Media Studies - Targeting an Audience

How do media corporations target, build, and maintain audiences? 

Media corporations rely on their audience to survive/make a profit. If their media text/product cannot target a specific audience to cate the product towards,  the corporation/product will not survive. If the product is able to target an audience but is subsequently unable to build/get them to use the product, the product will not survive. Even if they're able to get a fanbase, if they are unable to maintain this audience, the product will not survive. This essay specifically explores the different ways media corporations will target an audience using genre, demographics/psychographics, and intertextuality.

Genre is an important factor in the targeting of an audience. Deciding what genre your media product is going to be is crucial in targeting your audience, as it sets expectations for audiences. However, it is important to note that even though a text may have its own genre, it must also be different in the sense that it should be able to separate itself from competitors and be new/exciting, and not just a boring copy. According to Steve Neale, a texts genre not only provides audiences with expectations, but also provides distributors with a target audience, provides production directors with a blueprint, and lessens risk for distributers/producers. i.e, if a media consumer is a fan of the Horror genre, they may be eager to watch this new horror film even if they know nothing about it, this consequently lessens risk for producers and distributors as they know there will be a demand for the movie/show. A prominent example of this would be the Amazon Prime Original superhero television series The Boys, based off the comic series of the same name, written by Garth Ennis. The Boys would generally fall under the "Super Hero" genre, however the twist in the genre convention is that the superhero's in The Boys aren't portrayed as "goody two shoes world saving good guys", but instead are portrayed in a more realistic manner. Where superhero's, like any self absorbed privileged humans, fall under the temptations of corporate greed, corruption, and are in full gear to fulfill their supersized ego that comes along with the fame, money, and power. In a world where superhero movies have become saturated beyond belief, and monopolies like Marvel and DC follow the same genre tropes over and over again, it's a creative and brave decision to break the convention of hero's always being "perfect". This has led The Boys to be one of the highest rated superhero series' of all time,  with an impressive 8.7 on IMDB and a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. Media consumers have given the show a humungous amount of praise for its writing and plot, which is why I believe The Boys is a perfect example of how media corporations may use Genre, and the conventions of genre theory to successfully target an audience. Pulling them in with the guise of a brand new superhero series, and hooking them in when they break conventions of your average super hero flick.

Next, we can explore how media corporations use demographics/psychographics to target their audience. Whether or not a media text will succeed heavily relies on how well the media corporations are able to target different demographics/psychographics to consume their product. These demographics and psychographics may include age, gender, race, class, star appeal, hobbies, interests, and more. A perfect example of media corporations using demographics/psychographics to effectively target an audience would be the 2017 film, Jumanji: Welcome to The Jungle, produced by Columbia Pictures and distributed by Sony Pictures. The film targets a variety of demographics and psychographics as seen predominantly in its trailer, which features Spencer, the films main character who is portrayed to be a "nerdy" kid that has a huge interest in video games that, by some twist of fate, ends up in a fantasy world called Jumanji, with a group of people he never would have expected to be with, and somehow need to find a way to escape the video game world. What really gives the film its audience though is its use of star appeal. Once in the video game world, the groups real life identities convert into video game avatars where they become characters in the game that are played by actors like Jack Black, Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, and more. This cast of actors coming together to star in this film took the world by storm. More importantly though, the main characters all come from different backgrounds. As mentioned previously, Spencer is a white kid that follows the tropes of your typical high school nerd, who loves to play arcade and video games, along with Anthony, who follows the trope of your typical African-American football star, Beth, who follows the trope of the "instagram influencer" and Martha, your average "flunker" student. This vast representation of  groups targets a myriad of demographics and psychographics all at once. Different socio-economic backgrounds, different ethnicities, different interests and hobbies, and more. The film essentially has at least one character that a majority of high schoolers would be able to relate to. Furthermore, the star appeal in the film is unmatched. If you're a fan of Jack Black, you'll want to watch the movie. If you're a fan of Dwayne Johnson, you'll want to watch the movie, and so on. According to Katz and Bulmer's Uses and Gratification Theory, people see celebrities as role models, and thus fulfill the need of personal identity by watching the movie. For all these reasons and more, I believe that the 2017 film Jumanji: Welcome to The Jungle, shows how media corporations can effectively target an audience using different demographics and psychographics, but most prominently star appeal, and is proven by its incredible box office revenue of over $900 Million.

Lastly, media corporations often utilize intertextuality to target an audience. This is when media products include subtle, or sometimes not so subtle nodd's to other media products as to attract audiences of those media products to come and consumer your own media product whether it be movies, shows, songs, art or more. A prominent example of the use of intertextuality would be the video game Fortnite. Fortnite is an online battle Royale genre shooter game produced and distributed by Epic Games, and released in 2017. It is generally regarded as the video game with the most amount of collaborations with other media products of all time, and for good reason. The game originally started as a simple free to play battle royale game, but as it gained popularity, Epic Games decided to start collaborating with media corporations like Disney to produce collaborations which features the Marvel and Star wars franchise, along with singers like Ariana Grande, Travis Scott, Marshmello and more. The amount of intertextuality featured in Fortnite is unrivalled by any video game ever released. This has led to massive success for Epic Games as collaborations often lead to their own "skin-line" being released, which allow for players to purchase skins through in app transaction purchases. According to David Gauntlets personal identity theory, fans of Marvel, Disney, Star Wars, Rick and Morty, Naruto, and more, will now have the opportunity to purchase these skins and show off their interest in these other shows/characters to other players in game. This all leads to a massive spike in monthly active players, as well as a huge spike in skin revenue. This was detailed by Epic Games themselves in which they stated they gained a total of over $6 Billion Profits in skins sold purely from collaborations. This intertextuality plays a key role in the appeal Fortnite has to new audiences, and is the main factor on how Fortnite is able to consistently gain new players daily. Thus, I believe that Fortnite is a prime example and shows clearly how intertextuality can be used by media corporations to target audiences.

Media Studies - RegentsX Radio Final Product

Here we have My team and I's final output for our radio segment for our radio show RegentsX FM. All recordings were produced by Me (Maxi) and Timo, while all editing was done by Me. The final logo was made by Theo, and all 4 jingle's were made by Satria.

Link to final radio show: RegentsX Radio

Source (Songs in order of appearance): 

Alex Turner. (2013)  Do I Wanna Know? [Performed by Arctic Monkeys] On AM - Retrieved from: Spotify

Nick Santino. (2016 ) Sex, Drugs, Etc. [Performed by Beach Weather] On Chit Chat - Retrieved from: Spotify

Donald Glover, Bernie Grundmen. (2016) Me and Your Mama [Performed by Childish Gambino] On Awaken, my Love! - Retrieved from: Spotify

Media Studies - Radio Show Critical Self Reflection

Here you can access my interactive Prezi Presentation for my creative self reflection, or if preferred, here is the link to said presentation. Additionally, included below is the full text in essay form if you favor to read it on blogspot instead.

Introduction

Around 3 months ago, in the beginning of our school's 2nd term, our media class was assigned a project of making a 15 minute radio show. Firstly, I chose my team of Me, Timo, Satria, and Theo, and together, by conducting research on our audience, and conducting research on the industry by looking at other radio shows, we came up with the initial concept of what would become RegentsX FM. Next, across those 3 months, we then recorded, edited, created logos, jingles, adverts, chose songs, and more, which ended in the final product of our RegentsX radio show.

How does you product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

The Radio Show "RegentsX FM" focusses, and is targeted towards high school students in Bali. More specifically students from our school, Regents Secondary School. This is due to most of our segments on our radio show relating to events that happen in school, and even gossip that mainly students from our school would be interested in. The radio show is mainly meant to entertain and act as leisure for Regents students as they may be updated about events that are happening/will happen at school, while also being able to tune into the hottest gossip as to not miss out. This was decided due to the results we got from our survey, which showed us that the majority of students would want to hear a gossip segment.

Our radio show mostly conforms to the norms of other radio shows that target similar audiences. For example, radio shows like MTV often hook in their viewers by using celebrity gossip. Additionally, a majority of radio shows like RadioX and Phoenix FM, from the UK and Indonesia respectively, which target similar demographics to our radio show, (albeit having a slightly older audience than us) often include news segments in which hosts generally talk about the events that happen locally, in their city, or their country, or even on certain occasions, global news. Similarly, our radio show follows these tropes and conventions of the radio industry and conforms to audience expectations. Furthermore, our radio show embraces conventions by using songs that are popular in the current time. Hit charting songs that resonate deeply with most teenagers worldwide are played on our radio show, similar to a lot of other radio shows of similar genre. This is because, to attract an audience, we must use what said audience enjoys to reel them in. This was confirmed from the data we got from our survey, which told us the type of music our audience is most likely to enjoy. We found this out by asking them their favorite artists. In this case, music from artists and bands like The Arctic Monkeys, Childish Gambino, The Neighborhood, and more, were the most mentioned. Thus, they would also be the most enjoyable for our targeted audience. In addition, we conformed to norms in the industry by speaking English to expand the reach of our radio show to more people. Lastly, in our gossip segment, which included an interview with a student (whose name is Dyfan), there were portions where obscene/profane language was used. Generally, radio shows that target similar audiences to RegentsX don't include obscene language/profanity. Thus, we also conformed to these conventions by "bleeping" out the portions of the recording where profanity was used by the guest.

How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

I believe our radio show would be a perfect pick to be aired by our school's broadcasting department. This is because our target audience is incredibly niche, as only students from our school would understand the gossip or even the news that's currently happening. To put it simply, people from other schools, cities, countries, etc, would most likely be confused/not be interested in the affairs of people that they do not care about. Thus, I believe our radio show would best be broadcasted in our school. Our radio would best be played in the afternoon after students had finished their classes/lessons to give them an opportunity to relax and cool down after a long day and be entertained. Other than being broadcasted by school however, we could also incorporate forms of new media like YouTube. This means that we could upload the radio segment/show to YouTube so that the audience can re-listen to the show if they missed it, or just whenever they please.

As mentioned previously, our radio show targets and appeals to the demographic of teenage high school students (aged 15-18 primarily) and may appeal to any gender. This is mainly due to our gossip segment that will most likely be enjoyed by people of that age range, as adults may not be as interested in listening to gossip and rumors as they have their own lives to deal with and do not have the time to waste by listening to teen gossip. However, when it comes to race and ethnicity, we most likely appeal to Indonesians specifically, instead of people outside of the country, as events discussed will mainly consist of events happening in Indonesia. 

Furthermore, our radio show consists of 2 male, 16 year old, Indonesian hosts. This is representative of the high school student audience and also the male and Indonesian audience. We did this as Stuart Hall's representation theory believes that audiences will be more inclined to consume media where they feel represented. However, it may not be as attractive to females as they may rather want to listen to a radio show which utilizes female hosts instead, as they may find it more appealing/relatable. Additionally, when it comes to socio-economic status, i believe people of lower socio-economic background/people in the lower class may not be attracted to listen to our radio show. This is because our school is a private, international school which has a tuition fee high above the Indonesian average. This means that people of the lower class may not be so interested in listening about the lives of teenage high school students that, to them, may be "out of touch". Thus, I believe that our radio show represents and appeals to mainly people of the upper-middle to higher class.

From Katz’s and Bulmer’s Usage and Gratification Theory (UGT), I would state that this radio show falls under the category of "diversion", "surveillance" and "social relationships", as audiences are most likely tune into and listen to the radio for leisure/to be entertained. This is achieved by the gossip segment of our radio show, as well as the music we play as people listen to gossip about others as a form of excitement, and music also serves as a form of diversion from everyday life for most people. However, at the same time people may also want to know about current affairs and want to be kept in the loop of things, thus it may also fall under the surveillance category, as our news segment and gossip segment allow our listeners to keep up with what's going on at school. Additionally, new media allows us to upload our radio segments to YouTube, which allows audiences to leave comments, share it to their friends, and more, which may enhance their social relationships, adding yet another reason for why audiences would want to consume our radio show.

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

Through creating this radio show, I have learnt a variety of new things in the realm of sound engineering, including how to use mixers, microphones, and how to edit audio together in a way that is auditorily pleasing, as I was the one who edited our radio show. I did this by using Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2020 and I believe I was able to learn a lot while editing the radio show. The recording of the radio show was done using the OBS Software that recorded Me and Timo's voice through a call we had on the app Discord. Furthermore, I have also enhanced my team work capability as I had to work with a team and was able to successfully delegate tasks to different members of my team to be as efficient as possible. I would like to hope that I was able to create a high quality radio show that would be enjoyed by people in my school which talks about interesting topics that people would like to know/hear about.

In the beginning of the project we were hesitant on whether we would include a gossip segment or not, and whether we would include an interview segment with a teacher or a student. However, my team and I decided that going through with the gossip segment would be a good idea as it would be entertaining for students to be able to hear the insights on gossip they may have heard at school, and we may be able to give clearer information about the event that led to the gossip. Additionally, it was also the most requested segment from the options in our survey, which solidified our judgment.

How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware, and online - into this project?

To create the radio show, my team and I used various different software and hardware to develop a well furnished final product. To record Timo and I's lines, we used our studios at home, using a Scarlett 2i2 Studio Mic and BM800 Condenser Microphone respectively. For our guest Dyfans's lines, we provided him with a Samson Meteor Studio USB microphone. We then entered a Discord call (an online application that allows you to chat, call, and video call with others, similar to Skype), in which Timo recorded our lines using the OBS recording software. He then uploaded all recordings to a google drive where I downloaded them and put them into Adobe Premiere Pro, where I edited all the recordings together. I was able to download the songs used from a website called soundlouder.com which allowed me to download songs from the app Spotify as mp3 files. The jingles were made by Satria using the application Bandlab, using recordings made from his phone. While Theo created the logo using Adobe Photoshop. All in all, I feel like technology has helped us greatly in creating our project as editing, recording, and sharing files and ideas had become far easier. Using discord helped me and Timo as we did not have to meet at a location to record, as we could just do it online. Adobe Premiere Pro also helped in editing as it streamlined the process and made everything very simple, compared to if I had to use other editing software's.

Conclusion

This project definitely helped me in becoming a better team player/leader as I had to cooperate well with my team in order to get things done. As I am not the best artist, I had to find help from a team member who is more gifted in the field than I am to create our radio show's logo (Theo). Other than that I had to work together with another group member (Timo) to create a dynamic duo of presenters that would make our radio show as entertaining as possible. Additionally, I also had to work with my team member who knew far more about creating audio snippets and using instruments (Satria) to create the jingles for our radio show. Furthermore, I believe I now know more about what types of microphones to use during different types of recordings based on what type of audio that needs to be recorded, and how to edit audio using Premiere Pro, which is the editing software that I used. In the end, I am quite satisfied with me and my group's performance during this project as everyone put in their designated amount of work and we were all able to reach our deadlines and together as a team, were able to create a good quality radio show.

 

Media Studies - Radio Show Editing Process

This creative explanation into the editing process of the radio show was done by me (Maxi), along with the editing of the radio show.

Being the editor of this project meant that I was in charge of the responsibility of putting all clips, and sounds together and editing them in a way that made transitioning from segment to segment seamless and professional, all the while having to make sure that the sound quality was top-notch. To do this, I used Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2020 to edit the radio show. Firstly, I downloaded all the songs that we were going to use, downloaded the recordings Timo and I had created, and downloaded the jingle's Satria had made. After which, I put them all into my timeline and arranged them to make the radio show seem as realistic as possible. I also cut out portions of recordings that didn't seem to fit, as well as create smooth transitions from our voice recordings into the song that was going to play next. This was done using the 'Keyframes' audio feature that Premiere Pro possesses. This allowed for a professional and well made sounding production. Other than that I downloaded a "bleep" audio clip that allowed me to censor profane language used during our gossip segment.

In the image attached above we can see a screenshot of my editing page in Adobe Premiere Pro. On the bottom left we can see my media library, and on the bottom right we can see my timeline. All in all, I believe using premiere pro allowed me to streamline the process of editing and 

Media Studies - Radio Logo Research

All research featured in this blog post was done by me (Maxi). The finial logo featured at the bottom of this blog was made by Theo.

A radio's logo is an essential part of its brand and aesthetic. Here are a few logos from different bands and radio shows and what I like about them.

On the right, we see the logos of some of the most popular alternative pop bands of the 21st century. Many bands featured in this image perform/create the songs that will be played on our radio show.

Logos that attract my attention include the logo of the 'Arctic Monkeys', 'The Neighborhood' (House on top right), 'Twenty One Pilots' (Below the neighborhood), and 'Panic! at the Disco'

'Arctic Monkeys' and 'Panic! at the Disco' stand out to me primarily due to the fonts they use. The arctic monkeys' logo flows and captures the space around it, conveying a sense of freedom. As well as the wavy sound waves below the text that represents the bass tune's they prominently use in their music. Meanwhile 'Panic! at the Disco's' logo uses a font of cursive text that stands out compared to other bands as you wouldn't expect a pop band to use fancy-looking cursive text as their logo. It perfectly connotes the unorthodox style of their music and as well as serving as a logo that resembles something you'd see at a night club, which gives them the stylish theme that is often associated with their music.

On the right here, we have the logos of the top radio shows in the UK. 

Here, the logos that I find most appealing would be of Heart and RadioX.

These stand out to me in particular because of their simplistic design, especially for RadioX. The X represents a "cool" and "hardcore" vibe. Additionally, the X is not written in the same font of as the rest of the logo, however it is written in little lines that come together to form an X. These little lines can also be interpreted to represent sound waves.

For Heart, the font is attractive and creative, as the "a" in the word Heart is replaced by a literal heart shape. This, along with the red shading of the letters give it a warm and romantic vibe. It is also simple and scalable and doesn't use complex and hard to understand shapes.

On the left, we see some logos form the top radio shows in Indonesia.

However, there is nothing in particular that stands out in this group of logos. If anything, most of them are incredibly unpleasing to the eye.

For example, Logos of Rodja, Life, Dahla, 99ers, RD, DJFM, Maestro, and many more use far too many colors and apply stale and bland typefaces that don't appeal to the eye. They are also mainly un-scalable and look overcomplicated, with too many aspects trying to be fit into one logo.

On the right are the logos of the top radio shows in the United States of America. The most attractive of which would have to be RAZA.

This is for a variety of reasons. Raza is a radio show that mainly play the top rap hits in the US. The typeface they use for their logo strongly resembles text that had been graffitied on a wall. This matches well with the rap vibe, as graffiti/vandalism and listening to rap music are often strongly associated. Using this, RAZA is able to appeal to its target audience very well.

Here are some of my first drafts in making RegentsX's radio show logo. I particularly like the logo in which I tried to use a cursive type face, but it might not accurately portray the alternative pop music that we will play, as it may also connote a "classic" or "posh" type of music. I think the logo where I drew Rx with the X written below the R is the best logo out of the bunch as it most appropriately reflects our radio genre.

Here in the image attached below is the final logo that my Team and I came up with. After doing our own research and development, we decided that Theo's concept was the best. Thus, we told him to continue with his initial draft and make a final logo, and ended up with this. We chose this logo because it looks professional, simple, and cool. By having a radio mic imbedded underneath the R in RX, it clearly connotes that this is a radio show's logo. Along with the "98 FM" below it. 

I believe this logo will appeal to our audiences as its not overly extravagant, or childish. It feels classy and to the point, and thus I believe this is a perfect logo to represent the RegentsX radio show.