AMC's and Matthew Weiners critically acclaimed Mad Men is a niche text targeting an active audience, which is not encoded to gratify a mainstream audience. As Mad Men goes against typical mainstream conventions, the audience has responded in a numerous ways.
The audience of Mad Men have responded via social networking sites, Charlie Collier, the president of AMC mentioned how they brought out a game in which you could go make an avatar based on Mad Men and then share it on a social networking site where others could see their avatars, and of course, the name of the show. There are also other games such as 'the personality test', this enables the audience to connect more with the show and compare themselves with other Mad Men.
Thursday 30 January 2014
Thursday 23 January 2014
How does Lost attract it's audience
JJ. Abrams Lost attracts a wide, mainstream audience. Lost has been encoded to be inclusive, both active and passive audience can be gratified by it.
The texts usage of mainstream narrative conventions are what bring in such a large audience. First off, Lost is a hybrid, it uses conventions of Action, Fantasy & Adventure. During Kates flashback of the plane crash, there is a usage of fast editing when the plane first starts going down and also the usage of special effects when the back of the plane is ripped off taking some of the passengers with it, these two techniques are very typical of the action drama. Lost also links in with the Adventure and Fantasy genre, as 20 minutes in to the episode, Kate, Charlie, Shannon, Boon, Sawyer and Said go on a 'quest' through the jungle to reach high ground to get signal for the radio, a quest for the characters to complete is often set in the Adventure and Fantasy genre. Abrams decided to make Lost a hybrid text to make sure those who have an oppositional reading of individual genres, aren't unable to watch the show, making the text able to be watched by more people, making it a mainstream text.
The texts usage of mainstream narrative conventions are what bring in such a large audience. First off, Lost is a hybrid, it uses conventions of Action, Fantasy & Adventure. During Kates flashback of the plane crash, there is a usage of fast editing when the plane first starts going down and also the usage of special effects when the back of the plane is ripped off taking some of the passengers with it, these two techniques are very typical of the action drama. Lost also links in with the Adventure and Fantasy genre, as 20 minutes in to the episode, Kate, Charlie, Shannon, Boon, Sawyer and Said go on a 'quest' through the jungle to reach high ground to get signal for the radio, a quest for the characters to complete is often set in the Adventure and Fantasy genre. Abrams decided to make Lost a hybrid text to make sure those who have an oppositional reading of individual genres, aren't unable to watch the show, making the text able to be watched by more people, making it a mainstream text.
Tuesday 14 January 2014
Lost
The television series Lost is a mainstream text, in which the majority of the audience are passive, they simply watch the show and enjoy. We know this from it's usage of technical conventions and narrative.
The first convention that makes me believe this is a mainstream text is in the first minute of the second episode, a non-linear narrative. We start off by seeing 3 characters walking in the forest, we assume this is where the entire show will be set, however, we then suddenly get a close up of a male character and then a cut to this same character sat on a plane, this is a flashback, which is a very mainstream technical convention.
Another convention that makes me believe this is a mainstream text is the usage of lots of enigma codes. Enigma codes are usually shown just before an advert break to make sure the audience come back for more, this is very commonly used. One or two examples of this are when John Lock and Walt are on the beach, they are both having a friendly chat on the beach discussing an old game, when all of a sudden there is a change in the music score, it becomes much darker, a close up and zoom is then used on John to whom then says 'wanna know a secret?', the clip then changes. Another example of an enigma code is right at the end of the episode, when a group of our characters have gone on a hike, to then find out a loop of 'help me, please save me, it killed them all' being played through a radio transmission for 16 years, the score then once again reflects the mood and Charly says 'Guys, where are we?', it then cuts to the end of the episode.
Another convention which adheres to the mainstream is
The first convention that makes me believe this is a mainstream text is in the first minute of the second episode, a non-linear narrative. We start off by seeing 3 characters walking in the forest, we assume this is where the entire show will be set, however, we then suddenly get a close up of a male character and then a cut to this same character sat on a plane, this is a flashback, which is a very mainstream technical convention.
Another convention that makes me believe this is a mainstream text is the usage of lots of enigma codes. Enigma codes are usually shown just before an advert break to make sure the audience come back for more, this is very commonly used. One or two examples of this are when John Lock and Walt are on the beach, they are both having a friendly chat on the beach discussing an old game, when all of a sudden there is a change in the music score, it becomes much darker, a close up and zoom is then used on John to whom then says 'wanna know a secret?', the clip then changes. Another example of an enigma code is right at the end of the episode, when a group of our characters have gone on a hike, to then find out a loop of 'help me, please save me, it killed them all' being played through a radio transmission for 16 years, the score then once again reflects the mood and Charly says 'Guys, where are we?', it then cuts to the end of the episode.
Another convention which adheres to the mainstream is
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