We now need to put in some practice time on applying our newly acquired knowledge of audience and the effects debate to see if we have understood what we have explored. Remember the examination is all about KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING. Understanding is the application of knowledge. The first step is to analyse this image in terms of what we already know - mise-en-scene and representations. Click on the link belwo to go to the worksheet page of the blog and complete the tasks.
After desensitisation and the addictive/exploitation issues of lesson 58 we now need to push deeper into the media theories that might offer us some understanding of the debates around these issues.
The whole issue is founded to some extent on the idea that there are two cultures operating in our society - popular [or low] culture and high culture.
Task: What parts of our society's activities might be deemed to be popular culture [EG rap music; rock music]? What aspects might be deemed to be high culture [EG opera]?
This idea underpins how some intellectuals have perceived the subject of their studies [popular cultures mass audience] and their vulnerability to such messages/influence.
Paul Lazarsfeld worked on analysing the impact of party political broadcasts on voters in the American elections during the 1940s and discovered some facts about what/who influenced voting choices. We see how this idea - the 2-Step flow - has influenced the nature of the adverts that we watch and the way that companies use media to market their products. This leads us into the whole issue of how we watch media products which has given rise to the work of Blumler and Katz based on the earlier ideas of Maslow. This is what we term Uses and Gratification theory.
This lesson we need to get a little deeper inside the ideas and start to consider some ideas about the impact of media products on audiences. we begin with a little theory and then progress to the Panorama clip below.
The first issue is to review what we understand [or at least what we have discussed in the previous lessons]:
The issue of ‘dumbing down’ is an issue of saturation, not just the quality of the media we consume but the quantity and frequency of such consumption.
Chips are not necessarily bad for us.But a constant diet of chips would be.We would put on weight, our body would lack all of the things it needs to function properly.[EG Morgan Spurlock : Supersize Me]
It’s the same for a diet of X-Factor, the Sun, OK Magazine, TOWIE, Soaps
This leads us naturally [almost as if it was planned] to the very polarising concept of desensitisation - that our contact with media products [particularly those containing violence and sexualised images] if repeated with sufficient frequency saturates our very psyche and can lead to such matters at the very least not effecting us as much as they might once have done and, at the extreme, creating a more violent and hardened society.
We will have a look in the lesson at some facts [knowledge] about the current circulation of media products [in this case computer games]. This will give us some sense of the scope of media products reach into our culture.
We now need to have a look at the Panorama programme which recently explored the impact of gaming on its audience.
This lesson was all about Culmination theory - the effect of gradual small doses of a product on audiences built up over years of exposure - the slow erosion theory. We explored some of the wider issues.
This lesson we began looking at the ideas around audience theory and came up with ideas around the effects debate, specifically the extent to which media products impact on audience patterns of thinking, ways of seeing the world and behaviours. We began by looking at the idea of whether or not we believe media consumption [what we watch; play; hear; see] effects us. Can we assess whether or not we would be the same person if we had not consumed that product or those types of products? We came to the view that we might differentiate between knowledge gained [what we know] and the wider impact on our view of the world [what we understand from that knowledge or the manner in which that knowledge was represented to us]. The first port of call was HYPODERMIC THEORY, the idea that media products act on us in a very direct manner. We explored the origins of this theory of media influence and how it has been interpreted over the past 70 years, often being cited as the reason for violent behaviours in society [Columbine; Jamie Boulger etc]. We discussed why it seems such a weak theory when compared to our own experiences of the media but agreed that there were those in society [the 'vulnerable'] who might be exploited by media violence or representations.
OBJECTIVE [1]: To practise applying evidence to supporting ideas about media products OBJECTIVE [2]: To consider how media ideas/theory can be incorporated in media responses OBJECTIVE [3]: To explore the 2-Step Flow theory in practice in product promotion We return to explore some of the issues that the mock examination ought to have provoked you to be concerned about, foremost amongst these are the ideas surrounding audience: specifically their needs and the way that media products seek to make profit from gratifying these.
Let's start by looking at the campaign for the film SEARCHING FOR SUGARMAN. The product is an extraordinary film that is - despite it's documentary form - a mystery. The audience for such a product has to be carefully and clearly constructed by the campaign so let's have a look at how they did this.
The poster campaign took this forward with a powerful image of 'Sugarman'
TASK: Who do you see the audience being for this product?
How does the campaign go about constructing this [you must provide details from the poster/trailer to support your ideas]?
Paul Lazarsfeld
The poster uses a common technique - the use of superlatives, comments and awards or awards nominations as a reference point for quality - something we might refer to as the 2 Step Flow model put forward by the theorist Lazarsfeld. Notice how both products reference a previous product - MAN ON WIRE. We ought to have some idea as to how the marketing of this could be used to construct the audience for Sugarman.
TASK:
In what ways does the campaign to promote SEARCHING FOR SUGARMAN use inter-textuality [borrowed meaning] to construct an audience for itself. Explain why might this be an effective technique especially for a low-budget film production?
This lesson we look at ideas for effective coursework. What makes a good film piece? How can we improve print products? How do web sites reflect ideas about products?
This lesson we are going to explore an issue from the examination - synergy and its related ideas of convergence and tie-ins.
The idea of synergy is simply the idea that when related media products are launched simultaneously they benefit from each other's promotional activity. When Sony Entertainment launched Skyfall it tied the release in with the release of the soundtrack of the film on Sony records and the launch of a computer game on the PS3 PlayStation. This meant that the marketing adverts and posters for each product all reminded consumers of the existence of the other products. Someone buying the CD would be reminded of the film and film goers might be persuaded to buy the soundtrack that was available.
This relationship is often expressed as 2+2=5, the whole being greater than the sum of the individual parts.
More than this, Sony used the film to promote a range of related non-media products - Sony phones, Sony Vaio laptops, Sony TVs - all of which featured in the film. In shops and in adverts, the products all boasted of their tie-in with the film and used images from the film marketing in their own sales promotion.
the clips below show how Sony as a conglomerate can use this power and ownership to cross promote their films and their other products.
Sony also sold product placement rights to other manufacturers such as Coca-Cola, Heineken, Omega watches, Tom Ford clothing, Land Rover and Volkswagen to generate over £45,000,000 in advertising revenue from these businesses having their brands feature prominently in the film. Such deals [tie-ins] are now commonplace in major films, providing additional revenue and props for the film and providing the manufacturers with a global platform that shows their products in use.
Bond films are cultural icons, the news of Adele singing the title track was big news before the songs release. The release of the song was always accompanied by radio stations telling audiences that it was the title song of the new Bond film and the song made this a key par of its advertising by using images from the Sony film and so served to advertise the upcoming film as much as the song.
If we consider a low budget British film released at the same time such as Ill Manors we see a very different production. As a independent film their were no opportunities for synergy other than the release of the Plan B album and very few tie-ins with other manufacturers to help with the finance or promotion of the film.
Such a scenario demonstrates the differing possibilities of small films reaching the bigger markets for their work or audiences being able to find out about them.
For your own case study you might explore how your topic exploits synergy in its marketing or how this is closed to them.
The idea of 'imaginative' marketing is something we need to consider. This is the point where we can explore what we might term conventional marketing and unconventional marketing. Two of the better known examples are the campaigns for the films Cloverfield and the Christopher Nolan trilogy for Batman. Watch the videos. Consider how the two films used the media - esp SMs; Web;Facebook - to reach their audience. What do you think was the reason for their success, not only in the way they involved so many people in the campaigns but their subsequent box-office gross and record-breaking openings?
In creating your own case-study find examples of imaginative use of promotional devices. If you can't find anything as extreme as the two examples above consider why they do not use such techniques, why they stick to the conventional devices and use of platforms. Answers that state that your chosen media products are not imaginative in their promotion but then go on to consider why this is so can earn high marks.
