Tuesday 23 April 2013

Discuss the audience appeal of your three main texts.

Mad Men, season 5, episode 11, 'The Other Woman', appeals to its target audience through the gratification which it gives its audience through-out the series. The episode, 'The Other Woman', is set within the time set of the 1960's, providing the viewer the gratification of information and escapism into the 1960's work place. This juxtaposition between the 1960's time set of the series and the viewers modern ideology of society provides the viewer with an aspect of escapism, therefore appealing to its audience. This can be seen within the scene where Don Draper throws money in Peggy's face after she asks for a raise in her pay. This scene highlights the issues surrounding the lack of gender equality within the 1960's, specifically within the work place, with men being viewed as generally more superior than women.

Mad Men also targets its audience through the mode of address of its episodes, therefore appealing to a specific audience which are more high-brow and being gratified by a more intellectual style of writing. This mode of address can be seen within the scene where Peggy is telling Don Draper that she is leaving the business, after they win the pitch for Jaguar. Within this climatic ending scene for the episode, 'The Other Woman', the sequence doesn't use any non-diegetic music, which would be used in a more mainstream series like 'Suits', to signify to the viewer to react. In comparison, Mad Men, treats its audience as more intellectual and able to read a more sophisticated text, therefore does not use non-diegeti music to signify its viewer to react to the sequence, therefore targeting and appealing a more sophisticated audience.

Mad men uses a more character lead narrative, again appealing a more active audience. More mainstream programmes such as 'Suit's' uses the theory of propps to make a passive audience more aware of who is the hero and who is the villain, making the narrative easier to read. However, Mad Men uses complex characters to give the audience the gratification of having a long term investment with the series. Journalists and critics support this point through describing the episode, 'The Other Woman', as being 'identity politics'. This character lead narrative can be seen within the scene where Joan sees Peggy leave Don's office after telling him that shes leaving the business. Joans expression is polysemic, allowing the viewer to decipher the text in more detail and intellect, allowing them to side with what Joans view of Peggy leaving is. This appeals to a more active audience, who do not want a straight forward narrative, and want to have an active say in the episodes meaning.

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