Audience- TV Flashcards
Peaky Blinder- Audiences
TARGETED VIA
- Historical setting: Aftermath of ww1 exploring working class struggle, and emergence of organised crime, gives depth to PB and allows audiences to experience a culture that is new to them.
- Complex characters- multi-dimensional with their own motivations, flaws, and personal struggles and their developmen causes audience investment, e.g audiences love for Tommy Shelby to watch his rise to power.
- Soundtrack- contemporary music in a historical setting is a distinctive feature of “Peaky Blinders.”, like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, enhances the atmosphere and adds a post-modern, edgy feel to the show.
APPEAL VIA
- Gangster aesthetic- Shelby family as a powerful and stylish gang in post-war Birmingham, Shelby family as a powerful and stylish gang in post-war Birmingham and rebellion/violence.
- Visual style- distinctive cinematography, set design, and costumes, contributes to unique atmosphere + dark and moody aesthetic enhances the overall experience and immerses viewers + HPV= accurate rep of the time
POSITIONED VIA
- Social and economic realism- Real portrayal and representation of the working class and the challenges they faced adds authenticity.
- Strong Female Characters- independent female characters who play significant roles, Polly Gray/ Ada Shelby challenge traditional gender roles
- Exploration of mental health- Tommys’s PTSD, provides a nuanced representation of mental health struggles within the context of the story.
RESPOND VIA
- Violence and tension- intensity keeps viewers on the edge of their seats and the hot-blooded nature of the narrative offers escapism into the criminal underworld.
- Moral ambiguity- blurring the lines between right and wrong. Characters are faced with difficult choices, and the narrative explores the consequences
- Enigmas- keeps viewers engaged and curious about the fates of the characters, Unpredictable plot twists and revelations add to the suspense.
Peaky Blinders- Audiences theory
- RECEPTION THEORY (stuart hall)
- Dominant- viewers who agree with and enjoy the valorisation of the gangster genre and working-class lives and history.
- Negotiated- Some viewers may enjoy the depictions of industrial areas as vibrant and exciting but may find the stylised violence upsetting.
- Oppositional- may find style of the show off-putting and superficial and the historical accuracy dubious (factually, the Blinders mainly operated in the late 1800s, not the 1920s) + may also reject the use of anachronistic punk and rock music
- CULTIVATION THREORY (david hesmondhalgh)
- cultivates ideas of mean world syndrome (belief that the world is more dangerous than it is because of negative media rep)
- theory is debated but its essential to recognize that media does play a role in shaping perceptions, but individual differences, personal experiences, other variables also contribute to one’s worldview.
- FANDOM THEORY (Henry Jenkins)
-Textual Poaching- participatory culture- prosumerism- is increasing due to the rise of culture embracing digital technologies - PB credited with fuelling a cultural Renaissance in Birmingham
- Knight has spoken about a ‘cultural cringe’ in this locality, he wrote PB to mythologies the class of people who are never normall focussed on like this.
- Peaky Blinders Festival in Digbeth attended by 20,000 people – including the Mayor of Birmingham
The Bridge- Audience
AUDIENCES TARGETED VIA:
- Age: 15+
- Gender: Cross-gender appeal– female audiences may identify with Saga (role model) and males with her partners (e.g. Henrik)
- Social class: left-wing values of SVT 1 and DR1, would cater for a working-class leftwing Scandinavian audience- social and gender equality
But the challenging narrative targets middle class.
- Lifestyle and Taste: those interested in Scandinavian culture.
Experiencers may enjoy the vicarious thrill of crime drama narratives.
TEXT TARGETS VIA
- Genre: fans of Nordic noir –more alternative/niche audience.
- Star: Saga can be perceived as a role model- popular and admired due to the success of the serial
- Scandinavian Culture: Audiences interested in all things Scandinavian, including ex-patriots of the area who have moved elsewhere - familiar pleasures
MARKETING TARGETS VIA
- Social media: heavy online social media presence, offering audiences exclusive trailers, and articles,
FB page -18k likes and 17k followers.
Twitter page promotes audience interaction- questions and debates.
Insta= behind the scenes content
WHAT PLEASURES DO AUDIENCES GAIN:
- Audience expectations of genre- pleasure in seeing it fulfilled
- Enigmas- intellectual puzzles= pleasure
- Escapism- diversion as audiences enter another world/country, heightened by subtitles
POSITIONED-
- Positioned with Saga & the restricted narrative means that we only know what she knows. We therefore seek answers to enigmas
- fulfils the audience’s need for belonging or social needs (uses and grants)
- positioned to decode Saga as “different” (lack of social awareness) but sympathetic and vulnerable – relationship with her mother
- Positioned with the forces of law & order to see certain criminal behaviours as deviant.
The Bridge- Audience Theory
Uses and Gratification- Blumer and Katz
- Personal Identity - Audiences identify with Saga or other characters. Which helps shape their values and behaviours.
- Diversion - escapism. We follow the leads, examine the clues and question the suspects alongside the protagonist
Reception theory-
- Preferred reading – a “quality” crime drama, driven by enigmas and a classic investigative narrative. Will be enjoyed by fans of Nordic noir in particular.
- Negotiated - A more conservative audience may respond negatively to the Swedish liberal attitudes to sex, gender and political correctness.
- Oppositional reading may struggle to find Saga a sympathetic character. Audiences may view her apparent autism with concern or find it difficult to connect to her emotionally as her responses are so different to our expectation and she lacks humour and emotional intelligence.
