EVALUATION

QUESTION 3

 Who did I
ask?

My results from my focus group were reliable as I

asked a cross section of society, I asked three distinct
groups within the focus group. Including an older white
middle class demographic. A diverse ethnicity youth
demographic. And also a lower socio-economic
teenage demographic. Allowing me to receive both a
mass and niche response from the same content. My
most important responses will come from my target
demographic of the sixth-form, youth audience. My key
target audience within this focus group are of the
diverse ethnicity youth demographic as some were
part of the metal fan sub-culture.

 Analysis of audience response

Subject A, a young white female. was asked what do you think is the message
being sent by this music video? The subject gave me a preferred reading as they
told me that the video contained themes of conformity vs. non-conformity and that
the female protagonist was shown as struggling against society.
Subject B, a young black male, was asked How do you think the female in the
video was portrayed? This subject said that the girl was shown as a strong female
protagonist and that she was not sexualised. This is a preferred reading and shows
that I was successful in the portrayal of my Female protagonist.
Subject C, a young black male was also asked How do you think the female in the
video was portrayed?. This time I received an oppositional reading as he believed
that the female character was shown as weak due to her psychological damage. He
interpreted it as the character was only strong on the outside through the smashing
of plates and that inside she was damaged by society and weak.
The same subject was then asked what kind of message do you think the music
video is getting across. He believed that the message to the video was about how
people within society put on a happy face when really inside they can be suffering
and struggling. This is a valid interpretation of the video, it is not the main ideal, but

 Quality of response and assessment of research of

methods

Qualitative approach meant that I had a number of positives and negatives. To

start the focus group engaged with the product and were involved in a range of
discussion about the video. Even the subjects from outside of my target
audience were providing me with preferred readings of my product. On the other
hand I would have preferred to have gotten more subjects from my target
audience, as I believe that is the only way I could have gotten data that was
more effective. The qualitative data that I received from my written
questionnaires were very similar to those in my focus group. Asking a similar
range of subjects whilst including a younger, less socio-econimcally developed
demographic. This demographic gave me a negotiated reading as they agreed
that the video was considering issues with society, but they interpreted the
video as an internal struggle within the female protagonists head.
My quantitative data provides a fast and accessible was to give me an
understanding of the information that I am trying to understand. However it is a
closed form of response and this means it does not allow the audience to
provide varied readings of a product and I cannot determine who they are as an
audience member. For example from my quantitative data I was able to see
that 65% of all the people I asked thought that my video conformed to the codes

 Overall findings
Overall I have found that my product was met with a very positive response
particularly with the niche audience. Chloe Harvey (Young, white Female 18)
said that the narrative was portrayed very well, she was able to identify with
the Female characters struggle and overall she said that the video linked with
my digipak and poster well encourage her to purchase the album. This was
the most positive response I received.
One thing I found was that one audience member mentioned that my digipak
and poster used a monochromatic theme, which is not present within the
video itself. They questioned this and thought that maybe this was a weak
choice but I was able to explain that the poster and digipak utilised a
monochromatic theme to link to the darkness and mystery of the metal
genre that the target audience were used to seeing, linking to Steve Neales
theory of repetition.
Another thing an audience member picked out was that they would have
liked to have seen either another narrative included within the video or they
would have liked me to extend the narrative that is already in the video to
show what has caused the female protagonists struggle and anger.