The measuring of an audience is very important to media institutions as the collection and reviewing of their feedback on a product helps producers to create and form products that are suited to their target audience in regard to expectations, engagement, and identification with a product.
Throughout the making and creative processes of my music
video, Digipak and advert, I gained a reasonable amount of audience feedback
through a number of different ways. Firstly, I created an 11 question
questionnaire, which consisted of a mixture of ordinal data questions (‘Yes and
No’), Interval data questions (rating scale) and qualitative data questions
which give the audience the opportunity to voice their own thoughts and
opinions. This mixture of different questions was very useful in gathering
audience feedback, as the questions which required ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers or
sorted answers into categories created quantitative data which made it easier
to organise my feedback and get a better idea of what the strengths and
weaknesses of my products were, and whether or not they were a successful in
conveying the R&B genre. The questionnaire was also very useful as although
it used questions that gathered numeric data, it also allowed the audience to
voice their own specific opinions on what they thought on the final product
through the inclusion of qualitative data questions such as ‘what were your
first impressions of the music video?’ and ‘what are some strengths/ weaknesses
of the music video?’. After putting the
questionnaire together, I gathered a sample of 30 participants, whose ages
began at 16, and asked them to watch my music video and fill out my
questionnaire.
Here is a picture of a participant filling out a questionnaire:
Here is a picture of a participant filling out a questionnaire:
The full set of questions that I included in my
questionnaire are as follows:
| 1.
What Genre of music did you think this music
video was?
This question was necessary for inclusion on the
questionnaire as I needed to see whether or not my music video was recognisable
as one of the R&B genre, and thus whether or not the conventions I used
were recognisable and successful in conveying this.
Out of the feedback I received it was very apparent that
the music video came across as of the R&B genre, as the majority of people
selected this option as a answer, with 4
people also selecting ‘Pop’ as well as ‘R&B’. Not one person selected the
option ‘Pop’ on its own, and no one selected any of the other options. This
clearly indicates that the music video was successful in the use of R&B
conventions. Below Is a pie chart
showing the results from this question.
 2. What strikes you about this music video as being of that particular genre?
I included this question as I needed to back up the data
collected from the first questions, and see whether the conventions used were
noticeable.
However, one person stated in answer to this question
that ‘the music’ was an indicator of the genre rather than the music video.
Which indicates that either the conventions were not successful, or simply that
the person was unsure of the conventions that go into the R&B genre. As
other people I asked seemed to be able to easily recognise conventions that I
had included.
3.
What Genre of music do you usually listen to/
listen to the most?
I included this question in order to establish the
reliability of my results, as someone who listens to a lot of ‘rock’ or ‘metal’
music may not be able to distinguish the differences between ‘R&B’ or ‘Hip
Hop’ as easily as someone who does listen to
and watch music videos of that particular genre regularly. This could
thereby have an effect on what they thought the genre of the music was.
However, I do not think that this had an effect on the results at all, as
people I asked who did listen to music that was not R&B were still able to
tell that the music video was that of the R&B Genre. An example of this can
seen from the following participant who selected the option of ‘R&B’ as
response to question 1, and selected other options such as ‘Acoustic’ and ‘Rock’
on this question.
Here are some pie charts and graphs showing the results
of the questionnaire, keeping in mind that participants were allowed to select
more than one option.
 
The graphs above clearly shows that the majority of the audience who filled
out the questionnaires were fans of the R&B genre, which suggests that my
music video was successful considering that 83% of the 30 people I asked
recognised the video as being ‘R&B’.
4.
What were your first impressions of the music
video?
This question was simply to gain an idea of what people
first thought upon watching the music video, and to see if these first
impressions would affect the answers they gave in the following questions. Many
of the comments given focussed on the setting and the shots that were used, as
well some comments on the metaphor of the string. One participant commented ‘The
setting is beautiful and poignant’, another commenting that they ‘noticed a
variety of settings which aided (their) understanding of the events occurring in
the video’.
5.
Do you think the visuals and narrative of the
video tie in with the lyrics of the music?
This question was to test whether or not the conventions
I used worked. As music videos of the R&B genre usually have visuals that
match the lyrics of the song they are promoting.
Out of the 30 people I asked, 27 people stated ‘Yes’ in
response to this question, and 3 people stated ‘no’. This shows that over all,
I was successful in tying in the visual shots with the lyrics of the music as
90% of people agreed that the visuals matched the lyrics. However, I could
probably have improved the results more by asking why people answered ‘Yes’ or ‘No’
with another qualitative question asking their opinions, as this would give me
an idea on how I could have improved upon matching the song lyrics with the
narrative for the people who responded with the option ‘No’.
 |
6.
Would you watch this music video if it was on
television?
I included this question to test the likability of the
music video, as someone may have liked the music but not liked the video.
7.
What music channels do you watch? (if none,
leave blank)
I included this question in my questionnaire for similar reasons
as to why I included question 3, as someone who watches a lot of rock channels
such as ‘Kerrang’ and ‘Scuzz’, or someone who watches a lot of Dance channels
such as ‘MTV Dance’, ‘DanceNationTV’ or ‘Clubland’ may not be able to identify
with what is expected of an R&B video. And this could possibly have an
effect on the results I gained. This was also necessary for inclusion on the
questionnaire as it could show me if someone of the target audience (i.e. someone
who watches a lot of R&B music channels/ music videos) would recognise my
video as being of the R&B genre, and thus agree with the conventions that I
included.
The results of the questionnaire showed that the people I
asked watched a wide range of music channels, ranging from the Chart Show, Flava,
MTV channels, Viva, Kiss, The Box, Kerrang and Scuzz. However, not one person
left the question blank, which indicates that every person watches at least one
Music channel.
8.
What music channel/s would you expect to see
this music video on?
Participants mostly responded to this question with the
answers ‘MTV’ ‘Flava’ and ‘chart show’. Three channels that play R&B music
regularly, especially ‘Flava’ which is renowned for playing R&B music. This
shows that my video was successful in conveying the R&B genre.
9. Please rate this music video on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being very bad, and 10 being very good)
I used this question to get an idea of simply how
enjoyable people found my music video, and to see if my hard work during the
research, planning and editing processes paid off. The results showed that
overall I received quite high ratings from the audience with 14 people giving
the video a 6 out of 10.
10.
What are some of the strengths/weaknesses of the
music video?
This qualitative data question is one of the most
important from the questionnaire as this would allow me to see specifically
what the target audience thought was good about my music video, and what they
thought I could improve upon. One person commented that ‘the storyline evokes a
lot of emotion that other girls can associate with, well structured’. This
shows me that I have constructed my video well enough so that the storyline is
understandable to the audience, and this also supports the idea that the
narrative matches the lyrics of the music. There were also a few comments on my
lip syncing and editing abilities, one person saying that ‘the lip-syncing was
good’. This shows me that my use of editing in regards to lip syncing is one of
my strengths, and that extensive use of final cut express has helped me improve
my skills in this area. However, a few people commented that they thought my
editing should be a bit faster, this would have made the visuals more exciting
and fit in better with the pace of the song.
11. Any Other Comments?
I included this question just in case participants wanted
to say something about the music video which was not covered by any of the
other questions. Some people commented on the metaphor of the string and the
actress being ‘Trapped’, one person commenting that they ‘liked what the string
symbolised. Although this question did not have the desired outcome, as most
people just wrote ‘Well Done’
Below is a Powerpoint presentation I made displaying 5 completed examples of questionnaires that were filled out over the course of my audience feedback task.
Some other audience feedback which I found really helpful was gained through another task where I stuck pictures of both my advert and my digipak onto an A3 sheet of paper, and asked a select few from my questionnaire task to write down some comments in relation to the pictures.
Below is a picture of this task:
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