Unit 1 - Media Products and Audiences - model answer on 'audience needs'

1. How does a media text you have studied deliver the needs and wants of its
audience? (8 marks)
I have studies Jordan Peele’s film ‘Us’.
I think the core audience segment for this film is a psychographic segment – horror
genre fans – and I think one interesting secondary audience segment for this film is a
demographic segment – black women.
Horror fans want to be scared – they want jump scares and they want tension, as well as
wanting to be unnerved and worried – they want both startle and suspense. Us delivers
these things in lots of different ways.
One example is the opening of the film when the young Addie goes into the hall of
mirrors. There are jump scares in this – the mechanical owl suddenly appearing and the
lights going out – and there is tension and worry – as Addie hears her whistling being
echoed and as she is suddenly confronted by the back of her head rather than her face in
what she thought was another mirror.
Another example is when we cut, at night, to the home of Kitty and her family. We have
just seen Addie and her family escape but we know they are being chased. Kitty’s family
evening is bland in comparison and then suddenly out of nothing they are violently
attacked by their own tethered. The film doesn’t want to repel the audience – we cut
away from any detailed portrayal of the effects of the violence – but the sudden shock is
coupled with a worry both that this is where Addie and her family are running to and
that what’s happening isn’t just about Addie and her family but might be happening
everywhere.
Black women watching the film might rarely find mainstream Hollywood films that
feature other black women as the central character. This film is Addie and Red’s story,
from the opening where we follow her as she goes off on her own to almost always
staying with her and her perspective on the family until the moment when the tethered
arrive, after which we start to see some scenes focused on other family members.
Although all of the family have roles to play in making sure ‘our’ family eventually ‘win’,
the focus is always on her and the final battle is hers. In addition we see her simply
getting by – being a concerned mother, a friend, a wife, being ordinary (in a positive
way) but ‘ordinary’ in the context of her backstory. And of course we learn at the end
what we mean by ‘her’ - she is not just the protagonist but the final horror of the film.