Genre

Genre effectively means kind,sort and class. Genres have certain characteristics, for example if you saw a thriller then you are bound to see certain things that you would usually identify with a thriller.

Audiences and Genres
The audience may choose to watch a film because of the genre of the fim and because they know and understand the charcteristics of this genre they then might find it enjoyable to predict what is going to happen next.

For example the film scream lays out the rules of the genre- what is going to happen and then shows it happening. This is postmodern.

An audience recognizes the key elements and conventions of a genre and respond accordingly, hese key elements are called paradigms.

For example in my thriller my key conventions may be: Crime, Chasing- Fast Pace, Mystery, Slow Motion, Blurring of the images.

Or my music video key conventions may be: Lip Synching, Slow Editing, Seeing the back of our main character- walking away.

Two types of paradigms have been identified:

Iconographic: signs and symbols (costume, props, settings in a genre)
Structural: the way a text is put together and the shape it takes, how the structures in the text deal with issues such as ideology and gender (how is gender represented)

Target Audience
Genres appeal to certain target audiences. For example our thriller was targeting a young audience mainly teenagers between the ages of 16-25 who are male. Whereas our music video was targeted at a young audience similarly ages 16-25 who are female.

Christian Metz
it is said that genres tend to become 'tired' over time with audiences becoming less interested. He identified four phases:

1. The initial Phase (first created)

2. The classical phase (being bettered, in its element, at its best)

3. The declining phase (starting to go downhill, not as well made, less important characters)

4. The parody phase (making a joke out of the genre, ending the genre)

Example

1. Airport
2. The towering Inferno
3. Airport '80: The Concorde
4. Airplane!

Example in music videos

1. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
2. Thriller - Michael Jackson
3. Scream - Michael jackson
4. Friday - Rebecca Black / Gangnam Style (postmodern and ironic)

Institutions and Genre
Producers of generic narratives depend on a certain amount of immediate communication with the audience. They want the narrative to be easily comprehensible. Genres that use key conponents that are easily recognizable are particularly important.

The audience know what to expect from a genre but at the same time they want something new and some variations to prevent dissatisfaction and boredom. Thus any text in a genre is a combination of the familiar and the unexpected.

Key components of Genre
-Stock characters (a villain having a small army of people and a hero having an assistant)
-stock plots, situations, issues and themes (Mcguffin)
-Stock locations and Backdrops
-Stock props and signifiers
-Music and Sounds
-Generic conventions

Feminist Film Theory and Audiences

Laura Mulvey is a feminist.
She argues that the theory develops logical arguments:
1. Cinema reflects society
2. Therefore cinema reflects a patriarchal society
3. How does a patriarchal society manifest into cinema?

The Gaze
The gaze of the camera, so what the audience see through the camera is from a male prospective. Within the narrative male characters direct their gaze towards female characters. This suggests that the male gaze is active and the female is passive

Therefore the audeince is made to identify with the male gaze and see the film through that perspective. The camera films from a optical as well as libidinal point of view. Thus three levels of the cinematic gaze- camera, character and spectator- that objectify the female character (the triple gaze)

The audience see through the eyes of the camera... the camera sees through the eyes of the male character... the male character is objectifying a woman. Eg. James Bond Dr No.






Another example is Megan Fox in transformers. She is seen as a sex object and one of the main attractions in the film, she serves no purpose but for boys/men to fancy her and try to persue her.

 Look at the way the male is viewing her, instead of looking at her face he is looking at her sexual body parts. Therefore objectifying her.

Also look at the angle in which the camea views her, the mise-en-scene also shows a male gaze.

Therefore he audience is constructed in a may compelled to the male gaze. Women are forced to look at the text as though they were a male member of the audience as you can see above. This occurs through the process of Suture.

Agency
Agency means the power to change the narrative, the power to move the plot onwards. In the classical hollywood film, the male is the agency, he is active and powerful. He is the one whom all the dramatic action unfolds around and the female character is just there, being passive and powerless. She is an object of desire for the male and for the audience.

Mulvey argues that women have two roles in film:

1. They are an object of erotic desire for the characters.
2. There are an object of erotic desire for the audience.

Our Video
Bailey Morgan- Let Go does not conform to these feminist ideas. In actual fact our character is homosexual so our aim was the opposite to wanting men to look at her like an object. Also our aim was that the camera was through a woman's prospective and not a mens. Therefore demonstrating this idea of the 'male gaze' being challenged.

Sututre

Classical Hollywood narrative, editing, sound and mise-en-scene make their films so well that they make only one preffered meaning and they structure their narrative so that the audience fall into only believing this preffered meaning. The audience may be unconsious of this and think they are interpreting it in their own way but really they are being told and made to interpret itthe way the producer has encoded it.

Our imaginations allow us to get sucked into the fillms and relate it to our own experiences and lives outside of the cinema. According to there heorists the audience Stitches itself into a film. This is made easier when the filmmakers make the techniwues, codes and conventions of a film invisible. So you dont notice the editing or the camera angls and what affect they are having on you.

An example of this is in the film Crash.

Even though the narrative and structure of the film has basically told the audience what is going to happen, so they know what is going to happen next they still cannot control how they are feeling when it happens, or how you react when you see it happening on screen. This is because you are stitched into the film. You are relating to it as if it was real. The music and the build up by the filmmaker has been done so well that you are sucked in.



David Morley

David Morley claims that we dont just focus on one media text at a time, we watch tv whilst listening to music or we listen to music whilst reading a magazine or more in more modern cases are on our telephone. However media is still a part of our lives, a big importnant part. Its the politics of the living room.

Reception Theory

Reception theory is a study of how producers when producing films etc encode texts and how the audience decode the texts. It is based on the idea that there is no single meaning for any media text and focuses on what people see and then the meanings they produce from what they see.

Preffered meaning is what producers want you to understand and get, this is the message they are giving out. However anybody can have different interpretations depending on age, gender, social status and social context.

Sometimes the audience may correctly decode the message, however they may also reject the message or fail to understand the message.

Stuart Hall identified three types of audience readings of the text.

1. Dominant / Preferred
2. Negotiated
3. Oppositional






1. Dominant/Preferred
- This is when the audience decodes the message just like the producer wants them to and agrees with it. For example listening to a speech and agreeing with it.

2. Negotiated
- This is when the audience either accepts, rejects or refines elements of the text. For example neither agreeing or disagreeing with the speech.

3. Oppositional 
- This is when the dominant meaning is recognized but rejected for cultural, political or ideological reasons. For example total rejection of the speech and active opposition; feminists reading a lads magazine.


Our Video
Based on our audience feedback we have a dominant/preferred reading. Our audience understood the message clearly and knew what the song was about and the message that the video was trying to get across.

The Uses and Gratifications Model

This is a model which is the opposite of the effects model. It explores the reasons why people consume media and what they hope to gain from the experience. The theory suggests the audience is active which means they choose to watch the media and they are in control, they are not being forced to do anything, they are making the choice for there own pleasure.

The audience are not duped, they can reject, use, play or agree with the media meanings and are free to form their own interpretations.

Why audiences may use media texts:

1. Diversion; watching something which takes your mind of other things, purely watching it because you just want to. 
2. Escapism; playing games which take you into fantasy. For example sims or call of duty. 
3. Information; consuming media which gives you information such as documentaries. 
4. Pleasure; consuming media for enjoyment such as sports channels purely for enjoyment, for fun.
5. Comparing relationships and lifestyles with one's own; watching reality tv and consuming media about different peoples lifestyles wanting to relate and constantly comparing. 
6. Sexual Stimulation; watching/ consuming media that may arouse you eg; pornography. 

This may help with issues such as: 

1. Learning; learning how to play games or learning from documentaries or even from others in many different ways.
2. Emotional Satisfaction; watching something or consuming media that makes you feel emotional stable. 
3. Relaxation; Consuming media that makes you feel less stressed for example watching a film.
4. Help with issues of personal identity; consuming media which lets you decide what suits you and who you are.
5. Help with issues of social identity; where you fit in society by the music you listen to for example.
6. Help with issues of aggression and violence; instead of taking anger out on people they may take their anger out on computer games. Suggests that audiences act out their violent impulses through the consumption of media violence, the inclination towards violence is therefore sublimated and the risk of violent acts being committed is lower. 

Audience Theory

Theories of audience that help us to come to a better understanding about the relationship between texts and audience:

1. The Effects Model or the Hypodermic Model
2. The uses and gratifications model
3. Cultivation Theory
4. Two step Flow Theory
5. Reception Theory
6. Suture
7. Feminist Audience Theory - Laura Mulvey

The Effects Model: This is a theory which suggests the public are influenced directly by the media, it suggests that the consumption of media texts has an effect and an influence on them. It suggests that audiences are passive and powerless and they cannot prevent the influence. The power lies with the message of the text. 

The Effects Model: The Hyprodermic Model

This suggests that the media inject the audience, it is like a syringe and the message directly affects them. Therefore the media works like a drug and the audience gets addicted, unstable and believe this. 

Supporting Evidence: The Bobo Doll experiment

The Bobo Doll experiment suggests that children are influenced by films, mainly horrors. It was conducted by Albert Bandura. The idea was that he got a group of young children to watch a video of an adult assulting a Bobo Doll and then they was put in a room full of toys with a Bobo doll to see what they do, they often assaulted the Bobo doll in the same way they saw the adult assult it in the video. According the Albert and many others this was evidence that children copy behavior which they see, such as in horror films, childs play, the actions will be copied and it is therefore dangerous for them to watch it.

88% of the children imitated the violent behavior that they had earlier viewed. 8 months later 40% of the children reproduced the same violent behavior. This suggests that media affects what people do, especially young children and proves that it directly (straight after) affected them.

However the theory is critiqued as it doesn't take into consideration different personalities, age, gender, sexuality, race of the children, the upbringing and range of experiences of the children such as the way they are treated at home, are they neglected or abused at home? It has also said to be bias as they pretty much led the children into doing what they wanted them to do. A gun left in a room would lead a child to play shooting games, a hammer in a room would lead a child to smash things up and a doll which the child has been shown to use as some sort of punching bag would obviously use as a punching bag.

Also examples that the media give out false information is the James Bulger Case where two ten year olds tortured a three year old until his unfortunate death. Media gave out a message that it all happened because the children were influenced by childs play. In actual fact the children had no recollection of ever watching childs play and the reason for there actions was mainly due to there socialisation of being neglected and abused at home.

No case could be proven to demonstrate a link between the text an the violent acts.

Moral Panic: an intense feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order/ a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests. A moral panic can be influenced or created by the media.

Cultivation Theory: A more refined version of the hypodermic needle model, suggests that repeated exposure to a text will desensitise the audience. eg; films such as The Exorcist and The Hills have Eyes were once banned and then re-released were asked questions such as what is all the fuss? 

Two Step Flow Theory: rather than the direct influence suggested by the effects model there are two steps. People are not influenced by what they see but by the opinions of dominant figures (opinion leaders) and what they say about it. A common example of an opinion leader is a president or a celebrity. 

Twitter, a social networking site where people share their opinions is a way for celebrities and opinion leaders to affect other people that are not as involved in the media's opinions on certain subjects. Advertisement targets celebrities as they realised word of mouth means their products get more well known and sell more. 

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