TV - Audience appeal/targeting

Mad Men - The orange couch - An active audiences response.

A grade response from WJEC on audience targeting

B1. Explore the different ways in which audiences and/or users respond to your chosen text

Audiences can respond in many different ways to a text and as quoted by Stewart Hall’s encoding and decoding theory, all texts are ‘Polysemic’, meaning they have many meanings; this can applied to my Television texts.

The Wire is a stereotypical police drama set in Baltimore, which follows the story of detective Jimmy McNultys case to find the murder of Snotboogie, which is of course D’angelo Barksdale, a local drug dealer and convict. Episode one offers a meta-narrative within it as it does not focus on the hero or anti-hero, making it a diverse multi layered narrative making the reader active. The narrative links in with Barthe’s theory of Erotics of textual criticism and can be seen to be a text that is hard for audiences to watch passively as it focuses on a community of characters who’s narratives are intertwined, showing a multi-perspective narrative. This allows the viewer to respond in many ways as it shows the point of view of many characters.

According to Stewart Hall’s encoding and decoding theory the preferred response of the audience is that they enjoy the program and understand its situation, the negotiated response would be that they would not particularly enjoy the text however they would understand most aspects and also the oppositional reading would be the idea that the audience would not like or understand the text at all. Nevertheless, HBO or Home box office has a reputation for producing high quality TV, mainly drama and experimental TV which allows for the culturally elite and intellectuals to be engaged. Therefore, due to it targeting the ABC1 audience that audience may respond to the text in a much more acceptable and welcoming way than a lower class uneducated audience as the narrative structure may be too complex for them. This can however then lead to the uses and gratifications theory, which was created by Blumber and Katz as it could be read by an audience and they may respond to it in the terms of it being diversion and escapism as a way of seeing it as being a world better than their own which would not apply due to the fact it is in a run down part of Baltimore where it overall represents and gives the audience the interpretations that the USA is corrupt. However, users/audiences may respond via social interactions as it allows them to engage in a conversation for example “did you see the wire last night?” and also could allow them to respond in the terms that it gives a new way of presenting or viewing the world e.g. ruins the American dream and makes America seem like a bad place. The audience may respond to this text in a way of which they find it unacceptable and offensive due to negative representations of America and Abusive language, however OFCOM would reject these complaints as they say offense is permissible to a certain extent and it must be ‘justified by the context’ which it is as it’s modern day America and is exhibited at 12 so is shown where it lessens offense.

The X factor is Europe’s largest talent competition as it brings in 14.1 million viewers and took over from Pop Idol as Britain’s search for the new star of tomorrow. It is shown on ITV at prime time and is classed as a family show which can be discussed via social networking sites, which is a classic example of second screen viewing. Audiences may respond to it in the terms of Stewart Halls encoding and decoding theory. It’s preferred reading would be that it will lead to commercial success and consequently the Christmas number 1. Its negotiated reading would be that people watch it however find it offensive due to its degree of harm and offense on over ambitious contestants who are humiliated by coming onto the TV when they are bad singers, however, this can be justified by OFCOM who say offense has to be justified by context and can include violation of human dignity. However this allows us to question the motives of ITV and if it’s allowed to do this purely for people’s entertainment and profit perspective.

The oppositional reading would be that the reader does not like the text and may find it extremely offensive. This can be discussed in the terms of Christina Aguilera’s performance where it was broadcast in December 2010 and 1 million children were watching it featured inappropriate dancing and revealing clothing and audiences may respond saying its too explicit for a child to be able to watch it raised 200 complaints however the images in the paper were more revealing than that of the show. There were two issues child protection and offence. OFCOM said there was no nudity or inappropriate behavior and the show edited stuff out but as a pre-watershed show it needs to be acceptable by children so OFCOM had to balance two principles – freedom of expression and audience protection. Freedom of expression won as they are a liberal company and so the show was able to be seen, due to audience dismay.

Moreover, FOX news has a primary audience of us citizens and I am referring to Glen Becks friends or foes piece from may 3^rd 2011 which asked ‘what is the correct state of the world?’

The audience may respond to this text in the terms of the hypodermic needle model, which is the idea that an opinion leader injects opinion into the media and a passive audience will take it and accept it as their own. This is the preferred reading (Stewart Hall) of the show as FOX are trying to get people to agree with Glen overall so that the views are marketed correctly. Moreover, the idea of the two step (flow) model the idea that active audiences discuss texts and take the ideas of the leader if they’re passive can be a negotiated reading as some readers may respond with due impartiality and may just use the social interaction scale of Blumber and Katz’s theory, however an oppositional reading would be that people find his terms offensive. It is broadcast in the UK by BSkyB package however, some of his comments as the audience will feel go against OFCOM’s code of violence section 2.3 harm and offense as his neo-conservatism views are not justified by any context and are merely just states of narrow minded opinions.

Overall, I feel the audiences can respond to any text in a variety of different ways and as the uses and gratifications theory and the reflection theory suggest, no text has one single meaning and it is decoded by people in different ways.

Uses and Gratifications theory by Blumler and Katz

Semiotics and audience response.

Health check lesson, semiotics1 from christimothy12

How does lost attract its audience?

How does Lost attract its audience? Who is its targeted audience and what strategies does it adopt in its mode of address?

Niche programs/audiences

Niche TV growing quickly online

By Dan Simmons  Reporter, BBC Click Online If you have a hobby or interest you are passionate about, the chances are that you have already found a website or a blog dedicated to it. The BBC's Rob Bonnet also presents village cricket highlights But with the spread of high speed broadband there is an increasing possibility that you just might find a whole TV channel, not just on the internet, but through your TV and mobile too. English village cricket in the heart of Oxfordshire is not the sort of thing you would expect to find on TV. BBC Sports Correspondent Rob Bonnet, a familiar face to millions, presents match highlights but this is not the BBC. Serving the world from Chipping Norton, The Country Channel is one of thousands of new television stations springing up worldwide, available over the internet. I visited a TV production facilities house that usually serves the traditional television stations. Now it also produces and encodes IPTV. The IP stands for Internet Protocol, and it is the same system used to deliver web content when we surf, or our voices when we use internet telephony. The rapid take up of broadband means there is now essentially an "open network" over which anyone with enough bandwidth can provide new channels to a worldwide audience. Finding a niche Paul Aitkin, chairman and founder of countrychannel.tv has leased 60 acres of land, which he calls his outdoor studio, so his channel can actively get involved in the subjects it covers. He has been waiting a long time to start a station devoted to the great outdoors. Countrychannel.tv is one of thousands of niche channels "For a long time I felt the countryside has had a bit of a raw deal in terms of the way it's covered and shown on standard forms of media," Mr Aitkin said. "Early in 1998 I did a first internet broadcast on 28k modems. It was a fascinatingly appalling picture but we did actually do it for four hours, live, from the building we're in at the moment. "We got responses from America, we did have people who watched it. What's important to me is that now, at this point in time, the technology allows us to reflect easily what it is we want to tell stories about." The Country Channel launched earlier this month, with an audience measured in hundreds. Funded mainly through a mixture of subscription and advertising, Paul is gambling that interest will grow quickly so he can meet his six figure annual running costs. Targeted marketing More entrepreneurs who are passionate about a hobby or interest group are starting to set up their own TV stations using IP technology narrowcasting, or slivercasting.  I just wanted the opportunity to see more cycling  Simon Brydon, Cycling TV Narrowstep provides technical support to these smaller channels. It encodes live satellite feeds on the fly, offers editing facilities, provides flexible bandwidth and servers to meet demand, allows first-time channel controllers to manage their schedules from home, and helps with something crucial to IPTV's success - direct, targeted, advertising. "The technology that exists today enables us to reach out to parts of the world that we wouldn't otherwise be able to reach, but also you're actually speaking to them directly," explained Steve Beaumont, CEO of Narrowstep. "The old adage 'half my advertising spending is wasted, I just don't know which half' is gone. "I can now direct my advertising to you, or anyone else, once I know their interest group." While some niche channels will prove too specialist to survive, sports channels appear to be doing well. Live cycling Simon Brydon set up Cycling TV three years ago. Half a million pounds later, 2006 could be the first year that he makes a profit. TV is keen to cover the Tour de France "I just wanted the opportunity to see more cycling. I thought if nobody else will provide it we'll do it ourselves," he said. While the bigger broadcasters rush to cover cycling's premier event, the Tour de France, often the only place you can find live coverage of other European races is on Cycling TV. "It's during these times that simultaneous viewing figures peak hitting 8 or 9,000 - that's comparable to some established cable channels, and it's rising. "The rights to many sports at the moment have no value whatsoever," Mr Brydon added. "In fact, a lot of sports pay traditional television companies for their coverage. "That means the internet will be able to develop a small rights fee for a sport that traditionally doesn't have a value, and, for the rights owner, that's additional revenue for their sport." Competition from big business Ironically, niche sports IPTV could become a victim of its own success if sports rights become too expensive. Some actually plan on being bought out by bigger players. But these are early days. Most home broadband connections are too slow to stream full screen broadcast quality pictures, and many of these channels simply do not offer that. Despite the facility to control streaming speeds, buffering and frame dropouts can pose problems. In theory, these services can be streamed to mobiles and set-top boxes with broadband connections. In practice, many are not set up to for those platforms yet. At the moment it appears the loyal audiences these channels attract are prepared to forgive any technical shortcomings. But with telecoms operators, broadcasters, and multi-nationals also taking an interest, niche channels will need to continue to raise their game.

A2 media overview and audience theory

Media audience theory from christimothy12

Audience (Revision): Key Concept MS4

Encoding and Decoding

Stuart Hall did influential research into how texts position audiences to respond in certain ways.

He called the production of texts encoding and the meaning audiences take from texts as decoding.

—In the encoding process meaning is created by the texts’ producers and texts carry values and meanings related to the social and cultural background of the producer of the text.

The audience then decodes the text but may not respond to it as the producer intended

1) Preferred /Dominant Reading – This is when the audience decodes a text as the producer intended.

2) Negotiated Reading- This is when the audience agrees with some elements and disagrees with others.

3) Oppositional Reading – This is when the person decoding the text does not agree with the values and messages encoded in the text.

The Effects Model

An earlier way of explaining how audiences respond to texts is called the Effects Model or the Hypodermic Needle Effect. This theory sees the audience as passive and the media can inject ideas and opinions into them.

The Uses and Gratifications Model

1. Entertainment and diversion – a form of escape from everyday life

2. Personal relationships (the water cooler moment) – Pleasure in discussing media texts with others.

3. Personal identity – pleasure in comparing your life to characters in media texts

4. Information / education – To learn about what is going on in the world.

Source

Answering the audience question/s for Mad Men