Audiences Responses

In this post we will look at the different types of responses audiences can have to a media product. After I have given a definition and an explained example of how these theories come into affect I will talk about the music video of Coldplay's The Scientist, and determine type of response my views are reflecting the meaning of the video in compassion to the director's explanation of the meaning.

The Types of Response

Negotiated:  A negotiated response is with the audience will talk with one another and come to an agreement or disagreement with certain parts of a media product.

This can mean the way that you view a film, like if you have to emphasis with a character that you don't like, and yet you seem to be able to enjoy watching the film, this basically boils down to your viewpoint.

Oz The Great and Powerful
 Poster

E.g. A few months ago me and my family saw "Oz, The Great and Powerful", this is a prequel to both the MGM film and the books by L, Frank, Baum as it tell the story of how the Wizard came to Oz. I do like the Oz films having already seen the other Oz films and having read the first three Oz book, so I know a bit about Oz, my favourite Oz film is "Return of Oz" being it was closer to the original books, but still having a few changes as it was a hybrid of books two and three, "Oz, The Great and Powerful" I also liked, (while I feel the story at some points was a little off, some choices were rather questionable, like the make-up affect on the Wicked Witch of the East, and it was odd how Bruce Campbell was given a credit when wasn't in the film for 5 minutes) I like how the visual style and the backgrounds made a hybrid between the books and the MGM film. Sadly the Oz film I like the least is the MGM film "The Wizard of Oz", this doesn't mean I don't like it, it is just it didn't resonant with me as much as the other two did, whether I was being scared by "Return to Oz" or admiring the visual design and story-telling of "Oz The Great and Powerful".

That was my view and both my Mother and Brother agreed with me however my Father said he didn't like it, for the simple reason that it wasn't the MGM film, he said that he grew-up on "The Wizard of Oz" and to him there was no other Oz film that came close to it, he also said that he did not care much about "Return to Oz", even when I said that you could not really compare the MGM film to either "Return" or "The Great and Powerful" he was still persistent about it, and I can't argue with that.

Long story short, after discussing the film, my father wouldn't change his mind.

Preferred: This is when the audience saw the media product the way that the creator intended it.

This example is not about a film but about a book: my favourite book: George Orwell's Animal Farm.

Orwell wrote the book in response to the rise of Stalin as the leader of the Soviet Union, the book talks about a group of farm animals that drive the ruthless and rather dictatorial farmer out and decide to run the farm by themselves, eventually a pig named Napoleon becomes the leader of the farm and the way he runs the farm he and the other pig seemingly turn into the humans that the animals hated so much.

It is obvious that the character of Napoleon is Orwell's interpretation of Stalin and the Stalinist regime. Other obvious comparisons that Orwell created, the farmer Mister Jones is the Tsar, the character of Old Major is Lenin, the person who started the revolution and the character of Snowball (Napoleon main reveal and the main advocate for Old Major's words) is Trotsky.

Now Orwell did like the revolution for dethroning the Tsar, which is why he wrote Jones as a cruel man who spent his money on drink, like how the Tsar had absolute power and spent his vast wealth on the finest objects in life. But he hated Stalin and the abuse of his power he did over Russia, so this was why he wrote Napoleon as much more of a cruel dictator than Jones and had Snowball as a benevolent leader and would have lead the farm to prosperity and democracy.

Almost everyone, myself included could tell the intention, being that I know the history of the Soviet Union.  However something that I have come to understand is the authorial intent is not important, what  is important is what the audience understands and interprets from the product.

Oppositional: This is when the audience finds themselves in opposition to the product due to their views.

E.g. the majority of the audience reaction to the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, the majority of those who watched the prequels found themselves hating the films due to the massive amounts of CGI, the boring political jargon, the annoying characters and performances, and the changes to the story that the original trilogy established.

The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Posters.

George Lucas's intentions was to expand the story of the Star Wars universe and explain the events that lead up to the original trilogy, but while "A New Hope" was the only film in the original trilogy that Lucas directed and written, the other films have other director and writer working a basic story idea that Lucas created, all of the Prequels were written and directed by Lucas, in the time between the release of "Return of the Jedi" and "The Phantom Menace" Lucas seemed to have lost the plot so the speak and made numerous changes and additions to the plot which caused the Star Wars fans and others alike to become outraged and act in opposition to the prequels.

Personally, while I understand the changes and hate the annoying characters the prequels do not get under my skin as much as other changes to franchises that I hold dearly and hate being destroyed. Personally what I hate the most as a media product is Hit Entertainment's run of Thomas and Friends this is due to me being a long time fan of the show and the characters and I see how changes and additions similar to this affect that long time fans of Star Wars, I can't hate the prequels as much as them because I am not a fan of Star Wars.

Coldplay's The Scientist

I watched the music video for a deconstruction for my one first college production. The video sees the story played backwards, the narrative is that the singer has walked away from a car crash that killed his girlfriend. In my view the started of the video itself, is the point when the man wants to reverse time wishing to forgive her and wanting to live in the time before this happened.

According to what director says "I had this idea that I wanted to do a story that's tragic but starts off happy and ends happy, and the video is about rewinding to that happy ending" well in context to the video it ends happy, but the story it starts happy. Personally I don't why the story ends happy, the man will never be able to see his girlfriend alive.

While I do agree on the tragic story I don't understand the part of the "starts off happy", so my view is Preferred even if I don't agree on some points, with that said you could say it is negotiated.

7/05/13 update

Participatory: This is when the audience has the ability of interacting with the product. Like commenting on a blog or a Youtube video.

In the case of a music video, the artist Professor Green in a collaboration with the food company Doritos created a music video with a panoramic effect. Using a special camera that films five points at the same time the video points were put together, so the user of the video can control the view of the video.

This technology is new and may become popular with the rise of new media, along with rise of this type of audience response.








Cultural Competence: This is the ability to understand different cultures.

Different cultures will look at a media product in different ways. In the film "Vantage Point" the way the different people were portrayed shows the way the culture that produced the movie sees the other cultures, how the American with the camera on holiday was a heroic person for saving the girl and how activists were portrayed as the antagonists and terroristic in their actions. This shows how the American creator view that type of culture, and shows they are not fully competent. However the sub-plot that a good cop was apart of the group adds to the idea that it is not the culture that is bad it is just the people.

Media products will take cultures and portray them in different ways.

Being culturally competent can allow one to understand the cultrure and those get along with the people of those cultures.

Fan Culture: Fan Culture is when the fans of a certain media product can cause changes to the media product.

The Culture itself could be a certain group that our devoted fans to a certain franchise e.g. the Trekies or the Bronies.

An example of how fans can effect a media product, remembering the fan-backlash against the prequels   have lead Disney to keep George Lucas from having any major position in the production of the new Sequel trilogy to Star Wars, having him only be a creative consultant.

In this modern era when people are better connected to each other we can act more pro-active to the media products and the fan culture that we enjoy adding to it and allowing us to take a stand when something in that media product is wrong.

Information from:
http://brianair.wordpress.com/film-theory/audience-responses/
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1472164/lens-recap-coldplays-scientist.jhtml
http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/october/doritos-professor-green-chris-cairns

Audience Theory

This will be the first of the music video post.

This post is on the four theories about the audience, I will explain the theory and how these theories relate to music videos.

Hypodermic Needle Theory: This theory implies that mass media has a large influence on the audience. This theory was first observed due to the response of people to propaganda posters and advertisement. The theory states that the way information is given in a linear and direct way, the audience is passive (more information below) and that they respond to the information in the same way, this theory is no longer regarded as true due to the increase of social media allowing people the ability to be more active in their response. This theory relates to how the music video presents the artists of the video and the imagery, how this influences the audience about artist's looks and the way the preserve the genre.

Passive and Active Consumption: This theory takes about the ways that the audience reacts to the media product. Passive response means that the audience does not have an opinion and will not pay much attention to the product. Active response means that the audience will have an opinion and will react to the product, in either praise or criticism. This theory relates to how many people who watch the music video will feedback on the video, if the majority don't feedback then it means that I have not done enough to get their attention.

Reception Theory: This is how an audience of different backgrounds will perceive the message. I have already talked about this in my previous post so this mean I don't need to go over this. I will however talk about how it relates to the music video, this will tie into the Passive and Active Consumption Theory above, how events that lead up to the point they view the products effect how they react to the product.

 

Uses and Gratification Theory: This theory is an approach on how people understand media; sometimes it is for Diversion: the need to escape from reality, Personal relationship: when the person uses the media product to form relationships with others, Personal Identity: where the person uses the product as a way to find who they our, what they like, sometimes the way a person is portrayed in the product reflect us, finally there is the use of Surveillance: when the person is using the product to find out about current events and/ or issues. The theory applies to the music as how the audience uses the product, they may wish to view the video as a way to escape currents events in life e.g. taking a break from work, they may also wish to use it as a way to become apart of the social that enjoy the artist of the music and discuss it, they may use it to find who they our, if they like the video they can get a better understanding of themselves, the video can also help the audience to get information about the artist e.g. the current image that he/ her are presenting themselves as, either as a one-off or as their famous and most identifiable image.