Applying Uses And Gratifications Theory To Bridget Jones's Baby

 

I am going to look at the teaser trailer for the upcoming Working Title production, Bridget Jones's Baby and apply Dennis McQuail's Uses And Gratifications theory to it.  

 

Diversion/Escapism:

I think that in this teaser trailer, one scene that offers a way of escape for the audience is that of the music festival. You can see that Bridget is having a good time and enjoying herself, denoted by facial expression/body language, (she's smiling, throwing her arms up and is being carried by the crowd) Also, the costume and colours of costume plays a large part. Bridget's outfit is very casual and loose, which again represents the fact that she is enjoying herself, and as she is the central protagonist, allows the viewer to feel the same. The colours of hers and the rest of the crowd's outfits are bright which connote fun and enjoyment.

Seeing her having fun, surrounded by a large crowd and music creates the feeling that the audience member is there with her, and they are able to forget about personal life/issues.

The trailer is also quite comedic (scene where she falls in the mud) therefore the audience is able to relax and laugh along to the film, allowing escapism.      

  

Personal Relationship:

This film, and the teaser trailer, offers a talking point. For example, one way that people could discuss this film or the trailer is through social media platforms, people could share images of the trailer or poster, opening a discussion in the comments. Also, the demographic of the audience who have seen the first two films in the series would be able to discuss the first two films and talk about this one in terms of how it will compare to the others.  

This teaser trailer opens up a lot of discussion around the film, which viewers could discuss with friends or family (e.g. what is the plot of the film? how will it end?) But also, it offers quite a large amount of change in Bridget's character (she seems more sophisticated at the beginning) but also in the actress. The franchising is also very important, as it is all though an old friend is back (for those who have seen the first two films) and this creates a lot of excitement especially as a lot of the audience have known this character for quite a considerate amount of time, and this would create a talking point among them.

 

In the first shot in which we see Bridget, she looks very different, she looks elegant and sophisticated and she looks changed. This is something that the audience would want to be informed about as it has been quite a long time since the first couple of films have come out and they would like to see if her character has changed.

 

Personal Identity:

One way in which some of the audience could largely relate to Bridget's character is through her displays of clumsiness. This is something that probably a lot of the audience could relate to, especially if they are clumsy themselves or have had similar experiences. However, this is also a national stereotype of the English being slightly clumsy, and bumbling, which the English demographic might not particularly link to as its not such a positive image. However, this is something that the non-English audience would relate to and probably be amused by.

Another way in which the audience could relate to the film/ trailer, which would make them want to go see it, is through the setting. The location is very clearly London, this is made recognizable through an establishing shot. The British part of the audience, especially those living in London would relate to the setting.

Another point would be that as there has been a large time gap between this film and the others, the audience would have grown up with her and perhaps are now experiencing similar situations to her.

There is actually an issue in relating to a younger female audience however, as Bridget is now in her 40s, which means that they would not easily identify with her character as they haven't had the experiences that she's going through.

 

Surveillance

By watching this text, you will partially be more informed as to what Bridget's character is like now, also the scene where she is wearing the blue dress, allows the audience to be more informed in what is fashionable.

 An explanation of the Theory:

Key Concepts in Media

Key Concepts

Media Language (The way in which a text is constructed to create meaning for a reader or viewer of the text).

The text acts as a connection between the institution that has made the text and the audience who will receive it.There are three basic way  of looking at this.

- An active institutional view is that meaning is passed from the institution to the audience. The institution are seen as active and the audience as passive. 

- A negotiated view is that meaning is constructed by the text. The institution gives a meaning to the text and the reader/viewer interprets this in relation to other factors, for example knowledge of previous texts.

- An Active Audience view means that meaning is re-created by the audience. Because of this the institution becomes passive.    

A man called Jacques Derrida looked at the relationship between institution and audience in another way. He states that an audience deconstructs a media text within the context of its logos (The wider context which surrounds the texts and influences the meaning of the text). According to his theory, there is not one simple meaning to a text but rather, a range of different meanings and interpretations.   

Representation (relating to the representation of reality in the media).

In the majority of situations our only knowledge of people or situations will come from the media, so these representations are very important and must be accurate.

-When reading media texts it's very difficult to to know how we receive them and to make conscious decisions about why we accept or challenge them. As a reader or viewer of these texts we must make independent decisions on whether or not they are accurate/reliable.

- Newspapers are often accused of beginning moral panics through the way they represent people or groups.

We can categorize people into social groups which consist of factors such as:

-age

-disability

-gender

-socio-economic grouping 

-race

-nationality

-sexuality

-Stereotyping is another important factor to be considered when analysing a media text. Stereotypes are characters who are 'types' rather than actual, complex people who will usually not be developed in any depth. Stereotypes are usually negative representations and most have a lot of assumptions about their character. Stereotypes also mostly represent an entire social group in a single character. 


Audience (The viewers/readers of the media text).

The success of a media text is directly judged in terms of audience size, so media producers have a good reason for wanting to attract large audiences. 

There are two different types of audience, mass audience and niche audience.

-Mass audiences are large audiences such as the audience for Eastenders or a Premiership football match.
-Niche audiences are much smaller but the majority of the time, they are very influential. These audience are usually very dedicated and loyal and therefore are very attractive to advertisers. 

One of the most common ways of identifying a target audience is the socio-economic model. Although this model has been in use for a long time, it is still very useful in identifying a target audience and thus deconstructing a text. The basis for this system is money.

Audiences can also be categorized into other ways as well as the socio-economic model:
- Age
- Gender
- Demographic (i.e. where they live)
- Profiling

- Values, attitudes and lifestyles. 


Ideology (Ideology underpins the construction of any media text)

A media text will always have an ideology which is communicated explicitly or implicitly to an audience. The media can construct our views of our society and our attitudes towards society.

Any media institution will have specific ideologies which affect the construction of its texts. The may be explicit ideologies (e.g. a newspaper may have a particular political affiliation) or implicit ideologies (such as the visual representations of a heroine in a typical Hollywood film).

When analysing a media text you must take into account the text in relation to the ideologies underpinning the text. 


Institution (Who made the media text, is there an institution involved in the process?)

By being aware of how institutional perspectives affect the shaping of a text in this way, you can become better aware of the text itself and the relationship to the target audience. The shape of a media institution and the texts it creates is usually formed by a compromise between four crucial influences:
- Money (or the lack of it)
- ownership (and the amount of control this involves)
- artistic or social motivations (wanting to produce certain texts)
- target audience (needing to attract a particular audience or being dependent on keeping a certain audience)

Commercial institutions have to make money to survive-newspapers have to sell advertising space and sell copies, for example. So, they cannot afford to to produce texts which will attract small, especially niche audiences, as the advertisers will want access to large and stable audiences. 

The BBC is a Public Service Broadcaster which is required to provide a public service when broadcasting and not be driven by commercial influences. So, the BBC must provide a range of programmes for different social groups, including minority and niche audiences. 

Independent institutions are often the hardest to categorize. However, in general, they are basically commercial since they need to sell sufficient copies for example, of a magazine. 


Narrative (Basically meaning 'story', all media texts have a narrative, which can be explicit, such as in a film or implicit such as in an advert). 

Hollywood screenwriters are taught that the action must happen in three 'acts' and that there should be a crisis point at the end of Act 1 and Act2 and a happy resolution at the end of the film. Many narratives do not conform to this structure but it is the 'classic' structure and has been used for many years. 
Questions to ask about the narrative structure when studying a media text:

- has the institution created a text with a conventional narrative structure?
-If not, which conventions have they subverted or broken?
- why have they done this?
- What impact did this have on the audience. 

Time is used in different ways in a moving image text. For example, Discourse time and story time. 
Discourse time is the time that it takes to narrate the events. Story time refers to the real time of the events.


Genre (Type)

All texts operate within genre, although many texts are hybrids of more than one genre. 
Associated with genre are the codes and conventions. This means the textual codes which give meaning to an audience and the conventions of the genre. 

These codes and conventions are important for the genre because there is a genre framework for a text and it is more likely to attract audiences.