Blog task 3 What did you learn from your audience feedback ?

What I learnt from my audience feedback.

Having collected a variety of feedback for our pop video and ancillary products from members of the target audience, and from other audience demographics via You Tube, a focus group questionnaire and other sources I looked to answer this question.

In the early stages of producing our piece we identified who we were aiming at in terms of our audience. My group and I came to the conclusion of targeting demographics B, C and D. The demographics we targeted were chosen as they match the audience that would not just take a liking to this genre of music but also understand and accept the message we portrayed in the piece. Within these demographics we aimed at an age group of mixed-gender 17-25 year-olds as this age group was whom we targeted when discussing, planning and producing our star image towards this large music market. The target audience we aiming our product at was a multinational one, however sales and feedback and where the product would be most popular would be from a western market, the education of this audience would be similar to the higher end of the jictar demographics A, B, C and D (well-fairly well educated with good aspirations and high/fairly high expectations).

The audience of our product was based mainly around the website ‘YouTube’, after uploading our product we obtained constructive feedback. With over 500 views we received comments that reflected what we had planned to achieve within our audience, for example a comment was made by caz2435 who mentions on her profile that she is a female, is 19 years old and attends 6th form college, this shows that our preferred audience age and demographic was correct, in-fact 100% of our comments were made by viewers between the age of 17- 21 and 83% of our comments were made by students attending A level exams in school. Some comments made include:
‘Great representation of the band. Fits the music really well.’
‘the effects from when she goes in to the box are fantastic, really beautiful. Well done, this is an amazing piece of A level work’
‘I love this song and this video, fits it perfectly,
amazing job well done!’

We also obtained some criticism from one viewer who stated that the video was ‘a little repetitive at times’, however another viewer also stated that there were ‘many different shots to keep it interesting’. We also showed our product to a focus group of nine 17-18 year olds (5 male and 4 female), in which we collected some feedback through a discussion and a questionnaire. These questions are listed below with the answers discussed in our focus group:
1. What did you like about it?
‘The way that there were lights leading the girl to the woods – I think showing her curiosity meant that I wanted her to find what she was looking for and felt like a dream.’

2. What didn’t you like about it?
‘When she opened the box and went inside you couldn’t see how she got in’
3. What did you think about the transition of the girl from the woods to the box?
‘Understood that she went into their world but there was nothing showing how she got in there.’

4. Can you think of another way in which we could have done it?
‘Something like Alice in wonderland, drink something? Or fall in, or stepped in.’

5. What image do you think the band portrays?
‘They look like Cool guys. Good looking and Emit sex appeal, but also a sense of purity and mystery.’

6. Does the narrative make sense? And if so what do you think it means?
‘Yes it’s a song about having a dream and the narrative tells this well, you can see that the girl is follows the lights maybe because she is unhappy and is looking for something better? Like an escape? but finds out people aren’t real or aren’t accepting her.’

7. Do you think our chosen band worked well? … Why?
‘Yes they looked similar especially hairstyle which is good –the lead singer was interesting to look at because he’s quite photogenic,he really works. The girl you used is also very photogenic and good to watch, the boys have got an urban dumb look not classically good looking but make you want to keep watching.’

8. Do you think it’s too repetitive?
‘No not really because you wanted to find out where she was going, felt really captivated.’

9. Is there any underlying meaning that you got out of this video?
‘She’s pretty but even when she’s in the world everyone’s ignoring her. I suppose keep following your dreams? Overall enjoyed it.’

10. What does it tell you about gender?
‘You get a feel of romance. Women can’t get what they want – looking for love but can’t get it. No happy ending for women. The girls being blanked by guys so men overpowering to girls.’

After showing the group our product and asking these questions we receivedusefulresponses and comments on the points we wanted to address. Overall the full focus group enjoyed our video, Millie (18 years old) said “I loved it, was very atmospheric”, with regards to the message we were trying to portray five of the females and two of the boys understood exactly what we wrote in our narrative. Oscar (19 years old) said in response to question six ‘I think the narrative is simple but effective, a girl looking for an escape entering a dream world and following the trail of lights to the band but still not finding what she was looking for?” this is exactly what we based the narrative of our product is about. Tessa an inelegant student taking media studies in upper sixth form (17 years old) said, “ I understand the narrative well but I think the transition from outside in the woods to inside the world in the box with the band was not quite clear enough, I can see that she enters there world and get the rest of the narrative but I think a shot of entering the box would have added to the video.” These responses from the questionnaire asked to our group and then discussed were positive as they reflected the points we wanted to address, firstly we established that a very large proportion of viewers enjoyed the video and understood the message, the message we were putting forward in the narrative and performance was for never to give up on your dreams and keep chasing them forever, this was accepted by seven of the focus group and two of the group rejected the concept. The performance of our video was meant to be as atmospheric as possible and the lighting and effects used in the performance element of the product made this possible and 100% of our focus group found the video to have an ‘mystical atmosphere’. Our audience also had a positive reaction to the band and the star image. Within our focus group and comments on Youtube a the comments made on their star image was good, we portrayed our band to have youthfulness, rebellion, sexual magnetism, to be mystical and have a streak of innocence. This was recognised by our audience and as planned was accepted by our target audience. If we were to redo any part of our product and try to improve it in any way, with response and information taken from our audience the only thing we would change would be the transition from the woods inside the box. Having discussed this in pre-production we concluded not to have a shot of our character entering the box at the risk of it looking to unrealistic, however, the audiences response to the lack of this element in our piece was that it needed to be included. This opinion was made mainly by media studies students, my peers, parents, family and friends however did not think this was necessary.

The uses and gratifications model derives from research carried out in the 1950’s- the personal influence study by Lazarfeld, Blumler and Katz. The theory is that audiences are far from passive in their approach to the media, rather they actively choose and consume the media to satisfy particular needs and gratifications which they exhibit. This theory can be applied to our pop-video, Diversion- a form of escape or emotional release from everyday pressures, diversion is accepted by the audience watching our video as we our character a mysterious, attractive girl wandering through the woods searching for an escape with the driving music setting the ambience, this emotion is shown through the character and combined with a series of close ups creates a sense of intimacy with the audience and allows them to relate to the character. One member of our focus group said ‘you get the emotion and narrative from the girl and the atmosphere of the performance, you want to keep watching to see what happens to her’. Personal identity within Uses and gratifications is the ability to compare one’s life with the characters and situations within the media, and so explore personal problems and perspectives. Personal identity is also present in our piece through both the band and the character in the woods. The male members of our focus group and viewers on youtube reacted to the band through personal identity, not only does the girl appeal to them as she is attractive and the male audience is drawn to her but also aspire to be like and follow the example of the members of the band.

The females of our audience are drawn to the female character as they are drawn to follow her to and find out what happens as they relate easier than males to the situation that she shows to be in. Surveillance is a supply of information about what is going on in the world. Surveillance is present in our audience because we as human beings inquire and are curious, our element of mystery captivates the audience and compels them to keep watching.

Stuart Halls theory of encoding and decoding could also be applied to our pop-video. Hall calls his theory social mapping. In his writings he debates that media producers have to meet the social maps that individuals and groups of individuals make up. People think of themselves as British, male or female, certain age or religion, certain values and beliefs. Our pop video takes the interests and qualities that certain people react to and use them to draw in an audience, for example, the band and female character in our product grasp the audiences attention as they can relate to the looks and attractions of the characters as looks and sexual magnetism is a concern of our target audience. The audience are also able to make up their own minds on why the female character is trying to escape with things in their lives. This follows Hall’s social map theory:

Hall’s Encoding and decoding theory is how audiences react to media products. An accepted preferred meaning means that the audience have taken in the media product and accepted it and understood it. This is the goal the producing institutions. Negotiated meaning is when the audience does not understand the meaning and create their own. Oppositional interpretation is when the audience does not agree with it and reject the principles of it despite understanding it. Therefore if for example a film is released about a war between China and America, if this products message is that the Chinese are bad as their preferred meaning, the Chinese audience will have an oppositional interpretation however the majority of the American audience will most likely take a preferred or negotiated reading.
With our pop video our preferred meaning was mostly accepted as we established in our focus group seven of the nine we were questioning understood and accepted the meaning.
“you can see that the girl is follows the lights maybe because she is unhappy and is looking for something better? Like an escape? but finds out people aren’t real or aren’t accepting her.”