Unit 1 - Media Products and Audiences

Audience feedback is important. It can often easily be conducted through online surveys and reviews, as well as being based on profit and other such metrics. Why are there so many Marvel films?       I have blatantly stolen this joke from Tommy   Marvel try to trick us into believing in Iron Man 4 through a questionnaire. In reality they were just gauging interest in future projects. This was a questionnaire handed out to audiences after seeing Captain America: the Winter Soldier back in the olden days of 2014 and largely consisted of questions about that film and what they thought of it.   Using Social Media for Audience Feedback: Pros: You can get quick and simple feedback from your audience in the comment sections of your posts. Social Media advertising is affordable and very easily accessible. Cons: You have to deal with negative feedback and its potential influence on your potential audience. Anonymity gives people too much confidence. Social media st...

Right remember RAJAR and BARB with their weird websites? RAJAR - Radio Joint Audience Research BARB - Broadcasters Audience Research Board Well now meet the NRS which is not an American security agency, but is in fact the National Readership Survey and has been replaced by 'the much more colourful' (Mr Higgs phrasing) PAMCo. Media institutions expect mass media products to have a large potential product or audience reach. This means it's likely for them to be successful and will make profiut through sales numbers of advertising revenue. The main purpose is often to find out how many people consume the product within the reach. BARB and RAJAR conduct this sort of research for TV and radio industries respectively, while the NRS does so for print. Primary and Secondary Research: Primary - Research which is conducted yourself, through surveys, interviews and other such means. Secondary - Research based on already existing data, be this surveys and interviews conducted by others...

How Would You Advertise a Media Product? ' Ooh I'll make a TV advert '                              - Mr Sir Social Media accounts, with regular posts. Merchandise - official and fast food tie-ins. Magazines.   What Da Deadpool Doin? Traditional advertising: Posters Billboards Jokes in the marketing working alongside the tone of the jokes in the film. Like making posters which are blatantly advertising the film as a completely different genre to what it actually is. Which works in this context because the marketing is so widespread that you'd have to be living under Dwayne Johnson to not see some other marketing elsewhere and thus get the joke very easily. Digital advertising: Social Media posts A weird amount of back and forth between Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman for some reason. A Tinder account for some reason. 'Leaked' script page with Deadpool annotations. A 'very childish' (Knight phra...

      'I am not in this lesson, it's a photoshop.' Entertainment/Escapism: People use media products to get away from reality – for straightforward enjoyment. Information/Surveillance: People use media products to find out information, to learn things. This might be through factual media products, but it can also include insights gained through fiction entertainment. Personal relationships: People use media products as talking points Personal identity: People use media products as a means of shaping their own ‘subcultural identities’. Important note: Mr Higgs does not like Glee. Examples: Entertainment/Escapism - Travis' favourite show F*R*I*E*N*D*S, Peep Show, games. Information/Surveillance - The News, Documentaries, Prime Minister's Questions, Google. Personal Relationships - Reality shows, talent contest shows, soaps, dramas, social media. Personal Identity - Video games maybe if they have customisation, music genres and artists. We shall now return to ...

Audience profiles are essentially walking stereotypes.

Poorly assembled examples of media products for each group: Mainstreamer: Mainstream media franchises, Harry Potter, Marvel, smart TVs. Aspirer: Expensive trainers, haircuts which are incredibly short around the sides and a weird curly mess on top, chains, those coats you know the ones, overpriced brands and such Succeeder: Slightly less overpriced, slightly more functional stuff than the Resigned: Dr Who because the mentally unstable man who is deathly afraid of Mr Franklin likes Dr Who. PG Tips tea (more 'look this is tea just drink it' than bands like Twinings) according to Mr Knight and one lone bagpipe according to Boyan. Explorer: Internet Explorer. Struggler: Anything they can scrape together. Travis. Mr Goodwin and his never-ending unsuccessful search for the buzz. Reformer: Boyan proposes yoga mat. Any eco-friendly product that advertises its low impact on the environment. Ecosia.

RAJAR - Radio Joint Audience Research BARB - Broadcasters Audience Research Board Some RAJAR listening data: Some BARB viewership data:

 When we talk about a mainstream audience we are usually referring to the audience of a product that has mass appeal and a large audience, such as blockbuster films etc. When we talk about a niche audience we are usually referring to a media product that has a small/specific audience. A magazine for something like model railways would be for a niche audience. Mainstream Example: Mojo Noel is very mainstream. This magazine is quote " packed with insight, passion, and revelatory encounters with the greatest musicians of all-time, be they established or emerging musicians. " It also looks quite generic, which is usually a good sign when you're looking for mainstream-ness. Niche Example: Steam Railway This is accidentally the same as the example in the PowerPoint but as it was accidental I'm going to stick with it. Trains are a comparatively niche area of interest especially to the extent of subscribing to a magazine about them. But why bother making niche products at all...

First things first, here are the clips:                  Getting those neat like that was horrible I hope you appreciate it. Genre Overall this is a strange hybrid genre-bend of comedy and I guess romance and possibly whatever genre those films about struggling bands are. I guess just music. I've bundled the notes from all the different clips into one lot of notes because I don't know why. Camerawork: It's a lot of shot-reverse-shot. The shots being largely still could relate to the film being based on comics. The extreme close-up in profile of Envy presents a lot of confidence in contrast to Scotty boy. The camerawork ties into the animated backstory parts by panning over and past Ramona before into the backstory segment, then back out again. The camerawork during the fight sequences (especially the final one) is very much comparable to that of action films, and the parts shot in such a way as to present Gideon as a physically high up villai...

Analyse how micro-features contribute to the representation being created in the ' Black Panther ' scene In this scene from Black Panther , there are a number of different microfeatures which all contribute to the idea of representation in the film overall. The camerawork is one of these microfeatures. The scene is made up largely of long and mid-shots, which highlight and draw attention to the all-black cast alongside their African-influenced appearances. The cinematographers have avoided keeping the camera on a tripod, which helps to give the audience the feeling of somewhat being a part of this society. This contrasts with what - in terms of Alvarado - could potentially be 'otherness' otherwise presented by the appearances of the scenery and characters to a more western audience. Killmonger also being Wakandan alongside the other characters in this scene highlights the fact that we are not positioned to view him as a danger because  of his ethnicity, but rather becau...

Examples: Male Gaze: Males as active participants in a film: Females as passive participants in a film: Females as active participants in a film:

Camerawork: Long and mid-shots highlight the all-black cast as well as the African-influenced appearance of them.   Close ups show skin markings that make the characters seem exotic. Some shots, usually close ups and shot-reverse-shots avoid using a tripod to make the audience feel they are apart of this scene – putting the audience in the position of a member of the Wakandan royalty.   This makes comparing the scene to Alvardo’s ethnicity in media interesting: there is a clear intent to present the people of Wakanda as exotic and the scene focuses on the impending danger.   However, the camerawork implies that we are a part of this society, so we should not see it as exotic and we should not see Killmonger as dangerous because of his ethnicity (as he is actually Wakandan) but because he is a threat to the establishment and is clearly the villain of the film.   It could be argued that Killmonger, being raised in the US, is a threat because his background is exotic ...

Stuart Hall is a person of interest here.  He says that representations often focus on 'otherness', for example, emphasising difference or foreignness. For example: Muslims being seen in the media as terrorists because of their differences to the western world. These things change, for example back in the day people would more associate the Irish as terrorists and not just because of jokes about potatoes. Because of these representations being very much real-life, they can often leak into fiction. Manuel Alvarado 's theory of representation of ethnicity in media (1987) has 4 main categories: Dangerous - plays on the fear of otherness (e.g. terrorist, threatening immigrant, gang member.) Exotic - plays on the appeal of otherness (e.g. wealthy foreign royalty, attractive jungle/desert 'native' etc) Pitied, victim - partly because often the only time many foreign countries appear in our media is when they are suffering some disaster. May also play to our sense of supe...

RAF Advert: Explain how editing creates representations in a media product you have studied. [ ] ([12 Marks]) Points: The audio represents stereotypes while the video simultaneously creates counter-types. The audio clips are from stereotypically feminine adverts relating to appearance/beauty. The video focuses on countertypes for women, showing them to be storng, reliable and more than capable of being in the military (which is a stereotypically masculine career). Counters Mulvey's male gaze theory for women being passive objects of straight men's desires, instead presenting women as active participants. David Buckingham is the one who said the media re-presents things, and this advert is re-presenting women as being strong and capable of being military leaders. Tessa Perkins is the one who said stereotypes can change but only with a lot of difficulty and effort. This advert could be seen as an attempt to change these stereotypes of women. Introduce technique - introduce exampl...

Pipe: To start we have an image of a pipe which we must describe. Alrighty then. Well...I mean it's well lit from above... aaaaand it's the only thing there is in terms of mise-en-scene... I guess it's arguably somewhere between a mid-shot and a closeup. This is relevant because as we know ceci n'est pas une pipe. This is just a representation of a pipe though this painting. Representation overview: •        Key terms : •        Representation •        Mediation, construction and selection •        Stereotype and countertype •        Audience positioning •        Underrepresentation and misrepresentation •        Five relevant theorists : •        Dave Buckingham •        Tessa Perkins •   ...