Audience Research, Media Theory

Uses and Gratifications

During the 1960's, as those who had grown up with television became adults, it became apparent and important for media theorists to disect how and why audiences viewed texts. Instead of a mass collected audience passivly viewing homogeneosly, it was shown that the audiences individually viewed texts for many different reasons. In 1948 Lasswell suggested that media texts are viewed for the following functions and reasons:

Surveilance: Viewing media texts to gain information which could be usefull for living (i.e weather reports, financial issues, advertisment) however with the rise of surveilance programs such as Brit Cops: Zero Tolerance, revealing the law-flouting underbelly of society; it is possible that these shows are viewed to provide caution and safety to those at home.

Shows such as Brit Cops: Zero Tolerance attempt to provide surveilance gratification, a warning of the crime on the streets alongside morbid curosity and a wish against blissfull ignorance for the audience.

Correlation: Viewing media texts to provide yourself with a reflective of yourself, identifying your own personality and characteristics alongside those of people you know.

As of late, there has been a rise in T.V shows such as Skins (Above) which combine the gratifications of both surveilance to an older generation in watching a media text to impead interest of those younger alongside correlation to those of the same age as the cast. Whilst Skins attempts in this fashion to hit a mass audience of all ages, shows like Shameless (Below) attempt to hit an audience of all classes using this techinque.

Entertainment: Self Explanatory

Cultural Transmission: Though it can be seen that cultural transmission is very similar to surveilance instead to learn more about another culture; a main difference is instead of the viewer being gratified it is those who impead the text- a mass showing of a culture in an attempt of boasting. An extreme example of this is the cultural transmission of America, once invading Iraq, setting up a channel showing only American shows such as Friends (Below) in an attempt to draw the civilians into their culture.

The T.V show friends can be seen to provide a very inviting example of American culture, an example of Cultural Transmission between America and the East.

Researchers Bulmer and Katz expanded upon this theory and published a much more refined version in 1974, dissecting the far too broad Lasswell and narrowing a function such as entertainment into Diversion: (escape from everyday problems and routines). They also dissected the broad function of correlation into catagories of Personal Relationships: (using the media for emotional and other interactions, i.e substituting soap operas for your family life)

Relations To Our Music Video

Due to the hedonistic lifestyle which comes quickly to a downfall in our music video, our music video could relate to alot of these functions. The factor of surveilance in our music video could apply to not only apply to those considerably older than the characters (late teens making a band) but also those of all ages trapped in a mundane routine wishing to get out- relating to the functions of diversion and personal identity in that those who cannot get out of this routine can instead watch as the characters ditch the shackles of the lifestyle they once had only to implode and return. The personal identity shown in our video promotes the attitude and psychological character of the underacheievers who would love to be part of a loved band alongside the social values of the hedonist. This aspiration is underpinned by the use of costume of the characters, relating to the bands they themselves and the audience aspire to.