Audience Studies
Audience Studies is different them the other visual methodologies in this because because the primary focus is the site of the audience as an informal object, something that the methods do not address. For example, compositional interpretation and content analysis are only concerned about what is in the image and from that they determine the meaning. Psychoanalysis and Semiology address the site of audience, but in a way that makes formal decisions about them without including the individuality of a person. An example of this is that Psychoanalysis pretty much says that anybody who watches Hollywood films is masculinized, but that statement is generalized because the researchers did not actually study individuals as they were watching movies to determine if it was actually true for each individual. Audience Studies makes sure that it focuses on the social and individual life of people and how they personally view images.
I believe that audience studies is important to use to determine how people react to certain images, movies, and ideas. The best way to figure out what people think is, of course, to ask them. However, audience studies can only be a part of a larger research since it only is concerned about the site of the audience and nothing else. However, it is possible that this study could replace semiology and most definitely Psychoanalysis is a full blown research. Couple with compositional interpretation and other methods that involve research into the actual image, something that this method never looks at, audience studies could have great purpose in the understanding of an image and how it affects people.
For this blog I picked the Call of Duty: Black Ops trailer. The intended audience of this trailer is most definitely males between the teens and up, depending on the personality of the male. As a male within the intended audience of this game trailer, I am most likely biased in my interpretation of the video and thus the interpretation that I already had does not change in anyway. I believe that is fine, because the trailer was meant to appeal to me and males alike, so in all reality, the only interpretation that matters to the creators is ours. The sense of adrenaline and sheer manliness coming from the video is exactly what they were trying to created.