Evaluation Question Three: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

In order to gain necessary feedback of my three products as a whole, I wanted to ask four questions before I uploaded my final edit. (I have based this on the last edit).

• How old are you?
• How effective are all three of my products together?
• Would you purchase this album?
• Would you watch it again?

I got two eighteen year-olds who are also studying media to answer my audience feedback questions. By picking an eighteen year old female media student, I can understand how the female audience feels towards my product. Also by picking an eighteen year old male media student, I can also understand how the male audience feel towards my product too. Here is my feedback.

Both of my candidates mentioned that they would buy my product and that my all three of my products appeal to my target audience. They both mentioned that there is the strong use of continuity throughout all of my products as well as 'interesting edits' (said by my female candidate). As a result of this feedback, I feel I have created a successful product that would sell in the alternative rock and punk market. My male candidate mentioned to me that he was unsure about one of my transitions between shots (from Hannah to Harry, it is a slide to the left effect), I also mentioned that I was unsure whether to included this effect however I feel that without this effect there is a lack of various transitions therefore I am going to sustain this transition.

When conducting my audience feedback, I noticed that the two people I asked agreed with the connotations and the narrative of my music video. This supports the ideas of Stuart Hall's Reception Theory, where he stated that there are three decisions the audience can make, these are:

1. dominant ideology - (agree with the producer) – the audience view the media text in the way that the producer intended e.g. a hand bag looks shiny and new therefore encourages the female to buy the hand bag. Reasons why people may agree can be that they are from the same background/culture, they are of the same age, the narrative is easy to understand and the text is relevant to the audience’s society.
2. negotiated ideology - (agree but bits can change) – the compromise between the dominant and the oppositional readings, the audience accepts the views of the producer but also has their own input and understanding in relation to the text. Reasons why the audience may want to change the text: different life experiences, don’t understand the narrative and theirs ages may vary.
3. oppositional ideology - (disagree with the producer) – the audience rejects the preferred reading and creates their own reading of the text. They don’t agree with the messages created for the audience. Reasons why the audience may disagree: the text is too controversial, the audience may disagree with the meanings, the audience may not like the genre, the audience my not understand the narrative and the text may not reflect society accurately.

This applies to my music video and audience feedback because my audience chose the dominant ideology which is where they agreed with me during my editing process and the connotations that I created through mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound.

I took up audience feedback when trying to decide what font I should use for my magazine advertisement (see Fonts: 04/03/15, Fonts Questionnaire: 04/03/15 and Font Questionnaire Feedback: 14/03/15). I initially started off on dafont.com where I categorised my search to 'distorted'. This shrunk my search and therefore made it easier for me to find my final font. I picked out six fonts that I liked the most, there were:
Bad Coma

An Unfortunate Event

Something in the Way

Old Dog

Pulse Sans

Dreaming

After posting my fonts on my blog, I then began creating a questionnaire. I wanted to find out which font the audience preferred, why and if it matched my genre (alternative rock and punk). Here is my questionnaire:

I sent this questionnaire to four people of varied gender, age and subjects to gain a wider insight of my audience's interests. When looking at my feedback I saw that the majority of the candidates liked the last font - 'Dreaming'. This is handy as this was also my favourite font. The audience believed that this font supported the genre of alternative rock and punk. 

I also carried out some audience research when trying to establish my target audience. I sent out twelve questionnaires to a range of different people (different gender and age in order to gain wide results). I designed a questionnaire:

However I felt this questionnaire did not highlight aspects of my target audience therefore I collected the data and began a new questionnaire. (I am aware this one is filled in however I couldn't find the questionnaire template I initially created).

This is my new questionnaire. This questionnaire allows me to find out more about my target audience, how they consume music and what sort of music they listen to. I had a strict criteria that I followed when handing out my questionnaires, for example, I asked two males and two females in the age range of 0 - 20. I asked two males and two females in the age range of 21 - 41 and I finally asked two males and two females in the age range of 42 - 52. I think my questionnaire was successful as I managed to gain research from a wide selection of the public therefore this will help me understand my target audience. 

If I was to conduct my questionnaire again, I would make sure I stay away from asking anyone who is a close follower of the media and music for example media teachers, band members etc. This can lead to biased research. I would also adapt question 12, I noticed when conducting my research that many people asked for an explanation on this question.

In order to calculate and analyse my questionnaire data, I felt I should manage my results into graphs.

This graph focuses on how much money my candidates spend on CD's or albums annually. This data shows that males spend roughly from £70 up to £600. Within this graph, I struggled to fit in one of my candidates amounts in. The 4th male stated that he spent £600 on CD's or albums annually however I could not fit this on my graph therefore I have left the top of his column open in order to show he spends much more money (than £200) on CD's or albums. Whereas, females roughly spend from £10 to £110 a year on CD's/albums; this shows that females do not spend as much money on CD's/albums within a year in comparison to males.

 This graph focuses on the most common methods my candidates use to listen to their music. As you can see, there were no results as to any one of my candidates listening to their music via MTV. During the 90's when MTV was first discovered, it was a massive hit. Everyone wanted to watch it to watch and listen to music videos. However, MTV has lost a lot of it's viewer due to the rapid proliferation of digital technology. Without the internet, our phones, the radio, we would still be watching MTV as it wouldn't have lost it's viewers. The majority of females watch and listen to their music videos via Youtube and iTunes however males tend to watch/listen to their music videos through their phone which enhances my point about digital technology rapidly producing.

 This graph focuses on if my audience download their music. Looking at this graph, it shows that males are more likely to download music over females. The majority of females said they do not download music whether it is illegal or not. However in contrast, the majority of males download their music.

This graph is to establish my candidates favourite genre. I have given examples of different genres that my candidates may like however I have also given a 'other' option; will cater for the wide variety of genres that are available to the public in our modern day society. As you can see from my graph, the majority of males stated that they enjoyed the rock genre to most however this contrasts with the majority of females views that they enjoy another genre, perhaps the pop genre. This enhances the stereotypical view of females favourite genre being 'pop' and the stereotypical view of the males favourite genre being 'rock'.

Overall, I feel I now fully understand the target audience of alternative rock and punk. I feel I can address the conventions of this genre easily and accurately. My audience have guided me through the making of my products as, ultimately, they are the consumers.