THEORY

  Media Language

Media language is media encoded or decoded through their forms, codes, conventions and techniques communicate meaning. When applied in movies, actors, costumes, props, colors, gestures and facial expressions (mise-en-scene) are the main points used in media to convey the message implied. This includes compositions in camera shots, lighting, angle, camera movement and shot size. 

There are two ways in which the audience consumes media; passive and active. Passive meaning the media is taken as a true event without questioning, even if it is announced as fake or staged. It's split into two parts, the hypodermic needle theory and desensitization. While active meaning the audience are aware of its artificial nature, but aren't affected in thinking it's a real event. Also split in two parts; uses and gratification theory and reception theory.

- Hypodermic Needle Theory

The hypodermic needle theory is a model of communication suggesting that an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver - essentially believing all of what the media says. It is not fully considered as accurate as the lack of empirical studies led to many unsupported assumptions. An example of this theory is the famous radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds by Orson Wells.

- Desensitization

The numbing effect of being repeatedly exposed to a shocking or aggressive content. It could be based from both fiction and media. For example, in fiction content, children are exposed to violence in family movies, brainwashing them into thinking it's normal. In fact-based content, constantly seeing numbers from a war decreases empathy as it is seen frequently. 

- Uses and Gratification Theory 

Media is actively used for satisfying our base social needs. There are 4 base needs, diversion, personal identity, social relationships, and surveillance. Diversion is how we use media as a form of escapism, personal identity as those who we can compare our life experiences to, social relationships as how people form connections and relationships on screen, and finally surveillance as of how people keep up with trends and the world.

- Reception Theory

Stuart Hall, a cultural theorist, explored how media texts are made sense as well as claiming how audiences were active, not passive. He argued on how audiences actively chooses how to respond to media - by social class, education, gender, race, age, politics, sexual orientation, and religion.

How It Targets the Audience

As media producers, we need to give what the audiences want. To do this we must find out who our target alliances are, and to further process it, a social media manager is necessary. By giving the audience what they want, it allows them to give feedback for improvement, which then lets us find the gaps in the market.

To find our target market, we distinguish them by researching their demographics and psychographics.

Demographics

- age

- gender 

- class

- location

- race

- political leanings

Psychographics

- personality

- behavior

- values

- interest

- spending habits

There is a difference in market and target audience. Market emphasizes more on products, while target audience is literally what it means - the method to target audiences.

Specific Media Products

• Instagram - @seesalp

Preferred Reading: The usage of the bold and bright colors and the unique composition of each artwork is what intrigues me. I love the way the facial portraits are drawn, and how a story can be told from details of the saturated corners.

Negotiated Reading: Even though I love how the overall artwork looks, I don’t really like how blended it looks.

Oppositional Reading: I don’t like how it burns your eyes when analyzing their art.

• Diversion: People could escape reality through seeing their art as a beautiful painting to admire during their dark days.

• Personal Identity: I am an artist who relates with another, which is mainly the reason why I am interested in their content. 

• Social Relationships: The artist themself is a nice person online, which is a plus point for audiences to stay connected.

• Surveillance: As each and every artwork is aesthetically pleasing and one of a kind, people would like to stay updated with their Instagram.

• Youtube - Jaidenanimations

Preferred Reading: I love her smooth storytelling animations as I relate a lot to her stories. Her artstyle is fun to watch, especially with movements and her funny humor.

Negotiated Reading: I think she could improve her work with more colors in her animations as it is in black and white most of the time.

Oppositional Reading: I prefer her older animation artstyle. It was less curvy.

• Diversion: Made for everyone, Jaidenanimations has entertaining videos and a warm fanbase which you could really connect with. Personally I like to watch her when I'm upset or bored. 

• Personal Identity: As one of the big content creators on Youtube, Jaiden is known for being an awkwardly hilarious animator. She deals with things in her own ways that are very comedic to watch.

• Social Relationships: Jaiden is relatable and a socially awkward person, so of course people would be attracted to her as she at the time was the only such character. But of course, people also love her as she stays true to herself. 

• Surveillance: As Jaiden posts once every 4-6 months, her millions of subscribers would be excited to get new content. 

• Netflix - Stranger Things

Preferred Reading: I am interested in its thriller aspect, which is why I mainly watched it. A lot of bold compositions and meanings are used throughout solving the mystery of the plot, as well as its marvelous editing and realistic but heart-wrenching props. 

Negotiated Reading: Some characters are killed in the most dumb timing and how they died follows the same old stereotype of celebrating their escape before the problem ends. Luckily I don't really like the characters.

Oppositional Reading: I hate how my favorite character got so poorly written as the season goes. It made me stop watching it for a while. He lost all of what was him.

• Diversion: The setting of this series is set on our world but with another dimension. This show distorts reality, which is a reason why this show interested millions of watchers. It was one of the first advanced edited dimension-themed series. 

• Personal Identity: Each character is unique and unique in their own way. The first series focused more on the kids and sets around 1980, which would be very nostalgic for older audiences. 

• Social Relationships: A lot of the characters are those who will never be anywhere else, which increases originality and attractiveness. 

• Surveillance: The writers did a great job with cliffhangers, as there will be a new season coming in recent time. As the series gets popular over some trends on other social media platforms, there are more audiences that are excited to catch up. 

• Spotify - Feels - Calvin Harris

Preferred Reading: This catchy song is the perfect music for every start of vacation rides. I would never get bored from listening to this song. I also like how it features some of the biggest artists as it gave the song a bigger hit.

Negotiated Reading: The song is great but the music video is pretty different that what I’d imagined it to be, but it is visually lovely.

Oppositional Reading: I dislike how the album cover looks like. 

• Diversion: A lot of people escape through music. This bright song is a great way to imagine stories in your head as you listen to the catchy melody. 

• Personal Identity: The song lyrics could make the audience feel like it represents them. 

• Social Relationships: Fans of funk and pop would be thrilled to see Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams and Calvin Harris together on the screen. 

• Surveillance: The big artists in the song is a big factor of why the song blew up, which causes audiences to want to catch up for more and will wait for another release.