Wateraid exam question

How do media producers meet the needs of a specialised audience?

Refer to WaterAid to support your points

A target audience is a specific product/service that a specialised audience is aimed at. All companies have a target audience, they pick and choose the people to most likely buy or interact with your advertisement, film etc. 

Media producers will define and categorise their audience through demographic profiles. A demographic audience is based on characteristics such as: age, gender, income and career.  This way the producers are finding people who are mostly likely to engage and interact with the advert! WaterAid Producers used demographics onto make their target audience e.g. the song "sunshine on a rainy day" indicates that the target audience for this advert was people aged 30-40 year olds because the original song was released in the 1990s. The producers choose this target audience because they would have a link to the song as it is a atmosphere of nostalgia. 

The target audience is also likely to be female, trough the use of Claudia who they might personally identify with! Parents might also connect with this story of Claudia, as they might know some family members/friends that are struggling like Claudia. Many parents/carers would sympathise with this advert because there is a lot of kids featured. Many parents would want others kids to be happy like Claudia because the reality is there isn't many kids like Claudia due to the ending "650million people still don't have access to clean drinking water". The advert has a dramatic contrast, as it shows children happy and playing by the use of warm yellow colours however, towards the end reality hits as WaterAid provides a statistic. 

Exam question - zoella and attitude

EXAM QUESTION: What techniques do your chosen texts use to effectively target and maximise their online audiences? (30 marks) Refer to both Zoella and Attitude.

 

Zoella’s target audience is female, this is shown as she uses emotive content and this appeals and engages a female audience. As Zoe discusses her problems and how she feels about them. Her fans may relate and therefore build  special relationship with Zoe as they are experiencing the same issues. Zoe stereotypically is seen a female - as she talks about fashion, relationship, and makeup this is seen as very feminine. She constructs a positive representation as she is very stylish, wears lots of makeup and looks very feminine! Her activities and interests of fashion, beauty and makeup show she is feminine in ‘female based activities and interests’. This builds her fan base as she does regular activities that a young teen/ young adult would do and does vlogs about it.

Zoella targets 13 to 24 years old, Zoella uses a lot of social media to engage with her audience via Instagram, Snapchat & YouTube as these social media platforms fit in with the current generation and technology. She aims to maximise her online audience through social media, content by creating videos that interest her fans and uses popular topics to talk about. Everyday activities also shape her target audience as Zoe enjoys shopping and eating at restaurants this interests young teens and young adults, which reinforces her target audience.

She has made partnerships with companies for the same target audience e.g. ASOS & H&M these are companies whop have a similar target audience and who represent high street fashion at reasonable prices. Zoe will partner up with different brands, so she gets the attention of wearing the outfit and the company will get attention for the clothing. It is win win situation for the model and brand. It shows that Zoe's audience is the socio economic group of BC1C2 because these shops sell their clothing/products at a reasonable price.

 

Attitude targets gay males, this is shown by writing factually and not in long paragraphs as males don’t tend to read long paragraphs as they lose focus and attention quickly. There is a lot of high image to text ratio and has a lot of short paragraphs to be quite snappy and look at details visually rather than massive long paragraphs.

The age range for this magazine is 26 to 55 year olds, this can be identified as Attitude uses/shares a lot of content to their social media platforms such as: Facebook and twitter as there age range is most likely to use Facebook and twitter as an older generation compared to Zoella’s younger generation audience. Most of the 26 to 55 age range wouldn’t know how to use snapchat or Instagram. Most of the magazine articles/new stories show celebrities which are in an older generation and they are referenced to engage their audience who they grew up with in the media. There is a lot of retro culture stories in the 1990s and there is a lot of political stories which would portray a more mature audience!

Partnerships and sponsorships have been built with companies which advertise premium products on their website e.g. Jaguar and Calvin Klein this shows the socio-economic group to be ABC1. The interests and activities that accompany this socio-economic group is art and cultural events, theatre visits and five-star holidaying.

Some narratives focus on social issues such as LGBT and women’s rights etc. These can very mature and complex articles which reinforces the age range. The magazine constructs an aspirational feel as the magazine refers to premium brands, looking good and brand awareness.

 

Gauntlett refers to how we use the internet and other media texts help us to create our identify. We now have more of a variety of representations to identify with e.g. LBGT, masculine and feminine etc. Zoella and Attitude use their techniques to engage and target their audience and they both show the range of representations we can identify with!

Shirky says we are now more likely to use the internet to respond to texts e.g. Zoella uses YouTube, Instagram etc to like, comment, subscribe and share their content/posts. Zoella and Attitude can reply to their target audience, this maximises their online audience due to them interacting and engaging with Zoe or others and etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ZOELLA AUDIENCE

 

Zoella

Zoella uses different techniques to target her audience in terms of age, socio-economic group, and psychographics.

Gender

Zoella’s target audience of females is shown as she posts a lot of emotive content of how she deals with her issues e.g. her anxiety. These appeals and would engage to younger female who are worried about the problems they face. Zoella is shown as a female by her appearance and content. Zoella wears make up, nice clothing and always has her hair stylised. Her content includes fashion, make up & relationships this would also appeal to a stereotypical female audience.

Age

Zoella uses a lot of different social media accounts e.g. Instagram, snapchat, YouTube etc. These types of social media applications most prominently used by this age group. Zoella uploads all different posts about her daily activities such as: shopping, eating at fast food restaurants etc. This would interest her target audience of 13-24-year olds as this is some of their daily interests.

Socio-economic

Zoella targets BC1C2 (socio-economic group) this is shown as she has built partnerships with a range of companies who represent high street fashion at value prices e.g. H&M and ASOS. Zoella shows her house to be a place of fun as an ideal teenager environment, this explains why the target audience is mainly young adults or teens!

Psychographics

Zoe Sugg is known for her famous relation ship with Alfie, they have recently heard they are having a baby girl soon. the weather is on Trent she's constantly changing her latest fashions or vlogging about all different types of stuff people associate her to be a social butterfly. she's also recognised as a female due to her content and appearance as mentioned previously, she talks a lot about makeup relationships and fashion.

 

I now believe that Zoella is trying to attract a much older audience now due to her age as she is getting older for example she made a video on making a chocolate cake or making cookies for the kids and having a chilled get ready morning. This seems as if it is starting to engage parents/carers due to the different activities she is doing e.g. baking & chilling.

ATTITUDE

 

Attitude Magazine

 

I believe that Attitude is a lifestyle magazine. The target audience is gay male 25-55-year olds.

 

It has shown that it is a male magazine, as there are several stories including males and male issues.

I believe this magazine is aimed at 25-55-year olds, as there is a lot of celebrities in that age band. Their choice of social media portrays the age, as they use Facebook, Instagram, and twitter rather than tik tok.

Most of the stories are quite serious topics e.g. politics this represents their age as it is aimed at an older audience because of complexness of the topics/interest of the topic. I have also identified their sexuality to be gay as there is a lot of stories on gay proposals, drag race, LGBTQ community.

The adverts used on the website show their socioeconomic class as middle class and quite wealthy. The adverts are high end brands e.g. Gucci. There is a lot of focus on appearance e.g. physical appearance, face, body products.

 

 

The magazine focuses on single people. as there aren’t any references to children or families which suggests that they are single and carefree. I believe that family background audience will feel excluded because there is no reference to children or families.

 

 

I have identified that attitude is a gay magazine, national symbol in many of their front covers it features all males and in one of them it approaches this quite feminine look with the colours of pink yellow and white. as well as the model wearing makeup and is topless. There is a lot of focus on your appearance for example your body and your face (makeup).

Audience - ZOELLA

 

Zoella Audience Analysis

 

 

Zoella’s audience is mainly aimed at teen girls. This is shown by the choice of colours and content. I believe that Zoella’s audience is apart of an active online community as Zoella has over 9M followers on Instagram and has over 11M subscribers. This shows that Zoella has an active community of fans who are obsessed with her content weekly!

 

 

On YouTube, there is a range of different things you can do for example: you can share, like, subscribe and comment on someone’s video. Some fans will influence her content online by saying ‘let’s see a shopping haul’ for example. Zoella’s fans shape her media content and Zoella will allow that because she wants to give her fans what they want to please and satisfy them!

 

 

In my opinion, I think that everyone has a parasocial relationship with her. It is a one-sided relationship; you can really see the comparison as fans vs. famous youtuber. She will try and engage with her fans to please them for her own benefit as her fans will like, comment, and share her videos around which maximises her fans.

 

 

Theory

In relation to Jenkins theory, the internet has allowed fans to gather and create their own texts and easily share their work. This will maximise their popularity of the indiduvals as their content has been either liked or disliked by the fans.

 

In relation to Shirky’s theory, we are more likely to use the internet and other technology to respond to texts. Apart of this is to do with the use of technology, technology is developing more and more, and it is believed that it has changed our behaviour as we are more interactive towards celebs (comment, like & share). Technology has become used daily because fans want to interact with their celebs/idols fire social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and YouTube.

 

Gauntlett’s identify theory is about how we use the internet to help us create our identify and we now have more of a variety of representations to identify with. Zoella shares her personal stories with her audience which gives them an insight on her experiences in her day to day life. These small aspects have an appeal and influence on her audience. This is important for Zoella because her persona and experiences help influence her audiences. For example, if we take Zoella’s blog post about her anxiety, her audience members that have anxiety will look deeper into this topic and would want to base themselves around Zoella and how she deals with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zoella is seen as a positive role model because she is inspired many young people to have confidence when using social media to express themselves. Zoella has also spoken about her personal storeys and difficulties for example her mental health issues an anxiety. this builds a relationship between her and the viewers as she's directly communicating with her viewers hoping that her issues can help other people’s issues. Zoella could teach her audience about her identity; She may help a person stuck in the wrong body e.g. transgender. she could motivate her fans to be ambitious and aspirational in life to achieve the best.

 

 

I believe that is Zoella uses stereotypes to do with gender as her YouTube is mostly about makeup, fashion, and beauty tips. this represents her to be girly and feminine which is associated with female. she also uses a lot of pink colours; this reinforces the femininity.

zoella

 

 ZOELLA

 

Zoella represents herself in different ways in a range of videos. When she does collaborations with other Youtubers, she creates the atmosphere as if she’s happy and laughing loads and very lively. When she does a video on her own, she is still cheerful, but she is more engaged with her audience and she needs to get across in her video. Her Instagram still shows her personality and her being very girly e.g. the use of pink connotes her being very sweet and cute. However, Zoella made a post about ‘the best sex toys’, this is showing her age to be quite mature with her sex life and this contrasts with the use of pink a lot in her posts to be ‘charming and cute’.

Zoella focuses on girls as most of her viewers are female so she wanted to create something which will engage them, and this indicates why she sells products which are girly and festive. For example, her book called ‘girl online’ features the word go in it and has a girly vibe to it because it has curly writing with hearts and pink colours, and this stereotypically wouldn't attract boys.

I believe that Zoella hasn’t changed her representation much, because she still posts relevant content e.g. hauls & vlogs. However, I believe she has changed to a certain degree as she has posted about sex toys this could suggest she is trying to fit in with her younger audience as ‘teenagers’.

 

Zoella’s target audience is female teens, this is shown as her content is focused on stereotypical female activities e.g. fashion and makeup! Her use of colours e.g. pink suggest girly stuff and would attract to girls as pink is associated with girls. I believe Zoella is trying to grow her audience this is shown as she blogs about sex toys which shows she’s trying to interest other readers.

 

Zoella makes money via. her YouTube account which she has had since February 2009 and has over 5m subscribers where she posts monthly videos. Zoella has also wrote three books which her sold over 70,000 copies in the first week. She has released all different types of beauty ranges and homeware with boots, which has been very popular with her fans as well as sponsored content on her social media. Zoella has over 9m followers on Instagram and it is predicted that Zoella can earn up to £12,000 per sponsored Instagram post and that is a lot Money in a variety of different ways, but they all add up too big total. in my opinion I believe that Zoella makes easy money, especially because she does sponsored content on Instagram!

 

ANALYSIS - S3 E1 THE BRIDGE

 Analysis of S3 E1

Character archetypes

Identify which of the following character archetypes of the crime genre appear in the selected episode of The Bridge and briefly describe them

Investigator – Saga seems very focused and hard working as she discovers a lot of information about the victim within hours. Saga likes to find out all the information she can even when she is having ‘small talk’ with her new detective partner. She lacks an emotional side, as she couldn’t bear to tell the female that the victim had her heart removed.

Sidekick – Saga’s partner is apart of the older generation. It is clear to say that Saga is superior whereas, she is inferior. In other words, Saga takes the lead and is smarter as Saga discovers the bomb a spilt second before it was diffused and caused injuries.

Boss – The boss is a male and at the start, has a lack of care towards hi career as he shows up late and careless.

Villain – The villain is not shown as the case continues! However, the villain appears to be very cunning and smart.

Action and enigma codes

Crime television tends to use action and enigma codes. Action codes are a way to introduce a new problem, this could be something simple e.g.  a phone ringing. Enigma codes are questions which are posed to the audience to leave them hooked e.g. who killed Richard?

 Here is a few I discovered in ‘The Bridge’

o   Who is the killer?

o   Is the sidekick alive?

o   How will Saga react to her new partner?

o   Who will the killer target next?

 

The TV crime drama has been left with an opening ending with still plenty of unanswered questions. They have left the audience eager to find out what happens in the next episode and if their unanswered questions can be solved?

What questions does the audience have at the end of the episode? How is the episode structured narratively? Is there an open or closed ending?




Representation of women
Women in the crime genre are often represented as victims, and in drama women tend to be represented as overly emotional and  family-orientated .

 In ‘The Bridge’ subverts the representation of women, as they are normally described as weak and emotional. However, these female characters are represented as strong. As we see, two female detectives on the case and they are portrayed as strong and determined to find the killer.

Saga lacks an emotional side to her which is surprising as most women are recognised to be emotional and she doesn’t want to tell the other female that the victim’s heart was removed as she starts crying down the phone. Saga doesn’t react and completely shuts her down.

Butler’s theory is that gender is a social construct and there is no gender identify behind the expression of gender. Masculine and feminine are created through repetition. As, Saga doesn’t follow the stereotype of women it supports Butler’s theory that the stereotype of women to be weak and emotional has been discovered through repetition.

Halls’ theory is that media language is used to create representations and stereotyping is often used to assert power. Saga has subverted the stereotype of women and is now seen as powerful, hardworking and determined and she is using that to assert power as she is lead on the case.


Narrative & Themes

Lighting – The dark lighting can convey something is about to happen and this keeps the audience on their feet.

Sound - It has created a feeling of suspense as they play non-diegetic creepy music, as the two detectives have just discovered the victim had her heart removed by the killer.

Camera shots – Different camera shots convey specific feelings upon the audience e.g. long shots help the audience recognise the setting and characters, it can convey a specific theme towards the audience which can deepen their emotions when watching.

 

Levi-Strauss’s theory is that binary opposites is what drives the narrative. In ‘The Bridge’ there is a lot of binary opposites:

o   Detective vs. Killer

o   Light vs. Dark