Music Industry Revision 1 - Audiences

Music Industry Texts - 

Starter: What are the genres and genre conventions related to the three texts?
Indicate on the handout sheet provided.

Beyonce

Little Mix

Catfish and the Bottlemen

How do media texts POSITION audiences?

Through technical codes employed by the text. 

Camera shots and angles are used to place the audience in a particular position.

For example the use of a close up at an emotional time in the text will position the audience to feel sympathy with a character.

A point of view shot positions the audience as the character allowing them to experience what the character feels.

This may enhance audience pleasure.

Positioning through camera angles can also be uncomfortable for the audience.

For example taking the audience where they do not want to go in a horror film or an extreme close up in a tense moment.

Through language and mode of address.

the use of colloquial or chatty language in a text aimed at teens will position the intended audience as part of the world of the text.

The audience can feel involved through the use of a direct and informal mode of address and the use of subject specific lexis.

Formal language used by texts positions the audience differently, in a position of superiority, for example.

Making them feel valued as a fan with the expectation that they understand the text and want to be informed.

Through the construction of the text using imperatives. The reader of a particular magazine for example is told by the text how to live their lives and what should be important to them.

Task 1: Indicate how audiences are positioned by the three texts. Use the handout provided.

What affects the way in which an audience RESPONDS to a media text?

An audience is not a mass all behaving in the same way. It is made of individuals who respond differently according to a range of factors.

Gender: Different genders respond to media texts differently.

It is suggested for example that women will enjoy and take pleasure from the themes and narratives of soap operas because they deal with domestic narratives and human relationships which are in the experiences of most women on a daily basis. (It is important not to generalise but you should talk about a primary and secondary audience).

Age: Again be careful generalising but different audiences respond to and decode texts differently. Older audiences may be uncomfortable with bad language or sexually explicit material.

However a younger audience amy have been desensitised to this sort of content and will be more comfortable consuming these types of text.

Ethnicity: groups from different cultural backgrounds will respond to texts differently because of their ideas, beliefs and heritage. For example nudity in a music video may elicit a different response according to the ethnic make up of the audience.

Different ethnic groups may also have strong responses to how they themselves have been represented in a text.

Cultural competence: This relates to audiences taking particular pleasure from a media text depending on their own experience and a shared knowledge. For example the audience who engage with the rules of Call of Duty will understand the control aspects of the game and the online sharing techniques because they are computer literate.

Situated culture: This is literally to do with where the audience is. The communal viewing of a film in a cinema, in the dark produces a different response to sitting and watching tv in a well lit room where you can be distracted or interrupted. Who you watch the text with will impact on the response. For example, watching a music video containing nudity with an older person may produce a more uncomfortable experience for the teenager.

Audience Reception Theory

This theory looks at three ways in which audiences respond to media texts

Audience Response	How the audience responds
Preferred Meaning	The audience accept what the media text is saying about about how the world is and how to think about the topic of the text.
Negotiated Meaning	The audience accept some of the views of the media text but reject other parts and so form a partial opinion of what the media text is saying about how the world is.
Oppositional Meaning	The audience completely reject what the media text is saying about how the world is and do not accept any part of the views expressed in the text.

Task 2: List the possible different responses to each text. Use the handout provided.

Fandom Issues

Fandom covers the ways that devoted audiences respond to different media texts. They are normally split into mainstream, alternative and balanced fan groups.

Fan Group	Definition
Mainstream fans	These are fans that tend to become extremely knowledgeable about one particular area of the mainstream media and become devoted to that part of the media at the expense of others. Twi hards for example, fans of Twighlight.
Alternative fans	These fans reject the mainstream as corrupted and boring and focus on the alternative media and usually are very negative about most areas of the media. They do like unusual and rule breaking media that rejects the mainstream. They will support new and innovative trends in the media until they become successful and then they will reject them as mainstream, critiscise them and then move on to other newer, innovative media trends…
Balanced fans	These are fans that have a mixture of mainsteam and alternative likes and dislikes. They enjoy the mainstream but also have alternative tastes. They look for the links between alternative and mainstream texts. They are knowledgeable about how the media works.

Task 3: Explore issues of fandom for each text. Use the handout provided.

Uses and Gratification Theory

This theory suggests that media texts potentially give audiences four things:

Element of the theory	What it means to an audience
Personal identity	Our lives may be reflected in the text (we may see a storyline or an incident that has happened to us at some point in our lives or at the same time). We choose to identify with the character in the text and model ourselves on them.
Diversion, escapism, entertainment	The text may help us escape from reality for a while. (almost like a safety valve from the frustrations of life.
Personal relationships, Social interaction	We may treat the text as a friend. (The regularity of Eastenders helps audiences build a relationship with the programme). We are interested in the text because our friends or peers are interested in it.
Surveillance, information	A text may give us information about a particular issue or subject. (coping with illness, teenage pregnancy for example). We just need information about the weather for example.

Task 4: Apply Uses and Gratification theory to the three texts. Use the handout provided.

Homework-Attempt the exam question below.. E-mail responses to me before next Friday.

Example exam question:

Explore the different ways audiences / users respond to texts.

Approaching this question...

1 Define the terms used in the question. In this case 'Explore audience responses'.

One of the key words here is ‘explore’, this implies a detailed analysis. You need to demonstrate your understanding of the terminology used. For example; what is meant by respond?

- Audiences respond in different ways to a text, as set out in Stuart Hall's response theory. 

Hall states that media texts are encoded with messages and values that are then decoded in various ways by audiences.

Responses can be dominant (or preferred), oppositional or negotiated.

Explain this briefly, say what the preferred response might be but relate it to a specific example from the text to support your point. 

Identify reasons for oppositional responses. Again, relate it to a specific example from the text to support your point. 

Discuss the nature of negotiated responses, also with specific examples.