The Avengers

1. The Avengers (Gangnam Style)

2. RESEARCH QUESTION Suggestions • Analysing why/how different cultural phenomena influence the entertainment industries • How current music influences different cultures • Analysing how Eastern phenomena influence Western societies Question!!! Analysing how current Eastern Musical Phenomena have influenced todays Western music Industries?

3. What is Phenomena? A phenomenon is an impressive or remarkable person, thing or event. • Eastern musicians are the phenomena because it’s exceptional how they have taken the western music industry by storm. • It is more of a phenomenon because you rarely see eastern musicians being successful in the western music industry but recently this genre of music has become a reality with the likes of Psy who has had chart topping success with his current hit ‘Gangnam Style’. • Although there is a language barrier, the music is still enjoyable, popular and influential • Two links show how phenomenal and successful eastern music has been around the world. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/singles http://randrworld.com/chart.php?type=ichart

4. Eastern Musical Phenomena: KPopJPopCPop What genre of music is popular in Eastern society? • Cpop (Chinese Pop) • Jpop (Japanese Pop) • Kpop (Korean Pop) Whilst Psy’sGangnam Style has made kpop more aware to people, other eastern music is still relatively unknown like jpop, cpop, etc. Popular Eastern Phenomena: Gangnam Style

5. Social media platforms. Audiences. Theories. What social media platforms used to give awareness to Western Cultures about these Eastern music cultures: • Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Youtube etc. but they have different social networks in China because they block the likes of Youtube. Popular sites in China are Weibo and Youku. • Buttons, Sharing and Syncing.... Online users can share videos on more than one platform by the click of a button. (synced accounts between social networks) Applying theories in order to understand audiences and media: • Hypodermic Needle/ Effects Model • Reception Theory • Uses and Gratification Model

6. Theories Hypodermic Needle Theory • The "hypodermic needle theory" implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. • The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by ‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response. • Both images used to express this theory (a bullet and a needle) suggest a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver. Reception Theory • Stuart Halls theory is that he disagreed with the hypodermic needle, and basically he says that everyone brings there own message and opinions into the media text. People react to the media  dependent on there own life experiences - If we agree with the writers message, this is called the preferred reading

7. Theories Treatments of identification • Treatments of identification have suggested that identification is a more primary and internal process. For example, Livingstone (1998) described identification as imagining being in someone else’s shoes and seeing the world through his or her eyes. • identification should be seen as determining the audience member’s basic position vis-à-vis the text, a position from which he or she shapes his or her view of the characters and events, and from which his or her emotional and cognitive disposition toward the characters and text develop (Liebes, 1996). • Definition –a sense of identification as an experience—as a state in which one adopts the goals and identity of a character. Finally, a satisfactory definition of identification should attempt to explain the relationship between identification and other ways that audiences relate to characters (e.g., attitudes and emotions) Uses and grafitications theory. what audiences do with the media. • Blumler and Katz’s uses and gratification theory suggests that media users play an active role in choosing and using the media. Users take an active part in the communication process and are goal oriented in their media use. The theorist say that a media user seeks out a media source that best fulfills the needs of the user. Uses and gratifications assume that the user has alternate choices to satisfy their need. • (they turned the lyrics of the songs into jokes, memes, etc. they make their own versions of the music videos they see).

8. Methodology “The philosophical basis of the method chosen” Qualitative VS Quantitative Interviews Questionnaires Focus Groups

9. Research Methods What is a Focus Group? • Small structured groups with selected participants • Set up to explore views and experiences – Through group interviews • Special groups in terms of purpose, size, composition and procedures • Carefully planned discussion Focus groups are useful for: • Discovering new information • Obtaining a number of different perspectives on the topic from the participants • Examining participants – shared understandings • Gaining insights into ways in which individuals are influenced in group situations Limitations of Focus Groups • Bias and manipulation –Danger of leading participants and encouraging them to respond to your own prejudices • False consensus –Participants with strong personalities or similar views may dominate the discussions while others may remain silent and we may miss vital opinions • Difficulty distinguishing between an individual view and a group view • Difficulty with analysis and interpretation of results due to open-ended nature of focus groups and influence of many immediate situational factors

10. Focus Groups. Participants. Location. Selecting Participants Homogeneity • Normally made up of people with certain common characteristics and similar levels of understanding of the topic (rather than aiming for diversity) Outcome –personal views and disclose more to those whom they perceive as similar to them • Demographic Characteristics –Age, Ethnicity, Educational level, Race, Professional status, Occupation, Attitudes –It is better to get people that are from or have good knowledge of the place or topics BUT Separate groups of cultures could be better depending on the sensitivity of questions because homogenous group may result in fewer diverse opinions and experiences • Mixed gendered groups tend to have the problem of male dominance of the discussion, speak more frequently and with more authority –Referred to as the “peacock effect” Location • Comfortable – New Engineering Building (Open planned area) or Hub Cushion area/ tables

11. Focus Groups. Participants. Location. Selecting Participants At this precise moment we have not decided on the actual number of participants we will be using and what categories we are going to have (i.e. gender specific groups/culture specific groups) • Size of group:The recommended number of people per group is usually six to ten (MacIntosh 1993) less than six and people start to become self conscious about speaking and above ten it becomes harder for the researcher to handle the group and also people can ‘hide’ and not contribute.  • Ethical issues:Ethical considerations for focus groups are the same as for most other methods of social research (Homan 1991). For example, when selecting and involving participants, researchers must ensure that full information about the purpose and uses of participants’ contributions is given. Being honest and keeping participants informed about the expectations of the group and topic, and not pressurising participants to speak is good practice.

12. What we aim to achieve… • Successfully gather enough participants from different racial backgrounds to take part in our focus groups. • Gain different opinions from different participants within each focus group • Go in-depth into the true meaning/influence behind the success of phenomena from the East.