Audience Theory - 'The Face'

Uses & Gratifications: The audience is likely to watch this programme for a variety of reasons, for example diversion/escapism as the programme is about models and the fashion industry so for many it is an exclusive look at a different lifestyle. People who enjoy these programmes may want to watch for surveillance reasons to learn more about this industry and how it works. Social interaction plays a big role in modern programmes as the website for 'The Face' has already demonstrated that they will be using hashtags for the programme name and also each top model judge so that the audience can talk about which team they might want to be on or prefer. Finally competition surrounds the whole programme with the three judges and the idea of having the models compete to become 'The Face' of a beauty brand, the judges have the power to remove models if they want to stop another judge from getting their own girl, therefore this suggests that the programme may be quite tactical opposed to actually finding the correct model for what they need for the brand.

Gerbner Cultivation Theory: From watching 'The Face', the audience may get ideas that influence their view of the everyday world such as the idea that models are 'catty' and spiteful towards others, which in many cases is not true, some may not even be of a high class. Also the model's lifestyle appears very glamourised and unrealistic of what working models actually do, this may make some of the audience want to follow a similar career path because of the way this programme presents itself. 

The Cultivation/Culmination Theory: This is where we become desensitised to what is shown in the media. In the programme 'The Face' we may be desensitised to how the judges criticise the girls work, for example they will often be very harsh and offensive and we may not notice this as much as if it was happening in front of us as it's part of the programme and we believe it's due to the cut-throat fashion industry. Often the extravagance of the props or photoshoot studios aren't looked into as much, such as the expensive clothes, accessories. Props that I've seen on America's Next Top Model are animals such as dogs, snakes, tarantulas, tigers, leopards ect. but we don't realise the danger of these so much as we believe they are trained and that it's just for a fashion image so there is no 'real danger'. 

'The Face' Information

Audience Expectation & Genre:
Audiences will use prior knowledge of the genre to anticipate whether or not they are likely to enjoy the text. For example, my own text has been compared with the similar programmes such as ‘America’s Next Top Model’ which is under a Reality Competition TV genre alongside sub genres of Beauty, Fashion & Celebrities. Therefore people who enjoy these styles of programmes are likely to already want to watch this new and current programme and others who are interested by it and want to know more may be inclined to view the first episode. Many people are already comparing this text with the Top Model programme above so it must have similar aspects to achieve this.
However many people will look at this style of text and immediately reject it due to the genres, for example if people do not know the celebrities or disagree with programmes that include women who may be seen as sexualised objects in the fashion industry. Previous programmes such as Top Model have been seen as controversial due to the challenges and photo-shoots that they have to take part in, also many people are disturbed by the ‘ideal image’ of women having to be 5’8”+ and averaging 100lbs in this type of industry.
 

Uses and gratifications:

This target audience is likely to watch this programme for a variety of reasons, for example diversion/escapism as the programme is about models and the fashion industry so for many it is an exclusive look at a different lifestyle. People who enjoy these programmes may want to watch for surveillance reasons to learn more about this industry and how it works. Social interaction plays a big role in modern programmes as the website for ‘The Face’ has already demonstrated that they will be using hashtags for the programme name and also each top model so that the audience can talk about which team they might want to be on or prefer. Finally competition surrounds the whole programme with the three judges and the idea of having the models compete to become ‘The Face’ of a beauty brand, the judges have the power to remove models if they want to stop another judge from getting their own girl, therefore this suggests that the programme may be quite tactical opposed to actually finding the correct model for what they need for the brand.

Cultural Codes & Symbolic Codes:
The cultural and symbolic codes of 'The Face' are things such as the people, for exampe the use of top models in the advert who are well known and are particularly knowledgeable due to their time in this industry, we recognise these celebrities and get an idea of an reality TV Genre. When we see the clothes, they look modern and high fashion which suggests some sort of fashion centered genre, and as an audience we accept this due to previous knowledge of similar programmes. Other things the audience recognise is the setting, such as it being in studios, catwalks and warehouse style buildings so this reaffirdms the idea of modelling, fashion and beauty.

Semiotic Codes:
The mise-en-scene is in a studio setting which has connotations of photo shoots and modelling, also there are catwalks shown which tells us there will be clothing and fashion shows, all relating to the iconography of a model/competition programme. The denotations of the programme are that it's a model competition with three top model judges who get to choose girls for real advert campaigns but also can 'sabotage' the other judges by 'stealing' their girls and not letting them through to the next round. Connotations of this preview for the programme could include expecting drama, from the emphasis placed on the tension and competition between the model judges, also knowing that some models will do better than others because it is a competition and some of the girls will have to go home atr some point, because of this the audience will anticipate the different challenges they have to do and wonder how the girls will fair in them.

Institution:

Sky Living is a British television channel owned by BSkyB, who purchased the Living group in 2010. Originally launched as UK Living in 1993, the channel, as of February 2011 as been Sky Living. The channel's programmes were mainly aimed at women and young adults however new shows such as CSI, Boston Legal & Close to home, the channel is now broadening its audience to a wider range of demographics including men aged 18 - 45.
One of the most watched shows includes America's Next Top Model, a similar style of programme to the upcoming series 'The Face'. Sky Living is a popular channel with over 11 million households using/watching it and they have been one of the top broadcasts for a long period of time therefore they understand their brand and audience so they are able to import programmes that they know their demographic will enjoy and also advertise them in a way that re-inforces this, plus possibly attracting a wider audience of people who watch this particular genre. Sky Living only shows modern programmes or programmes that have been around for a long time but with brand new series' being shown therefore they are a good platform for 'The Face' which is current, this is shown through the styling; high fashion and modelling and also the social networking attributes such as the hastags for Twitter to start conversations about the model judges and also they are showing a 'Like us on' Facebook option to have their programme more widespread so there is a higher chance of people seeing it.  

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