Task 5

In some ways, different types of media do seem to acquire higher statuses in terms of intelligence than others. This is a common interpretation by the public. When thinking of this in terms of television, film, radio etc, I believe that radio and newspaper are favoured as the most intelligible sources of media text. This seems to be because of the more mature nature they often portray, leading us to believe that you can appear smarter through the usage of these products. In terms of music, there is a clear division in what the public believes entices you to be intelligent. 
Classical or Operatic music is often associated with the higher classes or the more clever of the public. Whereas Rap or Pop is often shunned and labelled as unintelligent. Music taste is often associated with class and social status, which of course, is utter rubbish. Stereotypically, people view upper class as classical music lovers, and middle and lower class, lovers of rap, pop and rock. This is like saying that all higher class love caviare, and all lower class love junk food. 
I, as part of a working/lower middle class family, listen to all forms of music, from classical, jazz to rock and pop. Therefore I believe that different forms of music cannot define your intelligence level.
Although, this is not to say that music does not affect behaviour, I certainly think it does. I believe that teenagers in particular are more heavily influenced by music than they realise. Through the repeated subjection to specific types of music, the messages and atmosphere of the tracks are subconsciously transferred into the mind. For example, if listening to a song about death, abuse, violence and such, it will affect the mood of the consumer. Certain music is also linked to events, such as some classical will relate to events such as funerals. These factors all alter how we respond to media, and how it effects us. 
When examining products such as television genres, it can be seen that the public believe programmes that entail problem solving e.g detective/crime thrillers are more intelligent than that of soap operas. This theory, I believe, can be slightly more backed up than the musical taste theory. As certain programmes do actually require a certain amount of brain power for full understanding e.g CSI, and some, not as much e.g Eastenders. This is not to say that specific groups watch certain programmes, it's just an observation on intelligence levels for programmes. 
In some ways, the audience for our production may be viewed as one of the less intelligent audiences as they would be the type of consumers that would be used to crudeness and explicit violence. This can be seen in films such as Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction. We target the Tarentino generation.




Here are links to the other tasks completed within the group:
http://asmediastudiesjoecracknell.blogspot.com/2011/01/audience-as-product.html
http://asmediastudiesjoecracknell.blogspot.com/2011/01/task-7.html
http://asmediastudiesjoecracknell.blogspot.com/2010/12/media-medium-status.html