2. Task 4
Pick at least one media text and investigate how its audience responds to
it.
You can pick a different product for each response or try and stick with
just one.
For each response, participatory, cultural competence and fan culture,
explain the response and then use examples to show it working in
practice.
It can be any text or any producer you like. This allows you to look at a
franchise of films or a band or a series of books or a TV series as a whole.
3. PARTICIPATORY
The showing of ITV’s annual hit TV show ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ (BGT) in 2014 was a stepping stone in
audience participation regarding British national television. Rather than simply kick starting a ‘Hashtag’ like
many TV shows rely on for their share of social media audience participation, ITV decided to release an app
in time for the beginning of the new series. This app consisted of a few features dedicated 100% to BGT.
These include the buzzers, live twitter feed, national voting statistics, buzzer customization and quizzes
including questions such as ‘Who will buzz first’.
This app generated over 1 million downloads on the android market in 2014 (IOS statistics unavailable). The
app brought together viewers of BGT to have their say during the live shows. The users were highly active
and consistently voted during all acts. Alongside the buzzer option users were able to view the live feed of
tweets. By linking their Twitter they were able to contribute to this feed via the app.
A feature of this app that really brought the national participation closer to every user was the feed of user
profile pictures that flowed past the bottom of the screen. These images shown users who had voted at
that moment, making users feel very connected, and even a little famous knowing their photo was flashing
across screens around the nation. The numbers below the buzzer was also very effective, seeing the sheer
amount of buzzes was quite unreal, hearing about large numbers of viewers is one thing, but seeing their
clicks in a numerical format was astonishing.
To keep the audience satisfied the app would run mini games during advert breaks. These included many
quizzes and the frantic button smash, where users across the nation broke the tame 1 tap per act to tap as
much as possible – the clicks shown up on the chart and shown the overwhelming number of clicks
produced by teamwork across the nation.
In conclusion, the app provided a closeness amongst those watching BGT. Rather than discussing with
those only in your immediate environment, the app gave people the opportunity to take part in a national
discussion and event.
4. CULTURAL COMPETENCE
In a world with so many different medias, we are exposed to millions of pieces of content, and thousands
of different cultures. These cultures often thrive primarily on particular websites, such as YouTube.
A growing culture on YouTube is that of the ‘MotoVlogging’ community. MotoVlogging is very similar to
‘Vlogging’ (Video Blogging), except rather than sitting in front of a camera in a pretty bedroom, the star
of the video is usually out of shot due to the camera being on the side of their motorcycle helmet. Stars
of the MotoVlogging community include ‘Do It With Dan’, ‘Jake The Garden Snake’ & ‘6Foot4Honda’.
The MotoVlogging community thrive due to one common passion and that is motorcycles. Online
motorcycle culture is very niche, and there for the competence regarding the content is not very well
known. This competence covers many different factors including the terminology, the style of videos and
also why. Those who watch MotoVlogs have a universal passion for motorcycles, they understand the
codes an conventions of riding, and the thoughts and feelings of being a rider.
This competence provides the basis for why people watch and listen to the MotoVloggers, and that’s
because of the relation. For example relating to riding experiences such as traffic light races and cocky
drivers. The audience understand what its like to deal with idiotic drivers, bad press, the urge for speed,
the pains of bad weather and more. Terminological competence comes in with words such as rev
matching, high siding, low siding, clutchless shifting etc. Many people wont understand the enjoyment in
watching somebody ride from POV and talk about random subjects, but those who ride find it relaxing,
watching the world go by and having time and peace to think. Most riders don’t just utilize their bike as a
form of transport but also use it as an object of leisure, its not just about the bike its about exploring
without being trapped in a steel cage – watching somebodies else experience can be related and almost
similar to the real thing. The style of the videos is visually niche but technically common, most videos are
just large wide angle gopro footage with a mic hooked up inside the riders helmet. Other videos, mainly
when the riders meet up, are very technical. The editing is very sharp and professional, with video
footage utilized off of different MotoVloggers helmet cams in time, such as switching back and forth
from shots as different vloggers speak whilst they ride to each other through a city.
The MotoVlog community is one that has a very deep culture that captures many different opinions and
views, as the motorcycle community is often very divided, with so many MotoVloggers riding different
bikes and fashioning different gear, a neutrality is produced that allows people to relate and share their
differences.
5. FAN CULTURE
The bronies are a fan-culture of ‘My Little Pony’, a cartoon originally aimed at young females
between the ages of 4-10. The brony culture is very prominent online on websites such as
twitter and tumblr. The brony culture is brought off the web and into real life at cosplay
meetups and conventions. Here the fans dress up as their favorite characters and meet other
fans, the conventions involve shows, merchandise and popular icons of the brony culture. The
niche fan culture creates great opportunities for creating business, such as selling merchandise
that will be fashioned by fans of the brony culture.
