In order to understand our audience we looked back at Blumler & Katz, who suggested that there were four Uses and Gratifications that an audience seek from their media. Their theory describes an active audience: 

Information	Self education to suit personal needs; advice on practical matters; information on events or issues of personal interest; curiosity or general interest. News to help them decide how to vote.
Personal Identity	Media reinforces or challenges personal ideologies; models of behaviour explored to challenge, adjust or affirm personal values, attitudes and beliefs
Social Interaction	Identify with others to gain a sense of belonging (identity); find basis for real life interactions; a substitute for real life relationships
Entertainment	Escape; diversion; emotional release; filling time; aesthetic enjoyment

Stuart Hall Reception Theory

He argues that an audience decodes what the producer encodes in a text. However, how they read the text will depend on their

• Demographics – age, gender
• Psychographics – beliefs, politics, religion
• Cultural competence – their knowledge of ‘stuff’
• Circumstances in which they are consuming the media   

In preparation for our research into our audience demographic, we asked ourselves these questions to consider to design our perfect audience member.

• What platform is your production to be accessed on?
  • Generally our music video will be accessible on Youtube.
• What is the product’s function? (What is it trying to do or achieve?)
  • We’re using our video to promote the message of letting go and the key themes of what the song is trying to achieve. As well as using this as promotion for the artist and song.
• What genre(s) does your artist typically work in?
  • Typically Jorja Smith creates contemporary R&B, Pop and Grime.
• Who are the target audience?
  • Teenage girls are the target audience as they are active on Youtube so most likely will see the video
  • The song could inspire them as it is based on a heartbreak which they could relate to.

After considering these questions we then discussed the different features from our target audience:

• Which other bands/artists your audience would be into?
  • Beyonce and Rhianna
• What other media they would consume, fashion tastes, musical genre preferences…
  • R&B and Pop music
• What are their values, attitudes and beliefs they hold about what’s important in their lives and the world around them.
  • A lot of teenagers focus on being confident and their image.
  • Interested in trends and fashion
• What broad demographic groups do your audience fall into (gender, age, education, occupation, marital status, cultural background)?
  • Teenage girl audience

To conclude, we made sure that we could fully understand what we would need to consider for the audience to decode and understand the message behind our music video. Also the factors that would enable them to engage with it and the different ways we can make it successful. From our research we focused on describing an audience member who our music video would be targeted to. This allowed us to create a connection to the audience. It’s important to know your audience to be able to engage with them and create the feeling of them knowing the star personally. The theories are essential when considering our audience for our music video. This is because we must consider their ideas during the production of our music video for it to be successful.

.