Audience Research

There are 6 different audience theories which help analyze the effect of media on audiences which will help me chose my target audience:

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. 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.

Cultivation Theory:
This theory suggests that repeated exposure to the same message – such as an advertisement – will have an effect on the audience’s attitudes and values. 
Many say 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 Also this theory treats the audience as passive which is an outdated concept.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:
This theory suggests that 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 receive the information directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders.
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. 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.
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.

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.

Target Audience:

My target audience will be males and females between 13 and 25 as this is the age group who purchase and consume music more than anybody, also they are the age group which is most likely to enjoy the music. Hopefully my music video will be full of fashionable, indie youths which is seen to be quite a main attraction for audiences to enjoy to watch and react too. 

As Arctic Monkey's main genre of target audience is indie rock, this has helped the Monkeys to establish their own individual style which enable an attraction to the genre of their music. White British youths would primary be there target audience who are from a middle working class social backgrounds. Indie rock as a genre has quite a large age range for target audience varying with each band. There stereotypical style of clothing would be smart casual wearing canvas shoes (converse), polo shirts or even chequered shirts with skinny or smart trousers.

From research I have found that the Monkeys also have a secondary target audience as they do many songs featuring artists such as Dizzee Rascal which increases the amount of listens as they do very different styles of music which normally doesn't cross paths because of the different fan bases. The main focus of the Arctic Monkeys is them playing instruments as a group also they show a great relationship with one and other which I really like. This is one reason why I chose to do an Arctic Monkeys song, also this is why I am thinking about including 'Paper Shop Dave' in my music video as similar to the Monkeys they have a great bond with one and other and all play instruments. 


Below is a survey I created whilst choosing my target audience:

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1359078/Audience-Research

What I found out?

I found by doing a survey was very helpful as it gave me confidence towards my chosen target audience. I tried to vary my range of people who I asked for instance as I've already said my target audience for my music video is both genders between the ages of '13 to 25'. I realised that when I asked people who was older than 25 they didn't feel too bothered about artist music videos they only seemed to care about what they was listening too, this maybe because older generation don't tend too spend much time on the internet or on iPods which is where from my survey is where the younger generation seem to consume and watch most of there favorable music videos. Also with my music video I want my target audience to want to watch it more than once so this is why I want t to have a meaning to it so other people can relate to it as from my survey I found out that people do tend to watch a lot of music videos as they find that they feel closer to there artists and bands. Adding to this i found that close ups help create atmosphere with there artists which help add to the story which is occasionally is being created within the video.