The definition of ‘media audiences’ has expanded since the time where the family would sit around a small box and watch live-aired television. With the rise of streaming services and other media platforms, individuals can watch the same show wherever and whenever they want. My question is, if you’re not an active viewer of a show itself, but are engaged in the stories and news about it, are you still an audience?

A time where I was part of an audience that I want to discuss would be the collective viewing of Married at First Sight. I usually start the year thinking “no thanks I don’t want to waste my time catching up on reality TV,” however after scrolling through my social media and watching the reactions, the memes and the comments, I always seems to give in. This year was no different.

Reasons for watching this ghastly, over-dramatised “social experiment” would include my guilty please for reality tv and drama, the peer pressure to watch by my close friends and family, and FOMO (fear of missing out). I’m sure the nation thinks the same, with MAFS rating no.1 on the 11th of march with 136,000 views.

It’s a pleasurable experience because it weirdly brings my family together for an hour and a half, 4 days a week to watch the show. It’s also fun to talk about it with the people around me. It’s interesting to watch how the entire nation, including myself become so consumed in the clearly staged, badly edited drama. It also doesn’t stop at just watching the show. The memes that follow are the parts that my friends and I look forward to. Like the bad lip reading videos. We are also consumed in the fake news that culminates post-episodes, and also what is happening to the participants in present time. I can talk to people about the show whom have never watched it before, yet know all about it through platforms such as facebook.

The negatives that are included with the mass amounts of different viewing options would include having spoilers before you even watch the show. The large amount of fake news that ultimately concludes the status of the relationships in the show is incredibly disappointing.

It’s interesting that in this day and age, there are so many viewing options; through TV, the internet and social media, that even if you do not watch the program when it airs or even at all, you still know what is happening and ultimately become part of the audience.

Resources:

Mediaweek, 2019. TV Rating March 11: MAFS 1.3m as the brides homestays start. Mediaweek. Available at: https://mediaweek.com.au/tv-rating-march-11-2019/ [Accessed 20 March 2019].

For fun: Married At First Sight (Bad Lip Reading) – Hi Josh Recaps – Week 11

Since the Project Presentation a month ago, my digital artefact has explored ways to increase engagement and gain new followers.

To catch you up; My Digital Artefacts fuses both digital art and film together to share with the audiences films that they may have never seen, or would just enjoy. I feel that not many people have have had the great movie experiences that I grew up with. My goal has been to promote some incredible films through digital art, and hope that it may grasp the attention of people who may have never seen these films before.

I created an Instagram page to share my work because it is a huge social media platform that will allow me to connect with different people from so many different communities. Thanks to new updates, Instagram also lets me engage with my audience through comments, polls, and questions on my story. It is relevant to the users because it’s easy to access and share.

My process to create my content has stayed the same. Analyse popularity of current and old films, find one I’d enjoy creating, then use Paint S to create my works. I add a quote from the film that is relatable and relevant. I then post them on Instagram.

My current focus is building my online presence and focusing on engagement with my audience. I am doing this to build a strong group of followers that genuinely like my posts. This is important because strong engagement means more people sharing my work = new followers. No follow/unfollow method or buying followers.

Progress:

• 141 new followers
• Increase in profile visits
• Use of an Engagement Group
• Use of Story Highlights to share other work and ask questions.

Here is my Instagram page growth since the ideating phase:

Testing my prototype with users:

Posts:

• I started posting every second day (3-4 times a week)
• I would constantly engage with my audience through the use of engagement groups, responding to comments etc.
• I have learnt that posting content is 80% what they want and 20% what you want to post. So although previously in my Pitch presentation we discussed me focusing solely on ‘romantic comedies’, I don’t think that it is effective enough when it comes to maintaining the audience I currently have. Instead I focus more on a broader ‘genre’ – Chick Flicks
• What I have decided to do instead is constantly ask questions to my audience and ask what they want.

Stories:

In my stories I use the question box to ask for movie suggestions as well as polls.

• The answers have currently been a little conflicting, so for the future I will be asking different kinds of questions to find a better response.

 

What I have learnt based on my Instagram Insights:

 

Impressions:

• My most seen posts are mainly ‘chick flicks’
• Romantic films are popular
• People like films that they know and love.

Engagement:

• Engagement groups are incredibly helpful
• Relatable quotes are the most liked
• Popular films

Location:

• mostly NSW based

Age:

• 18-24
• These people resonate more with films from the 2000s

Gender:

• Predominantly female

Followers:

• I will get better engagement on Tuesday and Friday evenings because that is when my followers are more active

Additions to my Page:

Edits:

Additionally, I have started making edits for my followers. I tested this out to see if it was successful by posting them onto my story and asking my followers if they wanted one. I tried this out because I have been focusing on engagement, and I thought what would be better engagement than making art for them. I post them on my story so it doesn’t mess with the concept and purpose of my page as I still want the focus to be on my film art. The only problem to this would be that it takes up a lot more of my time and sometimes I can fall behind. However, the results have been incredibly positive. I have received many messages asking for an edit and a lot of my followers have been sharing my works as well

Commissions:

Recently, small businesses have asked me to create logos and edits for them, which is something I have never done before but has been a dream of mine. Being paid for my art is definitely something I hope to continuously achieve as my digital artefact develops further.

Has my concept changed?

I would say that my concept has changed but has also stayed the same. My sole focus with my films is now on ‘chick flicks’ as well as supplying content that my followers want. E.g. if most of my followers want to see a certain movie, I will share that with them. I now add personal edits into my highlights, which has strengthened my page but is not the sole focus of it. However, I am still focusing on sharing my love of film in the form of art. People have come up to me and told me they watched a certain film because it was on my page. This positive feedback

 The future:

I will continue to post 3-4 times a week, and explore other ways to possibly gain followers faster, such as using different hashtags, or asking pages to share my work. Hopefully I can get more commissioned work, as I continue to make edits for individuals and small businesses.

By Rachel Weisz

Twitter: @rachelmayweisz

Instagram: @rwfreckled