WHAT HAVE YOU

LEARNED FROM YOUR

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
Chloe Walsh
Who Did I Ask?
During the planning of our audience we research we decided that we wanted
to gather a variety of responses from a large range of respondents. We
decided to do this in order to receive a wide range of views on our products.
There were 3 categories that cover the demographics of the people that were
interviewed: White, middle class adults, lower socio economic grade young
teenagers, an older young adult demographic.
Themain responses that we focused on were from the older young adult
demographic as this was our main target audience, however we also briefly
looked into the lower-socio economic grade young teenagers as they covered
a small part of our target audience. We felt that the white, middle class adults
would not contribute to our understanding of the thoughts and feelings of our
specific target audience but that we would gain more technical and symbolic
feedback on our products.
VOXPOP Responses
Q1: What do you feel was the story behind the music video?
The respondent for this video was a male, lower socio-economic teenager and he makes up a small
minority of my target audience and therefore I was interested in the response that he was giving. He
gave his interpretation of the music video, commenting that he felt there was a love story behind the
piece. He stated that this interpretation developed when there was two people walking together
in the woods and they were holding hands and walking together, and thats why I thought
it represented love. This meant that I had achieved the message of love that successfully
portrayed the message of love to my audiences which was my initial intention.
Q2: Do you think the contrast between the black and white used for the artist and the
natural colours used for the narrative is effective?
The respondent for this question was also a male but was the demographic of the older, young adult.
As he makes up a large part of my target audience, we payed close attention to his answer and took
this on board when reflecting over our media products. The respondent commented on the use of the
visual binary opposition, noted by Levi-Strauss, by using the black and white for the performance
shots and the ambient lighting used for the narrative. He commented that the use of ambient lighting
in the narrative shots focused the audience on the environment and nature and the
opposite black and white filter gave it a better effect. This clarified that the visual binary
opposition had made a big impact on the effectiveness of the music video.
VOXPOP Responses
Q3: Do you think the use of point of view shots are effective for the representation of
the relationship?
The respondent for this question was the same as the respondent for question 2. We decided to use
the same respondent for this question as we felt he gave a very technical and detailed response of
the question and gave us detailed knowledge on the thoughts and feelings of our target audience. He
commented that the use of point of view shots in the narrative was effective because it made them
genuinely look like a couple. I found this feedback very positive as it meant that I had created a love
story that the audience believed in and then could identify with the characters. This is related to
Blumler and Katzs uses and gratifications theory in terms of the target audiences own relationships
in real life.
Q4: Do you think there is a link between the music videos and the ancillary texts?
In this question, the respondent was the demographic of a male, white, middle class adult. We felt
the need to use this demographic of respondent as they would be able to give a technical analysis of
the music video in comparison with the ancillary texts. He comments that there is an interesting
link due to the pink and green filters which all gave techno signifiers, which links to the
EDM genre of music. This clarified that the link between the genre of the music video and the
visuals of the ancillary texts were clear to the audience and helped create synergy between the
media products.
Evaluation Of Responses
Overall, I feel that the use of a variety of demographics for the audience research
within the focus group was effective as we were able to cover all aspects of the
audience I needed. This is because I was able to cover the majority of our target
audience and also able to have some technical analysis of my product.
Moreover, I found that the use of a visual binary opposition between the two styles of
music video made the music video much clearer for the audience and helped
distinguish the difference between the two styles. It also made the narrative stand
out more due to the highly saturated colour scheme, and the close up shots of the
artists, although it was in a darker filter, made the artists more eye catching.
I feel that if I was to repeat this audience research I would get more female
respondents as they do make up the target audience and we have yet to interview
females within our target audience. This would expand the range of our target
audience and widen the variety of demographics.