Evaluation: Question 3 - What have you learned from audience feedback?

I used audience feedback throughout this project in different shapes and forms. To begin with I researched into the audience and asked the audience to feedback on existing products, so I know what is suitable. Then once the project was underway, I asked for feedback at different points in production, just to check I was going along the right lines to meet the gratifications of my audience. Once I had finished my project I set about gaining audience feedback on all three of the completed tasks. Instead of just talking to people face-to-face or asking people to fill out a questionnaire I used social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to reach the audience and obtain feedback from them.  By doing this I ensured that as many people as possible saw my work and also left feedback.

For the music video, some of the feedback I received was from other media students so their responses were backed up by their knowledge of the subject and contained more technical references (as seen in Syra's comment to the right).

Others commented generally on their overall opinion on the video. In Julie's comment (seen on the right) there is clear evidence to back up Hall's reception theory. We can clearly see through Sian and Julie's comments' that the video has not been just passively accepted by the audience, but that the individual viewer has interpreted the meanings of the text based on their individual cultural background and life experiences. Julie has taken the preferred reading, whereas Sian has had a oppositional reading as to what the song and video means to her. For the majority of the audience the two actors and their role in the video gave something to relate to for the majority of people because many people have been in the situation of arguing with a partner. This encourages the audience to take the preferred reading but also opens up scope to be used for their own uses and gratifications.

Some audience member could even take this to using it for personal identity, possibly gaining messages and understand, especially from the situations of the couple featured in the video. In Julie's second comment she mentions a 'mistake' this is not something the video directly tells the viewer. She has taken the arguments and struggling of the couple and from her own judgement labelled it as a mistake, from the video she is taking away a message that when the man is seen texting another girl it is 'wrong' and 'a mistake'.

I had a range of other comments, mostly praising my work, saying how professional, well thought out and also time consuming it looks. I did also have a few people mention that the text on the advert might be slightly hard to read, if placed at a distance (like Sophie in the comment above). The opacity and possibly the font of the text on the advert would probably be one of the thing I would change if I were to do this project again. However I still received many comment saying how eye-catching both of the print texts were. So possibly where the text let me down, the images and the effects added to the digipack and advert held it together.

Summary of audience feedback..
Overall throughout the production process I was able to learn from the feedback I received from the target audience by the means of facebook. I dramatically changed the layout of both my advert and the front cover of the digipack because the audience said it was too boring and predictable. The changes can be seen either side..

But mainly since the project's completion I am able to reflect on decisions I have made and decide whether they were the right ones for the target audience. Apart for some comments on the clarity of the text for the advert all in all I think the project was a success and reached the target audience in the intended way. But however, following Hall's reception theory, it has left the audience to use the video for their own uses and gratifications, and also in Julie's case we can clearly see she has taken the intended message that the couple portrayed.