LO2 task 3 notes + write up

 Introduction

 Hey everyone, my name is Matthew Ellis and I have been asked by Education Wise to talk to you, this time about the relationship between media producers and their target audiences. 

The first thing we should talk about would be what Ien (yen) Ang and John Hartley discussed. What they thought was that people who create a product also create a fictional character, an imaginary entity, that personifies their target audience as much as possible. This is important for people that

create these products because it gives a target audience to direct our product towards, as if they don't have a target audience in mind the product may not cater to the chosen audience the product is trying to appeal to. For I, Robot the audience profile would be something like;

"Dave is a 18 and he's a die hard fan of action and the classic strong male. Explosions and guns get his blood pumping and fast chase scenes grab his attention. He loves hanging out with the lads in pubs having something to drink, or going out for a game of football. This also influences more than just his interests. this influences his choice of clothing, lifestyle and even his choice of friends.

He likes fast cars, pretty girls and rock music and you can see this with his choice of friends. He's also a guy who likes to take charge, get things done and doesn't shy away from a difficult situation. " With a audience profile created, we can talk about how certain things effect that type of audience member, as they would be I, Robots target audience.(insert the information on from the Photoshop file here).

Gender

In films even gender can have a purpose and a stereotype to an audience. For example the character portrayed by Will Smith in I, Robot, Detective Spooner, is shown to be a strong male with a strong sense of right and wrong, as well as being someone who takes action. He also wears casual, cool looking clothes to better appeal to a male audience. This creates an "ideal self" for the audience. This is theory created by Carl Rogers in 1980, where the audience views that character as a role model and someone they would want to emulate. In this case Detective Spooner is portrayed as a man of action and morals, that is willing to do things to keep people safe. An example of this would be in the scene from the clip 1/5 titled rogue robot. Rather than wasting time searching for the robot in the huge crowd of robots, he deduces that normal robots must not harm a human and that the rogue robot does not follow this rule. So he shoots the robots to flush the robot out or to get a reaction, and when he spots him he charges towards him. This shows the audience that he is a strong character but also a smart one, being able to use his intellect as well as his physical strength.

In the same scene the scientist woman is shown to be sympathetic towards the robots, and apprehensive in taking action. Also Detective Spooner tells the scientist woman to "get the hell outta here" when he starts chasing the robot, showing that he views her as someone who can't handle a dangerous situation. This is a gender stereotype of a damsel in distress needing to be protected, something that a male audience would want to do. This links to the idea that pioneered by John Berger that "Men act, women appear", where women are either there to be saved by the hero who takes the focus of the story, or are just there to be looked at. This makes the audience feel that the scientist character is a character that they would want to protect and someone who would need protecting.

   Another way I, Robot appeals to the male gender would be the "Star persona" theory, by Richard Dyer (1972). This theory states that certain actors can be hired because of their previous roles in films. This could be true for I, Robot as Will Smith is an actor that usually plays in action-comedies, which is very much true for I, Robot as there are many action scenes and through the quips of Will Smiths character it gives it more a light hearted funny tone. Because of the appearance of Will Smith it might appeal to the male audience more as this genre of films is something males enjoy and because Will Smiths previous films tend to be along this genre of film, it might attract them to I, Robot as it is a film that males would enjoy.

Age

Something that is also used in this film to attract the target audience would be the use of age. For example Will Smiths character is a young to middle aged adult in I, Robot and because of this it could appeal to the 18 year old audience as he would be seen as a role model, someone for a teenager to look up to and want to be when they are older. This is because Will Smith's character is strong, smart and is willing to go out of his way to save others. This can be seen in the Demolition scene, where Will Smith is in a house that is being torn down by a demolition robot. In this scene he saves a cat he has just met showing his compassion as a character, he also is very agile in running from the crushing debris and he shoots the hinge of the door so he can push through it, showing that he is smart in high pressure situations. All of these things link to the idea that Will Smith's character is someone that you would want to grow up to be for a male 18 year old, and links to the theory of "Ideal self" by Carl Rogers where you would want to be the character you see.

Another way they have used age to attract their target audience is I, Robot is the use of technology. Because 18 year olds in this day and age are "Digital Natives" (people who have grown up in an era surrounded by technologies, so find it natural to them.) the use of the robots and different futuristic inventions, it appeals more to them as it is more at home to them. Also the advanced technology in the film with the futuristic cars, weapons and robots it could appeal to that teenage sci-fi wonder, where it is seen as appealing and interesting.

The violence in this movie also appeals to the target audience's age, as 18 year olds would like action and violence but large amounts of gore might not appeal to the general teenage audience, and might be too mature for them. I, Robot has violence that is scaled down to mostly non-gore type violence, with most of the violence and "death" being done to the robots. This wouldn't be considered as gory as it isn't an animal or human being that is bleeding or being killed. This also links with the action of the movie, as the movie has a lot of explosions and action which would appeal to a teenage audience. Furthermore the action is not seen as the type of action that would be seen in a tragedy film where the action would cause the suffering of other people, where it might not appeal to a teenage audience as it is a bit graphic. However I, Robots action is very teenage friendly with no gore and explosions being there to enhance the action rather than to take lives.

Lifestyle

The NRS are the National Readership Survey, and their job is to gather information about people and their lifestyles through the use of door to door surveys questionnaires etc. They break the population down into different categories for different things, for example I, Robots audience type is E - urban ventures. This means people like teenagers, people who are coming off age and are smart enough to enjoy complex plots but still enjoy action. This is supported by the fact that the plot in I, Robot is no simple hero defeats villain, it has moral points of view and right and wrong. However the film also has a lot of action to keep teenagers interested if they don't find the plot that appealing. An example of this would be the robots storming the police station. There is a lot of action that is well edited and has a lot of visual effects such as slow motion. Also urban ventures tend to be teenagers, and teenagers have grown up in an age surrounded by technology. the technical term for this is "Digital natives", where they have grown up in an era where technology has advanced rapidly where they are always near some sort of electronic device. I, Robot appeals to these people by having the story set in a world were technology has become more advanced than it is today. An example of the advanced technology would be the robots ability to freely move and think on their own, for example one of the main characters Sonny, a free thinking sentient robot as well as the self driving cars and futuristic guns that Detective Spooner uses. Furthermore the action in the film never becomes gory or graphic and most of the violence is directed towards robots, which appeals to the younger audience of the film. There is also the:

Uses and Gratifications theory (Denis McQuail, 1972) 

Which states there are four reasons that people consume media products and what pleasure they gain from them. These four would be;

Surveillance

Escapism

Building personal identity

Building personal relationships

For I, Robot

 for example the theory of building personal identity could link to the theory of ideal self, and how it  could make people want to emulate a character they find appealing and would want to be more like. Morality is something  the film also uses, which could be used to influence the persons personal identity. The idea of a robot being sentient, is it OK for robots to serve humans and can humans be trusted with their own safety, or will they destroy themselves. Surveillance, would be how about the film talks about how people should protect themselves and what measures should be taken to protect ourselves from ourselves. The film wouldn't be very good Escapism in the normal sense of wanting to escape a bad life into an adventure setting, however it could be used as escapism to live in a more convenient world where robots serve humanity. 

Spending power

The National Readership Survey also categorise people based on the amount of disposable income they would have. In the case of I, Robot I think the audience would be categorised as B - middle class with jobs like intermediate managerial, administrative or professional or C1- lower middle class with jobs such as supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional.

Examples that show how the film reflects this rating would be because the people that would relate more to the technology that is in the film because they would be able to buy the technology compared to the people that wouldn’t be able to buy the technology because they wouldn’t have the money. Another example would be because of the occupation and living of the main character. He works as a detective and lives with his grandmother, a job that would give him a middle class wage and lives with family members. This is something that B and C1 class people would be able to relate to. Also the people who have higher wages and have more important jobs in the company, for example the head of the company that creates the robots Lawrence Robertson (Played by Lewis Greenwood) is suspected by the main character to be evil and corrupt. This could negatively affect the opinion of anyone with a higher grade than B. Also later in the film there is a scene where average people rise up against the robots regime, which would appeal to more of a working class and C1/B audience as it would be fighting the people in charge. The audience would also be able to afford going to the cinema and buying the DVD because the income they would have would allow them to have disposable income to spend on things like that. However I, Robot didn’t have much merchandising, such as T-shirts and toys. This means that even if the audience had the disposable income to buy things such as the soundtrack, toys and T-shirts they were not able to as they weren’t available.