Audiences;

Understanding audience theory;

Audience behaviour / patterns of consumption

Active - the audiences reacts and engages with the film positively and actively.

Passive- the audience is watching but they are not fully engaging with the film, for example a women is watching a film but glancing as a magazine at the same time.

Traditional- a person that will go to the cinema to watch films which are usually the same genre or that have the same actors/actresses starring in them.

Hedonist-

Post-modernist- someone who loves the arts and will view films in various modern ways, not only at the cinema. e.g; streaming, on t.v, online etc..

Main lesson focus:

defining audience – starting with Pete Buckingham article/ new audience groupings

Activities

1. Analyse the following terms and discuss until there is genuine understanding

Industry and institution ways of identifying

a. Preferred- a preferred way of hearing about and viewing a film.

b. Oppositional

c. Negotiated

d. Two-step flow- being told from another person who has already seen the film if it is good or not, if good this usually will persuade you to see it.

e. Distribution processes & exhibition

HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORY

direct influence via mass media

Or: Magic Bullet Theory

History and Orientation

The "hypodermic needle theory" implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behavior change.

Several factors contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication, including:

- the fast rise and popularization of radio and television

- the emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda

- the Payne Fund studies of the 1930s, which focused on the impact of motion pictures on children, and

- Hitler's monopolization of the mass media during WWII to unify the German public behind the Nazi party.

 

I think that people will look at examples of this theory in different ways depending on which genre of films they enjoy, such as for me i would used Harry Potter as an example to remember what effect the theory has on audience even though it was not in the time of the theory. This is because the film has a mass audience which react directly and with power to the film straight away, in which you would with an injection so to me it is a good rememberable example. 

The genre of my short film is thriller/horror, this could slightly fit in to the theory in that the audience will react straight away to the murder within it.

Through researching i feel i understand the focus of the lesson on;


Media Languages, Forms & Conventions
I feel that i understand the forms and conventions and i know what to put in to my short film so it fits the conventions of the genre which i have chosen, i need to use these so it is effective to the audience like other films in the genre.

• Media Institutions Introduction

I feel i know how the institutions use these theories to help make their films successful as well as using the different audience groupings to market the film so it attracts the correct audience which i will also do for my short film.

•  Media audiences

I have broadened my knowledge on media audiences through researching and looking in to Pete Buckingham's article. This has made me realise how much institutions look into many different aspects to research which audience is suitable for their film/media product. 

• Media representations

I have seen how media is represented differently by insitutions and producers.