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is to feel sorry for Odie as we see his lifeless body laying with nothing able to be done to fix him as he is an out of date machine this scene is also made to make us feel bad for George so we carry this emotion with us for George throughout the episode, this isn't a confusing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.

Newspaper Unit: Audience Responses

Audience Responses

• Ideologies of Christmas
• Family
• Christmas Dinner
• Birth of Jesus

• Stuart Hall - Reception Theory
• The ways in which the audience process the ideologies of the producer.

• 'P.N.O'
• Preferred
• Negotiated
• Oppositional

• Preferred Reading
• Birth of Jesus and be involved in going to church Christmas Eve.
• Everyone loves Christmas.
• Joy of giving gifts.

Cambridge News Facts

• Local Tabloid
• Genre

• 'TOO CLEVER FOR PRISON'
• Were not supposed to like her and have passion towards her.
• We feel distrust towards the court system as they are giving someone freedom for a crime which shouldn't be dismissed due to her career choice and qualifications.
• The picture used makes us dislike her even more as she looks smug in the photo used so we dislike her even more.
• The representations of people with mental health issues is that they may be dangerous, out of control, another stigma with mental health issues is that they don't exist, and they're just an excuse to get away with things because they cannot control their 'mental health issues'.
• Women are hysterical
• They mentioned that they met on tinder.
• Oppositional - She is the victim as nobody has helped her with her mental health issues.

Audience Manipulation

Audience Manipulation

The importance behind the audience; 

• Without an audience there is no point in a media product.
• There is always a target audience
• There is a primary target audience and a secondary target audience
• Its the audience who decide the success the of the media product.
• There are different types of demographics and psychographic types of audiences.

Key Theory - Albert Bandura - Media Effects

• What happens if you watch too much TV/Youtube/Video Games?
• Alters your perceptions on things, makes you understand biased ideologies. (Stereotypical Characters) 
• Changes your personality, if you watch a show you could try to be the character and 'if you watch too many horror films you're more likely to kill someone'
• If you play too many video games then you may not take life so seriously, example; Call of Duty will make you enjoy kill people online so it could reflect that into real life. 

• The effects model - AKA The hypodermic needle model.
• We as the audience are being brainwashed by the producers ideology which they're putting into the media product, and we cannot do anything about it as we are watching it and we are taking it into account. 

• Mass media is media that can be spread to mass audiences quickly and easily. 

• Advantages of this theory;
• Assuming that is true it can get important messages across. (propaganda)
• Educating people on what's going around them.
• Its very simple and easier to blame the video games rather than sociological issues. 

• Disadvantages of this theory;
• The theory doesn't work in the majority, we can watch shooting games and horror movie's and not kill someone, if you kill someone then its probably because there is something wrong and they are ill. 

Key Theory - George Gerbner - Cultivation Theory

Cultivation Theory is the idea that prolonged and heavy exposure to TV cultivates as in grows or develops in audiences a view of the world consistent with the dominant or majority view expounded by television

• Outline of Cultivation Theory;
• Television (and by extension other tools of mass media distributions) present a mainstream view of culture, ignoring everything else.
• In doing so, television distorts reality
• Heavy television users are therefore more likely to accept this edited and distorted view of reality.

• Advantages of this theory;
• 
  
• Disadvantages of this theory;
• Not everyone's the same and may be less influenced.
• It is so simplistic as it doesn't take in the idea of the complex human mind.
• We are now watching so much different types of channels, so there are so many more conflicting ideologies so we can't just focus on one ideology and be influenced by it. 
• Its distressingly similar to the effects model. 

Applying Cultivation Theory To Advertising 

• Women do the washing we see this through the women hugging the washing powder, and women should do the cleaning as there is no men seen in the advert at all, this is an ideology that is cultivated as we are not born with this ideology. 
• She is an archetypal housewife.
• Another ideology that has been cultivated is the fact that women want to clean and like to clean through the use of mise-en-scene we see this as she is smiling, there is also a romantic love between the housewife and cleaning. 

Hegemony

• Where one group wields power over another, not through domination, but through coercion and consent.
• Examples;
• Queuing
• Homework
• Stopping at a red light
• Letting others get off the train before you get on
• Putting disabled people before yourself (seat on the train)
• The school system
• We dont do drugs in public as we would get judged
• Wearing clothes 
• Patriarchal Hegemony
• Cultural Hegemony
• Hegemonic structures of class
• Political Hegemony 

• Hegemonic Power VS Non-Hegemonic Power 

Applying Cultivation Theory & Hegemony to Advertising

• Its presenting that slim women are beautiful and can wear what they want and do what they want.
• Being able to sit on a private terrace so they can be seen as rich and wealthy
• If these women were overweight the message of the advert would change completely and it would be a body message instead, they're attractive as they're thin/blonde, we know these women are sexually attractive because of how they look and by what they're wearing. 
• Showing coke is a seasonal drink that can be drunk in summer as it cools you down and gives you a feeling of relaxation, the image codes this sense of relaxation as both the women are laying down and chilling not having to worry about anything, the colour's are also light which connotates the purity and innocence of this sexualised image. 
• Attractive, young women who may be financially successful drink coke. 

Audience Identification

Introduction to Audience

• Section A 
• Analysing media language and representation.
• Section B 
• Analysing media industries and audiences. 

The only reason a media product exists is due to money, if the media product doesn't receive money then the product doesn't exist. Audience reactions construct a media product. 

• Target Audience
• The audience who the producer is aiming to. 

• Primary Audience 
• The specific group the producer is targeting their product at (first audience)

• Secondary Audience
• The second specific group the producer is targeting their product to. 

T.A.P - Text, Audience, Producer

Producer - Encodes Text - Text - Decodes Text - Audience

Key Words;

• Targeting
• Certain type of people who the producer wants the media product to aim at.

• Attracting
• The type of people that are actually interested in the media product.

• Reaching
• The ability to obtain a wider audience.

• Addressing
• The way that the media product is written / talks to their specific target audience. 

• Constructing 
• The audience itself, it constructs the audience's thinking.
• Eg. Female's smoking are not prostitutes. 

The Last Of Us - Video Game Advert 

• The dark gloomy mise-en-scene attracts the male audience.
• The target audience is young adult males, due to the props of the guns also the setting is old and abandoned and run down.
• The woman is based as a strong character, she is holding a gun, it is also challenging stereotypes of women as she is carrying a gun. 
• The relationship between the two characters is very maternal and not sexual. 
• Proairetic/Hermeneutic codes, dutch angle so we know something is going to go wrong so there is a sense of mystery and the unknown. 
• Hermeneutic code - how did they get there, what is the characters relationship, what happened to the setting. 

How do we break down audiences?

• Sex
• Gender
• Ideology (Beliefs)
• Religions
• Age
• Interests and Hobbies
• Class
• Location

Demographics 

• Putting people into groups in terms of class, it is a way in classifying and identifying people and is based on essentially numbers. Example of chart;

• Problems with this stratification; 
• It is not very well defined, as some people may have a high up profession but not get much money. 
• It is an unfair system. 
• Some students could make a lot of money.
• Too reductive, reduces people to an extremely small group. 
• Doesn't tell you much about the audience. 

Psychographics

• The classification of people according to attitudes, aspirations and other psychological criteria. 
• Aspirers; People who want to appear rich and attractive
• Reformers; People who want social change 
• Explorers; Adventurous people who like to take risks
• Mainstreamers; People who follow the crowd
• Strugglers; People who find it hard to achieve 

Mcdonalds Pickles Advert

• The setting is full of flats and council houses which suggests they are working class. 

• We get the idea that Mcdonalds is a loving place as when the man walks in there the lighting is extremely bright and high key and the staff are smiling whereas when he goes to the corner shop and they're all down and the lighting is very dull and gloomy.