Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback? By Raheem Gray - A2 Media Studies

1. Question 3: What have
you learned from your
audience feedback?
Raheem Gray – A2 Media Studies

2. Reasons for an Audience
Audiences are a group of individuals who consume types of
media materials such as radio, television, books,
newspapers and magazine on a variety of media compatible
technologies. It’s essential to identify audiences as without
audiences engaging in media there would be no
investments at all. It’s important to attract an audience or
several types to keep your media material alive and known
in the specific industry.
It’s vital to know what your audience take an interest in
and what they expect as it allows the material maker to
adjust accordingly to the audience’s desires. By meeting
the audience’s expectations, they will continue to stay
engaged with your product.

3. Who are my Audience?
This research has heavily encouraged my decision on my
search for the appropriate audience for my music video.
Aware of the reactions of the audience, I know this will
trigger the engagement, expectations and identification
therefore it’s essential to choose the correct audience.
As my music video will be falling in the genre of R&B,
according to the socio economic scale, my audiences will
consists of mainly females aged 18-25from a working class
background which falls under unemployed, semi-skilled,
unskilled and skilled workers. When creating my video, I
will have to ensure that I include features that attract and
top my audience’s expectations.

4. Audience Reaction #1
Audience reaction is links to ways which audiences
consumes and reacts to media materials they’re exposed
to.
Audience Engagement – Engagement describes how the
specific audience relates with the media material. This is
heavily linked to Dick Hebdige’s theory (1979) as it
highlights that individuals in audiences will react in different
ways to the same text, and describes how an audience
interacts with the media. Hebdige states that subcultures
exists in society, therefore suggesting that everyone in
society is different and has different reactions to the same
media. So my audience for my music video will have
different opinions to the same video because everyone
regardless of the same or similar category, are different.

5. Audience Reaction #2
Audience Expectations – The expectations are the ideas
an audience may have about specific media material which
apply to genre media e.g. music.
The idea of audience expectation connects to Andrew
Goodwin’s theory as they suggest that the audience have
expectations regarding the artist and convention that they
would expect to see from different genres.
In addition, Goodwin identified the features that he believes
are evident in the mainstream music videos which include
genre characteristics, star image motifs and intertextuality.
These features are classed as conventional features to
music videos and should be used to meet any audience’s
expectations.

6. How does my music video relate
to Andrew Goodwin’s Theory?
My music video will be based mainly around the theory of
Andrew Goodwin theory in which my video will correlate with
the song lyrics. As my video will be heavily based on a couple’s
first date together, we will be in a few location settings in the
city of London in places they went on dates; this establishes
the relationship between the visuals and the song lyrics.
My music video will consist of a mixture, which is a
combination of performance and narrative. This means my
music video will have a story to it but in some scenes the artist
will be performing to the actual song. As proven in Andrew
Goodwin’s theory, the visuals provide an illustration which
means the visuals have some literal representation of the
song’s lyrics. The visuals can amplify the lyrics meaning
repetition of the key meaning to manipulate an audience. The
visuals may be exaggerated. As my music video will be a
combined mixture of narrative and performance in structure, it
will be classed as a method of enhanced performance in terms
of genre, as it will blend the two styles.

7. Audience Reaction #3
Audience Identification – This is ways the audiences feel
connected and a part of a particular media so in that way they
feel it directly expresses their attitude and/or lifestyle.
This can correlate to Richard Dyer’s ‘Star Theory’ (1979) as it
highlights how audiences relate to artists. Dyer stated that an
artist is constructed to look ordinary in order for the specific
audience to relate to them as well as look special so the
audience can view them as an iconic figure.
I think every music video can be related to Dyer’s star theory.
Artists will tend to persue a specific image which will attract
their targeted audience. Whether or not it is profitable, the
artist will also create an image they’re not usually exposed to
in their private life in order to manipulate their fans/audiences
into thinking that is their everyday life. In my music video
“Bae”, the two artists are creating an image in order to attract
the female they are singing/rapping about. The Star Theory
can adapt to suit any purpose of any media materials.
& Relation to Richard Dyer (1979) Star
Theory

8. Why have feedback?
Its vital to have peer and target audience
feedback when producing a music video.
Your audience’s constructive criticism will
help to make your work more engaging to
them and as long as you and your target
audience are pleased with the improvements,
it’s bound to be a successful project. After
completing my first draft of my music video,
I shared it with a few friends who are within
my target audience and asked them for their
thoughts on the music video as a whole. I
also conducted a review session for my final
music video at a college showcase which also
helped me to understand what stood out for
my target audience the most. Feedback and
criticism that was given to me helped me see
where I could improve in the future and open
my eyes to what my generation (my
audience) were really interested in when it
comes to a music video experience.

9. Teacher’s Review on Draft #1
of Music Video
“I feel your music video responded well to your target audience. However,
more professional look and feel could have been attained by more fore-
planning and more rehearsals to perfect performance. Main areas of
improvements where a professional feel could be attained is at the
beginning and the end. The ending of “Bae” with the two artist sitting
together has a quality fault where the lighting does not correspond well
with the camera lighting which has affected the scene in post production,
this should be revised.” – Roxanne, A2 Media Studies Teacher

10. How I received my audience
feedback
A showcase was conducted within my class where the
audiences were able to watch the screening of my music
video “Bae”.
After the screening, they were able to leave feedback on
both a hard copy and soft copy format (link to survey is
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/99LYV53)
This was a very good idea as I could maximise on feedback
across all areas so I could capture exact parts of the music
video I could improve on in large quantities. The more
feedback I receive, the better I would get to understand my
target audience.

11. Audience’s Feedback on Final
Music Video
As previously mentioned, I conducted my final music video
feedback on a survey website called
www.surveymonkey.com.
Due to my research on my audience, I knew they would
have access to the internet and some of my audience were
even in my classes so I have very much accessible to them
wherever I was. This is another pro for my audience as this
generation are very tech savvy and are now always
encouraged to be interactive on the internet websites.
After I conducted the multiple choice feedback survey, I
gathered the result which will be shown in the next few
slides…

16. Improvements from feedback
#1
“Good choice of song. I understand they're dating the same girl but
the narrative isn't built up properly. Aren't they meant to realise
they're talking to the same girl? Lol...” – Unknown
This comment above was taken from a reply on Q7 which
was very similar to my teacher’s response. The reason for
which the narrative wasn’t made very clear is due to the
removal of the end scene due to the lighting after post-
production editing. This wasn’t able to be fixed.
However, in the final draft I used some extra footage in
able to compensate for the loss of the end scene which
should clear up the confusion in narrative to my audience.

17. Improvements from feedback
#2
In Q6 (right), 18% said the
technical elements such as
sound, camera shots and
editing techniques were not
proficient.
As I am expected to live up to
the audience’s expectations (in
line with Goodwin’s theory) I
added some cinematics into my
final music video that would
impress my audience as
without proficiency, it would
prove difficult to understand
the narrative properly. In terms
of sound, I kept that the same
as I personally felt that the
sound was the best it could
possibly be.

18. Conclusion
Overall, the response to my music video and ancillary
materials was very positive with my target audience. They
were especially pleased with the narrative of the music
video which is something I took deep thinking into.
I took the constructive criticism on board and made the
appropriate adjustments in order for my critics to
acknowledge the changes.
I feel that my audience’s feedback really play an integral
role in the making of my music video because without them
I wouldn’t have a specific narrative or style that would
apply to the visuals so in order to get it right I had to learn
the interests and experiences of my targeted audience even
though I belong to that group my self.