Audience

For my A2 coursework I  have constructed a music video in the genre of Indie rock. We took inspiration from many artist such as Arcade Fire and Circa waves. The music video follows a narrative of a the lead singer wearing a mask to hide of his identity inter-cutted with Don't Bomb Syria and Climate change protests to symbols corrupt society. In the video it features flashing images of the band members who are haunting the lead singer.

For an audience watching the video, the hypodermic model could be applied. This theory was created by the Frankfurt school (1920s) to explain how the Hitler managed to used the mass media to inoculate the public with his ideas. It says that the message in the media are so powerful and the audience are passive and unduly influenced by the message which creates the image that like a needle(which symbols the mass media) being injected (symbolises the message) into the audience and society. Applying this to our music video would mean that the viewers would be encouraged to participate in riots, protests and anti social behaviour such as graffiti as they have seen this type of behaviour in the video. Their views of society would also be manipulated as in the video symbols are demonstrated when items are being burned by the masked singer due to the companies doing negative actions for people not to respect them such as Starbucks not paying tax.


Cultivation theory from George Gerbner  is similar idea to the hypodermic model although the difference is that the audience are active as they can have the thought or idea and they then see the though or idea expressed in the media which if repeated in multiple media texts that then reinforces the idea and thought they had in the first place. This theory in terms of our music video means that members of the public believe that society has many issues that should be changed. They would then see our band's music video, website and songs on the digi-paks and this would reinforce the idea and messages that our band and the audience would share.
Uses and Gratifications model of audience also has the message that the audience are active and have interests. It inform the theory of what the audience do with the media texts as well as explaining why as members of the audience could reject, use or play with meanings of the message of music videos.  

Another theory that can effect the views of the audience could be the two step flow theory. The theory implies that the video or message would get passed on to an opinion leader which is the 1st step the 2nd step would then be the opinion leader passing the message or video on to others. For our video, the video would be watched by a you tuber or a tv programme such as "russel howard's good news or an influential person such as russel brand. They would pass the video on through different mediums such as social media, blogs or tv programs. 

Stuart hall also has a theory that can be applied to our music video as he states that people who form the audience will interpret the message of the video in different ways.  The message being that society is corrupt at needs to be changed could be the dominant reading which means that they will interpret the message of the video as intended. Although, people in the audience could understand the negotiated reading where they believe and accept the message in a broad way but depending on their position in life they may modify and adapt the message to a certain extent. Yet, some people that view the video could have an oppositional reading meaning that they reject the message due to their social standing.