CIE Eval Q3a AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT

CIE Evaluation Q3 asks:

How do your products engage with the audience and how would they be distributed as real media products?

This ('3a') is similar to the UK OCR Eval Q3, which looks at the narrower issue of audience feedback - but in practice is essentially an overview of engagement with the audience.

KEY POINTS:

• provide a very clear, specific breakdown of your primary and secondary target audiences
• screenshots from blog posts/links lists are useful to help hammer home you are APPLYING research (assuming you have!)
• set out the web 2.0 framework: how has digitisation changed the way artists engage with audiences? If you're covering this is more detail for another answer, say so but give a brief summary
• consider the mode of address of your texts: direct gaze to camera? use of I/we/you/us in any writing? direct invite to interact with the artist? the look (branding) of costume, choice of locations: distant/ultra-glamorous or humble/relatable (maybe a mix)? implied representation of audience in the video or elsewhere? intertextuality?
• did you include a viral element in the digipak and website? (you really, really should) discuss in detail if so
• website and social media: how widely did you exploit modern tools to engage with the audience and how - include plentiful examples, and detail any branding involved. audience feedback? research or feedback on early ideas? use fansites? Facebook groups? Twitter/Instagram hashtags?
• IF you got any responses (the 2015 A2 Lady Gaga is a great example - they ended with 100s of followers) were these useful, productive? SHOULD artists be close to audiences or maintain more of a mystique?
• sum up: did you engage successfully/as well as you might? is there anything you can now say you should have done?

UK EQUIVALENT STUDENT ANSWERS
CIE Q3b is fairly similar to the OCR (UK) Q3. Here are some examples:

compare the thoroughness of links lists with yours...

Kate (see below) smartly made sure her understanding of points linked to other answers would be credited

Amber: popstar/Madonna clone Lady Gaga 
This isn't so well presented, and would clearly benefit from more substantial engagement with audience theory, but is especially useful as an example of depth of engagement with audiences. This production partnership (here's Conal's) made extensive use of social media, attracting a sizeable following, dipped into fancies, and took every opportunity to test out their work with a variety of audiences, consistently noting the response and their thoughts and consequent planned actions.



Curtis: dance act Faithless
An in-depth response that engages well with theory (though the post presentation could be better), it was no surprise that Curtis emerged with a top grade overall having banked 99% for the A2 coursework.

A useful issue to note: groups can share preparation work for the Evaluation, but should not simply  share or mimic answers; the exam board had issues with this group sharing a precise script, but did agree the final marks. You could work together to create vodcast templates (with images, clips, titles edited in ready for a voiceover and re-timing), for example, share notes, but ultimately it must be not just literally your voice but also in the sense that it is clearly your individuated analysis coming through.

Curtis part 1


Curtis part 2: "At the start of this vodcast, there is part of a vodcast we made prior to the evaluation. This is voiced by Declan Williams."


Curtis - audience research vodcast:


Molly and Paige: Indie rock band Sly Antics
The answers lack some depth, and need much clearer engagement with theory, but are ...

useful for the examples they provide of good research, providing a well argued and evidenced basis for the target audience they outlined, using magazine data for example (you'll also see this in Curtis, Amber and Conal's answers above - you really should do this!!!).

Kate: '00s pop girlband Girls Aloud
A thorough response, with substantive engagement with theory but still scope for more - quite simply, the more you work on this through the Evaluation the easier your exam will be.
(Part 1)

(Part2)