Thursday 30 January 2014

Explore the different ways in which audiences/users respond to your chosen texts


  • Been nominated for a total of 206 awards and won 62 of these including 4 golden globe awards. 
  • Many reviews state that they enjoyed mad men and understood the context but recommend paying attention or having to re watch the episode in order to gain understanding. "here are many hilarious moments that are only funny if you've been paying attention and understand where the character is coming from. There are also many tragic moments that would pass you by if you didn't know what came before. Many lines have double or even triple meanings. Watch this from the beginning, with a friend." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804503/reviews
  • http://www.lippsisters.com/2013/03/25/peggy-moves-forward/ A fan page where viewers can comment what they think about each episode has been made called 'Basket Of Kisses' with the slogan 'smart discussion about smart television'. Avid Viewers can write their response to each episode and others can leave comments giving their view. There are hundreds of threads when viewers can discus each series/episode down to the tiniest detail. 

Thursday 23 January 2014

Lost -Audience Repsonse

Has Lost won any awards?
Lost has been nominated for 251 awards and won 57 including emmy awards and the golden globe awards.

What are the criticisms of the text?
Many have complained that the text move too slowly and there is lack of answers.
Flashbacks became repetitive and the audience became tired of them. It seems they were just recycling information they already knew.

Lost Audience Targetting

Lost, directed by J J Abrams, is a drama that appeals to a wide, mainstream audience. It has been constructed to be inclusive of a wide audience, through its use of conventions. Both Passive and Active audiences can be gratified by watching this programme which makes it such a mainstream text. Through the use of an ensemble cast, it can appeal to a large audience. An ensemble cast ensures that performers are assigned roughly equal screen time. The benefit of an ensemble cast is that the audience can always identify with issues within the text as there are characters from different race, gender, religion, age and nationality. Lost has included characters from a wide range of backgrounds and nationalities. Kate is American, Charly is British, Sun is Korean and Sayid is from Iraq. This attracts a wide audience as it conforms to lots of areas of the uses and gratifications theory. For example people can personally identify with people of the same background and also may be able to identify with already gained values. In series 1 episode 2, Sun is made to do the top button up on her shirt by Jin on the beach whilst Kate bathes in the water in her bikini. It shows the difference between the values of the characters within the text which is easily mirrored in modern day society, with different cultures holding different values and morals.

Tuesday 14 January 2014

Lost Audience

Identify who is the intended target audience?

It can often be argued that Lost has a mainstream audience. This is often assumed because the text is a wide, mainstream text that is attractive to a lot of people. It is argued that this is the intended audience because of the technical conventions that are present in the text.

The first convention that makes me believe this is a mainstream text is the use of a non linear narrative. There is a regular use of flashbacks when the characters are remembering what happened before the plane crash. Most mainstream texts nowadays tend to make use of the non linear narrative, for example; Sherlock.     This is evidenced in the text in the second scene when it begins with footage from the Island and then cuts to a flashback from Charly of him hiding in the plane toilet. Most dramas tend to have elements of a non linear narrative as it keeps the audience engaged and it allows us to find out background information about the characters.

A second convention that makes me believe this is a mainstream text is the use of stereotypes. J. J. Abrams has chosen to use these representations as it helps the mainstream audience to understand it. The women have been represented as reliant on men and we see this when Kate has to gain jacks approval to go on the hike and when Hurley faints at the sight of blood he is shown as a Jester, one of propps typical character roles. The media tend to represent overweight people