grow)

The idea that prolonged and heavy exposure to [TV].. cultivates a view of the word consistent with the dominant or majority view expounded by the television

1. TV presents a mainstream view of culture, ignoring everything else
2. In doing so, television distorts reality
3. Therefore, heavy television watchers are likely to accept this distorted view of reality
4. However, not everyone is the same, so some people are more likely to be manipulated then others

This theory is simplistic, but doesn't take into account the complexity of the human mind

What ideologies are cultivated in the Tide Advert?

• Women should do the cleaning - no mention of men and large image of  archetypal "housewife"
• Tide is what she wants and she wants to clean- hugging it with smile on her face, small hearts above her, dressed up (almost romantic)

HEGEMONY  where one group wields power over another, not through domination, but through coercion and consent (don't have to do something, but you do it anyway)

• the school system
• driving
• queueing 
• giving elderly/disabled our seat
• wearing makeup
• cultural hegemony
• politcal hegemony
• hegemonic structure of class
• patriarchal hegemony

HEGEMONIC POWER

• Conflicts with hegemonic ideas of gender and sexuality (tight shorts and heels)
• Half suit, half shorts, binary opposition
• Top half represents men, bottom half represents women
• Complained about because people feel so strongly about hegemonic code

• Expectation that women shouldn't have body hair
• Men threatened to rape woman in advert - attempt to reenforce patriarchy because masculinity is threatened

STUART HALL

RECEPTION THEORY

 Reactions to WaterAid advert

• uplifting
• don't really care
• positivity and feeling happy for Zambian villagers
• annoyed because it only shows one place, whereas there are other places without water
• more positive and better than average charity adverts
• cute
• rewarding to those who donate
• frustration because she wouldn't be singing in english (put on for the camera, so may not be that happy)
• feel sorry for her

Proves hypodermic Needle Theory wrong (audience all brainwashed with producer's ideology)

Stuart Hall categorized audience response into 3 groups;

1. Dominant reading - the audience agrees with the dominant values in the text, and agrees with the values and ideologies it shows
2. Oppositional reading - the audience completely disagrees with what they see, and rejects the dominant reading
3. Negotiated reading - the audience generally agrees with what they see, but may disagree with certain aspects

Factors that affect audience response;

• upbringing
• moral beliefs
• financial situation
• religion
• ethnicity
• age
• sexuality
• location
• gender identity 
• mood

Different reactions to WaterAid advert;

• Dominant reading - donations are making the Zambian villagers happy and they should donate to help more people
• Oppositional reading - villagers are already happy and have what they need to don't need donations
• Negotiated reading - agree that donations make a difference but think that other places should be focused on more, because they are not happy

• Dominant reading - bright colours show positivity
• Oppositional reading - Claudia has clearly been given an outfit to wear and it's not realistic 
• Negotiated reading - bright bucket and dress bring positivity to the advert, but realise that this wouldn't be natural