Blumler and Katz

What is the theory exploring?

• The theory essentially from the audience's point of view describes the effects of media, looking at the motive of why people use the media for example why do people watch music videos or watch TV etc.
• It's thought that the audience uses the media in order to fulfill one of the four needs and the media is thought to gratify/meet these needs.

What are the four needs?

• Diversion
• Personal relationships
• Personal identity
• Surveillance

Diversion

• Diversion refers to people wanting to escape from their lives, to destress and to go somewhere else.
• In relation to music videos, producers often shoot scenes in abstract locations which viewers essentially have no access to and therefore it helps them feel the 'escape'.
• The 'escape' could also be found in the lyrics of the song itself. For example in the Taylor Swift's song 'Fifteen' she explores the escape of love but the video also presents feelings of love as being the 'escape'.

Personal relationships

• Personal relationships refers to members of the audience forming new relationships in order to either fulfill their need for companionship or to fit in as a part of a social group.
• When referring to music videos it's more likely that people develop personal relationships in order to fit in as part of a social group.
• This could also link with the diversion part of the theory as it could be thought of as single people having the ability to escape to a place where they can have that companionship.

Personal identity

• This part of the theory allows individuals to essentially find out more about themselves.
• For example music video producers focus on including stereotypes of their target audience within the music video.
• This is done in order to allow members of the audience to relate to the video and therefore find out more about themselves which is what essentially creates the entertainment factor for the audience.
• According to this theory without audience reflection the media products wouldn't be as entertaining or successful.

Surveillance

• Surveillance is based around the idea that individuals like to be aware of what is happening around them.
• This can be applied to music videos as the singers life can be related to the lyrics.
• For example Taylor Swift - 'We are never getting back together' is a song that was written about a previous boyfriend. Therefore a link is created between celebrities and their personal lives.
• Out of all of the music genres this particulaly refers to the country and western genre as most of the artists singing within this genre are writing about their own experiences.

How does this apply to our music video?

• We will have to ensure that we try to meet as many of the four needs suggested in the theory as possible for example in order to try and meet with the diversion need we could film using abstract settings. We could also try to incorporate stereotypes regarding our target audience in order to fit in with the personal identity need.