Audience theory

Blumer and Katz - Uses and gratification theory

We are all presented with the same media texts but we consume it differently. We use media to accommodate how we are feeling for example we listen to sad songs if we are feeling sad or we will watch sad films to match how we are feeling.

The uses and gratification theory are an active theory. We are the audience and we have choice. The uses and gratification model represented a change in thinking. The model looks at the motives of the people who use the media.

The theory makes the audience active as they choose what they want to consume/watch for example you only watch the films you want as you are in control. The media simply creates the product. The theory argues that audience needs have social and psychological needs which generate certain expectations about the mass media and what they are exposed to. The 4 needs are; 

• Surveillance
• Personal identity
• Personal relationships
• Diversion 

Surveillance

Based upon the idea that people feel better having the feeling that they know what is going on in the world. For example the news about awareness.

Personal identity

Understand who we are and how being a subject of the media allows us to confirm the identity and positioning ourselves within society and where we fit in.

Personal relationships

Personal relationships are in two sections;

1. Relationships with the media
2. Using the media within relationships 

Using media as a companionship and we can form a relationships with the media. For example a favourite TV show with someone or having in common the same favourite TV programme which will help within a relationship.

Diversion

Use the media to divert ourselves and watching TV so we can forget about our lives. Using diversion to forget about our own problems and that we are more interested in someone else's to make yourself feel better.

Stuart Hall - Reception theory
The reception theory states that the media texts are encoded by the producer meaning that whoever produces the text fills the product  with values and messages. The text is then decoded by spectators. Different spectators will decode the text in different ways.

Producers encodes message/meaning;

• Dominant or preferred
• Negotiated
• Oppositional

Dominant

The reading of a text is that the audience view the media texts in the way that producers intended. The audience agree with the ideology and messages behind the text.

Dominant understanding of your product?

• Clear messages
• Audience is the same ages so relates to product(uses and gratification)
• From the same cultures
• Easy to understand narrative in relation.

Negotiated

The audience understand the messages from the text that it is being intended however they still have their own opinion even though they can see the point being made in relation to the reading.

Negotiated reading of your product?

• The audience may not have had the same life experiences
• Age may vary the reading and understanding

Oppositional

The audience rejects the preferred reading and creates their own reading of the text as they don't agree with the messages created from the audience.

Oppositional reading of your product?

• Your product has controversial themes
• Disagree with the messages in the video
• Dislike the genre (uses and gratification)
• No understanding
• Not reflective of society
• Difficult cultures have different understanding

Narrative Theory

Role within the narrative:

• Narrative
• Technical codes(use of close ups, mise-en-scene, editing, show expression)
• Performance
• Artists playing version of themselves

'Help' - The Beatles (1965)

Image created with mise-en-scene and setting. Representation created iconic imagery. This was a very successful music video.

Using films as promotion dropped because TV's started to come out.

1960's - 'Golden Era' was finished. Factories didn't make war items, as they started to make stereos. Proliferation of media technologies. Crime stopped.

The use of close ups, band performance e.g. medium/long shots.

80 - 85 million people saw The Beatles and American TV. There was no reported crime meaning that people didn't wan to commit crimes and instead watch The Beatles. "Short promotional films"- They was called in this era.     

The Beatles made a short film 'Magical Mystery Tour' 1967 (Boxing day was shown) Made in colour BBC shown it in black and white. This short film has used many conventions such as; close ups, band shots, editing on the beat, montage editing.

Michael shores (1984) argues that music videos are recycled styles.

Weezer - Buddy Holly (Happy Days) a sick comedy 1950's American (1970's made)

Recycled styles of TV programme and cultural references. Different elements edited in for effect for example black leather jackets is iconic for rebellion/rock which is recycled look from a sick com.

We get our knowledge from media texts from different eras. Surface without substance - no meaning.

Oasis - The importance of being idle - the beginning is just like a film.

Saturday night and Sunday morning (late 1950's British film movement) 1960.

Immediate gratification - Get something fast. Change music video over to 800's more videos.

Variety and the moment - not caring. Violent/sexual imagery. Adolescent male fantasies; girls and money.

Andrew Goodwin (1992) argues that in music videos 'narrative relations are highly complex' and meaning can be created from the individual audience viewers musical personal musical taste to sophisticated intertexuality that uses multidiscursine phenomena of western culture,

Many are dominated by advertising reference, film pastiche and reinforce the post-modern 're-use' tradition. Not everyone likes the same programme. Shared media experiences but own audience personal musical taste. Own experiences through culture.

Bordwell and Thompson (1997) offers two distinction between story and plot which relate to the diagetic world of the narrative. Fabula (story) is all the events in the narrative that we see and infer. Synuzet (plot). Linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution. Tzventon Todorov (1977)

Roland Barthes (1977) development of the problem, an enigma. Narrative works with 5 different codes - leads to narrative (conventional). Depends on genre what the codes mean.

Representation Theory

Laura Mulveys - Male Gaze Theory
This theory is how the audience view women who are presented in the media. She states that women are there to be seen and that the use of camera portrays them as sexual objects through shot types and movements.
Her focus is on:

• How women look at themselves from there images
• How men look at women from those images
• How women look at other women from those images

The male gaze focuses on:

• Emphasising curves of the female body
• Referring to women as objects rather then people
• The display of women
• Female viewer view the content through the eyes of a man

The male gaze describes how the audience or viewer is put into the perspective of a hetrosexual male e.g. the camera lingers over the curves of a womens body.

Mulvey states that women are typically the objects, rather then the possessers and men emerges dominant power. This is proven in the music video; Nicki Minaj - Anaconda.

This emphasises the curves of the female body, shows women as objects rather then people, displays women in a way to please men. Would the female viewers, view the contents through the eyes of a man? Women sexualised and seen as object and viewed based on sexual desire and the way they look.

Richard Dyer - Star Theory
This theory is the idea that icons and celebrities are constructed by institutions for financial reasons and are built to target a specific audience or group of people. Dyers theory can be broken down into three sections:

• Audience and institutions
• Constructions
• Hegemony (cultural beliefs)

He states, "Stars are commodites that are produced by institutions."

"A star is a constructed image, represented across a range of media and medium."

"Stars represent and embody certain ideologies."

Stars are made to make money. They make a star based on what they think the audience want.

Constructions: the start is built for an audience and is not an actual person, a persona is created for the audience to identify with and no star can differentiate between different stars and why they like them or not. differentiates them from other stars e.g. Lady Gaga outrageous fashion.

Hegemony: (leadership or dominance) we relate to the star because they have a feature that we admire or share with them.

Tessa Perkins - Stereotypes
Stereotyping is attaching a label/name to either an individual or groups of people which then they further get labelled. People judge on their looks e.g. if you wear black you may be seen as instantly a emo/goth. Stereotypes are based upon the media. Stereotyping is not a simple process and contains a number of assumptions that can be challenged.

Stereotypes are not always negative for example "the french are good cooks".

Perkins identifies such assumptions:

• They are not always about minority groups or the less powerful upper class
• They can be held about ones own group
• They are not rigid or unchanging
• They are not always false

The less powerful but this is not always the case when targeted for aiming stereotypes. They has to be some truth in the stereotype or they wouldn't have the representation in the first place. Stereotypes are always erroneous in context (usually wrong). They are about groups with whom we have little or no social contact.

Genre Development

Christian Metz said that texts go through all four stages:

• Experimental stage
• Classic stage
• Parody stage
• Deconstruction stage

Music videos in a medium intended to appeal directly to youth subcultures by reinforcing generic elements of musical genres. Music videos are post modern texts whole main purpose in to promote a star persona which is the Richard Dyer(1975) theory. 

David Bordwell (1989) ' Any themes may appear in any genre'.

• Teen angst
• Rebellion
• Romance
• Sex
• Bullying

David Buckingham (1993) argues that genre is not.. simply 'gives' by the cultures: rather it is a constant process of negotiation and change.

Jacques Deride reminds use of 'the law of the genre'.

Juvenile Delinquency: Moral panics and the teenager as a folk devil. Themes in music videos;

• War
• Crime
• Poverty
• Capitalism
• Racism 
• Friendship

Genres are not fixed as they are constantly changing and will evolve over time.

Genre theory

Genre is a critical tool that helps us study texts and audience responses to texts by dividing them into categories based on common elements. The main strengths of the genre theory is that everybody uses it and understands it  - media experts use it to study media texts, the media industry uses it to develop  and market texts audiences use to it to decide what texts to consume. It is easy to understand and also it accessible and can be applied across a wide audience and range of texts. You can apply any theory to any texts and get a reading out of it.

Daniel Chandler (2001) argues that the word genre comes from the French word for 'kind' or 'class'. The term is widely used in rhetoric literacy theory, media theory to refer to a distinctive type of texts.

Barry Keith Grant (1995) says that all genres have sub genres (more specific genres) in a genre.

Steve Neale (1995) stresses that 'genres are not systems' they are processes of systematization for example they are dynamic and evolve over time.

Nosfertu (1922) Trailer was the first vampire film, they use this image of Jewish people.

Interview with the vampire (1994)

• In colour and has sound
• Set in San Francisco
• Period drama
• Focus of the vampire unlike before from vampire being the bad guys now has become the protagonist.

Dynamic - Has to change - We recognise them.

Generic characteristics across all texts share similar elements of the below depending on the medium

• Typical mise-en-scene, typical narrative, generic types (typical characters)
• Important elements of minimal importance.

Comedy and animation are not genres, they are styles or treatments for example Walle (2008) animated.

Jason Mittell (2001) argues that genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within industry, audience and cultural practices as well.

Rick Altman (1999) argues that genre offers audiences a set of pleasures;

• Emotional pleasures
• Visceral pleasures 
• Intellectual puzzles 

Jay Z - 99 problems

This music video is very stereotypical of police and black people,some people even see this music video as racist. The genre of this music video is rap and hip-hop. This music video represents what is going on in society at this time. This links with the theorist Jason Mittell (2001) as he argues that genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within industry, audience, and cultural practices as well. As this gives an idea to the audience about society as well as just been a music video. Throughout this music video this have a rap culture all the way through, as they are wearing hoodies and joggers and people stereotype this to certain people. Police harassment is also noticed in this music video along, in the urban environment. This represents women and ideology. This shows the culture that exists within society.

History of the genre - Pop

Pop music (a term that originally derives from an abbreviation of "popular") is a genre of popular music which originated in its modern form in the 1950's, deriving from rock and roll. The terms "popular music" and "pop music" are often used interchangeably, even though the former is a description of music which is popular (and can include any style).

As a genre, pop music is very eclectic, often borrowing elements from other styles including urban, dance, rock, Latin and country; nonetheless, there are core elements which define pop. Such include generally short to medium-length songs, written in a basic format (often the verse-chorus structure), as well as the common employment of repeated choruses, melodic tunes, and hooks.

So-called "pure pop" music, such as power pop, which has been described as mixture of hard rock and melodic pop musicand tends to be more aggressive than pop rock, features all these elements, using electric guitars, drums and bass for instrumentation.

David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop music as "a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz, and folk musics". According to Pete Seeger, pop music is "professional music which draws upon both folk music and fine arts music". Although pop music is often seen as oriented towards the singles charts it is not the sum of all chart music, which has always contained songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock, and novelty songs, while pop music as a genre is usually seen as existing and developing separately.Thus "pop music" may be used to describe a distinct genre, aimed at a youth market, often characterized as a softer alternative to rock and roll.

The term "pop song" is first recorded as being used in 1926, in the sense of a piece of music "having popular appeal". Hatch and Millward indicate that many events in the history of recording in the 1920s can be seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry, including incountry, blues and hillbilly music.

 
According to several sources, MTV helped give rise to pop stars such as Michael Jackson and Madonna; and Jackson and Madonna helped make MTV. 
(sourced from wikipedia)

Treatment

My song that I have chosen for my music video is Beyoncé – Broken hearted girl, with the theme that it is a break up and love loss clique. The narrative that I have chosen for my song is that my actress is going through a hard time with her break up whilst her ex-boyfriend has moved on and got a new girlfriend however she is stuck in the past.

History of Medium

The earliest music videos and promos were produced in the mid 1950's, however in the 1920's animators such as Oskar Fischinger created scenes that accompanied  musical scores labeled 'visual music'. Warner Brothers were one of the first early animation screens producred to this day, Walt disney was known for being one of their best efforts. The Warner Brothers videos even in animation  were conventionally what they are today, promotions of a variety of their products; they were designed and created to feauture upcoming musicals from the company. This essentially what the music business is based on today, a conglomerate encouraging the target audience through a range of different mediums to purchase their material.

This is a Scopitone machine, this is one of several jukeboxes that played an early form of music videos. The scopitone was introduced into the French market in 1960 as an audio-visual jukebox. The screen that was sat on top, and the films were 16mm with a magnetic sound strip. The scopitone had a novelty when it first was made. It has been called a precursor to MTV. In 1964, the year Scopitone was introduced to America by 31 year old Miami Beach lawyer Alvin Malnik. Musical films which played on similar devices in nightclubs, amusements parks and bus terminals.The last surviving Scopitone repairman Dick Hack said that "the Scopitone was a nightmare for the operators; they had a lot of little things that could go wrong"

The Kinetophone was made in 1895, this was designed for people to watch films on, indivudually at at one time through a peephole through the window at the top of the machine.It was largely devolped by William Kennedy Laurie Dickson between 1889 and 1892.

The Beatles - Hello Goodbye
Mise-en-scene: They have very bright coloured clothing, at the beginning and end there is a black curtain as this makes it look like a performance. They have also used black and white features as they are looking back at their first video. The framing of the camera shots are not always very good as they sometimes are a lot of dead space when framing. When they sing 'goodbye' it shows that they are saying bye to the old Beatles and then showing the new Beatles, with the throughout from old to new.

Cinematography: They have used a range of different shot types, for example medium shot, long shots of the band, medium/close up, focus on the band instruments, they switch the different camera shots however they have bad framing as they cut their heads off on different shots which isn't conventional for music videos. They repeat shots also throughout the music videos to remind the audience.

Editing: Throughout this music video they have used montage editing to show different times, they also have matched the editing with the lyrics and the beat of the song which is conventional for a music video. Nearer the end there is a faster beat then the rest of the song.

Sound: The song track is the only thing that has been played from start to end.

Michael Jackson - Thriller
This music video includes in all three levels of diagesis, which are two levels of reality, nightmare and convention from Hollywood. Thriller is very medialiterate. It again has the performance element like the Madonna - Vogue music video, where the artist is performing in the video, this again is typical for a music video. Throughout the whole of this music video there are constant horror conventions to make this music video as powerful and successful as possible to get across to the audience what genre it is for example there is a wolf transformation. The video is called 'Thriller' and whilst watching this music video it is very exciting and makes you want to watch more, this links exactly with what you feel whilst watching this.

Music video research

Madonna - Vogue
This music video was very successful and great hit from when it was very first released, throughout this music there is an iconic image which is created through the video, which is the usage of a black and white effect, this has been used to create a 1940-1950s look, for a Hollywood vision. Just like a film star e.g. Marilyn Monroe which is well known for her big blonde hair and black and white colours which Madonna has transferred onto her own video to attract the audience which are watching.This video has voyeorism which is pleasure from looking by watching the video, as she is giving a performance in her own music video which is typical.