Category: Audience

04 Digital Distribution, Audiences & Democratisation.

Audience, Exam Paper 2, Industry, Key Media Concepts, Media Ecology

LEARNING INTENTIONS:  

  • To explore how audience & industry are (re)shaped by converged technology (aka…the internet & smartphones)
  • To explore the impact (converged) technology on the relationship between audience & star image.

We will be able to answer the following Media Ecology questions by the end of this lesson:

  • “To what degree has the smartphone revolutionised the audiences and institutions…using the music industry as a case study.”
  • “Convergence of the media has led to a more democratised media ecology.” 
  • “Analyse the significance of a particular technological development in the media”.

The rise of converged technology has been exponential in recent years – you have known no different but even in your lifetime, think of how worn technology such as the smartwatch has been developed.  Converged technology and in particular, the smart phone has revolutionised how media is made, distributed and consumed.

Converged Technology can be classified as a DISRUPTOR. 

Task 1
  • Name as many different types of converged technology as you can (Remember the Generation Game we played in the Music Industry module?)
Task 2
  • List as many ways you can think of, that the Smartphone has impacted on the production and consumption of music in recent years?

Remember the Integrated Advertising vide by Satchi and Satchi….when advertising & music used to be a one way transaction but now it is an interactive and synergised product?

Task 3

  • Read the theorist post on Shirky in the class blog and make some notes….or…discuss:

“Our social tools are not an improvement to modern society, they are a challenge to it.” Case study, Andrew Tate & Greta Thunberg.

Then read why Shirky is important for independent study.

Task 4

In pairs, you will be allocated a particular impact of technology on society.

Consider how the smart phone has impacted and  disrupted the media (use the  music industry if stuck) in relation to your allocated area.

One on piece of A4 – create a slogan that sums up your thinking and on the back list in clear writing @ 3 facts, stats, quotes, case studies that will act as evidence to your slogan/focus area.

Show your findings as a placard as though you were in a march/demo in favour of or against technology and democratisation of  the media as a good thing for society.

Decide which side you’re on…

The areas are:

    1. participation & community
    2. interaction 
    3. identity
    4. immediacy & urgency
    5. sensationalism
    6. clickbait
    7. fake news
    8. democratisation
    9. family

You will be asked to present your placard and describe your slogan and point of view to the class using examples to the class.

Task 5

Independent Study.

  • Using the presentation in classroom called Technological Influence in the Media, create a slide and add in 2 x photos of your slogan and your facts and stats. Then annotate the slide with relevant theories that would help support your findings and any other key concepts, debates that you think are also relevant to your observations.

Audience Profile

Audience, Music Magazine 
KEY TERMS needed in your reflection

‘Preferred reading, encode, decode, oppositional reading, demographics, psychographics,  uses and gratification, target audience, producer, target audience, entertainment, education, social interaction and personal identity etc.

Media Theory (A Reminder)

In order to create a magazine for a specific audience you should understand what makes them tick

  • Especially, the reasons they might have for investing their time and money in your magazine.

A pair of theorists who considered this were Blumler & Katz, who suggested that there were four reasons collectively known as Uses and Gratification.

  • Their theory describes an active audience and suggested four reasons for people to actively seek out and consume media:

USES AND GRATIFICATION

Information Self education to suit personal needs; advice on practical matters; information on events or issues of personal interest; curiosity or general interest
Personal Identity Media reinforces personal values; models of behavior; content explored to challenge, adjust or affirm sense of self
Social Interaction Identify with others to gain a sense of belonging; find basis for real life interactions; substitute for real life relationships
Entertainment Escape; diversion; emotional release; filling time; aesthetic enjoyment

Audience Theory Extension

Below is a slideshow on Stuart Hall and his ‘Reception Theory’.

He argues that an audience decode a media text through personal filters:

  • Demographics
  • Psychographics
  • Situation
  • Cultural competence.

Media Theory Booklet

Here is the Theory Booklet with all of Hall’s ideas on Pages 11 and 12.

RECEPTION THEORY

TASK 1 – Researching  your… Perfect Audience Member

Do some research for your target audience, and then decide on the following features of your audience:

  • Which other bands/artists your audience would be into?
  • What other media they would consume, fashion tastes, musical genre preferences?
  • What are their values, attitudes and beliefs they hold about what’s important in their lives and the world around them?
  • What demographics describe your audience?
    • Gender
    • Age
    • Education
    • Occupation
    • Marital status
    • Cultural background
    • What ‘communities’ do they belong to?
    • Where do they live, work and play?
  • What psychographics describe your audience?
    • Values
    • Attitudes
    • Beliefs

HELP

Here is a handout we gave you earlier this year which describes different audience groups / communities which is helpful in reaching some conclusions about their values, attitudes and beliefs, and how to describe their communities and social groups.

YOU CAN ALSO USE THIS WEBSITE: (change USA in tik tok to Great Britain, choose entertainment, drop down to music artists and choose)

or yougov.co.uk and search an artist.

TO FIND OUT THE DEMOGRAPHICS, PSYCHOGRAPHICS OF TYPICAL FANS FOR FEATURED ARTISTS WHO MIGHT APPEAR IN YOUR MAGAZINE AS THEY BELONG TO THAT GENRE.

Choose 3 well known artists that would appear in your magazine if you had all the money in the world.

Who are their fans – this will give you a really good starting point for your audience member.

Mention ‘YouGov’ in your introduction, take a snipping tool screen shot of the 3 artists and add these to your intro.

TASK 2 – Creating a dating profile for your…

Perfect Audience Member

Use Google slides (or Photoshop/InDesign if you’re feeling snazzy) to design a profile for your target audience which they might upload to a dating site.  You may want to use someone you know to model the profile on – although don’t use their name or photo!

Give your ideal audience an image, name, gender, relationship status, groups, status, likes, dislikes…all of this should be through the filter of music and should help describe your audience profile. Make it as detailed as possible – why not consider someone you know (do not actually use them) who likes the music, is a fan of that music/band and use them as inspiration.

Here is a template that you may wish to follow:

An Example

Your post must include:

  • 3 x snipping tools of typical audiences from YouGov for typical bands who could appear in your magazine.
  • Your dating profile.
  • Reflection on the process, purpose and focus forward.

A front cover analysed – attracting ‘that’ audience

Audience, Audience & Institutions, Music Magazine 
KEY TERMS: represent, connote, infers, implies, suggests etc, technical design conventions, demographics, psychographics, audience segmentation, target audience. 

Task Instructions

The Case Studies

Make a copy and file it in your Media Studies folder in your drive.

Individually take a copy of the slideshow and keep the  magazine cover you are going to research for target audience data and how that might impact on the design features.

The analysis should include the following:

1. The mission statement of the publication:

    • Look on their website for a tagline, catchphrase that encapsulates their mission – what they hope to provide to their readers.
    • Here is the mission statement for the Kerrang brand.  I found this by Googling ‘Kerrang Mission Statement’…easy peasy.

2. A description of their likely target audience.

    • You should  refer to the attached audience segmentation document to help identify a suitable classification for the target audience.
    • Your teacher will help you with this. Typically, they might suggest looking at the ads covered by the magazine
      • This doesn’t work online, because Google’s algorithm knows who is looking at a page and puts up ads specific to them…

3.  Demographics and Psychographics of the audience:

    • One way to do this, is to think of a likely reader of the magazine, that you know and then model the ideas on them.

4.  Other information about your target audience:

    • If you have thought of a likely reader that you know, then add more detail in about their likes and dislikes, their jobs, their hobbies, their favourite food, music, media.
    • This is important audience research for a magazine creator to know so they know what to include in their magazine in terms of articles, information, entertainment and advertising, which will satisfy their audiences’ uses and gratifications…remember…?

5.  Textual analysis

Now that you have an idea of who the target audience is, try and unpick, decode, deconstruct the front cover.

  • why have they used certain fonts, colours, images, language?
  • Why would this appeal to the target audience?
  • Consider how those design elements are shaped to communicate meaning, which will reflect the brand and mission statement
    • look for the signs, symbols, colours, fonts, framing, MES, facial expression, body language, language, masthead and cover lines (language) etc that have been used to convey a narrative, to represent a genre, to sell a brand.

Advice:

Use the correct terms for the technical conventions when talking about the design elements attached to them i.:

  • ‘The masthead design represents the magazine as…’
  • ‘The plug language connotes…’
  • ‘The cover lines font infers…’

What a good one looks like:

Here is an example from a previous student that includes some very detailed observations:

This is the format we would like you to follow and use the sub-headings included.

Some of the sections can be bullet pointed or lists, but others will require some analysis to include the terms: represents, implies, suggests, signifies etc when doing a textual analysis.

I am a Media Prosumer? My Media Diet.

Audience, Audience & Institutions, Industry, Media Ecology 
KEY TERMS:

MEDIA TEXT, USES AND GRATIFICATION (ENTERTAINMENT, INFORMATION, PERSONAL IDENTITY, SOCIAL INTERACTION), PROSUMER

Question of the Week:

“What new ideas have you learnt about your role as a media prosumer in the wider media ecology.”

Here is the article for the week to help you think about this.

Get into the habit of reading up about your next  Media Lesson. It will be interesting to see how many of you actually visited our blog before this lesson.  If you are reading this, then well done you!  Always, refer to the key terms at the start of the blog post to know what key and important vocabulary you should be including in your blog post reflections.

TASK

Create a collage with a minimum of 15 – 20 pictures that illustrate your MEDIA DIET

What you read, watch and listen to.  In other words what media do you consume?

When you watch, listen and read, you are called a CONSUMER.

Also, what media do you contribute to?  What apps, blogs, social media do you add texts, status and click and likes to?

When you interact and contribute to the media, you are called a PROSUMER.

An example – WITH some ideas from media theorists,

Blumler & Katz

You will use ideas described in the Uses and Gratification theory from Blumler and Katz, to indicate which of these media you use for your:

  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • PERSONAL IDENTITY
  • SOCIAL INTERACTION 
  • EDUCATION AND INFORMATION

Annotate about 6-8 of the examples with E, SI, PI, I to show that you understand how you use media for various needs and pleasures:

You should complete the collage using a  single Google Slide, then download it as a jpeg – it will be embedded into your first blog post!

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