Entry 7 - Audiences and Consumption

What do audiences do with the media that is produced? Well this could be watching a programme, listening to a radio station or even looking at a website, but not only this, some people go to more of an extreme and create fandoms or even their own subculture. All of this then becomes important to media companies as they like to know who they are targeting and it also allows them to find the best ways in doing so.

There are four main ways of researching an audience, this is by using a Questionnaire, focus group, interviews or ethnography. All of which allows a company to target specific people with questions or even in the case of ethnography, looking in the right place. Not only are these research methods important but looking at subcultures and fandoms can also help. When looking at subcultures in particular, it shows how various groups of people go off and do their own thing, which might not necessarily be what society wants them to do but to a company this makes them interesting as it allows them to see what meanings they have made from certain text instead of coming to a conclusion based on stereotypes. Fandoms again help producers see who they are targeting as it allows them to pinpoint their exact target audience.

From this, is shows just how much an audience member can ‘influence their own media experiences’ (Lull, 1995:73), and with the rise of the internet, it has allowed more doorways to do so.

My own research has then allowed me to understand that by conducting research into an audience member once they are a fan of something is a lot more effective than doing it before in a controlled environment. In this case then, it allows the producer to ‘ask incisive question about the fans actual viewing environment, responses and/or use of the text(s)’ (Gray, 2003: 67) which is exactly what they want.

Bibliography

Gray, J. (2003). New Audiences, New Textualities Anti-Fans and Non-Fans. International journal of cultural studies, 6(1), 64-81.

Long, P and Wall, T (2012) Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context (2nd Edition), London: Pearson.

Lull, J (1995) Media, Communication, Culture: A Global Approach, Cambridge: Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers.

Entry 6 - Audience

From the reading, the focus on the audience of any given media text shows them to be a 'receiver, reader or even an interpreter' (Long, 2012: 277). From this it shows that any individual can take a text and get a different outcome to someone else who has viewed it. However due to this does it mean that we don’t always do what was intended by the producer of the text. For example, when looking at a photograph, you can create your own ideas around it, but then once you have looked into its background, your whole idea can be changed and you are later seeing what was intended by the photographer. 

Another idea that is put forward is that we are unaware of other audience members when consuming a particular media text, however with the growth of social networking I feel that this is no longer the case due to the fact there are Facebook and Twitter pages where people can go to share their opinions. With this in mind it allows media institutions to enter ‘into relations’ (Hartley, 1987: 127) with their audience, collecting data on the interactions they might have as well as picking up on their dislikes and likes. This can then be used when future media products are being created.

From further reading the idea of researching an audience to see what they like was a key theme in chapter 14 of the book Desperately Seeking the audience (Ang, 1991) with one source stating that even though the creators of a product are interested in their audience, they are more interested in whether what they have made has been seen properly by the audience member, with him stating ‘ They would like to have their finger continually on the audiences pulse in order to see whether the aims of their programme policy are being realized’(Werkgroep Luister- en Kijkonderzoek 1963).

However, even though that was a key theme in both readings, Propaganda was also something that was touched upon in the media studies textbook and I felt this was important when it came to the audience. This is because people can be susceptible to what they read, see and hear. Examples of this are advertisements on the telly where perfume, cars and even concert tickets are being ‘sold’. Even though they are not all directly aimed at one individual audience member, they are sending you messages such as the perfume will find you love, something that has been seen in the Lynx adverts. In the words of Edward Bernays, propaganda is used ‘to influence the relations of the public to an enterprise’ (Bernays, 2004:52) and from the Lynx advert we can see how it’s put into action.

Bibliography

Ang, I. (1991) Desperately Seeking the Audience, London: Routledge.

Bernays, E. (2004) Propaganda, New York: Ig Publishing.

Hartley, J. (1987) ‘Invisible fictions: television audiences, paedocracy, pleasure’, Textual Practise 1(2): 121-38

Long, P and Wall, T (2012) Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context (2nd Edition), London: Pearson.

Werkgroep Luister- en Kijkonderzoek (1963) ‘Report to the NRU and NTS Administration’, 6 November. 

Entry 5 - Discourse

Discourse Analysis allows an individual to examine a text, this includes imagery, sound and even spoken and written language (Smith, 2007). With this in mind, it then allows us as individuals to question, analyse and interpret the text we are viewing, whether this would be in depth or not. For instance, if you were shown a picture of a family, you might read into the reason they are posed in a certain way, what they might be doing in that environment or even why that image has been used with text, but someone else might just see the family. In the long run, this all comes down to the individual’s background, but also just as important the ideas that the creator might have already put across in the text.

Not only this, but it is important to recognise that a text could influence a viewer, this came across in the reading where the New Zealand Government implemented a ban of tobacco and advertising after it was said young people’s behaviour was being influenced (Health NZ,2005). In theory this shows the power advertising has over certain groups of people, but it also shows how a younger group of people have seen the good in the advert whereas an older generation might not of. This is a perfect example of discourse analysis.

From further reading into the subject area it states that discourse analysis starts from the individual making an assumption of what they think is going on, this means that even if it isn’t right, their ideas ‘play an active role in creating and changing’ (Jorgensen and Phillips, 2002) the reflection on the text.

After reading into discourse analysis more, I have begun to understand that not one person might be alike in what they take from something. As a photographer this is something to think about when taking photos as its likely people are going to pick up on other things which to me makes it interesting.

Overall, I feel that both readings have shown me how everyone reads into things differently but what surprises me is that this comes down to their ‘social identity’ more than any other factors.

Bibliography

Smith, P & Bell, A (2007). Media Studies: Key Issues and Debates. Unraveling the Web of Discourse analysis. 79-100. 

Jorgensen M, Phillips L (2002) Discourse as Theory and Method. London: Sage.

Entry 4 - Genre

In this week’s set reading I have been able to learn more about genre and narrative, picking up on the factors that bring together different media products.

The use of genres 'are meaningful to both producers and consumers' (Long, 2012: 72). This is because genre as a whole helps us as a viewer to pick things we like, such as a type of film (Action/Comedy) or even the type of music we like (Pop/Rock). This all comes down to ‘sets of codes and conventions’ (Long, 2012: 72) used over and over again. In terms of photography, this could mean using a certain model which in most cases shows a woman to be photographed, the same lighting or even the same camera settings. All of these things will then draw is in time and time again.

The narrative is also important, not because it allows the producers to see what we like but because it ‘encourages us to read specific parts of the text’ (Long, 2012: 82) such as the storyline but it’s not only this. It becomes a ‘method of recapitulating past experience by matching a verbal sequence of clauses to the sequence of events’ (Labov, 2013: ). For instance when watching a film with a hero, villain and princess you automatically assume the hero will slay the villain and rescue the princess, this all comes down to the fact ‘we are accustomed to the film style’ (Long, 2012: 89) but also because it has become so natural to us. This isn’t something that only one person has touched on, the theorist Vladimir Propp also created a theory that suggested there were many of the same features in ‘folk tales’.

However, it’s not just film that follows these patterns. Even though it might not be noticeable, we as an audience create our own story to go alongside a photograph we might see. This could come from us posing questions or even just talking about what can be seen. An example of this is when I first seen Peter Kennard’s Tony Blair selfie (Phillips, 2013). At first look I thought it aimed to show peoples thoughts surrounding the war, however this wasn’t the case as it showed him to be in an oil field following an Anti-war campaign done by the artist, however this was able to show me how you build up your own ideas.

Bibliography

Long, P and Wall, T (2012) Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context (2nd Edition), London: Pearson.

Phillips, K., 2013. New Statesman. [Online]
Available at: http://www.newstatesman.com/art-and-design/2013/10/response-peter-kennard-and-cat-phillips-censorship-flourishing-our-public-spa
[Accessed 24 March 2015]

Andrews, M., Squire, C., & Tamboukou, M. (Eds.). (2013). Doing narrative research. Sage.  

Entry 3 - Globalisation

The reading is about the production of media at a ‘global level’. Allowing me to understand how one media company could come to own a variety of media practices around the world. For example News Corporation is one of the leading conglomerates with various subsidiaries in England (The Sun, The Times) but also in America (20^th Century Fox).  However it isn't just the fact there are large media conglomerates buying most of the market, with the introduction of the internet, globalisation became more effective whether it was seen as good or bad. For instance, as information circulated online, people could access it without having to read a printed newspaper or even watch the TV. Due to this, Newspapers began to suffer and more recently have started to release there articles online so that they can keep themselves in business. But this isn't that great as search engines such as Google can determine ‘what information is internationally available’ (Balnaves et al., 2008) meaning a website such as the New York Times might not be available in the UK.

One of the big issues that is highlighted in the chapter is the fact conglomerates own more than just one type of media. This poses the question about how we as the audience know what the difference between fact and propaganda is because everything we know of is being fed to us from the same source. For me this was important because even as a photographer you are at risk of your images being seen as supplying ideas due to the invention of Photoshop.

Along with globalisation comes one major issue. Now that the whole world is connected in one way or another, how much of someone’s life is private, especially in terms of social networking and the internet in general. Even saying this, does it matter? I’m asking this as its now become so normal to share everything. This just shows how our culture has become overly mediated (Stevenson, 2014:1).

Overall, I feel that the reading I have done proves how much the internet has changed the way things are done. For instance it allows you to achieve things much quicker than before but it shows how reliant everyone is on one thing. For me, I am able to share photographs with people from across the world, which wouldn't have been possible a few years ago. Thus showing that globalisation can be effective in some terms of the media, whereas in others it can be damaging.

Bibliography

Long, P and Wall, T (2012) Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context (2nd Edition), London: Pearson.

Balnaves, M., Donald D. and Donald, S.H. (2008) The Global Media Atlas, London: British Film Institute.

Stevenson, N (2014) The Transformation of the Media: Globalisation, Morality and Ethics, London: Routledge.

Entry 2 - Media regulation and policy

Media regulation and policy ‘concerns legal or self-imposed controls or restrictions of media organisations’ (Long & Wall, 2012). From understanding this myself it helps organisations protect their audience from something that might not be suitable. It also helps prevent a bad situation occurring. However it doesn't matter what a company does to follow these rules as they can be broken by the audience. For example the illegal downloading of films and music can’t be avoided as it’s hard to monitor everyone, but it’s also made harder with the internet.

But on the other hand, one example of a policy that seems successful is the Flickr’s Creative Commons license, originally created by Lawrence Lessig for understanding music copyright. The idea behind this is that it offers an alternative to copyright, giving the user of the site more of a control over what happens to their images. This can result in the download and use of the image or it could mean that the image can’t even be downloaded.  

Even though there are regulations put into place, it doesn't mean they are followed. With it being easy for a production company or even a consumer to not comply and even prented that they are, it could show that there might not be a need. However 'a youngster watching a video that the video classification board has indicated is for adults only’ (Long & Wall, 2012: 216/7) isn't right, and this shows a good reason to comply with the rules.

From further reading the suggestion that regulation might not be as successful as it seems all comes down to the invention of the internet and how it can’t be ‘easily censored or eliminated’ (Adbramson, 2001:302) from where it’s been published. This shows then how not everything can be regulated, and it also shows that it’s not as controlled as a film company or TV station where rules can actually be enforced. Not only does it touch on this, but it begins to pose the question of whether globalization will ‘mean the end of media policy’ (Adbramson, 2001:304) and in this case it makes you ask yourself whether it would be good or bad to stop the media being regulated.

In terms of my own interest in photography there are a lot of factors that are controlled. These are things such as getting permission to shoot in a place and even release forms that models might have to sign. The other main factors are the issues of copyright and how you can protect yourself.

Bibliography

Long, P and Wall, T (2012) Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context (2nd Edition), London: Pearson.

Abramson, B. D. (2001). Media policy after regulation? International journal of cultural studies, 4(3), 301-326.

Entry 1 - Political Economy

From reading chapter 5 my understanding is that the media is overly controlled, down to the staff working for various companies or even the news stories that are broadcast.

Starting the chapter it discussed how we as an audience don’t know the creators of what we consume, but that we care more about who is in the TV programme or who is in a music video. The book illustrates an example of this where it states that if a celebrity is tied to a certain product it’s more likely to ‘encourage repeat purchases’ (Long & Wall 2012:177) whereas if this person wasn't involved, the product might not do as well.  This should then be a concern for a company, but from the reading, you are able to pick up the fact they know exactly what they’re doing.

The main factors from this reading are that the conglomerates and all involved have certain jobs to do and they know how to do them. Not only this, but the more a company has, the better it is for them in terms of winning over a market. As well as this, the reading has allowed me to see the power that these various media sources have, one main example in the book being a story of the singer Sandi Thom, who was allegedly signed to Sony due to the 100,000 people who tuned into ‘her nightly live web stream’, however legit this seems, the story was apparently leaked after the signing which just shows how much is controlled.

However even with all this in mind, with the rise of the internet, this has initially changed in some ways. From further reading, it is clear that many of the things I have previously discussed will be different. For instance, the fact that using a celebrity in a film would entice someone to buy a variety of products is no longer the case as there are now websites that you can watch films on, listen to music and even read the newspaper. With this issue not a worry years ago the media world as a whole is ‘suddenly vulnerable’ (Ulin 2012: 293).

Overall, the use of money is no longer as powerful as it once was now the internet has been introduced. As a keen photographer, in some ways the internet is great as it allows me to share photos, but in others it’s bad as there are a lot of ways that could potentially stop you making money, just like what’s happening to the larger media companies.

Bibliography

Long, P and Wall, T (2012) Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context (2nd Edition), London: Pearson.

Ulin, Jeff. 2012., Business of Media Distribution. The: Monetizing Film, TV and Video Content in an Online World. [Online]. Focal Press. Available from: <http://www.myilibrary.com?ID=234516> 26 March 2015