What have I learned from my audience feedback?

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Models of Audience

Over the years, a large number of academics have attempted to understand the ways in which audiences interact with the media they consume
Three general models have dominated this research

How did you gather your audience feedback? What methods did you use? Present you stats, feedback from questionnaire and focus groups

We used several different forms of gathering audience feedback such as YouTube, Freeonlinesurvey.com and Focus Groups. This allowed us to use the internet, to access a larger target audience

YouTube
Freeonlinesurveys.com (closed questions)
Focus Groups (open questions)

How did the demographic or psychographic profile of your audience affect the kinds of readings they produced?

Defining the Audience

It is useful for institutions and academics to be able to build up detailed accounts of how audiences are constructed
Rather than seeing audience as masses or in simple numerical terms, it is common practice to find ways of segmenting the audience
This segmentation can be achieved both demographically and psychographically

Demographic = JICNARS

Psychographic = VALS

Applying Audience Theory

Look at who your target audience was
How did you profile your audience?
Which VALS did specify for your audience
Did you have a primary and secondary market – how did your production target consumers/ youth culture? (cartoons or animated children films – primary audience kids – secondary audience parents who take kids to cinema)

Demographic segmentation

This is where an audience is segmented according to various significant social criteria eg gender, class, race, sexuality
One of the most common demographic approachers to audience involves the JICNARS scale
JICNARS – scale based on employment

We used demographic segmentation, as we found our target audience through age and gender. Our target audience was Girls of 15 years + and our secondary target audience was Boys of 17 year +. Therefore our audience feedback, using the focus group, was Demographic as we had a specific group of people. This was effective as we approached our target audience and asked them specific open questions which allowed us to make specific changes.

Psychographic Segmentation

We used Psychographic Segmentation when taking audience feedback as we created a closed questioned online survey that was open to anyone who wants to take the survey. This means our audience will be a range of people who have various attitudes, beliefs, values etc.

Also known as lifestyle profiling
Combines a psychological profile of the consumer, with ideas about how they conducted their life in the market place
The various attitudes, values, beliefs, and 'lifestyle' choices are sorted into a number of distinctive categories which are sorted into a number of distinctive categories which are used to predict consumption. VALS, the Values Attitudes and Lifestyles classification system is best known of the psychographic profiling systems
2 kinds of VALS – VALS and Teen VALS

Younger audiences would be more attracted to our band as they are a similar age to the band. They feel as though they can relate to the band as they are going through the same things as each other. The stages of rebellion.

What were the advantages/disadvantages to using these sources? How reliable was the information and the key points raised?

Some advantages to using these specific sources was that when we used the online survey using freeonlinesurveys.com, the feedback was anonymous which made the information less personal, and always encouraged a range of feedback in the sense of target audience. The online survey also puts all the information together which allowed us to put the information together quickly and correctly. The information is reliable in the sense that the information corrected is accurate.

The disadvantage of using the online survey is that it is not person specific, which means we are not able to tell who was giving us the information therefore we could not use our demographic audience feedback. However, this is why we used a focus group, which allowed us to have specific examples.

What strengths and weaknesses did the feedback indicate in your music video? Refer to specific examples and illustrate these.

There were mainly strengths when receiving feedback for our music video as our target audience really enjoyed all aspects of the music video. Specifically they liked how the woods sequences were different and engaging. As well as portraying the boys as down to earth fun guys, which is why the target audience felt compelled and interested. Another aspect that the target audience liked was the projections. They said this was mainly because it was interesting to watch ad kept them interested. This shows that our audience rejects the effects model and adheres to the uses and gratifications theory. Some weaknesses of the feedback is that they had comments about the filming for the music video. Such as the unsteady camera at the start etc. We tried to fix these things however, we were unable to go back and film more of the video as we were already in the stages of post-production.

The Effects Model

Derives from an early piece of audience research – the Payne Fun Studies
Implies that audiences are passive recipient of the meanings and values of a text
Meanings swallowed whole by innocent 'victims' that may become corrupted or depraved
Also known as the 'hypodermic needle effect'
Also implied:
- Media effects are cumulative
- Media effects are long term
- Media effects are revealed through both attitudes and behaviour

Explain the encoding/ decoding model in relation to your audience feedback, Provide examples

Encoding-Decoding Model

Derives from the wok of Stuart Hall at the BCCCS
A theoretical model, which is based upon the notion that the audience do not act as a 'mass', but rather as a collection of smaller groups defined by social and ideological elements
Every media text is encoded with a message
The media industries encode their texts and we decode that text
Gathered together based on our values, upbringing etc.
Media texts are 'encoded' (both consciously and unconsciously) with the values of their producers – generally white, middle-class, men
However, the audience is not made up exclusively of these groups and different groups are likely to 'read' the text in different ways
This 'decoding' process has 3 possible outcomes:
- A preferred reading
  - audience accepts all of the intended meanings
- A negotiated reading
  - accepts some of the meaning but not all, may involve contradictions
- An oppositional reading
  - understand what text's intended meaning is but rejects this meaning

Our target audience would understand the media texts as they are made to appeal to them and what they like, what colours they are most attracted to and what keeps them interested. However, if a person from outside of the target audience were to look at our media texts they would decode the texts negatively as they were not encoded for them specifically.

Reception Theory (exact opposite of the effects model)

Stuart Hall argues that audiences can:
- Decode the media message in intelligent and engaging ways
- Decoding the message relies upon
- Oppositional negotiated and preferred readings
- Audiences are therefore acting in reading texts

Apply the uses and gratification theory to your responses – which are the most applicable points?

The Uses and Gratifications Model

Derives from research carried out in the 1950's – the Personal Influence study by Lazarfeld, Blumler and Katz
Audiences are far from passive in their approach to the media; rather they actively choose and consume the media to satisfy particular needs and gratifications which they exhibit
developing due to the proliferation of technology

Two approaches are useful here:

Uses and Gratifications

Diversion – a form of escape or emotional release from everyday pressure
Personal Relationships – companionship via media personalities and characters, and sociability through discussion about the media artefact with other people
Personal identity – the ability to compare one's life with the characters and situations within the media, and so explore personal problems and perspectives
Surveillance – a supply of information about what is going on in the world

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Self- Actualisation
Esteem
Social
Safety
Physiological

Examples of the Uses and Gratifications

Diversion:

Escapism from mundane existence, purely for entertainment

Action films
music
tv
personalities

Personal Relationships:

To experience companionship with characters or with other members of audience through shared interest in media texts

news
Romance films
social media

Personal identity:

To identify with characters and situations and thereby make sense of one's own life and views

Music
Romance films

Surveillance:

A supply of information about what is going on in the world.

News
Drama films

For our media texts, specifically the music video our audience would be through personal identity and personal relationships. We created a fun indie music video for our band so that they would be able to feel close to the band and relate to them in different ways.

In what ways did your audience feedback on your video illustrate this model in action?

Through using focus groups we were able to use the uses and gratifications model to get more accurate and specific information. We used different theories, such as the star image theory to construct our band and then showed to the audiences.

Star Theory

Richard Dyer's Star Image
Star images are constructed, artificial images, created through a range of products. Stars are produced and consumed on the strengths of their 'meanings'. Very often a star's meaning is very clear and obvious so that it is easy for an audience to quickly understand and make a decision whether to consume. The industry creates a range off stars with different meanings to meet the needs of different audience segments
Lady Gaga=? Adele=?
“Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings”
Focuses under Richard Negus – synthetic and organic

Spreadability

Henry Jenkins theory from his book Spreadable Media: Creating Value in a Network Culture published in 2013
Rejects the notion of 'viral', self-replicating media
Sees the act of spreading content as the active not passive
Believes that audience play crucial role in the dissemination of media products in the online age - “if it doest spread, its dead”
Circulation in contrast to (top down) distribution
Believes that sharing is an act of participation
That this act leads on to deeper levels of participation, the initial sharing can also be described as 'preparing to participate' [more fully]
Jason Mittell developed the complementary notion of 'drillability'
Describes media products which provide audiences with deeper layers of engagement, not just designed to attract maximum number of viewers but to retain audience for longer, in more meaningful/engaging ways.