Humans - Audience Exam Question

Question

Is it essential for a TV programme to simultaneously target both mass and specialised audiences. Explore this statement with reference to Humans

Answer

It isn't essential for a TV programme to simultaneously target both mass and specialised audiences an example of a show which doesn't is Humans, a sci fi tv series which targets a mass audience throughout various readings, using Stuart Halls Reception theory I will explain how the pilot episode is targeted to a mass audience rather than a specialised audience.

From looking at Humans pilot episode, it is clear for the producer to target a mass audience. Although Humans is a sci-fi tv series, the sci-fi elements are subtle, such as it not being a full on robot show, we have human characters and the robots themselves are disguised as humans. This is just one small example of how Humans is targeted to a mass audience rather than a specialised audience without using Stuart Hall's Reception Theory.

Stuart Halls Reception theory explores the different ways in which a media product can have several readings. There are 3 readings in this theory they are, Dominant reading which is where the audience agrees with the dominant ideologies in the text. Oppositional reading where the audience completely disagrees with what they see and negotiated reading where the audience generally agrees with what they see however they may disagree with certain aspects.

Taking Stuart Halls theory and looking at the scene of Odie collapsing in the supermarket with George the audiences dominant reading is to feel sorry for Odie as we see his lifeless body laying with nothing able to be done to fix him as he is an out of date machine this scene is also made to make us feel bad for George so we carry this emotion with us for George throughout the episode, this isn't a confusing reading to take it is the first reading and the dominant it is also an identifiable situation as it can be linked to a close friends/ family members death as we know the relationship between George and Odie is a strong bond. So when George is then told to get rid of Odie and gets given a new cyborg he is hurt and we as the audience automatically do not agree with the new synth and carry the emotion of her being a nuisance throughout the episode as this is the dominant reading. This reading isn't hard to come by meaning a mass audience will be able to follow this without having to be a specialised audience to the tv series and sci-fi fans. This scene has elements which are in the majority of genre's in a romantic film there is usually some death that is meaningful and in action genres there are deaths some are more heartfelt than others.

Another scene in Humans is the scene when Laura meets Anita for the first time, it is clear to see from the first moment that Laura doesn't like Anita so straight away the mass audience is identifiable within this situation. The mise-en-scene of Anita's makeup showing she is naturally beautiful we also know she is deemed as attractive due to the mid shot of Laura's son Toby licking his lips the first time Toby saw her being a symbolic code that she is attractive to males of the household. Also through the mise-en-scene of Laura's non verbal communication through facial expressions clearly shows that she is not happy with this situation so straight away us as an audience understand there is competition and jealousy with Anita and Laura there is no use of a hermeneutic code as we know and do not need to be a specialised audience to get our head around the ideologies behind this scene.