Discussing your audience

-->AS question Who would be the audience for your media product?                          
 How did you attract/address your audience? 

A2 question
What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Write a response on your blog then use digital technologies to present your answer. Maybe use a wideo or prezi.

Examiner's advice

Audience research is more productive if it addresses the following:

·      What do real audiences consume?

·      Who are the specific audiences for particular products?

·      How do media industries target those audiences?

Those questions require research of a different kind to the local questionnaire method; initial research online looking for data about the industry students are dealing with, such as box office figures for films. Part of research involves looking for examples of how marketing works across a range of media- for films this includes considering posters, trailers and their selling points, for example.

Later audience research should be considered in a series of stages, each involving formative qualitative feedback. So, for example:

·      Pitching the product to the rest of the group and taking feedback, noting the responses from this and deciding how to act as a result.

·      Showing early drafts of the work (such as an animatic of the storyboard or a mock up front cover) and asking some carefully framed questions about them to get a sense of the audience’s understanding of the product rather than just a measure of whether the audience liked it.

·      Taking peer feedback at later stages and then again on the finished product; asking things like “can you tell me what happened in that sequence, what the relationship between the characters is and what do you think will happen in the rest of the film?” to look for audience readings of the work. ‘

These approaches can be presented in a variety of ways- video extracts with framing commentary from the makers; audio, written. All would help move away from the pie chart of responses model which tends to be fairly unproductive. 

 My advice

Explain the approaches taken to gather audience feedback and what your learnt from each.

• Pitch
• Presenting early drafts
• Focus group
• Social Media
• Presentation

Questions to consider
 

How successful have you been at targeting an audience?

Where would you publish / host your productions and how does this target your chosen audience?

How will your target audience consume your products?

Apply Uses and Gratification theory (Blumler and Katz) to allow discussion of your production. How does your target audience use your product to gratify certain needs.

Discuss passive and active audiences. How can an audience interact with your product?

Compare your product with at least three existing similar media products. How does it fit with this genre?

Where will your product be shown or how will your product be exhibited?

How will your product be marketed?

What viewing figures would you expect to achieve?

 Explain how you have come to this conclusion using secondary sources

www.mediaguardian.co.uk 

BARB 

IMDB

AS evaluation

• 
  
  0. Candidates should be encouraged to see the evaluation as a creative task and the potential of the format chosen should be exploited through the use of images, audio, video and links to online resources. Marks should be supported by teacher comments and may be supported by other forms such as audio or video presentations. 
     
     The format chosen for your evaluation is the web-log which allows you to be creative when evaluating by using a range of technologies.  There are seven questions and you could utilise a range of different presentational tools.
     
     
     •     Prezi
     • Green screen directors commentary
     • Audio voice-over the opening sequence
     • links to online resources and images by putting together an audio visual evaluation andposting to you-tube 
     • a blog entry with links and images and a written response
  
  
  􏰀  In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
  media products? 
  
  Start by explaining how you have followed the forms and conventions of the genre you have worked in. Make links between your work and existing films and explin how they have influenced decisions.
  
  Go on to discuss how you revised or altered the production thruoghout the process.
  
  Explain how you have challenged the conventions or developed the genre in a new way 
  
  THis could be an audio commnterya in addition to a written blog post. 
  
  
• 􏰀  How does your media product represent particular social groups? 
  
  Discuss the representations in your film. For example, representation of gender in the film noir genre is often problematic. Explain how you have represented the 'femme fatale' or the 'detective'. Have you challenged the stereotypes or modernised the narrative for a new audience?
  
  This could be an interview with the director in the form of a film magazine show for television.
  
  
  • What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
  
  You will have to explain how the distribution model will work for your film.   Is it a Warner Brothers film noir like those produced in the golden age of Hollywood or is it a Sony blockbuster?  How will exhibition and distribution differ between films.  You cretaed a title for your own production company and need to explain how the relationship works between a smaller company and its huge corporate sponsor.  You will have a lesson on Working Title films and its parent company Universal to help explain this relationship.
   
  
  •  Who would be the audience for your media product? 
  
  Profile an audience for your film going beyond the more obvious socio-economic groupings to dicuss a key demographic that your film is aimed at.  Use all the information about modern techniques of audience profiling essential in the world of advertising.
  
  
  •  How did you attract/address your audience?
  
  Explain how your film attracts this audience through the narrative, the characters, the themes and topics covered. How does the genre appeal to this demographic? Discuss similar films and how yours can be seen as similar.  How might you encourage interactivity where audiences get involved with your film in some way?
  
  
  What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? 
  This question could be a blog entry with images showing the technologies used to make the film.  Try and be exhaustive and make a list of all the hardware and software you have used.
   
  Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
  List all the skills that you have gained in making this film and explain how they have developed since beginning the course. Explain what you learnt in the preliminary task such as continuity editing and the 180 degree rule and then how you learnt much more when making your own film.
  To enable yo to understand the levels and marking here are some examples provided by the exam board.
  
  This evaluation gained 16/20
  
  Kamini
  
   
• THis one (Snehal) gained 15/20 and the examiner stated, '
  A  range  of  tools  is  used  for  the  evaluation,  which  has  some  degree  of  depth  and   some  good  illustrations  and  examples  to  support  points  made.  The  powerpoint   for  Q.6  is  a  bit  pointless,  as  the  material  would  probably  have  been  more  effective  directly  on  the   blog.  Q.5  tries  to  make  use  of  annotation,  which  is  quite  
  effective.  The  video  for  Q.4  is  a  bit  simplistic  and  Q.2  is  a  little  limited  as  a  prezi.  
  Q.1  has  quite  a  lot  of  detail.  Overall,  a  mixed  bag,  but  enough  again  to  justify  a  
  clear  level  3

Political posters

Today saw the launch of the 2015 election campaigns and the impact of digital technology in a post-modern world of media is inescapable. 'No orthodoxy can be accepted without irony' is one explanation of this term which is bad news for much maligned politicians who cling to these once powerful mediums hoping they can influence an increasingly sceptical and media savvy public. one almost feels sorry for them but it is always interesting to see what the advertising agencies come up with.  The difference is we can now actively participate in de-constructing or parodying the messages that were once foisted upon us.

Here are two classic posters which had an affect on the political discourse of their time.

Advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi came up with this poster in 1979 and it helped Margaret Thatcher to convince voters that the Conservatives would bring down unemployment and end the general gloom of the 1970's. The simplicity of the advert was its strength and the message was clear and worked on a more passive audience.

Saatchi and Saatchi came up with another memorable advert in 1997 directly attacking Tony Blair's character using his image without permission and running into problems with the regulator the ASA.
However, the image was effective and sowed the seeds of mistrust in a very popular leader which were exploited later during the invasion of Iraq.

It led to the Labour party releasing a poster in response using the slogan, 'same old Tories, same old lies'.

The Conservatives launched their campaign today with this poster

De-construct the poster and analyse the messages and meanings.

Image - what are the connotations?
Anchorage - how does the text anchor the meaning of the advert

Unfortunately for politicians the world of new media has made such launches more difficult and prone to gaffes that undermine their message.  If we believe the press then the advertising agency used an image from an online stock photo source rather than taking the image themselves which smacks of laziness at best and gross incompetence at worst.  The original photo is manipulated which suggest that it is all a fabricated representation or 'lie'.  We all know that these posters are made to manipulate an audience but the message is totally undermined here. When asked if this was a place in Britain Tories defended the photo only to find it was taken in Germany later in the day. The claims made abut the deficit being halved are also being questioned, as ever there are more than two sides to every story.

Perhaps it is time for honesty in politics rather than spin and manipulation, it might be a vote winner!

Labour's poster tried to employ a meme from a few years back which may be too clever for its own good or may exploit new media technologies and gain some mainstream exposure for a clever, rather niche, interactive web tool which parodies Conservative adverts.  This could have little effect or could gain traction with an electorate who would rather engage with adverts as an active audience rather than being preached at. If they can revive the meme and it goes viral on social media then it could be a powerful advertising tool and a skilful harnessing of new media technology.

The idea is taken from the mydavidcameron.com site which allows users to create their own poster parodying  a previous campaign.

For example...


The original poster

and one that has been created by an active audience using new media technologies such as photoshop and social media to challlenge and undermine the original message.

I think we may be seeing a lot more of this.



Your task is to research historical examples of political advertising and to use these to explore the topics we will cover such as 'media in the online age'

De-constructing your own product

STARTER - Use the mark scheme to give Ellie and Katy a mark out of 60

THE CAMP 

Identify the type of shot and describe what is placed within the shot (mise-en-scene)

Explain how meaning has been created. What are the connotations or what is signified?

You will present this on your web-log and then use it to present to the group explaining decisions and revisions. You could comment on the following;

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titles – pace and style of editing – length of shots – sound – narrative – audience - mise-en-scene

For example, here are ten shots from the first cut of 'Widow's Creek'. Underneath each shot you could explain how, as the director, you have created meaning for an audience.

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The long take

Birdman by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. The 'coffee' scene. Also note the use of diegetic sound.

Goodfellas by Martin Scorsese

Rope by Alfred Hitchcock



Guardian

Closed due to Elf and Safety

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A number of students have been interviewed for Christmas jobs at the Belfry’s winter wonderland experience.  Paul failed the interview for the position of elf and safety officer whilst Reece lasted two days claiming, ‘it was awful, I was embarrassed.’

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, celebrity interior designer and host of ‘Changing Rooms’, has designed ‘The Magical Journey’ which opened at The Belfry (£20 entry for children) and its closure is being represented in a way that makes it a rich story for media students to analyse.

The national press has got hold of this story as the ‘experience’ has temporarily closed down. This is the latest in a perennial bout of stories (see Lapland New Forest) about these, sometimes, underwhelming attractions. A cynic would say that they are exploitative and reduce 'the magic of Christmas' to a tawdry  event driven by consumerism and a lack of imagination amongst those willing to feed the greed.

For us it presents an opportunity to have a go at similar headline puns on this festive theme. It’s still November!   Maybe the cuts to the National Elf service contributed to the shut down.

See if you can beat my headline and write the article to go with it.

Research

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/23/winter-wonderland-designed-laurence-llewelyn-bowen-shuts-complaints?commentpage=2

Read the article in the Guardian
 ....and the comments accompanying it

https://www.facebook.com/TheMagicalJourneyUK

Explore the Facebook page to view the comments

http://www.magicaljourney.co.uk/

This link will take you to the Magical journey web-site

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2846289/22-head-Christmas-attraction-created-Laurence-Llewelyn-Bowen-closes-just-ONE-DAY-following-hundreds-complaints-queues-cheap-toys.html

The Daily Mail calling it Winter Blunderland.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11248745/Laurence-Llewelyn-Bowens-winter-wonderland-told-to-shut.html

 The Telegraph with an apology from the event director

Questions to consider

The comments underneath the articles are well worth reading and show how the audience interacts with media texts. News media are no longer creating artefacts which are read passively, these stories often take on a life of their own, moving in sometimes unexpected directions. 

How can the representation of this story affect parties involved?

For example, The Belfry, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen, residents of Sutton Coldfield, the organisers…

Social media can have a profound effect on business decisions and empower people.  They can also be manipulated by producers of media texts and trolls alike to steer a response in an audience.

How does media interactivity work in relation to this text?

This story is ripe for a little embellishment. Emerging news ...

There is mention of a child being bitten by a reindeer, our own prospective elves suggest that most elves are Eastern European. Santa was a fake as the real one was at the Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Dudley. It was actually very good but they are delaying due to the weather and it not being near Christmas yet. Elves seen smoking.  Long queues, cheap presents, rude staff.

You have researched the facts in the quality newspapers.  Now write the article for a tabloid audience. Include a headline, an image and two opening paragraphs.

Audience profiling

A new tool is available to allow audience profiling.  You-Gov is an interesting and growing company that carries out polls into issues of the day to establish trends using data to back up their findings.  This information increasingly informs political and business decisions. Explore some of these issues on their web-site.

This article explains how You-Gov  has created an app stereotyping the lifestyle choices of audiences for specific media texts.

This should help you to identify audiences for your own product and to help you to understand how audience profiling works in media industries.  Ideas about what a typical consumer eats, preferred activities such as sports and even pets allow them to build a composite character.  Along with your study of the Mosaic system of audience segmentation produced by credit company Experian you should be able to use this information to build a more specific profile of your target audience.

Play with the app to see if it can help you identify an an audience for your production. You can also use the web-site. Both are fantastic for our purposes our very user friendly.

For example,  search, 'Benefits Street'.

You will discover television programmes appealing to a similar audience and other correlations which indicate the politics or likes of the audience. It also offers opinions from people who have signed up to the you-gov web-site as a user making the service interactive. The incentive for someone signing up to use this service is that they may be able to influence decision making.