Audience essay

‘Media texts will never be successful unless they are carefully constructed to targets pre-established audiences.’

Evaluate the ways that you constructed a media text to target a specific audience.

When creating a music video, it is important to have an initial idea of who the audience might be. Some media producers categorize audiences into different groups to determined what media text would apply to each group. It is a method of targeting an audience. A dance genre of song (heads will roll – ATRAK remix) was used for the music video, therefore certain representation were considered, such as the speed of editing.

I knew from the research and planning stages of production that dance/pop songs have fast editing and are normally targeted at young audiences. The initial target audience for my music video was for a mass audience as the song had a popular dance genre. However when we decided on the band (actors) and planned out the storyboard it seemed that the video would take a more alternative appearance and appeal to a niche audience.

The illusion of a house party was created in the video by having people dancing, and flashing lights. This connoted a fun and energetic representation of young people. The band was aged between 17-19 and represented average teenagers. Their casual costumes created a relaxed approach to an upbeat song and purposefully went against what artist would wear in a dance genre song. The general body language of the girl matched the song as she was dancing around and creating the fun atmosphere. The audience could draw on a number of interpretations/meanings from the video. The girl dancing could be identifiable with other teenage girls as this is something young people enjoy doing. The whole theme of a house party is also relevant to the age and culture of the audience. The DJ remained aloof and reserved when it came to dancing and he did not make eye contact with the camera. In some ways this is a true reflection of a DJ as he was not the main singer. However it also contributes to our niche audience acted slightly quirky. One way we identified our audience was by creating a Facebook group and twitter group. This allowed anyone to be a part of the progress of the fictitious band and video. We could gain feedback from the audience we were addressing which became very useful after handing in our draft video. I also posted all my work and progression onto my blog along with a pitch. It concluded that the target audience would be aimed at young people within the age range of 16-25 and match the pluralist theory of being a ‘Active audience’ that are able to create their own understanding/interpretations of the media text. Afterall, media texts are influenced by society meaning individuals within a society can pick and chose a media product that has been aimed at their needs as a media consumer.

The video was filmed in an unidentified setting, with the band stood infront of a projector screen that displayed different colours. In effect, this replicated a studio and made the video look professional. The pink and green colours at the beginning of the video were edited in during post- production. The neon colours attractive the viewer from the very start and were repeated as an element of continuity. The colours represent the different genders of the band e.g pink for the girl and green for the boy. This mean’t that we could target both gender’s of and audience.

Theorist Ang (1991) suggests that  'audience hood is becoming an ever more multifaced, fragmented and diversified repertoire of practices and experiences.' I would agree with Ang in relation to my media product. There are many people that enjoy media products that are targeted at different audiences. For example, someone might like pop video's but also enjoy alternative electro music (sub-categories). When making my music video I did target a pre-established audience. Even though the audience of my music video changed during post-production it was still successful. Therefore I agree with the quote and the idea of targeting an audience prior to making the media product.