Audience Theory - Blumer and Katz - Visual Essay

The Uses and Gratifications theory by Blumer and Katz represents a change in thinking as researchers begin to describe the effects of the media from the point of view of audiences. This model looks at the motives of the people who use the media, asking why we watch television, films, media products in the way in which we do, why we bother to read newspapers and why we find ourselves so compelled to keep up to date with our favourite soap or consume films.
This theory makes the audience active as they choose what they want to consume and they are not forced into the consumption of a product. For example, you only watch the films you want to as you are in control of your choices. The media simply creates the product. This theory argues that the audience needs to have social and psychological needs which generate certain expectations about the mass media and what they are supposed to. As the audience is the active participant, this allows them to make more choices in relation to what they consume, making oneself in control of what they consume. This does assume that an active audience are making motivated choices which places the audience in control of their own consumerism.
The underlying idea behind the model is that people are motivated by a desire to fulfil, or gratify certain needs. So instead of asking how the media uses us, the model asks how we use the media.

This theory is broken down into 4 needs:

1. Surveillance 
2. Personal Identity
3. Personal Relationships
4. Diversion

Surveillance is based around the idea that people feel better knowing the situations occurring in the world around them and the media making them feel safe. For example, we use the news as a reliable source of information as it makes us feel safer knowing what's going on. Surveillance is also all about awareness as we again use the mass media to be more aware of the world, gratifying a desire for knowledge and security. 

It means that we watch something that reassures the audience and we use media to be helpful in our everyday activities such as the news and the weather, 

Social media can greatly influence how this concept works as fake stories are often created and this gives people a false sense of security,

Personal identity explains how being a subject of the media allows us to confirm the identity and positioning of ourselves within society. The use of media for performing personal identity can been in music videos and films. Pop stars can often become big role models to children which is why there's such an outrage when someone does something wrong which is deemed unacceptable by the public. This allows us to associate and relate to the product directly to make us feel gratified and able to relate to a product. Different genres also allow people to identify in different ways to different elements. For example someone may be able to relate to a romantic film due to their experiences and not identify with a western as they have never identified with it.

Personal Relationships is where the audience use the media within their own personal relationships. It's especially useful as we often use the media as a springboard to form and build on relationships with real people - especially when people have the same interests. This also means that having a favourite TV show in common with someone can usually be a great conversation starter and making talking to strangers a lot easier as you can identify common interests with someone. Many people use television as a form of companionship where they watch it together rather than alone and even if they sit together in silence, they are still able to build on relationships.

Diversion is the need to escape everyday life - also referred to as escapism. We watch things to distract ourselves from our own issues in our lives and we also want to see that other people go through the same experiences that we do which can also help us to deal with are own issues which are of a similar nature. We also watch things to focus on other peoples problems instead of our own which again helps us stay distracted for a while. 

In the music video that I'm analysing has elements of personal identity due its genre and the fact that the lead singer can be seen as a role model. The way he handles the situation of wanting to get a girl is somewhat relatable and also influential as the audience may see elements of themselves within him and his personality and therefore able to relate to the product more and make us feel gratified. This also could influence personal relationships as the content is so relatable to many people, they may use this as a conversation starter and builder to deepen their relationships. They may also use this video as diversion as the content is so identifiable with the audience so people may wish to watch this to escape their everyday issues or to even help find a resolution the problem that they are having if it is the same as demonstrated in the video.

Audience Theory - Stuart Hall - Visual Essay

Stuart Hall's Reception Theory suggests that media texts are encoded by the producer meaning that whoever produces the text fills the product with certain values and messages (ideologies). This text is often decoded by spectators who may decode the text in various ways and not always as the producer intended.

Several factors that may change the way an audience responds to a text are:

• Personal experience
• If they like the genre advertised
• Gender
• Social class
• Race
• Religion
• Age
• Personal Choices
• Content of the text
• Ethnicity
• Level of education
• Disability
• Regional identity 
• Sexuality

The producer encodes the message/meaning and this then is created into three possible readings made by the audience. These readings are: the Dominant/Preferred, Negotiated and Oppositional.

The dominant reading of the text is where the audience view the media text in the way that the producer intended, meaning that the audience agree with the ideologies and messages behind the text. This results in the ideal consumption being met and therefore the institution is happy.

The negotiated reading is a compromise between dominant and opposed readings. This is where the audience accepts the views of the producer but they also have their own input and understandings in relation to the texts. They neither specifically agree or disagree, however they can see the point being made in relation to the reading, yet they still have their own opinions of the text. For example, they understand what the institution want the message to be and how they're supposed to consume the text however they don't fully conform with the message,

The oppositional reading is where the audience rejects the preferred reading and create their own opinions of the texts. The audience fully reject this meaning as they don't agree with the message that's being created. They also may interoperate the message wrongly and they may be offended, upset or fail to see the intended message, For example, the music video 'Smack My Bitch Up' by The Prodigy created uproar within the public due to it's adult themes and very explicit content. Although this was done to shock people, the intended message was to show that women can behave in the exact same was as a man. This is because throughout the whole video, we see everything through somebody's point of view and everybody assumes that it's a man because of their actions such as, being around naked women in clubs and taking drugs etc, however at the end, we see that the person carrying out these actions is in fact a woman. For someone such as a media student who may be more open minded to fully watch the video to see the intended message would understand the reasoning's behind it as they see the resolution at the end. However, somebody with an opposed view who maybe would switch off half way through before fully seeing the meaning behind it, would then interoperate the text wrongly and fail to see the intended message as they may have been upset or offended by the explicit content.

In the music video that I'm analysing - She's So Lovely (Scouting for Girls), the dominant reading is about getting the girl he wants as he finds her attractive which suggests that his target audience are teenagers - especially males with this particular song. However females could identify with it if they reverse the gender roles. This is because this situation is identifiable as this is an experience  that the majority of teenagers go through at some point in their life which may evoke feelings of sadness, upset, regret etc. which the producers specifically created this song for.

The negotiated view of this music video could be happiness etc. as the person watching this may have a personal experience where they felt like that however they got the girl so although they would understand the intended message and that it's not a song for making people feel happy and upbeat, this is how they personally identify with the song,

The oppositional view of the video could be that somebody has had a very negative experience with a girl which has made them turn bitter and sour, this could then leave them feeling very negatively about the whole situation so they may then fail to see the intended message and refuse to watch altogether,

Representation Theory - Richard Dyer - Visual Essay

Richard Dyer's star theory focuses on 4 key components

1.  Stars as constructions
2. Audience and Industry/Institutions
3. Ideology and Culture
4. Character and Personality

Stars as constructions

Dyer states that stars are constructs of themselves where they are constructed, artificial images, even if they're being represented as real people. Because of this construction, pop stars have the advantage over film stars as the popstars can 'live out' this role because they can keep this persona visible during interviews etc. over a long period of time whereas film stars are dependant on the creativeness of others e.g. screenwriters who write their lines and because of this they're visual image to the audience is always changing so therefore is harder for them to keep up a certain set image. 

Some of these representations may be metonymic which is image associated such as Michael Jackson's glove etc.

Pop stars find this construction easier than film stars as pop stars can create a consistent image of themselves over long periods of time whereas film stars have a constantly changing image due to the fact that they play several different roles at different times and this image is also dependant on the creativeness of others. E.g. a script writer writes their lines for them.

Audience and Industry/Institutions

Stars are created by the music industry in order to serve a purpose which is to allow audiences to consume various products produced by them. As well as this, the audience are buying into the persona of the star as the industry are wanting to them to become fans so that the future products produced will continue to be consumed by the audience.

Record companies try to mould and shape their stars like talent programmes such as The X-Factor has showed us. They tend to create stars that the audience will want to consume which is why there are a lot of similar acts being represented which are just like a photocopied version of each other. E.g. One Direction and The Vamps, Little Mix and Fifth Harmony.

Ideology and Culture

Stars have certain cultural values, believe and attitudes which promotes a certain ideology about themselves as an artist and what they want an audience to see that they believe in. By having these particular ideologies, it makes the audience able to see and identify their star qualities, making the artist more desirable.

Stars promote these star qualities to make them a consumable house hold name. As audiences copy or idolise these stars, them promoting and having these star qualities makes them more desirable. E.g. a charitable celebrity who promotes this image of themselves by displaying all the charitable things they have done.

Character and Personality

Dyer states that stars provide audiences with ideas about what people are supposed to be like, and this makes the audience feel like they need to conform to these constructions.

A star is created on the basis of themselves and what they think the audience want to consume. They will only create an image which is deemed desirable by the audience. These stars are just characters which display and re present a personality to the audience in which the audience is able to consume.

In the music video She's So Lovely by Scouting For Girls which I have analysed, this theory is 

Representation Theory - Tessa Perkins - Visual Essay

Stereotypes
Stereotypes are assumptions we make based on various groups of people. We base these assumptions on previous experiences we've had with these particular groups, our friends experiences and how these particular groups are portrayed within the media. These assumptions however are not always correct. For Example, the general public may have a negative view on youths due to how they're portrayed in the media with the crimes committed and how antisocial they are etc. and when they are praised on results day for achieving better grades, they are then put down by saying how much easier these exams have gotten, whereas a teacher or someone else who works with youths may have a completely different view of them as they see how hard working and kind hearted they are.

Tessa Perkins suggest that there's 5 assumptions to stereotypes

1. Stereotypes are not always negative 
2. They are not always about the minority groups or the less powerful 
3. They can be held about ones own group
4. They are not rigid or unchanging 
5. They are not always false

They are not always negative

People often assume that stereotypes are a negative thing, however they can be seen as a positive. For example, the French make good cooks and Italian's make good lovers.

They are not always about the minority groups or the less powerful

People again often assume that stereotypes are directed at and targeted towards the less powerful, but this is not always the case. We can make stereotypes and assumptions on the Upper class, and these assumptions are formed by the way that they are portrayed in the media. E.g. They only care about money and they're very pitiful on the lower class as they feel sorry for them because they don't have much money and they have to go out to work everyday. 

They can be held about ones own group

Although certain people who belong to the same institutions all hold the same ideologies as a whole, stereotyping still happens within that group which are based on assumptions. For example, a college all hold the same ideologies however within a college, several stereotypical groups are created such as the Jocks, Divas, Emo's Indies and goths etc,

They are not rigid or unchanging 

Although it's very hard to change a stereotype once one has been created, it's not impossible to change over a period of time. For example Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus both drastically changed their image and their stereotype.
  

They are not always false

Stereotypes must have a certain element of truth to them otherwise there is nowhere for this assumption to come from. We may witness this first hand or second hand however there must be some truth within a stereotype otherwise the ideology would not have existed in the first place. 

Representation Theory - Laura Mulvey - Visual Essay

Laura Mulvey is an active feminist who proposed the theory of ‘The Male Gaze’. The Male Gaze focuses on visual pleasure and narrative cinema, which focuses on women and how they’re seen as a sexual object and therefore denies women of human identity. The male gaze occurs when the audience is put into the viewpoint of a heterosexual man. For example, if a scene focuses on the curves of a woman’s body through slow motion, close ups, or other specific conventions then this would be classed as The Male Gaze. Mulvey believes that this theory can be broken down into three aspects: How men look at women, How women look at themselves and how women look at each other.

The video I have been analysing is She’s So Lovely by Scouting for Girls. I've found through the analysis that this theory does apply to my chosen video in many various ways. For example, in Mulvey’s ‘When men look at women’ section, she states that it’s how men focus on the physical features of a woman such as her curves and do not see them as a valid role as they are seen as a sexual object which denies them human identity. The way we see a woman is from the viewpoint of a heterosexual male, as if we are the man in the chosen media text, This is seen in my chosen video several times starting at the beginning where the lead female is shown by a close up of her legs while she’s wearing high heels and slowly walking along the screen. The fact that she is wearing high heels also emphasises the meanings  behind the theory as  high heels are seen as sexy and a typical item of clothing that females wear when they dress up for something special.

In the video we also see a close up of the woman sexually biting her lip in slow motion. This again demonstrates the focusing on a females body parts by using specific conventions, showing the viewpoint of a male and also reinforcing the fact that they're just there to be objectified, to be seen and not heard. This 'masculinises' the audience as this focuses on the physical appearance of the woman and therefore suggests that women can only watch themselves through a secondary perspective and only view themselves through the eyes of a man.

Another way this is presented is when the main female lead is shown via a close up of her bum and legs while she’s picking up a bowling ball, accompanied by the song lyrics which are:‘I love the way she shakes those hips’. This again reinforces the idea of Mulvey's theory which suggests that women are sexual objects just made to be looked at and they are just for the visual pleasure of a male.

Later on in this video, the woman is sat with her boyfriend having a drink, however she is drinking through a straw and smiling while looking up at the main lead singer while. This can be viewed as a sensual act - especially through a males perspective. And as we see her doing this through the males eyes, this idea is reinforced, mainly through the cinematography. 

The History of Music Videos