15 mark question homework - Audience

Introduction

• definition
• argument
• context

Paragraphs

• point
• evidence
• argument

How does this product attract/target it's audiences? How does it construct an audience?(15)

Definition Argument Context

Audience is an essential aspect of producing a media product for producers of all kinds. It is a way for producers to target each product at certain consumers with specific beliefs, ideologies and interests. Audience targeting is significant in the media as without an audience there is no consumption of the media texts produced. Audiences are targeted through thing such as genre, and sub-genre. These are identified through conventions within the genres. This product advertising for Les Revenants targets its audience through the use of a more complex fluid technique called genre hybridity, where the text embodies a range of genres that appeal to a wide target audience of different interest in different genres. I will be exploring how the text constructs its audience through the use of genre hybridity and polysemy. Typically the advert uses things such as genre conventions, representation, narrative codes, and technical codes to do so.

Point Evidence Argument

The advert is encoded with recognisable genre conventions for audiences to decode the multiple genres categorized within the product. Arguably the text reflects both horror and thriller genre conventions, it is an enigmatic drama that makes references to both French poetic realism and the avant-garde, as well as embodying iconography and paradigmatic features from the 'zombie' genre.

From the beginning we are introduced by the camera moving through the house there is a mid-shot of a butterfly, seemingly dead, breaking through the glass from which it is kept, reflecting paradigms from the supernatural/zombie genre. This opening uses hermeneutic code and is very polysemic, encompassing multiple meaning (of life and death) and genres. Tense music throughout the advert is accompanied by flashing camera editing work of a bus crash. The complex editing could reflect the character driven narrative and implies that it is non-linear; targeting an audience who perhaps enjoy being challenged and ambiguous meaning. While the Mogwai, Scottish post-rock band music, using moody instrumentals also target a small cult following audience of an unpopular genre of music. Additionally the bus crash, along with shots of the murder stabbing in the dark alleyway represent the gory horror aspect of Les Revenants, which appeal to a whole other range of audiences with different interests.

Methods of multiple meanings and genre hybridity have constructed Les Revenants audience in a multi-layered way. Producers have wanted to use genre as a tool to target a complex type of audience. According to the theory of reception, audiences will have a dominant, negotiated or oppositional reading and impression of the product due to the adverts approach. Audiences attracted to the niche, horror, French poetic realism style product will consequently seek to follow the show and be part of the ‘cult’ following, the type of audience that undertake fan fiction.