Audience (all)

Audience (all)

1. Television

   • Law and order UK
     • established franchise with an established genre, targets its audience be appealing to their prior knowledge of the genre
     • uses established iconography (blue lights) to establish genre and appeal to fans
     • airs post water shed to allow storylines that appeal to the tastes of older fans
     • age- wide audience reach due to different generations of characters
     • gender- much of the drama is about stereotypes between the genders, male main character but female boss
     • culture- people in inner cities reject the preferred reading due to their upbringing and their experience of justice system
     • construction of each of the episodes reinforces the narrative cycle of criminals committing a crime and getting caught/facing justice
     • situation- police/lawyers may take negotiated reading as the representation are unlike their own working life, so might those who have faced injustice themselves
     • Halls Polysemy
       • preferred- crime doesn't pay, audience learn that it is good to be a good citizen and criminals will get punished, cops can be flawed but eventually fulfil their job
       • negotiated- we might take issue with representations of class and ethnicity, we may also work as a police officer/lawyer and object to specific details of their work
       • oppositional- we may dislike the reinforcement of Government=good guys narrative, we might dislike CD cynical structure or object to the representations as a complete entity
     • demographics
       • class- a/b/c1/c2/d, lawyers would be B.. are they watching, police would be C1, does the policies representation invite them to watch the group
       • Age- the main characters are both old and young, this may have been done to attract a wide audience from age ranges
   • Modern Family
     • Established 'mockumentary sitcom', already had established audience
     • characters designed to appeal on the basis on how recognisable they are, they can identify characters with people they may know
     • Airs prime time so although it may deal with adult issues, it is light hearted and cleverly makes covert reference to sex/drugs etc
     • appeal to a broader demographic than conservative US, inclusion of gay central characters that are more complex and are not as stereotypical as previous shows with gay characters have been
     • Uses and gratifications
       • Diversion- funny/happy family sharing memories together
       • personal identity- adopt a catchphrase or mannerism from the characters, use it in their life
       • Personal relationships- we have connections with the characters and we use it to cement relationships with each other
     • Stuart Hall
       • preferred- funny characters/plausible situations and recognisable characters
       • negotiated- nice characters but the humour may be a bit dry, plausible situations
       • oppositional- implausible story lines and sexist characters in starting series
   • Panorama
     • BBC shows are PSB and so do not need to attract vast audiences
     • the oldest most trusted current affairs programme, almost a genre in itself and certaintly the template that all others base themselves on
     • part of the BBC's PSB service, the producers choose a current affairs story than is of importance regardless of its commercial appeal
     • airs after the watershed allowing it to tackle stories that are of an adult nature, violence/sex/crime
     • waterboarding is a massive political issue and is blamed for cementing the radicalisation of IS
     • female reporter, opens this issue as it may be seen as a male story, reinforced by her undergoing sensory deprivation and refusing to undergo waterboarding
     • each show tries to provide balance, waterboarding episode shows the story from both sides and has interviews and presents facts, we are left to make up our own minds
     • Uses and gratifications
       • Diversion- interested in a story that isn't directly relevant to you (phone hacking)
       • Personal identity- we might try and act like the reporters in terms of integrity
       • Personal relationships- we may discuss last nights show with friends
       • Surveillance- main reason for watching panorama, find out facts about affairs in the world
     • Stuart Hall
       • Preferred- integrity of reporters and interesting stories
       • Negotiated- not every story is of interest to every person, may dislike some episodes
       • Oppositional- biased BBC/ boring stories that are not relevant

2. Video games