Evaluation Task 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Below is a prezzi I made showing a visual layout of how I went about conducting and presenting my audience feedback. 


Before and After -  This was my first idea when my group and I had just started here is my first idea: 
Here is my final Digipak, music video and Website. Overall I learnt the audience feedback was very important as through trial and error we developed and adjusted elements to leave us with this this as our final music video: 

I gathered my audience feedback using graphs creates of Microsoft Xcel, pie charts and bar graphs as well as questionnaires to give a clear visually appealing record of our feedback. We used both Quantitative and Qualitative questions in order to get numerical simple answer from our interviews such as simple yes and no answers. Whilst Qualitative questions are more open ended and meant we received more developed suggestions and criticism, which was important particularly when we wished to developed our overall campaign from the feedback we received.

 

The demographic and psychographic profile of our audience had a noticeable effect on the readings they produced as they were all of similar age, gender and personality which meant they shared similar opinions and were heavily influenced by one another arguably hindering some of the feedback we received as very few people had particularly abstract comments that didn’t match their peer’s views and opinions.

The advantages to using these sources and people was that overall we got pretty reliable information as we conducted both large and small focus groups and the questions we asked were pretty simple and understandable for everyone, this meant they were easy to answer and we got good clear information which gave the best representative true data. We used 17 – 18 year olds because we are at a 6^th form college therefore unfortunately they are all of a similar background when we conducted the research group. We felt this might be a disadvantage as because they are from a similar background generally speaking they share similar views and are often in the same peer groups which means they are heavily influenced by one another when answering questions. We found this to be a bigger problem in the large focus groups as individuals felt pressured to ‘fit in’ with their peer’s views therefore didn’t necessarily give honest responses which led to the potential of us having false data that is not an accurate representation of how they felt.

There were obvious strengths and weaknesses received in our feedback for our music video. In terms of strengths for our music video we were told “the music video defiantly held my attention the whole way through” which was good as we were worried it might be dull at times. However, we were also happy to hear the shots we used work especially “The close up shots of the wheel which were really ascetically pleasing and visually well communicated”. Furthermore, we felt we received positive feedback that indicated our target audience “generally thoughts the elements all worked well in time with the music” which was the main thing, from there we listened to some constructive criticism and continued to improve our music video to make it fit best with our target audience. 

Our feedback indicated some weaknesses in the music video, our main criticism was the fact the video was repetitive and needed to be more exciting to keep the audience engaged. In the feedback process we were told our “video was repetitive” and they felt by “bringing the dancers out more it will add another exciting element” therefore preventing repetitiveness in our video which is what we want to avoid. In this case the smaller focus group was extremely helpful as they gave us both constructive criticism and suggestions on what they would like to see.

Encoding and decoding was proposed by Stuart Hall and it is a helpful way in understanding multiple readings of media texts. Encoding is when we as the institution ‘encode’ things with the values of their producers. Whereas the target audience decode a text in accordance with their personal cultural and social background meaning they decide meanings to it. For example, in our music video and digipack we have Nandi our artist looking into the camera this is where we as the producer encoded it purposefully so the audience could decode it. By setting up the shot like this, this then leads to the audience decoding this as they interpret the message of her showing sex appeal.  

Lazarfeld, Blumler and katz produced the use and gratification theory, which assumes audiences are not passive, they actively select texts that they wish to consumes of fulfil specific needs and desires in their lives. The two areas that apply to my music campaign would be personal identity and personal relationship which is when one watched to identify with characters or to simply experience companionship with characters or with other target audience members due to shared interests in the media texts. In our case the target audience for Nand.C will be excited for the campaign because they look up to Nand.C as an inspiration as well as being intrigued by the R&B Pop genre meaning they are interested in her music genre as well as how she portrays herself. Lastly its arguable that a secondary audience made up of men for instance tune it to Nand.C’s music campaign due to diversion, they simply wish to watch for entertainment and to escape from their mundane existence in which they may feel stuck in.

Our audience feedback illustrated this model in action as they felt the bright colours for instance matched the consumers wish to share interests in the media texts like the colour scheme. They felt there was a clear personal identity because they could identify with our artist’s character and ideologies, through her campaign expressing female empowerment the whole way through as well as her costumes that the target audience whom I interviewed were intrigued by therefore felt they had something in common with the artist connecting uses and gratifications on a more personal relationship level. Also looking at one of Richard Dyer's paradox theories which suggests the artist is both simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary at the same time, essentially saying as an audience we relate to them as well as looking up to them aspiring to be like them. 

Stuart Hall stated that there are three different responses to media texts. Our audience produced at times preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings from our music video. Our audience seemed to mainly take a preferred reading as they tend to accept the meaning that our music video is representing. Our video shows a clear message of a strong independent and confident women who oozes sex appeal and is comfortable in her own skin creating great music. However arguably a liberal feminist group might see the video as the opposite to empowering females and instead may take a negotiated view meaning they agree slightly to the message but not fully, as arguably they envy the way our artist has such confidence and presence, but at the same time feel she may not be portraying herself in the most respectful light through her costume. However, people of different cultures are most likely to take an oppositional view, due to different values and beliefs. For example, an Eastern Muslim culture for instance would take an oppositional view to our music video in the way our artist is wearing skimpy clothing and overall portraying females as they would see it in a disrespectful light, therefore opposing to our videos ideologies and intentions. Overall the readings discussed by Hall vary depending on a lot of different elements but mainly our R&B music video would tend to be preferred as it fits in to the typical R&B conventions therefore appealing to the target audience.

Overall our music campaign became more in depth and accurate because of the audience feedback, it enables us to edit and cater for our target audience making sure the consumer was happy as ultimately we realised they are what makes the artist money and keeps her in demand. I learnt not only how to effectively collect and gather feedback in the most efficient way but also how to then change and improve my music campaign from the feedback. For instance, my music video became less repetitive as I listened to what the target audience had to say and from there added more of the rapper in. I have also begun to understand how different media theorists can tie in with my audience feedback giving me a deeper understanding of what my campaign needs and the feedback says about my work. I think audience feedback has been so crucial to the success of my music campaign as in all three elements; music video, Digipak and Website I had the opportunity to get feedback and improve from there making it a stronger and more successful campaign.