Q5 pp
- 1. Q5: HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?
- 2. Overview • As a sophisticated audience, my audience will be active and therefore will make an active choice about how they respond to my media. • As a niche audience, I will not be able to apply many mass media audience theories to my production. • Active audience theories which could be applied to the audience of my magazine include Two Step Flow, Uses and Gratifications and Hierarchy of Needs. • To show that I have also considered passive audience theories I shall also be looking at the Culmination theory.
- 3. Active: Two Step Flow Theory • The Two Step Flow theory suggests that there are opinion leaders (who are active audience members) and convey them to others (who are passive audience members). • This theory can be applied to using celebrities to promote films, political leaders and celebrities in adverts. • As my audience are Young and Rubicam Reformers, they are often on the leading edge of society and therefore people will be likely to come to them to ask them about music, or they will present their views to other people. • Also many of the audience of the indie/rock genre are confident and embody the ideologies of doing what they want to do by themselves and not what society expects of them, along with being socially aware will naturally be passed on to others. • This is also true of the music journalists of this genre who count as part of the audience, as in their critical reviews of certain artists, their opinions will be projected onto the audience.
- 4. Active: Uses and Gratifications The Uses and Gratifications theory was developed by Blumler and Katz and suggests that the media satisfies 4 needs for us: • Entertainment – diversion, relaxation. • Information – gives us knowledge. • Personal Identity – gives us characters to relate to. • Social Interaction – gives us something to discuss with family and friends.
- 5. Active: Uses and Gratifications I can apply all 4 elements of this theory to my production… • Entertainment – The magazine is packed with article, reviews, guides, games etc. to entertain the reader. It is easy to pick up after a long day to offer relaxation. It is not too challenging a read however still sophisticated enough for my target audience. • Information – As my audience is sophisticated, I have ensured that the content is not too basic and includes news, gig guides and articles with new bands which all give information to the reader. • Personal Identity – The articles feature artists generally around the same age as the primary audience making it easy for them to relate to, and with similar ideologies and thoughts on certain subjects which brings them together with the audience. • Social Interaction – Due to the magazine not being directed at a mass audience and therefore not needing to retain a squeaky clean image, my magazine will be more likely to include funny or shocking articles which would not necessarily be seen in a more mainstream magazine, giving the audience something to talk about with friends or family. Also the reviews can be talked about with friends or family as they might want to go and see the bands.
- 6. Active: Hierarchy of Needs • Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs gives a pyramid which gives our most basic needs from the bottom and suggest that we work our way up, satisfying our needs through work, family, friends, hobbies etc.
- 7. Active: Hierarchy of Needs • As a sophisticated audience, they will most likely be satisfied by all of the stages of the pyramid except the top which suggests a more intellectual view of morality which my magazine can give. The sub sections of this top category of Self-Actualisation include… • Morality – My magazine will make a point of being socially aware and making readers aware of social issues ie. racism/homophobia/sexism etc. • Creativity – Creativity is at the core of this genre as the artists are allowed complete autonomy in most situations and therefore can work their creative minds to produce music for themselves. Therefore this creativity is embedded into the audience. • Spontaneity – Similar to creativity, the autonomy allows the artists spontaneity as their music might not fit in with mass media ideologies because they can do what they want with it. This spontaneity is admired and passed on to the audience. • Problem solving – My magazine features a games page. • Lack of prejudice – Similar to morality, I will ensure that my magazine produces strong ideals of equality. • Acceptance of facts – This perhaps the least relevant to my production as my audience are likely to challenge established ideologies rather than accept them.
- 8. Passive: Culmination • The culmination theory suggests that the audience are ‘injected’ with ideologies, but for this ideology to be accepted by the audience, it must be repeated over time. • This theory applies to situations such as TV shows like the Apprentice suggesting that money equals success, or newspapers repeating political views until they are ingrained into the audience’s heads until they believe it themselves. • I can apply this theory to my production, because my magazine will be repeating the ideology that you don’t need to do what society expects of you, because society is flawed and you should focus on what makes you happy. • This ideology interrupts the flow of hegemony and therefore could cause disruption in natural order if a mass audience decided that they all didn’t care anymore, however because I am targeting a niche, sophisticated audience, then can be somewhat active in this theory in taking the ideologies repeated in my magazine with a pinch of salt, and not quit their job or anything to prove a point. • This emphasises the activeness of my audience in that they can subvert a passive audience theory.