Task 6

Task 6 – Theories

Hypodermic Needle Theory

The hypodermic needle theory injects thoughts into the audience, it influences and changes opinions. For example, Red Bull are now associated with stunts all because they stick their logo on bikes and stunt cars. It makes aspirational characters so if you are buying a product then you are buying a lifestyle. Films and advertising have a direct impact and they assume that all the audience response the same. The theory is all about copying, so for Star Wars, people could pretend to fight each other which objects that they might associate with lightsabers, especially children. If you copy something from a film, you are being passive because you are allowing yourself to become what you see. Using the hypodermic needle theory to Star Wars, people would be very passive towards the film and try to copy it. For example, the villain Kylo Ren kills a lot of people in the film and so people that would have been to watch the film would be out killing people exactly how Kylo Ren did in the film. People’s opinions would be changed and they would just agree, so if Kylo Ren says that the downfall of the rebellion is the right thing, then people would agree. People would think that they can do whatever they just saw on the screen and this is what the theory thinks would be the case to the whole of the audience that has been to see the film. For my focus group, if i was going by the hypodermic needle theory, people would be very passive about me showing them the trailer and would be acting accordingly to the theory. The few in my group would be jumping all around the place pretending to fight each other with lightsabers and acting as if the can use the force. People would be thinking they can do exactly what they see in the film, which isn’t humanly possible as the film is sci-fi/fantasy. My focus group did not have this effect on people because people were neither changed nor inspired by the trailer. The way this has been shown in my focus group is the way that i had tried to change people’s opinion on the film to try and get them to want to see the film. Therefore, this failed for my focus group because the two people that hadn’t seen the film still didn’t want to go and see the film, i could not change their mind about the film and they were still active about the film, whereas jack would want to go and see it again.

Maddy – “I didn’t like the film in itself but liked the camera quality” ” I dislike the fact that it is in space and is just unrealistic.”

This is Maddy’s active audience response, this is proof that the theory obviously didn’t apply to her.

Uses & Gratifications Theory

This theory looks at an active audience, the theory thinks that you may watch a film for five different films, to: be informed and educated, entertained, identity, integration & social interaction and escapism. This means that people will be watching something to be informed and educated about a certain subject to learn something, or they might watch something to aspire to be someone which is social identity. Using the uses & gratifications theory for Star Wars, people are a lot more active in this theory. People would be watching the film to be entertained, for identity, for integration and social interaction and for escapism. This is because Star Wars is a big mainstream film and so its purpose would of course be to entertain people, people also like to watch the film because they aspire to be like the characters in the film (mainly children because they are highly influential and want to be what they see), they also watch the film because it is such a big film, probably one of the biggest of the year so a lot of people will be talking about it so some people would watch it because it will definitely be a topic that will come up with their friends, work colleagues etc so people will watch it so they have the knowledge of that film so they will be able to talk about it to other people who will have seen it. Lastly, people will watch it for escapism, this is because people will watch a film to escape into someone else life for a bit, just to get a feeling of what is it like to be someone else. Children are more easily influenced as they are still learning and they will also imitate what they see. For my focus group, people didn’t really watch the trailer to aspire to be anyone, to be educated or to be informed neither entertained. Two out of three people in my focus group disliked the trailer a lot which shows that they weren’t watching it for any other reason the for integration and social interaction after watching the trailer. This was so thy could talk about how much they dislike it. Then again the third of the group who did enjoy it was also watching it for the social interaction afterwards but he did enjoy it and was also watching it for entertainment because he has already seen the film, it might also link in with escapism because he liked to watch it because he liked the film. The way this has been shown in my focus group is one of the people in my group had a reaction according to the uses and gratification theory, this was that he showed a previous love for the genre and that it is entertainment for him.

Jack – “I like the Star Wars films, i am generally just a sci-fi fan”

This shows that for Jack, the trailer is just reinforcing his opinion on the film.

Reception Theory

This is the theory that the people that make films have a specific code for what they want the film to be and then the audience of the film will be the people who will be un-coding the film. There are three ways to uncode a film, you can either have a dominant response, negotiated response or an oppositional response. For mainstream films the meaning of the film would normally be that good defeats evil and so if you side with the good, then you are dominant, but if you take the villains side and take the other message then you are being oppositional to the film because you aren’t going with what they want you to go with. Using the reception theory for Star Wars would mean that if people were to watch the film, they might have one of three different approaches to the film. People might see the heroes of the film and think that they would be the people who they would back and they want the heroes to defeat the villains in the film, this would be a dominant response because it is what the makers of the film intended that message to be. If you were to be a bit questionable on the films message and maybe you don’t know what is being intended then that makes you have a negotiable response. If you respond to the film completely against what the makers intended the message to be and you think that the villain should be the one that comes out on top and all the heroes should be killed because you think that what Kylo Ren wants is the right thing, then you are giving a very oppositional response to the film which isn’t what the message was to be. The way that this was shown in my focus group was the way that Jack has a dominant response, this shows that my focus group worked because if jack would not have given a dominant response, he therefore would’ve had an oppositional response. 

Erin – “I would like to see more of Chewbacca.”

This is a negotiated response from Erin, it shows that she is a potential target audience for the franchise and would see the film with just a few adjustments to it.

Reception Theory

For the focus group, all of them understood who the heroes were and who the villain was, this makes them dominant because they understand the codes of the film. But, two of the people in my group questioned what was actually happening which makes the negotiable. One of the people in my group said they liked the villain and that they wanted to see more of him in the film, i thought this was oppositional because you are not supposed to like the villain of a film, but for my film, they try to make you take pity on him until he does something bad so technically liking the villain for my film is still dominant because that’s what they want you to feel and think.

Passive Audience

Being passive is when you just don’t react to the content you are watching, you purely agree and don’t question it at all. If you accept the codes of Star Wars, then you are being passive, if you see someone being killed and just accept it and don’t react then you are just being passive about what you are seeing.

Active Audience

Being active is when you actively respond to something. For example, being inspired to be like a character out of a film, this could be after you watch Star Wars, you could want to be one of the characters from the film. Being active is also when you question what you see for example if someone dies, you don’t just accept it because it has some movement on your mind, you aren’t just passive. It means you have an opinion on something you may watch. For example, our focus group, everyone was actively watching it because they had to give their opinion afterwards and show their personal opinion which makes them active.

Impact of violent/sexual content

The impact of violent and sexual content is a very controversial topic, especially with film, games and television. People argue that watching something or playing something can affect the way you think towards a certain topic and make you act the same and another side fights that it isn’t possible that it can make you change your ways. Personally, i don’t think that just by watching a film or playing a violent game that you will go out and commit the same events that you have just witnessed on a screen, unless you are mentally unstable already, or you’ve had a bad upbringing and you have been brought up to know that violence is acceptable. As an example, James Holmes went on a rampage in a cinema during The Dark Knight Rises in Colorado in July 2012. He played violent games such as World Of Warcraft. This gives media ammunition, pardon the pun, to keep on showing how games and films are affecting people and setting them on killing spree’s

Bobo Doll Experiment

This is an experiment that was carried out to see if children, who are easily influenced, became violent after watching a violent video. There were two different groups, one watched the violent video and the other group watched something that wasn’t violent and then both groups were let into a room at different times and it showed that the group that had watched the violent video were more violent towards the bobo doll whereas the group that had watched the non-violent video weren’t violent towards it at all.

Cultural Competence

I think this theory gets really personal with the audience and everyone would react in a different way. The film appeals to everyone on the NRS social grade but if i was to pick one it would be D because the fight for survival is relatable to people in that grade. For my focus group, peoples response links to their social grade inferring that people with a lower social grade are more effected by the mass media than people with a higher social grade. 

Maddy – “Films like this don’t really appeal to me”

Maddy is from a working class background and typically would have a particular cultural competence because she has studied media studies, but was unaffected by this trailer. This shows that the cultural competence theory is not as well rounded as perhaps the uses and gratifications, but she might have a better preference on other types of films.

Fan Culture

 Star Wars has such a massive fan base, there is so much merchandise available for the film for older people just as much as children. There has been a game made for the franchise by developers ‘EA DICE’ and also a lego version of the franchise, there are special events held around the year including Star Wars marathons, comic-con and Star Wars conventions. There are parts of the film sets and costumes at the National Museum of Cinema in Italy, and there are also so many fan films made about the franchise along with comics etc. Fans of the franchise have been known to create fan art, theories, fun days and clubs dedicated to the hardcore fans of the film where they meet up and discuss the franchise.