To what extent do the media products in your case study do more than just entertain their audience(s)?

In our cross-media study we have been learning about different ways in which documentaries and the music industry influence and maintain their various audiences. The key aim of these different industries is to entertain and please their target audience but there are other aims such as to inform and to include the viewers or consumers. Channel 4’s documentary ‘My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding’ is an entertaining, yet informative mix of the Reflexive Mode and the Performative Mode of British documentary. The programme is designed to give an insight into the Gypsy lifestyle using the Uses and Gratifications theory of integration and social interaction as viewers are interested in the culture’s lifestyle and values. In the opening segment of the programme, a Twitter ‘hashtag’ is placed at the bottom of the screen which says ‘#bigfatgypsyweddings.’ This hashtag allows the audience to post on the social networking site Twitter and share their personal thoughts and opinions on the documentary. These ‘tweets’ are then read by others on the website, ‘retweeted’ and shared allowing a personal opinion to form on the internet. This mode of esteem links to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding has been harshly criticised over the past couple of years for representing the Gypsy Traveller community in a more negative than positive way. The entertainment aspect was overshadowed by the controversy of the racist and unrepresentative portrayal of the culture. There were many complaints made over the advertising campaign for the second series as images of sexualised teenage girls and a young boy with an aggressive facial expression were released all over Britain with the slogan ‘Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier.’ The Advertising Standards Agency deemed the broadcasters, Channel 4, as irresponsible as the print campaigns reinforced already deep seeded stereotypes of the Gypsy community and did no positive favours for those involved. The slogan was also considered a racial dig at the ethnic group as the word ‘gypsier’ was deemed derogatory and upset many members of the public. Barthes theory of the Hermeneutic Truth is used within the documentary leaving the audience wondering whether things are as they seem. Examples of this theory being used are shots of couples looking for a wedding venue and having gloomy expressions – it is later revealed that the groom is due in court several days before the wedding. Twitter is also widely associated with the music industry. Many musicians and artists use the site to interact on a more personal level with their ‘followers’ or fans. Famous pop star Rihanna is well known on Twitter for sending tweets to her fans or to other celebrities. This is to promote herself as more than just a pop star and show her fans that she too is just like them. Rihanna regularly posts photos of herself having fun with her friends, getting her make-up done before photoshoots and even the odd funny picture of herself. She also uses the site Instagram to edit her photos - this is another social networking site which allows fans to feel a personal connection to the star. Alternative Rock band Muse tweeted a photo to the site before the 2013 Brit Awards showing lead vocalist and guitarist Matt Bellamy outside a tube station in London. The ideology of the photo is to inform their fans that they are travelling similarly to how many of them travel around the capital and this represents them in a realistic and approachable manner. An example of personal influence in the music industry can be found in the creation of British band Everything Everything’s single called Photoshop Handsome, originally released in July 2009 which was not received well. They felt that they needed some sort of gimmick to promote themselves, so in 2010 they decided they would re-shoot the music video for the song - the difference being that members of the public would actually create the video. The band shot the video of themselves miming the lyrics against a green screen and contacted 'Photoshoppers' from all over the world asking if they would like to partake in their project. The animators who responded were sent 2-5 second clips from the video (400 in total) and told they could edit the clip however they wanted using the editing programme. Geffen (the label who Everything Everything are signed to) thought some of the clips were dubious but it added to the effect of the song and carried the message. Many of the animators who took part in the project posted on the internet what was happening and what they had been asked to do, this created a lot of excitement on forums and blogging websites as there was a lot of anticipation for how this video would turn out. This example is a unique way for members of the public to have more influence on the creation of a music video and does more than just entertain them on a later date, second hand. Justin Bieber also used an effective promotional technique on social networking site Twitter, claiming some secret footage of him was stolen and a mystery user on the website was going to release the footage and upload it to YouTube and Vevo at midnight. This sparked up lots of interest in internet users and thousands went on the website to watch the footage which was actually Justin Bieber’s new music video for his single ‘Beauty and a Beat.’ The whole thing was set up in order to promote the new video and gain ‘buzz’ across the internet, especially Twitter. This promotion technique kept the audience interested in the situation as it was unravelling as they were led to believe the events were genuine. Using Hall’s theory of Reception, it can be understood that the preferred reading of Justin Bieber’s tweets are that the audience are concerned about the stolen footage and worried about the outcome. Whereas the negotiated reading is that people whose social position is outside that of the target audience may find the tweets intriguing – they may still watch the footage but will be sceptical. The oppositional reading of the tweets will be completely cynical one and the reader and not believe a word of it. BBC2 documentary maker Louis Theroux made a series of documentaries titled ‘Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends’ which were in the Participary Mode of documentaries. These were very successful as he uses a unique style of interviewing and presenting. His subjects were American subcultures – an interesting and topical subject which many are curious to know more about. Subcultures such as wrestlers and pornographic actors are interviewed in the series and each one is unique and provides the audience with genuine information, straight from the source. Louis Theroux aims not to entertain, but to provide an in-depth insight and sense of voyeurism for the audience. This links to the Uses and Gratifications theory, not just because it is entertainment but it provides information about a subculture they want to learn about, personal identity as it could provide a gain of insight into themselves and finding models of behaviour, but most of all social interaction as the documentary allows the viewer to gain an insight into the personal circumstances of others and create a sense of empathy.