Media Studies Summer Work: Audience Research

Questions:

1. What media products do you use most often?

For example (Radio, TV, Film, magazines, Advertising, Newspapers, internet)

2. What are your views on the quality of TV, film, radio and newspapers?

3. Has it changed over time?

4. Do you think the media has the power to influence or change peoples lives?

Findings

The 5 questions were asked to 10 different people 5 of which were family and 5 of
which were friends. The questions gave me a selection of different answers some
of which were very similar such as the fact that the majority of the people I asked
only watch TV and films and the fact that everyone said that the media has
changed quite significantly over the past 20 years moreover they stated that media
has become apparent in every aspect of the new technologies in the modern time
e.g Kate 19, said that the bbc iplayer is necessity in her life. We asked kate to go
over what Bbc iplayer was, she replied. Bbc I player is a website where a
consumer can watch previous TV programmes that they’ve either missed or want
to watch again, she stated that it is very versatile, you can pause rewind and fast-
forward much like sky + which is a widely ranged international subscription tv
broadcasting service.

The first question was really a yes or no answer so it was hard for the people I
asked to talk about it in detail. 5 out of the 10 people said they only use TV and
Film and 2 said that they only use newspapers and Radio. I think this is due to
there age due to the fact they were my grandparents. Moreover they grew up in
the time of only being able to have access to newspapers and the radio, therefore
the advance in media technology may have seemed too much for them.
3 out of the 10 said they use TV, Film and the internet.

The second question was answered in a range of opinions ranging from the fact
that some people didn’t think the quality had changed at all to people suggesting
media is a necessity to life. Many people said that the quality of media has
changed over time due to our advance in technology while others said that the
media has changed because of the genres now on offer for people. People said that
the quality had changed through the advance in technology such as, new advances
in camera technology has allowed different camera angles resuming the same
amount of quality throughout the programme, Others stated that the quality had
changed through people’s ideas of new media products. Ben 22 said that more
people are educated in the world of media and new ideas as presented every day
but only some are of great quality.
Has Media Changed Over Time? Mark 17 said that media has changed greatly due
to technological advances’. In my opinion I think that media has changed due to
what people want to see, nowadays there are more reality shows and game shows
and I think that’s what people want to see more of nowadays, Shows such as Big
Brother that gain millions of viewers just to see people living in a house has
displayed the change in what call Media today.

Do you think the media has the power to influence or change peoples lives? Laura
16, said that the media doesn’t change peoples lives completely but does have the
power to significantly sway peoples decisions. TV Programmes such as
embarrassing body’s that talk about problems amongst the teenage era, the
programme is meant to educate people on sex and other problems amongst there
body’s, its main convention is to help people be confident when they have a
problem with there body and be able to speak to people about it confidently.
Programme’s such as Horizon on the bbc and documentaries by Louis Thoreau
show consumers peoples life’s worldwide they also show how things
can affect them. These types of programmes teach people about the
world of today and the different problems people are faced with.