Class blog for A2 Media Studies research and assignment information.

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Week 11 Homework

 

Week 11 - Due Friday CCR Questions 

 Hi guys


Here's your CCR questions and assignment - this will be completely due next Term and includes the following;


Critical reflection (meaning you look at your work from every angle)

- Evaluative essay around 1000 words

- Completed individually

- Brainstormed together


QUESTIONS:

1. How do your products represent social groups or issues?

2. How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of branding?

3. How do your products engage with the audience

4. How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions


DUE THIS FRIDAY

- brainstormed bullet points for question 1,3 and 4 in a post labelled , "CCR Draft Notes" 

There should be at a substantial amount of work put into this, even though it is just bullet points. You will eventually add to this when you go into your sub-tasks of the digipak and the website. Especially for Q2. 



Sunday, March 21, 2021

Week 8 - Homework - Audience Demograhics

HI class,


We are going to change tact here!


You are going to P-A-U-S-E  on your current homework and do this, at home, for  NEXT Friday, 3rd APRIL !


It is going to be crucial that you do some research into target audiences to understand WHO your target audience is.  

Week 8 homework 

1. Flick through this Social media demographics Slideshare and make notes on the following:

https://www.slideshare.net/cigdemkalem/music-video-target-audience-13680589

 

- What are demographics? 

- What are psychographics (quote/ reference 'Young and Rubican')

- What are the TYPES of psychographic groupings?

- What is your initial indication of who your target audience may be based on demographic and psychographic?

- Work through STEP 1, STEP 2 and STEP 3

(This will involve gathering audience responses to the questions laid out by your group).


- Examples of past students audience research: 




- Information on psyceographics, broken down and explained


 Here is a more detailed list of the types of lifestyles that are represented in Psychographics groupings)

(https://marcabraham.com/2015/09/13/what-is-psychographic-segmentation/


Here is a good resource that breaks down each of the different groups

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zy24p39/revision/3


https://issuu.com/youngandrubicam/docs/4cs

 

Week 9 - Audience Research Focus Group


- have a version of your ROUGH edit ready for peer review

- create a list of questions that you will run through with the group

- create an appointment (book the room and invite participants) to your rough edit viewing

- set-up cameras to capture responses from participants on the questions

- write up your response to their responses and how this will impact your creative decisions moving forward. What will you change? What will you challenge and leave the same? Have the responses given you any other ideas for different ways of doing things? 


- Here are some examples of other students audience research

https://felicitymarie.wixsite.com/a2-media-studies/audience-feedback

https://jademediabloga2.wordpress.com/questionnaire/

https://jademediabloga2.wordpress.com/interviews/

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/T6P5CMD

https://youtu.be/rnl0p_i-fj0

Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Homework Week 7 - Youtube as a platform for Music Videos

Click here to read the article on Youtube as a platform for Music Video consumption.

Click here  to read the second article on Youtube

Click here to read an article about how MTV had to change it's strategy to reach audiences 


AUDIENCES RESEARCH

- Create a presentation that highlights some key facts and figures on Youtube as a platform, it's audience reach and how this impacts the music video industry.

- How will this influence your distribution plan as a content creator? 

- How has MTV changed it's approach? 

- What has it done to try and stay relevant? Is MTV a viable option anymore for releasing music videos to your audience? 

Sunday, March 14, 2021

Week 6 Monday Classwork - Music Video Ratings

 Hi guys,


Today I'd like you to read through these articles and do the following;

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32050068

 

https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/esafety-news/age-ratings-for-online-music-videos-welcomed-by-parents/

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-33969075

 

- Create a blog post labelled 'Research' with the title 'Music Video Age Rating'

- Use the articles as a base for your research and comment on what happened in 2015 that changed the way music videos were presented to audiences

- What are some statistics listed in the articles that outline a need for this change in 2015?

- Who is responsible for spear-heading this change to the exhibition of this industry to it's audiences? 

- Write notes on any other examples you found interesting and relevant in researching this topic

Thursday, March 11, 2021

Week 6 Homework Theory

You guys,


This week you are going to read through this and create a blog-tool that sums up some audience theory, also applying this to your project. Your slideshare should answer the questions;


1. What is the 'gist' of the theory (state the theorist, too)

2. Give an example of how this theory is visable in a media text you've seen

2. How is it applicable to your project? 


Please note - you will have to research other sources. This is just a base document to use for what the theories are. 

Passive audience theories - sum up in 1 slideshare and comment why you think these are relevant or not (these are quite outdated now and not deemed as relevant. Say so) 

Active Audience theories - give them each their own slide (or 2) and explain WHAT they are

 UNDERSTANDING MEDIA AUDIENCES


Researchers investigating the effect of media on audiences have considered the audience in two distinct ways.

Passive Audiences

The earliest idea was that a mass audience is passive and inactive. The members of the audience are seen as couch potatoes just sitting there consuming media texts – particularly commercial television programmes. It was thought that this did not require the active use of the brain. The audience accepts and believes all messages in any media text that they receive. This is the passive audience model.

The Hypodermic Model

In this model the media is seen as powerful and able to inject ideas into an audience who are seen as weak and passive.

It was thought that a mass audience could be influenced by the same message. This appeared to be the case in Nazi Germany in the 1930s leading up to WWII. Powerful German films such as Triumph of the Will seemed to use propaganda methods to ‘inject’ ideas promoting the Nazi cause into the German audience. That is why this theory is known as the Hypodermic model.

It suggests that a media text can ‘inject’ ideas, values and attitudes into a passive audience who might then act upon them. This theory also suggests that a media text has only one message which the audience must pick up.

In 1957 an American theorist called Vance Packard working in advertising wrote an influential book called The Hidden Persuaders. This book suggested that advertisers were able to manipulate audiences, and persuade them to buy things they may not want to buy. This suggested advertisers had power over audiences. In fact this has since proved to be an unreliable model, as modern audiences are too sophisticated.

Basically this theory stems from a fear of the mass media, and gives the media much more power than it can ever have in a democracy. Also it ignores the obvious fact that not everyone in an audience behaves in the same way. How can an audience be passive – think of all the times you have disagreed with something on television or just not laughed at a new so called comedy, or thought a programme was awful.



Cultivation Theory


This theory also treats the audience as passive. It suggests that repeated exposure to the same message – such as an advertisement – will have an effect on the audience’s attitudes and values. A similar idea is known as densensitisation which suggests that long term exposure to violent media makes the audience less likely to be shocked by violence. Being less shocked by violence the audience may then be more likely to behave violently.

The criticism of this theory is that screen violence is not the same as real violence. Many people have been exposed to screen murder and violence, but there is no evidence at all that this has lead audiences to be less shocked by real killings and violence. Also this theory treats the audience as passive which is an outdated concept.

Two Step Flow Theory

Katz and Lazarsfeld assumes a slightly more active audience. It suggests messages from the media move in two distinct ways. First, individuals who are opinion leaders, receive messages from the media and pass on their own interpretations in addition to the actual media content.

The information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience, but is filtered through the opinion leaders who then pass it on to a more passive audience. The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct process, but by a two step flow.

This theory appeared to reduce the power of the media, and some researchers concluded that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpret texts. This led to the idea of active audiences.

Active Audiences

This newer model sees the audience not as couch potatoes, but as individuals who are active and interact with the communication process and use media texts for their own purposes. We behave differently because we are different people from different backgrounds with many different attitudes, values, experiences and ideas.

This is the active audience model, and is now generally considered to be a better and more realistic way to talk about audiences.

Uses and Gratifications Model

This model stems from the idea that audiences are a complex mixture of individuals who select media texts that best suits their needs – this goes back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

The users and gratifications model suggests that media audiences are active and make active decisions about what they consume in relation to their social and cultural setting and their needs.

This was summed up by theorists Blumier and Katz in 1974;
‘Media usage can be explained in that it provides gratifications (meaning it satisfies needs) related to the satisfaction of social and psychological needs’.

Put simply this means that audiences choose to watch programmes that make them feel good (gratifications) e.g. soaps and sitcoms, or that give them information that they can use (uses) e.g. news or information about new products or the world about them.

Blumier and Katz (1975) went into greater detail and identified four main uses:

Surveillance – our need to know what is going on in the world. This relates to Maslow’s need for security. By keeping up to date with news about local and international events we feel we have the knowledge to avoid or deal with dangers.

Personal relationships – our need for to interact with other people. This is provided by forming virtual relationships with characters in soaps, films and all kinds of drama, and other programmes and other media texts.

Personal identity – our need to define our identity and sense of self. Part of our sense of self is informed by making judgments about all sorts of people and things. This is also true of judgments we make about TV and film characters, and celebrities. Our choice of music, the shows we watch, the stars we like can be an expression of our identities. One aspect of this type of gratification is known as value reinforcement. This is where we choose television programmes or newspapers that have similar beliefs to those we hold.

Diversion – the need for escape, entertainment and relaxation. All types of television programmes can be ‘used’ to wind down and offer diversion, as well as satisfying some of the other needs at the same time.

Reception Analysis

Reception analysis is an active audience theory that looks at how audiences interact with a media text taking into account their ‘situated culture’ – this is their daily life. The theory suggests that social and daily experiences can affect the way an audience reads a media text and reacts to it.

This theory about how audiences read a text was put forward by Professor Stuart Hall in ‘The television discourse – encoding/decoding’ in 1974 with later research by David Morley in 1980 and Charlotte Brunsden.

He suggests that an audience has a significant role in the process of reading a text, and this can be discussed in three different ways:

1 The dominant or preferred reading. The audience shares the code of the text and fully accepts and understands its preferred meaning as intended by the producers (This can be seen as a hegemonic reading).

2 The negotiated reading. The audience partly shares the code of the text and broadly accepts the preferred meaning, but will change the meaning in some way according to their own experiences, culture and values EG These audience members might argue that some representations – ethnic minorities perhaps – appear to them to be inaccurate.

3 The oppositional reading. The audience understands the preferred meaning but does not share the text’s code and rejects this intended meaning and constructs an alternative meaning. EG This could be a radical reading by a Marxist or feminist who rejects the values and ideology of the preferred reading.

Sunday, March 7, 2021

Week 6 - Monday House-keeping, prepping to film and lip-syncing practise

Hi guys,


Some house-keeping for today.


1. ALL of you need brainstorm and mood board as part of your planning, up on your blog.

2. ALL of you need to publish REPRESENTATION homework on your blog ASAP. If not completed, please plan to stay in at break & study periods until this is done.

3. ALL audience surveys for your pitch - results collated on your blog in a blog tool format (graphs / interesting and clear way of presenting results). What will you change? What are you happy with? What were the questions you asked? ASAP on blogs

3. Organise your talent for filming NEXT WEEK.

4. Create a shooting schedule / call sheet for filming days 

- get relevant permission for locations

- get relevant premission from parents / teachers if missing school / leaving site

- record all practical planning

- create a 'check-list' for props / costumes that you need to source and start bringing them in.


5. Organise practise shots THIS WEEK, before next week's final shoot (do this at the same time as filming this week's homework).

- choose a few shots from your storyboard and practise getting them 

- all upload to blog with comments on how you think it works / what you like / what you'll change


HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT - Lip Syncing practise - Due on FRIDAY 


Heading - Lip Sync editing practise 

1. In this assignment, you will choose the first 30 seconds of an appropriate song. (Best to be your actual music video song). Work together to shoot someone singing to this song in as close to the music video style as possible. Each create your own edit of the footage, practising your lip-syncing techniques. 

2. Include in this post, your Youtube tutorials and any other research you did in learning how to do this effectively. 

3. Comment on how successful you felt your first attempt was.

4. Include the original music video embedded into your post. 


(some examples of Youtube tutorials you can look at;

https://helpx.adobe.com/nz/premiere-pro/how-to/edit-music-video.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUYLukTCXY4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN5ROg2ljtM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BudR3R4MCmk


Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Thursday 4th March Classwork

 Hi class,


Today you guys are going to focus on BRANDING.


This is going to come in useful with your whole project, including the digipak and social media page.


I want you to Create a new blog post called 'Artist  and branding research'


A. 

Read this article and make notes on 7 MUSICIANS WHO NAILED THEIR BRANDING CAMPAIGNS

Read this Forbes article and make notes on BRANDING POWER of music artists and how this is relevant to your project. 


 - Look up digipaks for previous CD's from your artist. Embed them into your post

-  Find other forms of branding (whether it's advertising for shows / articles in magazines or newspapers / instagram pages / facebook - get screen grabs of all of these!)

-  What are your observations for how the artist brands themselves? (go in depth here! Not just surface observations. Fonts / colour / is the artist always dominant in images? Are they always in front of a crowd? Are they always power-dressed and in power positions / stances in the photos? Do they try and appeal to a certain group of people with anything they do?)

- How are they represented to their audience?

- What would their target audience be?

- How are you taking this into consideration based on your own representation of this artist's branding in your project?



T3 | Wk 9 | Friday - Video Game Censorship

    Task 1 Research what the  MEDIA EFFECTS THEORY  is.  - Create a powerpoint that explains the main points using these links and including...