'Uses and Gratifications'

During several of our media studies lessons our class has been exploring the 'Uses and Gratifications' model when trying to understand media.  

The ‘Uses and Gratifications’ model was first introduced by Elihu Katz; he asserted that audiences use media texts for gratification. Katz contended that there are four types ‘Uses and Gratifications’ audiences get from media texts:   

   

• Personal identity: We can get a sense of ourselves and our peer group from media representations.  This is probably particularly important for adolescents.

• Information: The media are full of information which we are at liberty to use.

• Entertainment: We often consume media texts for entertainment.

• Social interaction: The news, films or last night’s television programmes are common topics of discussion; we use the media to feed this social interaction.  The media may also ‘keep us company’: radio, in particular addresses its audience on a personal basis.  We may feel we know characters in, say, soap operas, better than we do our own friends and thus engage in parasocial (interpersonal relationships in which one party knows a great deal about the other, but the other does not) interaction when ‘interacting’ with them.

Vox Pops:

My production team and I put together a focus group made up of people who conform to the decided target audience, in an attempt to obtain more qualitative research data and to explore how we can successfully make sure our production caters to our target audience. We asked them what they liked about watching romance films and here is what they said:

Ayesha: "I really enjoy romances that seem real and not as if it is all a fairy-tale. To think that the storyline is legit and could potentially be happening to someone is a lot more interesting than if the storyline was too farfetched or cringe."

Rebecca: "I like romances because it is something I want to experience in later life and so it is very interesting and exciting as I know I have it to look forward to."

Orlagh: "I like watching romances because it helps me escape from the stresses of school life and helps me wind down."

Annie: "I think it is really important that the main characters are relatable. Someone you empathise or agree with is always enjoyable to watch, like Sid from Skins. Characters that are perfect or too good to be true can often seem untrustworthy and it would be difficult to back them and enjoy the production."

Kate: "To glean inspiration for everyday life. I like that most romances are about two people who come together even with seemingly insurmountable odds against them, it gives me hope."

Significance:

• Enjoy and feel it is vital that you can identify with one of the main characters and that they can't be too perfect.
• Romances or any film genre should provide escapism.
• Romances should provide hope and inspiration for difficult situations people face.
• To have some sort of validity so that it does not seem like a fairy-tale and unimaginable in real life circumstances.
• To provide the audience with anticipation that this will some day happen to them.

Audience Profile

Age: 15-24 years old
Gender: Could be mixed but most likely to be female
Register General's Social Scale: A, B, C1 (mixture)
Selby's Psychographic Cluster: 'Trendies' (people who crave the admiration of their peers) and 'Cynics' (people who have something to complain about).

Description: A typical member of our target audience would be a young female in their late teens, early twenties. They would be someone who is growing increasingly concerned by what others think of them and perhaps craving the admiration of a male or fellow peer. They would also be rather intelligent and studious, but they would feel unfulfilled by life and may suffer from low self-esteem/confidence issues, perhaps maybe because they do not receive enough attention. A comparison can be made with Britt Robertson's character in 'Ask Me Anything' and members of our target audience:

Audience Classification

During our media lessons we have been looking at ways that audiences are classified.

The need to define audiences has been driven by commercial needs.  Many media businesses need to deliver audiences’ eyeballs, or ears, to advertisers in order to be profitable and so the audience needs to be categorised.

The Registrar General’s Social Scale is the way the British Government defines the populace through their occupation:

Group	Occupations
A	Professional Workers (lawyers, doctors etc.), Scientists, Managers of large-scale organisations.
B	Shopkeepers, Farmers, Teachers, White-collar workers.
C1	Skilled Manual (i.e. hand) workers – e.g. high grade, e.g. master builders, carpenters, shop assistants, nurses.
C2	Skilled Manual – low grade, e.g. electricians, plumbers.
D	Semi-skilled Manual, e.g. bus drivers, lorry drivers, fitters.
E	Unskilled Manual, e.g. general labourers, barmen, porters.

A benefit of the Registrar General’s Social Scale is that it can help companies to target audiences. However, the scale has been criticised for being both crude and rigid.

Values, Attitudes and Lifestyles (VALS): Possibly a better way of defining audiences is by categorising them by the values and attitudes they hold and the lifestyle they have; these are psychographic (psychographics is the study of personality, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles) variables.  For example, one of the better known systems is the Values, Attitudes and Lifestyles (VALS):

• Actualisers: Successful, wealthy, dynamic people for whom image is important as an expression of their individuality.
• Fulfilleds: Mature people who are well-educated professionals. This group values order, knowledge and responsibilities.
• Achievers: Successful and career-orientated people.  They are politically conservative and value the status quo.  Image is important to them and they tend to buy established, well-known products.
• Experiencers: Young, impulsive and rebellious.  They like new products and styles but soon tire of them and search for new novelties.  They spend as much as they can afford on clothing, fast food, music and films.
• Believers: Conservative people who believe in traditional institutions, such as the Church, and in the importance of the family and community.  Their lifestyle tends to be very routine.  Their income is small but sufficient.
• Strivers: Tend to be unsure of themselves and have a low income.  They are striving for approval from others, which they feel they could gain by ownership of possessions, most of which they cannot afford.
• Makers: Makers are do-it-yourself enthusiasts and tend to live a conventional, family life.
• Strugglers: Strugglers are on the lowest income and tend to be loyal to their favourite brands.

Selby’s Psychographic Clusters: Similar to the VALs system, Psychographic Clusters is a system invented by Keith Selby:

• Trendies: Who crave the admiration of their peers.
• Egoists: Who seek pleasure.
• Puritans: Who wish to feel virtuous.
• Innovators: Who wish to make their mark.
• Rebels: Who wish to remake their world in their own image.
• Drifters: Who are not sure what they want.
• Drop-outs: Who shun commitments of any kind.
• Traditionalists: Who want things to stay as they are.
• Utopians: Who want the world to be a better place.
• Cynics: Who have to have something to complain about.
• Cowboys: Who want easy money.

Significance: After numerous discussions, as a group we feel that the Register General's Scale is slightly awkward as it is difficult to apply. A problem we face is that we have decided to aim our production at people aged 15-24. This makes it problematic because not many people of this age category have committed themselves to a career path as of yet. Therefore, when applying the Register General's Scale we looked into the occupation of the parents of those members of our target audience. When it came to making a conclusion, we referred to the following tables from the BFI's 2014 Statistical Yearbook:

As mentioned before, our film opening is going to be targeted to a 'niche' audience, therefore, it is very hard to compare our production with any of the successful productions in the BFI's 2014 Statistical Yearbook (Audiences). By not being able to compare our film opening to any of the productions listed and their categories, it limits our ability to put our film into a category. However, due to the fact that it is being targeted for a niche market I would estimate that people falling into the A, B and C1 categories are most likely to enjoy this film the most. But you argue that due to the films simple and easy to understand storyline, anyone from any of the listed categories would enjoy it.

Similarly, my group found that the VALs system and the categories its offering are limiting. They lack space for people towards the younger section of our target audience (15-17) as they are not yet familiar with things like careers or their own family life. The VALs system would work better if our target audience was one of the older generations. Fortunately we did have better luck when exploring Selby's Psychographic Clusters model and found that 'Cynics', 'Egoists' and 'Trendies' are all fairly apt descriptions for our target audience as they are able to relate to the main characters who have these traits.

Secondary Research: Box Office Figures Research

During our media lessons, we felt it important to learn how to distinguish between quantative and qualitative research. We also learnt about how both can be valuable when identifying and catering to a chosen target audience.

Quantitative research is ‘Explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that are analysed using mathematically based methods (in particular statistics)’. The most common form of quantitative research is surveys. Quantitative research is useful for finding out specific information such as ‘Which is the most popular?’ The main benefit of quantitative research is that, if conducted properly, it can provide very accurate statistical information. However, one of the biggest shortcomings of quantitative research is that, whilst it can make it clear what is popular, it provides little insight into why something is popular.

Qualitative research is ‘Research that is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research’. The most common form of qualitative research is interviews. Qualitative research helps to address the why question: it is a means of speculating as to why something is popular. However, unlike quantitative research, qualitative research cannot be measured or quantified accurately.

In order to obtain accurate quantative data, we, as a class, resorted to the BFI's Statistical Yearbook due to the fact it is beyond the scope of any survey  we could ever conduct by ourselves in the time frame given. In the BFI's own words, 'The Statistical Yearbook presents in one place all the available statistics on UK film and the UK film industry.'

In 2014 the 'Romance' genre ranked 13th, this is primarily due to the low percentage of releases (40) in comparison to the top ranking genre (Comedy), which released a total of 136 films. Even though the romance genre ranked quite low, it still manage to earn £15.6 million in terms of Gross Box Office and the top most performing title was 'The Fault in Our Stars'.

In the previous year the 'Romance' genre ranked higher (6th), which is strange because that genre released 11 fewer films that year in comparison to 2014. However in 2012 the 'Romance' genre managed to earn £46.5 million more and the top most performing title was the very popular 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2'.

I think that our film opening would most suit the age range of 15+ due to the nature of the mature themes (long-distance relationship with an ongoing affair). This classification proved to be most popular with the highest number of releases (304). Despite this it did not manage to earn the most money in terms of Gross Box Office. It only earned £293.6, whereas the 12A classification earned £477.7. This is mainly due to the popularity of the top performing title (The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies) and it's successful 'Fantasy' genre, which ranked 4th in 2014 and earned £104.0.

As you can see from the BFI's 'Top 10 '15' classified films, 2014' the romance genre does not rank. This would indicate that this genre attracts a 'niche' audience. As a group we need to investigate how to attract this niche market to our film opening by collecting qualitative data. This will be difficult due to the lack of funds to promote our independent film opening. The following table on the 'Significant greater female audience share' fortifies the point on the fact the romance genre is one that interests a niche market. We had expected to see the romance genres ranking highly with the female audience but there is not a single listing. This has led our group to increase the investment of time spent on trying to find ways to interest the niche audience.

Significance: Romance films are not exactly the most popular of genres with the British public, however this is because most of the BFI's statistics on successful films of 2014 (and previous years) are comparative of the 'mainstream' films, with the top performing romance film being  'The Fault in Our Stars' (2014) and 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2' (2012). Our film was on the different end of the spectrum in terms of 'mainstream' our film opening is more of a niche film; as such, we will have to really consider how we are going to cater for our target audience.

The fact that the most the '15' classification proved to be most popular with the highest number of releases (304) in 2014 was useful information as it proves to us that by rating our film opening a '15' it would gain some popularity within the generation of 15-24 year olds, who seem to take the most interest in media. We were surprised that the romance genre was almost as unpopular with females as it was with males. this could be due to the state of romance films produced in that year or the fact that this genre caters to a niche market, meaning we, as a group, need to investigate further into how we are going to entice this niche audience into our media product.

Primary Research: Audience Profile and Focus Group Information

Who are they and what age bracket do they fall into?

Gender and Education Level

Participant	Gender	Education Level
Memoona	Girl	YEAR 12
Annie	Girl	YEAR 12
Kate	Girl	YEAR 12
Liz	Girl	YEAR 12
Ayesha	Girl	YEAR 11
Chloe	Girl	YEAR 12
Orlagh	Girl	YEAR 12
Rebecca	Girl	YEAR 12

All participants had priorities that included working hard to complete school then to either move on to further education (university) or into the working world.

Motivation and Interests

Participant	Motivation	Interests
Memoona	Success	Horse Riding
Annie	Money	Music
Kate	Nothing	Piercings
Liz	Other people’s success	Comedy
Ayesha	Religion	Deep thinking
Chloe	Other people’s success	Special Effects Make-up
Orlagh	Success	Music
Rebecca	Money	Dance

How do they spend their free time and what are their lifestyles like?

Participant	Free Time Spent	Lifestyle (Active / Leisurely)
Memoona	Working	Active
Annie	Working	Mixture of Both
Kate	Working	Mixture of Both
Liz	Working	Active
Ayesha	Furthering Education	Leisurely
Chloe	Working	Mixture of Both
Orlagh	Extra-Curricular Activities	Active
Rebecca	Dance	Leisurely

How do they spend their money and do they follow any particular fashions?

Participant	Money Spent On	Follow Particular Fashions?
Memoona	Pandora	No
Annie	Clothes	Yes – “Trendy”
Kate	Piercings	Yes – Tumblr
Liz	Food	Yes – Mainstream
Ayesha	Savings	No
Chloe	Make-up	Yes – Mainstream
Orlagh	Food	Yes – Mainstream
Rebecca	Clothes	Yes – “Road”

Who influences them and do they have a role model?

Participant	Influence	Role Model
Memoona	Mother	Mother
Annie	Friends	N/A
Kate	Myself	N/A
Liz	Media	Mother
Ayesha	Religion	“Allah”
Chloe	Media	N/A
Orlagh	Friends	School Teacher
Rebecca	Family	“Myself"