Target Audience For My

Production
Scarlett Parade Summer Song

 The gender is mainly female because the genre is dominated by this gender and there is a
female present in the music video who dominates throughout as is in the males mind.
The age range is 16-19 because this is around the age of the actors involved in this music video
so will attract similar ages to it. This music video offers representations of love and hate which
can be significant to this age. For example Taylor Swift made a music video called Blank Space
which provided the love hate situation which was showing her dominance throughout. Also the
way she was controlling him links to Summer Song as the male in it keeps thinking about her
and what happened to her.
The ethnicity would be aimed at White British as the two actors are both this ethnic origin so it
is more likely that this ethnicity will watch the music video and relate to it more.
The dress code will be high market fashion such as Top Shop, casual top, jacket, jeans, trainers
as the female has worn this style of costume, so target audience will see similarities in styles
and be attracted by this. Another alternative folk genre artist is called a Charlene Soraia who
portrays herself to a similar target audience and she dresses in similar ways to our production
which shows evidence that this target audience appropriate.
The hair Style is likely to be long hair to the shoulder, brunette because the actress in this has
this colour hair so the more similarities in personality and appearance will appeal to these types
of people, thus suiting the target audience which is being identified.
The social class is working class to middle class so will fit into the C1 category as accessories
and clothing are high end but style of music is also suited to the working class. Having said this,
the actors in this are only 17 years old so are likely to be in education and maybe have a part
time job so themselves might be placed in the D category but their parents occupation will help
them stabilise into the higher categories. This is seen in many families in the UK so doesnt
necessarily narrow the target audience but may widen it as the affordable designer costume
can be appreciated by middle class B categories.
Dennis McQuail can be appropriate to use about my target audience because the conventions
used in this music video will suit its expectations its customers as generic conventions have
been used with the use of females as backed up by the artist Charlene Soraia.

Charlene Soraia

Leather jacket
shows a trendy
costume

 Accessories worn by my target audience isnt much but some jewellery such as ear rings as
they are commonly worn by females which are a fashionable style in contemporary societies.
Favourite music genres of the target audience will be pop, Indie and alternative which is the
genre of this song we are promoting so they will be wanting tracks and videos that relate
together, have meaning, and be something which the audience can relate to and enjoy.
Favourite Retail Outlets Top Shop, H&M which are high street shops dominated by the
female gender. They are profitable businesses which make much of their money from teenage
girls buying the latest and in style fashions.
TV and Film Romantic films as many females watch love related films but also maybe
psychological thrillers as this music video is filled with mystery of what is and isnt real. It is
open to interpretations which shows and open-text which is barthes code so they can relate
this to love and death or mystery where he is the culprit of a murder for example.
Social Networking Twitter and Facebook which are the two biggest social networking sites.
This can lead to promotions which can further the demographic listening to this band which
can lead to greater profits with greater success which relates to Steve Neale whose theory is
about profitable genres.
Tribal Identity The dress code suggests high street market which can have an influence on
young teenage girls wanting this style of clothing to become part of a collective. The majority
of the target audience will be school students or currently in some sort of education.
Aspirations University to get a good degree and good job to be able to afford a healthy
lifestyle and buy more high market costumes. Especially since recent statistics shows that
more females attend and want to attend university more than males, proving this target
audience has greater aspirations to achieve.

The Hypodermic Needle Model

The hyperdermic needle model suggests that audiences are highly
influenced by media texts and that their personalities and interest
are not key because the audiences are passive and homogeneous.
So they will be attracted to media texts and identify themselves
with it which makes media even more powerful. This shows a state
of moral panic for parents and the government and shows why
certain groups should not be exposed to certain texts.
The music video Summer Song doesnt expose any real
threatening behaviour which can be seen as so explicit that
certain groups should not watch it. The only interpretation could
be that there has been a murder or definitely a crime of some sort
which can influence younger people to commit crimes.

Uses And Gratification

In 1948, Lasswell suggested that media texts had four functions for individuals and society: Surveillance,
correlations, entertainment and Britishness.
There is a correlation use for defining the target audience as from research from some other artists, there are
patterns being formed which helps to identify with a target audience.
Entertainment plays an important role in media texts as it captures the audiences eye and encourages them to
continue watching the same genres and artists. The entertainment value in Summer Song comes from different
conventions such as a female being the dominant character and the aspects of emotion such as betrayal and
isolation which the audience will be able to relate to at some point in their lives.
There is use of cultural transmission of Britishness in our music video as the two actors are both white British
which emphasises the Britishness of it where shows the target audience the characters and the locations they live
in e.g. suburban areas but also plenty of land such as parks and rivers.
Blulmer and Katz expanded this theory in 1974, suggesting individuals may choose a text for the following:
Diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance.
Diversion is effective as it gives the chance for audiences to get away from their problems in their own lives, and
focus on enjoying themselves and feeling the emotions of texts. Summer Song does this as it focuses on two
characters throughout, leading to different interpretations which can see audiences as forgetting about their own
problems and thinking more about the effect of the music video.
Personal relationships allows the demographic to relate to the artists and the music video suggests love, loss,
betrayal etc. Many teenagers have experienced this and will be able to associate themselves with the artist. Fans
of a genre may feel as part of a subculture who relate their identities with this genre. An media text example can
be of Friends where audiences may substitute these characters for any gaps in their own lives. This can also go
for music artists who they aspire to be like so act like them.
As stated with personal relationships, personal identity shows the audiences reflecting themselves in the text and
seeing similar characteristics from their own lives to the characters in media texts such as my music video.

Reception Theory
Stuart Halls encoding and decoding theory suggests that the
encoding is done by the producer and the decoding is done by the
audience.
Looking at audience feedback, it was seen that females 17/18 years
old enjoyed the music video production the most and also from
comments, understood the meaning of the video more than the
males of this age group, thus reinforcing the target demographic to
be females aged between 16-19. The males enjoyed it but didnt
rate it as high as the females. The final question asked was rating
the music video out of 5. The overall average from the females was
4 as well as males but the comments were more positive from
females who seemed more enthusiastic when speaking to them
after them seeing it.