Unit 6: Critical Approaches to Creative Media Products - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Unit 6: Critical Approaches to Creative Media Products

Ethan Mclaughlin Slide2

Task 2 – Media Texts and Audience

For this task you must

analyse

the content of a music video and explain how it could be interpreted by different audiences and why.

You must refer to a

audience theory in your answer Slide3

Song- The Real Slim Shady

The Real Slim Shady is a song from rapper Eminem, It appeared on his third album, The Marshall Mathers LP

Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJO5HU_7_1w

The music video was directed by Phillip G. Atwell

Atwell has worked numerous Eminem music videos including, “My Name Is”, “Cleaning Out My Closet” and “Stan”Slide4

Different interpretations- Eminem Fans

This is has many different interpretations depending on the audience member, firstly for fans of Eminem they see it as one of his best and most iconic songs, with the excellent flow and word play he is known for as well as the ability to tell a story and get across some sort of message. To me, and many other Eminem fans, the song sends the message that you can be rebellious, embrace your wild side and to not care what anyone else thinks about you. Slide5

Different interpretations-General Public

This sentiment is not shared by the general public however, who at the time of its release and still today think this song is offensive for a number of different reasons, mostly for making fun of serious issues, insulting people or simply being inappropriate. All of these reasons I will cover in the following slides. Slide6

Different interpretations- Parents

An audience that would interpret video very differently from others would be parents of younger children. I imagine that a lot of parents would interpret this video and the song as very offensive and something they wouldn’t want their children to listen to as it has a lot of swearing and rude imagery and lyrics. Slide7

Different interpretations- LGBT Community

Eminem has often been criticised for his homophobic lyrics and slurs in various different songs including “The Real Slim Shady”

A gay marriage is shown about 1 minute into the video and just before the 2 men kiss Eminem breaks them up and has a look of disgust on his face , members of the LGBT community interpreted this part of the video as Eminem showing that he is outright against gay marriage and doesn't think it should be allowed.

This would obviously alienate LGBT audience members. Even though the line in the song is “t

hen there's no reason that a man and another man can't elope” people thought the visuals alone were very homophobic Slide8

Different interpretations- Mental illness

A lot of this music video has scenes that take place within a

psychiatric ward, and the patients are being treated unfairly with the staff being aggressive by hitting and roughly handling the patients, also at the beginning of the video we see two staff members not caring about what they’re doing and throwing pills randomly into different cups.

Some people may have interpreted this as an insult to the mentally ill, people may think the video is trying to say that they are less than human and shouldn’t be treated with the same respect as a regular person Slide9

Different interpretations- Domestic Abuse

There is a line in the song that references the domestic abuse that actress Pamela Anderson suffered at the hands of her then husband, Tommy Lee. The line is:

 ”Tommy just burst in the door, and started

whoopin

' her ass worse than before, they first were divorced,

throwin' her over furniture” Victims of domestic abuse or people who have friends or family that suffer/ suffered may interpret this as making light of a very serious problem and that Eminem simply doesn't care about it, this line and other from various song lead people to believe Eminem was a

misogynist

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Audience Theory

There are four main effects models for audience theory: hypodermic needle model, two-step flow, uses and

gratifications and

reception

theory. I

think that the all of these theories apply to the music video for

“The Real Slim Shady” The different effects models are a good way to show how and why different audiences respond differently to the same media

productHypodermic needle theory is basically when an intended message is directly received and accepted by an audience member, this is the case for message of the song that I spoke about earlier, where the audience directly picks up on what Eminem is trying to say.

Reception theory is when an audience member has to interpret a meaning of something based on their life experiences and cultural background, this applies to the thing I’ve mentioned before like domestic abuse and the LGBT community as they base their interpretation of the video on their experiences. Slide11

Audience Theory

The two step flow theory is when opinion leaders (famous people/ people in the public eye) pass information along with their interpretation onto others. This could apply to “The Real Slim Shay” where audience members take on Eminem’s opinions on subjects like gay rights. This shows how different audience respond differently as some people may by more influenced by the opinions of famous people than others

Another effect model is the Uses and Gratifications theory (UGT) which is basically when people use the media to gain specific gratifications, I think this applies to “The Real Shady” for peoples personal identity, they may look to the song or the video to reinforce their personal values, meaning that these people may be homophobic and listen to the song to reinforce this belief, they then respond positively to the product as they think it lines up with their opinions Slide12

Conclusion

Its very clear form my case study of “The Real Slim Shady” that many different people can have many different interpretations of a media product.

These different interpretations are dictated by peoples

opinions, beliefs

and thoughts on various issues and subjects.

It is also based on what effect model applies to them.