To produce a good, well-rounded blog you MUST have thorough Target Audience research.
This is important for the following reasons:
- One of the evaluations question is around audience feedback
- Having an strong idea of who your target audience is will help in terms of creative process in the construction of the video: references, intertextuality, style, fashion etc.
- You can gauge whether you meeting audiences expectations or not.
1. Ideal audience type
From research into the genre of your music choice you should have an idea of your perfect audience type will be – in terms of what they wear, what media they consume, festival, radio, technology etc.
Using this create a visual depiction of you ideal target audience. Use Photoshop if you’re comfortable with it or Prezi.
Tag all your genre research posts and hyperlink them to this blog post pointing the moderator to where this information has come from.
FOR EXAMPLE
2. Qualitative research
Play your track to at least 5 different people – ideally they should be into the genre of the music you’ve chosen, but at least intelligent and media literate. Ask them the following questions:
Did you like the track?
What type of person would like this track?
Which age range would you typically associate with this song?
How would you picture the band/lead?
What sort of music video would expect to accompany this track?
If performance, where and what type?
If narrative, what sort?
Either record the answers on your phone camera – or write their responses down.
Upload the responses on the blog and – IMPORTANT – write a summary paragraph explaining 1) what you’ve learned 2) how this has effect your creative process.
3. Theoretical study into audience.
a) Uses and Gratifications
Blumler and Katz argued that audiences are ACTIVE not PASSIVE and approached and use media products for the following reasons
Diversion (a form of escaping from the pressures of every day)
Personal Relationships (where the viewer gains companionship, either with the television characters, or through conversations with others about television)
Personal Identity (where the viewer is able to compare their life with the lives of characters and situations on television, to explore, re-affirm or question their personal identity)
Surveillance (where the media are looked upon for a supply of information about what is happening in the world).
Using this criteria – for what reasons would an audience approach/use your media product.
Guidance
1. Are they going to entertained – relationship of music to visuals, narrative, performance, use of effects
2. Personal relationships – something to discuss with peers, other fans of the music. Performers addressing the audience.
3. Personal identity – identification with the characters in the narrative/performance, are they aspiration in terms of looks/lifestyle/representation.
4. Surveillance – any information valuable to the audience – what the band look like, what they’re about.
b) Focused and Ambient Audiences
David Buckingham explains that some audiences are not as deliberate or active in their consumption
He believes is essential to situate young people’s media use within the context of their other social activities and experiences due to the fact that many young people are using the media as a wallpaper: a wall of noise to fill up ‘down time’ or just to pass the time due to boredom. That many of their interactions with the media are not contrived, commited or concentrated but fleeting, visceral and meaningless.
With this in mind we have can have a focused audience – deliberately choosing a music video to watch and carefully looking at the contents.
OR an ambient audience – that will have videos on in the background and will take in the content with glances. SO HOW ARE YOU ACCOMODATING FOR THESE TWO AUDIENCE TYPES
Guidance
Remember – music videos are at heart PROMOTIONS and are there to market and create a representation for the artist/band, so it is in the artist’s interest to cater their product for both types of audience.
Focused audience can be catered for with: innovation, strong narrative, clever use of effects, detail, use of symbols for meaning. Content that will reward multiple viewings.Ambient audiences: non-linear editing, quick editing, strong performance, multiple costume and location change, simple narrative, superficial effects
