Audience theory - Audiences and Audience theory

Laura Mulvey created this theory and that it develops as a logical argument:

1. Cinema reflects society
2. Therefore cinema reflects a patriarchal society 
3. How does a patriarchal society manifest itself in cinema?

• Men are still in charge
• Women still earn less than women
• Unrepresentative in the government and parliament. 

The Gaze

The 'gaze' of the camera is the 'male gaze.'

The male gaze is active, the female passive.

Within the narrative male characters direct their gaze towards female characters. 

The spectator is made to identify with the male gaze because the camera films from the optical, as well as the libidinal, point of view of the male character. This three levels of the cinematic gaze, camera, character and spectator - that objectify the female character (the triple gaze). 

Therefore the audience are constructed in such a way that they are forced to 'gaze' from a male point of view. 

Women are forced to look at the text as though they were a male member of the audience. 

This occurs through the process of SUTURE.

Agency 

In the classical Hollywood cinema the make protagonist has agency because he is the active one and all powerful where the girl gets kidnapped or is in trouble and it's his duty to save her. The female character is passive and powerless, she is the object of desire for protagonist and audience.

Mulvey argues that women have two roles in films:

1. As an objet o erotic desire for the characters
2. As an object of erotic desire for the audience

However, this theory doesn't apply to mine because the camera doesn't focus on the girl though the male's gaze because they're always together. The camera focuses on both of the actors to show they're sad story. 

Audience theory- Reception theory

The Reception theory was developed by Start Hall at Birmingham University in the 1970's. When a producer constructs a text it is encoded with a meaning or message that the producer wishes to convey to the audience. The audiences will correctly decode the message or meaning and understand what the producer was trying to say. However, sometimes the audience may reject or fail to correctly understand the message.
Stuart Hall identified 3 types of audience readings (or decoding) of the text:

• Dominant or preferred
• Negotiated
• Oppositional

Dominant 

• Where the audience decodes the message as the producer wants them to do and broadly agrees with it

Example: in my music video I wanted the audience to feel sad as the actor did when she lost her boyfriend. So I'm sure that since there are sad scenes in my music video, the audience will feel sad as-well, and grieve with the girl who has lost her boyfriend. 

Negotiated

• Where the audience accepts, rejects or refines elements of the text in light of previously held viewers. 

An example of this can be used in my music video because the audience can choose whether to feel sad or not. My encoding of my message is to make the audience feel sad though, some of them may not see that and therefore decode my message. 

Oppositional 

• Where the dominant meaning is recognized but rejected for cultural, political or ideological reasons. 

In my music video I believe that this doesn't happen because i don't believe anyone would decode my message and oppose it because it's a sad video of someone close who has died. The audience may also, relate to that to someone who they have loved and has passed away. 

Audience theory - Suture

This theory comes from the theorists; Roland Barthes, Stephen Heath, Laura Mulvey, Kaja Silverman but was formulated by Daniel Day in 1974. This theory is when a film is made of a classical Hollywood narrative, editing, sound and mise-en-scene where the audience know what will happen and are ready for it. Films are 'stitched' together to force the audience to look at the film in a certain. This is made easier when means, techniques, codes and conventions of the film are "invisible" by the filmmakers. 

For my music video I've done the same by making sure that there are sad scenes in the video because I want the audience to grieve with the girl and be upset when they watch it because someone has passed away. 

Audience theory - The Uses and Gratifications Model

No one is sure whether these theory are actually true since many people watch violent texts but don't appear to be influenced by them. This theory explores the reasons as to why people consume media and what they hope to gain from it. When it comes to the uses and gratifications model, the audience are active when they watch media texts including horror and violent ones because when the watch it they use the text and are not used by it. When the audience use the text they use it for their own gratification or pleasure. They are not helpless or duped, they watch these types of texts because they enjoy it and may want to gain something from it.

Here the power lies with the audience and not with the producers and directors of the film. The audience is free to reject, play or use with media meanings as they see fit. 

The audience can use media texts to gratify needs for: 

• Diversion
• Escapism
• Pleasure
• Information
• Comparing relationships and lifestyles with one's own
• Sexual stimulation

Since the audience are now in control, consumption of the media therefore, helps those with issues such as:

• Learning
• Relaxation
• Emotional satisfaction
• Help with issues of personal identity
• Hep with issues of social identity
• Help with issues of aggression and violence 

The theory suggests that the consumption of violent images might even be helpful rather than harmful since, the audience act out their violent impulses through the consumption of media violence. The audiences inclination towards violence is sublimated therefore, they would be less likely t commit violent acts. 

This can be applied to my music video because the audience may actually want to watch sad music videos because they enjoy it because they don't get upset about it. 

Audience theory - Two step flow theory

The two step flow theory discovered by Paul Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz say that when it comes to the audience being influenced by the media, they have direct influence through the personal influence of opinion leaders.

This is an example of how the opinion leaders are having an influence over the people who listen to them. The majority of people now receive most of their information from their opinion leaders since they are influenced by them and by the media second-hand. An example of this is twitter, where everybody can re-tweet something they've heard and agree on. Stephen Fry is an opinion leader because if he tweets something and someone re-tweets it then they are influenced by that opinion leader. James Cameron was influenced by Stephen Fry because Russia were holding anti-gay protests and therefore, Cameron agreed with Fry that that was wrong, so he decided not to go to the Russia winter olympics. The biggest opinion leaders are celebrities nowadays.

This fits into my music video because I want the audience to feel sad and upset because someone so close has passed away. I show this by adding scenes where the girl remembers her memories with her boyfriend. Though, when he disappears it's upsetting because she was only imagining him being there and what she sees now is just her by herself.

Audience theory - Cultivation theory

The cultivation theory by George Gerbner is a more refined version of the hypodermic needle because it says that if people watch the same sort of text then it will desensitize them. Some films which were banned once before have been released and when the audience had watched 'The Hills Have Eyes' and 'The Exorcist' they all said "what's all the fuss about".
It's said that the only way the audiences social attitude will change is by watching the same sort of text numerous of times. Overall, the audiences attitudes are shaped by what they watch on the television.

My music video can be applied to this because the audience can be upset at first when they watch it, though, as they get used to watching my music video numerous of times, they'll get used to the emotion and won't be upset anymore, they'll only pay attention to the music.

Audience theory - Moral panics

A moral panic is a feeling thats expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. Stanley Cohen believes that moral panic only occurs when "a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests."The media make sure to create film genres, such as; horror and violent film which have a negative effect on the audience that create, anxiety, concern or panic.

The effects model contributes to moral panics because if students watch these films then they become lazy and people who panic may not pass their exams. The media will also, go and create violent 'copycat' behaviour or mindless sopping in response to advertisements. 

Pokemon is a good example where the show is a bad influence on children because apparently it's a promotion of psychic abilities and evolution. The video nasties is another good example which create moral panic because there have been a set of movie which have been banned in the UK for supposedly causing immoral behaviour. My music video doesn't relate to this because my video is sad and it wouldn't create no panic. It may create some upsetting panic, if someone loses their loved ones and they wonder how they would have to cope with it after. 

Audience theory - The effects model theory

The effects model is based upon how media texts have an influence on the audience. Its said that the consumption of media texts has an effect and the audience is passive and powerless to prevent the influence. When it comes to the hypodermic model, there's a hypodermic syringe that's said to be injected into the audience and that's how they are influenced by the texts. That way the audience is powerless to resist. The hypodermic needle is like a drug to the audience where they are being drugged, addicted or duped.

Im going to apply this effects model to my music video which has an influence on the audience because the video is sad and I made sure to make it like that. I made sure to have the couple in this video be all in love and since the boy has passed away he disappears. This has an influence on the audience because its emotional to see how the girl is finding it hard to grieve and the fact that he wasn't really there and she's just imagining him being there from her memories.

Compare the meerkat.com is an example of where the effects model is used here. This is because everybody owns a television now and everybody who seen television has definitely seen this advert which was rated in the top 3 of the top 10 funniest adverts. Therefore, the effects model for this advert has worked and can be proven that it works because many people who hear about this advert will know what voice to use when they say 'compare the meerkat.com'.

Another advert which is the most annoying though, everyone knows about which proves that the effects model has worked for this advert because when everyone hears it they either sing to the music or they change the channel since, this advert 'gocompare' has been advertised on the television hundreds of times. They've even changed it by not making the opera singer sing because so many people have had an effect by him by being annoyed with the advert every time they saw it.