Suture

Another audience theory is Suture.

The word suture is the technical name for stitches used by surgeons.

Suture is usually applied to Hollywood films, due to the way they put the narrative, editing, sound and mise en scene together, the audience is 'sutured' into one possible preferred reading.

This means that the film will make the whole audience react at the same point, so the whole audience might cry or feel upset at the same point in the film.

One example of this is from the film Crash.

A shopkeeper has one to shoot a locksmith he blames for the break in to his shop, the locksmith saying the lock was replaced by the door was broken and must be fixed, and the shopkeeper didn't get the door fixed. While the shopkeeper talks to the locksmith with a gun pointing at him, the locksmith's daughter runs out to protect her father, as earlier the locksmith gave his daughter an invisible and inpenertable cloak to wear. As she jumps up to her father believeing in the cloak, the shopkeeper shoots.

The shots, lighting and music all cause the audience to feel emotional to some degree.

Reception Theory

Given that both the effects model and uses and gratifications models have problems and limitations, a different approach was created by the academic Sturat Hall at Brimingham university in the 1970s.

This theory considered how texts are coded with a meaning, that the producer wishes to convey, and how this meaning is understood, or decoded, by the audience.

Stuart Hall identified 3 ways in which the audience decodes a media text.

Dominant or preferred reading

This is where the audience decodes the message the producer intended them to, and agreeing with it. For example, if the audience watches a political speech and understands and agrees with the politicion.

Oppositional

This is where the message is decoded correctly, but the audience has rejected it due to cultural, political or ideological reasons. For example, if an audience watches a documentary on dog fighting, withe the message trying to be conveyed is that it is wrong, but the audience thinks the documentary is wrong due to them previously believing dog fighting is good and the dogs enjoy it.

Negotiated

This is where the message is decoded, but the audience agrees and opposes different elements of the text, or is disinterested. For example, the idea of putting a stop to benefits, an audience may agree to some extent as they believe some people do take advantage of the system, but also disagree as it would be unfair on those who actually need the benefits as they can't work, or are poor, or if the audience doesn't care what happens either way.

An example of this theory is Bruce Springsteen's song 'Born in the USA'

From the way it is sung, and the beat of the music and the simple easy to remember repetitive chorus, it seems to many to be a patriotic song. When you actually listen carefully to the lyrics, this however is not the case. The song in fact describes how bad and unfair life in the USA can be, 'You end up like a dog that's been beat too much, till you spend half your life just covering up'. It also says that those who got in trouble would be sent off to fight in Vietnam, 'I got in a little hometown jam, And so they put a rifle in my hands, Sent me off to Vietnam, To go and kill the yellow man'.

Starting to edit stills for digipak and advert

Today I started editing and playing with the stills from my video with different effects. I plan on using the photo editing website, picnik, as I have used this many times before yo edit photos for myself, and is is easily accessible no matter what computer I am using or where unlike Photoshop.

Here are some of the edits I have made so far:

I will continue to edit more stills from the video. These are just some experiments I have made so far.

The Uses and Gratification model

The Uses and the Gratification model is the opposite to the effects model. It says that rather than the audience being passive and unable to resist, that in fact the audience is active, and uses the media texts for its own gratification.

The audience uses media texts to gratify needs for:

• Diversion- Audience use the media instead of doing a task they don't want to do eg. Watch a film instead of tidy the house.
• Escapism
• Sexual stimulation
• Information- eg.the News or documentaries.
• Comparing relationship and lifestyles with one's own- eg. reality shows such as the Only Way is Essex, or makeover shows such as Grand designs
• Pleasure

The audience is in control and the consumption of the media helps people with issues such as:

• Emotional satisfaction
• Relaxation
• Help with issues of personal identity
• Learning- eg. Documentaries, children's shows
• Help with issues of social identity
• Help with issues of aggression and violence

Controversially the theory suggests the consumption of violent images cane be helpful rather than harmful. The theory suggests that the audiences act out their violent impulses through the consumption of media violence. The audience's inclination towards violence is therefore sublimated, and they are less likely to commit violent acts.

The Effects model

The effects model says that a media text will have an effect or influence the audience in a negative way, and that the audience is powerless to prevent this.

Proof of the Effects model:

Bobo Doll experiment showed this idea. The experiment was conducted in 1961 by Albert Bandura. The experiment had a group of children shown a video, in which an adult attacked a bobo doll. After this, the children were led into a room with a bobo doll to see how they would react to it after seeing the video. 88% of the children imitated the violent behaviour towards the doll that was shown in the video. 8 months later, 40% of the children once again re-enacted the violent behavior.

The conclusion reached was that children will imitate violent media content.

However, some problems can be seen with the experiemnt,

• Bobo dolls were created to be hit and pushed in the first place.
• Children were likely to use the toys as weapons in this way, as that is what they were also made to do.

The effects model is still the dominant theory used by politicains, some parts of the media and some religious organisations in attributing violence to the consumption of media texts.

Some media texts were even called to be banned due to the influence they apparently had on people:

• The film 'Child's Play 3' in the murder of James Bugler in 1993
• The game 'Manhunt' in the murder of Stefan Pakeerah in 2004 by his friend Warren LeBlanc
• The film 'A Clockwork Orange' in a number of rapes and violent attacks in 1971
• The film 'Severance' in the murder of Simon Everitt in 2006.

However, in each case it was found there was no link between the media text and the violent acts that occurred, but this didn't stop an outcry for the films to be banned, and even for the films to be burned. The films were banned due to the fact that it was easier to do this than for the government to do anything about the major underling problems brought to light by these attacks.

The effects model contributes to the moral panics whereby:

• The media produces inactivity, making us into students who won't pass our exams or 'couch potatoes' who make no effort to get a job.
• The media produces violent 'copycat' behavior or mindless shopping in response to advertisements.

Survey of my video

Following the creation of my music video, I asked the same people who took part in my survey I did as audience research, to see if people had any different ideas after seeing the video.

Here is my survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9JMPQGF

Magazine advert and digipak

Now I have completed my video, I will finally design and make a magazine poster advertising the song and video, and a digipak for it.

Downloading my finished video

Today I finished my video and it was downloaded.

After this, I shall upload my video to youtube to then put onto my blog.