Applying Audience Theory

The main concept of our music video surrounds a paranoid and distraught man and how his paranoia and aggressive personality troubles him in various social situations, such as a run in with a stranger. The video however has a positive ending with the future finally starting to look up for the protagonist.

We can apply many audience theories to this media text and the potential influence it can have on the audience, which we hope to positively apply correctly to the video leave an effect on our target audience.

Firstly, the hypodermic needle is based on the idea that us as the audience are passive, and we are 'injected' by the media with content. The meanings and signals behind each text are delivered to us all as equals, but the level of effect they have on us differs as we all respond differently. We (the audience) have no choice in how we interpret text and the media is always correct, which can lead to disbelief when faced with opposing information. It is usually considered negative effects and the bad influence a text can have, which can be applied to our video by people thinking it's fine to assault strangers in the street and emulate this behaviour.

The effects debate says how it is mostly negative effects that media texts have on people, so regulations have been brought in to prevent this such as classification. Our video, while dark natured, isn't violent or graphic enough to warrant a mature warning on the site it will be uploaded on (YouTube) and stays appropriate for all ages as part of our coursework.

Blumler and Katz's theory suggests you use the media text for your own gratification and take it the way you want, which we will apply to our audience by if they are going through similar situations to those portrayed in their life can still improve.

This is similar to the reception theory as the audience interprets the media text for themselves and their interpretations are based on their own experiences, whether it is the creator's original intention/message or not.

The theory that can be applied to our video the most is Blumler and Katz's, with no matter how bad things get they'll turn around.