Pr2 audience theory
- 1. Lauren Allard Unit 6: Critical Approaches PR2: Audience Theory PR2: Audience Theory In this report I will be going through and explaining in detail the three different audience theories and how they have all been used in the media. I will also be describing the 1999 film Fight Club and looking through the critical reviews about the film and also comparing the film and the reviews with both the Hypodermic Model and the Encoding and Decoding Model. I will explain the task that we have had to complete about the filmand also include screenshots of my results from a survey that I had created about the film, which was sent to 12 people. I will be analysing my survey results and also explaining how my results can be used in some of the audience theories. I will also use the Uses and Gratifications theory for a piece of media text and be explaining why the filmwould fit into those categories for the target audience. The Hypodermic Model The Hypodermic Model was the first attempt at explaining how mass audiences react to mass media. It suggests that audiences passively receive the information transmitted via a media text. This theory would suggest that as an audience we are manipulated by the creators of media texts. But out behaviour and views would change easily based on the media producers. It suggests that the audience of a media text respond in the same way. For example – A person could own a high piece of technology, but then the same company could release an upgrade that is slightly different to the old version. But the changes aren’t that different, both pieces of technology are very similar. But because the media advertises and makes the new product look amazing and completely different to the old version, the audience wants to buy it. The filmfight club is known for its violent content, a lot of people thought that due to the content of the filmgroups of men would get together and create gangs and commit countless amounts of crimes. In addition to this as another example many films and video games have been slandered by the media for encouraging violence, when actually it could just be an issue with the person that is causing these issues. Child’s Play 3 was blamed for the murder of a toddler, when a young boy kidnapped and murdered the child. The filmwas blamed and banned for the “Influence” of this attack. Without looking into the child’s background or mental state. Encoding and Decoding Model (Hall) Cultural theorist Stuart Hall wrote the encoding/decoding model back in the 1970s. Encoding means that the text is encoded by the producer, so basically what the producer wants the project to show and represent. Whilst Decoding means that the text is decoded by the audience, the audience’s views and what they think the project was meant to show. The audience interprets the meanings of any media text based on their individual cultural background and life experiences, how the audience would view certain things.
- 2. Lauren Allard Unit 6: Critical Approaches PR2: Audience Theory Individual cultural background and life experiences: Age Gender Social Background (Class) Cultural Background (Peer group/nationality/ethnicity) Political Views Circumstances of exhibition All of the above could influence an audience’s reading of a text, their views could be different based on how they are as a person. Hall also reckoned that the producers could encode a preferred meaning and target audiences due to this. Three different readings might be decoded by the audience with the three meanings which are: Preferred Negotiated Oppositional As a class in a group discussion we watched Miley Cyrus’s music video for her song Wrecking Ball, since the video has gotten different reactions from the public. As a class we wanted to get each other’s views, after watching the video many members of the class had different opinions to others. A majority of the class thought that the view was either Negotiated or Oppositional, they didn’t quite understand what the producer was trying to show with the video, they also thought that the video was a bit too extreme with the nudity that was shown in the video. Where’s one or two people including myself thought our views were more Preferred, since we understood what the producer was trying to show, also we didn’t particularly care about the nudity since it wasn’t a big issue for us. These responses could mainly have been influenced by the way that person is, how they view life and how they have been brought up. Uses and Gratifications Theory (Blumler and Katz) Blumler and Katz publishes this theory in 1974, this theory states that individuals might choose to use a text for the following purposes. Diversion – Escape from everyday life Personal Relationships – Using the media for other interaction. For example, Tinder to find romance and also watching family aimed shows for family life. Personal Identity – Finding yourself reflected in texts. Surveillance – Information which could be useful for living: The news for weather reports, and information from around the world. This theory could show that certain people are attracted to certain media products whether it would be on the internet or in TV Shows or Films, based on what they find entertaining or what they want. Someone might want an escape from everyday life so they might watch a TV show or film about that particular subject. Using media for other interaction could be watching romantic films or shows for family films for family life.
- 3. Lauren Allard Unit 6: Critical Approaches PR2: Audience Theory As a class we looked at different types of social media, and as a class we had to decide which category those websites/apps would go into base on why they are used. We looked at popular forms of social media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We all agreed that Facebook would fall into all four categories, since it can be a diversion from everyday life, you can share your personal relationships, you have your personal identity online for people to view and also Surveillance, you can get the news available online through Facebook by liking they company’s pages. Task 4: Uses and Gratifications For an example of the Uses and Gratifications theory, I’m going to use a recent filmcalled Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Which is a fantasy filmincluded in the Harry Potter franchise. The main target audience for this film would be mainly Harry Potter fans and also fans of Sci-Fi and also of the books. But by using the Uses and Gratifications theory created by Blumler and Katz. Looking at the target audience and being a fan of the franchise myself, I would say that the filmwould go into the following categories for the following reasons. Diversion – Since it is a filmthat is meant to be unrealistic, it’s filled with magic and things that would never to be known to be possible in reality. For me it is a distraction of everyday life, it takes me into a world of my own imagination. And no matter how old the audience gets the idea of being in that magic world is something they would have dreamed of since the first Harry Potter book. Personal Relationships – For a lot of the fans of the film, they tend to put two people together in a franchise. For most of the audience they could become attached to the film due to the characters featured and also the relationship those characters’ share. Surveillance – Even though this film is a fantasy and does take the audience away from reality throughout the entire film. For the audience especially the younger age groups, the news and the dramatic events in the film seemreal to them (younger age groups). They could be watching the filmfor the drama and the dramatic scenes that happen in the film throughout. Fight Club BBFC Case Study Fight club is a 1999 action packed drama, featuring a depressed man suffering from insomnia. He then meets a soap salesman named Tyler Durden and soon finds himself living in his squalid house after his perfect condo was destroyed by a bomb. The two men then develop an underground club with strict rules which includes men fighting other men who are now fed up with their everyday lives. From what started as a small underground club known as “Fight Club”, then becomes something that is way out of the two men’s reach, they then manage to get every single member under their control, creating an organization
- 4. Lauren Allard Unit 6: Critical Approaches PR2: Audience Theory that was never meant to exist. The perfect friendship/partnership between the two then crashes when Marla a fellow support group crasher and drug addict, attracts Tyler’s attention. Throughout the film there are many plot twists and confusing scenes that can twist the mind. The filmmade $100.9 million on the U.S box office. The main character never got an actual name other than “The Narrator” since throughout the entire film, he voices overs telling the audience the story as the filmgoes on. Putting more of the book into the film. The opening scene to Fight Club represents a brain’s Neural Network in which the thought processes are initiated by the Narrator’s fear impulse. Fight Club was released in the United States on October 15th 1999, and was directed by David Fincher. The film was Distributed by 20th Century Fox, there was two versions of the film released due to its graphic content, in some countries the film was released as a 15 rated film, whilst in most other countries it was released as an 18 rated film due to the film containing so much violence and references to terrorism. BBFC state that adults should be free to choose their own entertainment. In this sense Fight Club did not break any UK Law or was too harmful based on the content featured. The reason why the film was not certificated an 18 by the BBFC was due to the fact that they felt that there was nothing featured in the film that breached UK law or featured anything that was too harmful. Fully stating that if this was influencing anything to any member of the audience, it would be due to the audience member. Not the film. "A toxic experience ... an inadmissible assault on personal decency ... and on society itself. It resurrects the Führer principle. It promotes pain and suffering as the virtues of the strongest. It tramples every democratic decency underfoot." – Alexander Walker. The Hypodermic Model says that members of the audience can be manipulated by Media text. Alexander Walker is stating that this film is promoting pain and suffering and how it is an inadmissible assault on personal decency and also on society. But the Hypodermic Model also says that the audience’s behavior and views could change based on the media producers. In this quote Alexander Walker is saying that we are all going to get together in groups and causing havoc, with an extreme amount of violence and copying the film’s content and placing in into real life. But I would have to disagree with this statement, due to the fact that there are worst films than Fight Club that has gotten a larger audience and has content that is a lot more extreme. But yet again those types of films haven’t influenced people to do such things in anyway. Since this film was released in 1999 it was before any major terrorist events took place. But in present day 2016 there have been films that have promoted violence and gang crimes, such as the filmseries The Purge, which is about 12 hours of America having no laws, anyone can do anything and get away with it. Yet this has not influenced any such event or influenced anyone to do anything similar in the film. And the film series has been known and out for a few years now, if there have been any traumatic events that involve mass murder it would have taken place due to that person’s mental
- 5. Lauren Allard Unit 6: Critical Approaches PR2: Audience Theory state. The Hypodermic Model says we can be manipulated by media text so for this quote, you could say that the audience would be manipulated to create underground clubs. BBFC said that it did not break any UK law, so that Alexander Walker’s quote and views were invalid for their laws and opinions. “New BBFC Guidelines established the principle that adults should be free to choose their own entertainment, within the law, and it was considered that there was nothing in Fight Club that was in breach of UK law, or felt to be harmful.” – From looking at this quote from BBFC and also looking into the Use & Gratifications Theory. Individuals do tend to choose and use a text for certain purposes, for the filmFight Club they might choose this piece of media due to the reason “Diversion” which means that the individual might want an escape from everyday life, in some ways the film could be realistic. Also the film does feature a large group of men who seek for this type of club to escape their everyday lives that they are sick of experiencing. Also some members of the audience could relate to some of the characters that are shown in the film. For some members of the audience the film could also place them in a “Personal Identity” purpose, especially since the filmdoes include a character who is suffering from a mental illness, the character could be relatable to some viewers mentally wise. But this film based on the statement written by BBFC the film would fit into “Diversion” for the escape of reality for adults. After watching Fight Club and also looking into the Uses & Gratifications Theory. Personally I would say that from watching the filmit is an escape from everyday life, which would put me in the purpose, Diversion. It is meant to be an unrealistic filmwith a lot of action and drama that you wouldn’t even think of happening in everyday life. For some scenes I could put myself in “Personal Identity” especially when it comes to the main character, The Narrator suffers dramatic events because throughout the film you can feel a connection to the character, based on emotions. But from watching the film I can see why a lot of people would prefer it to be certificated an 18 rating, due to the amount of violence. Especially in this year when terrorism has become a massive thing in the world, I can see why some people in this present time could have negative views towards the film especially when the film carries on and you eventually realise what “Fight Club” actually is, which is a terrorist organisation. Fight Club Exit Poll Results – Audience Responses After watching Fight Club as a class, I then created an Exit Poll for the filmand sent it to a total of 12 people that have all seen the film. Before I sent the survey I already knew that many members of the audience would have different opinions about the film based on their preferred genre of film, their views on the content that was included in the film. Especially the graphic content. I created ten questions based on the age and gender of that member of audience, how they found out about the film, if they knew about it before watching it in class, their opinion, and what their views of the filmwas and why. Question One:
- 6. Lauren Allard Unit 6: Critical Approaches PR2: Audience Theory To get a reading on the audience that watched this film, I asked the audience what their age is. Due to the audience’s opinions being different based on their age. The Encoding and Decoding model would show that the audience could have different views on a piece of media text, based on their age and gender etc. Out of the ten responses that I had gotten back, 10% of the audience was over the age of 40, whilst the remaining 90% are in the age group 16-20. Question Two: Like with the first question I wanted to know the audience member’s gender. Looking at the Encoding and Decoding model certain people might have different views based on their gender, or the way they were brought up and view life. Out of the ten responses I got, 30% of the audience was female, whilst the remaining 70% of the audience was Male. Question Three
- 7. Lauren Allard Unit 6: Critical Approaches PR2: Audience Theory The third question was to find out how the audience knew about the film before watching it. Since I placed this question before any other question about whether they heard about the film before watching it in class, I added an “Other” option, so that they can say the other way that they discovered the film. I included different options to how they could have found out about the film before watching it in class, one of these options being “The original book” since the film was created based of the book which was released not that many years before the film. Word of Mouth – 50% Teaser/Trailer – 10% Social Media – 10% Posters – 0% The Original Book – 0% Other (Please Specify) – 30% o “College” o “Class Project” A majority of the class had found out about the film through a “Word of Mouth”, the film was popular and requested to many different people either that or other people’s opinions about the film were spread to other people, letting them know of the film. Question Four I have connected question four to the previous question, about whether the audience member had known about the film before watching it in class. I had already collected the responses on how the audience members had found out about the film. Now I wanted to know if they already knew about it before the class discussion. Out of the ten responses 10% of the audience did not know about the film before watching it/discussing it in class. Whilst the remaining 90% of the audience had known about the filmbefore watching it in class. Question Five
- 8. Lauren Allard Unit 6: Critical Approaches PR2: Audience Theory For this question I wanted the audience to give a rating from 1-10, I wanted to know their rated opinion before they give me their written opinion. 1 being that they didn’t like the film at all and 10 being that they enjoyed it a lot. Like I expected many members of the audience had different opinions and gave different ratings to the film. Out of the ten responses: 1 – 0% 2 – 10% 3- 0% 4 – 10% 5- 0% 6- 0% 7 – 10% 8 – 30 % 9 – 10% 10 – 30% A majority of the audience thought that the filmwas in between the ratings of 8 and 10, 8 and ten being the most popular rating at 30% each. Question Six This question was used in my survey, mainly because throughout the film contained a lot of excessive violence. Some of which could be too much for some people, but based on the storyline and plot of the film it could be just the right amount of violence for the film. I gave three different options for this question, the first one being “I felt there was too much”, which shockingly no one had decided on. The second option was “Just right for the film” Based on the film’s storyline and plot and the entire concept of the film, for some viewers it could be the just right amount of violence for this film. 80% of the ten responses selected this option. And the remaining 20% had selected the option “The violence was right, in the terms of content but I did not like it”. Question Seven
- 9. Lauren Allard Unit 6: Critical Approaches PR2: Audience Theory For this question I had already gotten the audience’s rated opinion, but now I wanted their written opinion on what they liked and what they disliked about the film. Here are the responses I got: "The complexity” “The Storyline” “Although the violence was right due to the film’s context, it was over excessive in parts” “Liked the detail e.g. violence. Disliked how confusing it was” “Violence” “I liked it a lot because its real and the acting was amazing” “I liked the narrative of the film and how the ending makes the whole filmmakes more sense” “The Plot Twist was pretty good” A lot of the audience members focused on the amount of violence contained the film, whilst others focused more on the storyline and the plot twist of the film, which was extreme, shocking and confusing. Question Eight For this question I was focusing on one of the three Audience Theories. The Encoding and Decoding Model created by Stuart Hall. For this question I wanted to know the audience’s reading of the film. Whether they felt that they saw the film in a preferred way – meaning that they understand what the producer was trying to show with the film. Out of the ten responses 60% of the audience had a Preferred reading of the film, 50% had a Negotiated reading of the film and also the remaining 10% had an Oppositional reading of the film. So a lot of the audience members that responded to my survey had mixed opinions about the film and understandable reading of the film. Despite some of their likes and dislikes of the film.
- 10. Lauren Allard Unit 6: Critical Approaches PR2: Audience Theory Question Nine This question, like the previous one. Is connected to one of the audience theories, this one being Uses and Gratifications created by Blumler and Katz. I asked the audience whether they feel diverted by the filmin any way. The reason for this question is the film did contain a group of men in the fight club, that wanted an escape of everyday life, they wanted to experience different things from their “everyday/boring” lifestyles. One of the categories for the Uses and Gratifications theory, is Diversion – An form of escape from everyday life. Here are the responses I got. “Yes, by the narrative and visual style. Also the humour portrayed in the dynamic of the 3 main characters” “yes” “Yes” “Not Really” “Yes” “No” “Not Really” “No” “No” A majority of the audience said that they did feel diverted by the film, they felt like they were being diverted from everyday life, for some it was based on the narrative and the visual style of the film and also the humour.
- 11. Lauren Allard Unit 6: Critical Approaches PR2: Audience Theory Question Ten The final question in the survey I asked the audience if there were any elements throughout the film that they might use for surveillance. For example, the fashion or Music. Here are the responses I got: “Not really” “Yeah, the music” “No” “I became a fan of the composers of the film’s soundtrack, and I have also enjoyed reading novels by the screenwriter, inspired by my enjoyment of the film” “yes” “Probably not from how controversial the film is and that I didn’t like the filmtoo much” “Nope” “The music was popular at the time” “The music possibly” “Music” A majority couldn’t find anything in the filmthat they might use for surveillance, where’s one member of the audience did say that they used the music and the screenwriter for surveillance, it inspired them to purchase the soundtrack, and also watch more of the screenwriter’s work. The filmalso inspired this person to purchase the book that the film was based off. This question can be connected to the Uses and Gratifications theory, one of the categories in this theory is Surveillance, which is Looking through my Exit Poll results about Fight Club, I can match my results to a few of the audience theories. I focused a few of my questions on two of the audience theories, these two theories being the Encoding and Decoding model and also the Use and Gratifications model. The Encoding and Decoding model can be used in my Exit Poll results based on how each member of the audience is an individual person, each person has different backgrounds, gender, age and also different views on the film. The responses show that each person’s opinions change at some points based on their rating, personal opinion and also their reading of the film. The readings used were taken from the Encoding and Decoding model. To find out what people thought and if they agreed with the screenwriter. Which shows that most of the audience did agree with the screenwriter which for some audience members was shocking since some of them have negative opinions of the film in some responses to some questions.
- 12. Lauren Allard Unit 6: Critical Approaches PR2: Audience Theory I also used the Uses and Gratifications model to analyse my results, this model shows that the audience becomes interested in a piece of media text because of some of the four categories. Diversion Personal Relationships Personal Identity Surveillance It would appear that some of the audience became a fan of the film due to the fact that it was a diversion of everyday life.