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Film Audiences

Film Audiences. Audience Demographics. Demographics = breakdown of the population into categories such as age, gender, social class, tastes and interests. Ethnographics = breakdown into cultural, religious, ethnic background Different genres attract different audiences.

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Film Audiences

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  1. Film Audiences

  2. Audience Demographics • Demographics = breakdown of the population into categories such as age, gender, social class, tastes and interests. • Ethnographics = breakdown into cultural, religious, ethnic background • Different genres attract different audiences.

  3. The hypodermic/effects model. This theory: • regards the mass media as very powerful • regards the audience as passive • regards the media as having an effect on audiences

  4. The hypodermic/effects model cont. The media seen as injecting meanings and messages into passive audiences. The media is considered to produce effects such as violent ‘copycat’ behaviour, or mindless shopping in response to advertisements.

  5. The hypodermic/effects model history. • Grew out of the Behaviourist school of Psychology (relationship between media and audience seen as one of stimulus- response). • Frankfurt School (Marxist intellectuals) proposed this model. • Developed in the 1930s as the media expanded (film, radio, newspapers). • Coincided with the rise of the Nazis and Facism. Hitler and Mussolini used media for propaganda and it seemed to be successful.

  6. A Marxist Perspective on Audiences • Think about the relationship between Utopian Pleasure (found in the media) and Society by asking • why there is a need for such desires and • why society isn’t able to satisfy these needs in a real, tangible engagement rather than through an imagined sense. • Marxist philosophers (eg Ernst Bloch and Frederic Jameson) suggest that utopian aspects of popular culture are a useful antidote to the manipulation of the individual in society

  7. In other words, popular culture is used by controlling interests in society (govt, military, big business, pressure groups etc) to stop people understanding and operating in the world as they want to, and rather operate as is necessary for govt, military, big business etc (to maintain order & power) This creates what has been called: false consciousness, or as Jameson describes it as the relation between "utopian gratification and ideological manipulation" in mass cultural texts

  8. 11. Active & Passive Audience Theory • Perhaps what makes a really good text is the ability to take an ambivalent and ambiguous (negotiated) reading, which allows the audience to become ACTIVE VIEWERS and not PASSIVE CONSUMERS of the media • The idea of an active audience was developed by Katz, Gurevitch & Haas, who suggested that the audience look for a range of ways to actively engage with a media text, • Personal identity • Relationships • Escapism • This way of thinking about the audience is called the Uses and Gratifications Model. Previously (and currently) it is suggested that audiences do not think they just consume – colours, sound, light but no meaning 8

  9. Uses and Gratifications • Audiences use the media to gratify their needs and wants. • One of the main theories for Uses and Gratifications of the media is Katz, Gurevitch & Haas (1973)

  10. Katz, Gurevitch & Haas (1973) A Personal Needs 1. Understanding self 2. Enjoyment 3. Escapism B Social Needs Knowledge about the world Self confidence, stability, self esteem Strengthen connections with family Strengthen connections with friends

  11. Utopian Possibilities:An audience dreaming the impossible Richard Dyer, UK academic writes about ‘star theory’ – in particular how do we relate to stars Overall, he suggests that ‘stars’ bridge the gap between our own inadequate lives and the life we would really want to live This is called the theory of Utopian Possibilities

  12. The 5 Utopian Possibilities • Dyer suggests that the utopian ideals of energy, abundance, intensity, transparency and community can be found in popular culture in both its representational and its non-representational codes - colour, texture, movement, rhythm, melody, camerawork (p178)

  13. UTOPIANISM • Richard Dyer suggests, • "… the categories of the utopian sensibility are related to specific inadequacies in society." • Scarcity and the unequal distribution of wealth are addressed by the utopian solution of abundance. • Exhaustion—resulting from work and the strains of urban life — is countered in the utopian solution by a kind of boundless energy in which work and play are "synonymous." • Dreariness is countered by intensity – • "the capacity of entertainment to present either complex or unpleasant feelings in a way that makes them seem uncomplicated, direct and vivid, not 'qualified' or 'ambiguous' as day-to-day life makes them, and without those intimations of self-deception and pretence" (182). • Manipulationis replaced bytransparency; • Fragmentationis replaced bycommunity. (Dyer, 180-84)

  14. Screen Theory • The idea that the audience is ‘sewn’ into the text • Colin MacCabe, Stephen Heath and Laura Mulvey • Think about the work of Laura Mulvey which suggests a ‘male gaze’ ie a male subject position, which ‘sews’ or ‘stitches’ the audience into the text • The question is of subject position ie what subject position are you asked to occupy? For example, a male, a christian, an adult etc?

  15. Theory of Preferred Reading • The Theory of Preferred Reading (Stuart Hall et al) suggests that we take up an individual reading of a text, based on our own subject position. In other words,: • If your own subject position agrees with the preferred reading of the text eg females are the stronger sex then we take up Dominant Position / Reading • If your subject position disagrees with the preferred reading eg you are male and the text suggests females are better than males, then you take up an Oppositional Position / Reading • If you are ambivalent towards the text say for example you are male but believe in feminism then you take up a Negotiated Position / Reading 15

  16. Theory of Preferred Reading Oppositional Reading = Disagreeing with the dominant position (therefore further away from the core idea) Negotiated Reading = taking up an ambivalent reading that can see both positive and negative aspects of representation. Dominant Reading = Agreeing with the dominant position. Therefore closer to the core idea. 16

  17. Example of Preferred Reading Oppositional Reading = Disagreeing with the dominant position (but what is the intended meaning?) How do we read Blurred Lines? Negotiated Reading = taking up an ambivalent reading that can see both positive and negative aspects of representation. How would this look if the subject position was female? Representation of gender in Blurred lines as a male viewer Dominant Reading = Agreeing with the dominant position. (but what is the intended meaning?) 17

  18. Blurred Lines: An oppositional Reading • Look at the following music video parodies to see what an oppositional reading of Blurred Lines would look like • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC1XtnLRLPM • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3twwafch4g

  19. Task • Think about all of these theories • Make some general notes about audience theory in your blog as an aide memoire • Write up a post on a music video that clearly shows your understanding of Screen theory and the Theory of Preferred Reading.

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