A2 media Television Industry - Audience Homework

1a) Identify the main target audience of Mad Men
- AMC's Mad Men is targeted at a niche and more active audience. You can see this through the use of typical conventions used to attract these types of audiences. 

1b) Identify one way the text has been encoded to appeal to that type of audience.
- One way in which Mad Men has been encoded to target an active audience is its use of only diegetic sound, and almost non existent use of score.

1c) justify how that point/technique/convention would gratify your previously identified audience.
- An active audience like to read into a text by questioning the meaning and connotations behind the narrative, therefore, would be gratified by Mad Men's small use of score as they will have to decode the feelings and emotions behind characters without being told, unlike J.J Abrahms' 'Lost', Where the use of score is used regularly to tell a passive reader how to feel in a certain moment in time.

1d) Describe a narrative sequence where this point/technique/convention is present.
- An example of this is during the scene where Peggy finally quits her job. You can tell by the narrative and acting that Don is unhappy, however there is no score to enforce that, therefore the text could no be read easily through passive eyes.

2) Does Lost target a passive audience? Justify your answer.
- Lost targets a passive audience though conventions such as; a use of score, use of constant enigma codes shortly answered, and by using non-linear narrative.

3) identify how lost is encoded to gratify a passive audience.
- Lost is encoded to gratify a passive audience by its use of score, this would gratify a passive audience as it allows them to decode the text easily by prompting them how to feel at a specific moment.

4) Justify one point/technique/convention that would force Mad Men's audience to decode the text actively in order to gain gratifications.
- A convention used to decode actively in Mad Men would be it's minimal use of score. This enforces the audience to read into the narrative to be able to understand the feelings and emotions that they should be feeling in a certain scene of moment.

5) Explain and justify how Peaky Blinders has been encoded to gratify both passive and active audiences.
- A way which peaky blinders has been encoded to gratify an active audience is though using historical references that an active audience will need to know about of have knowledge on to decode the text. An example of this is when Tommy and others are burning pictures of the king around the fire. However Peaky Blinders can gratify a more passive audience through its use of popular sound tracks. For example using the soundtrack of the White Stripes helps the passive audience to feel a certain way without having to understand the historical context.

6) Justify the statement "Lost is encoded to be inclusive"
- You can see that Lost is encoded to be exclusive by the conventions such as; ensemble cast and hybrid genre, used to attract a wider, more passive, mainstream audience which therefore attracts a larger audience.

7) Why does the use of score appeal to a more passive audience?
- The use of score appeals to a more passive audience as it is used to directly tell the audience how to feel and read the text, allowing the audience to be able to decode the text without much effort.