The 3 various texts form to appeal towards different audiences through the use of multiple conventions aiming to target and relate to the audience with the uses and gratifications. The responses from the audience varies dependent on the different readings they perceive as the theory of the encoding/ decoding model developed by Stewart hall states that all texts obtain polysemic meanings where it is read differently from the influences of the viewer's personal identity, cultural identity, and opinions.
The American television series 'Lost' produced by the world wide American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and directed by J.J Abrams is a mainstream text intending to appeal to a wide, mass audience through constructed conventions such as an ensemble cast. An ensemble cast involves characters of diverse identities varied through the representations of age, race, gender and ethnicity for the audience to gain the gratification of finding reinforcement for personal values to identify and relate to one of the characters or narrative plot in the text. Also the genre of the text is of the hybrid of Sci-fi and adventure composing a post-modern text to intrigue and broaden the mass of audiences. The sense of adventure is presented during the ending of the Pilot Part 2 episode where the characters venture off on a quest to supported by a exciting, upbeat, Indiana Jones styled score when searching for a signal for the radio. Characteristic of Sci-fi is portrayed towards the very end where the characters discovers the repeated recording of past survivors who were stranded in the very same island, when reaching the climax, Charlie interrogates "Where are we?" as the episode ends with a bang creating a enigma. These conventions performs as a preferred reading to the majority of the viewers as the producers know what attracts the audience based on the certain genre and hybridity to target a large, mainstream audience. However, the use of the high amount of enigma codes frequently appearing on the scenes on Pilot Part 2, from the very beginning where the character 'Charlie' is portrayed through a paranoid, suspicious vibe with close up shots of his face to present his emotional state as he fidgets and nervously taps on the seat creating the enigma of why he is acting in this behaviour. The enigma is quickly answered right away as the camera delivers a tracking shot following Charlie with cuts shifting from the air hostess to Charlie to create tension as he rushes into the toilet revealing to lure in drugs and attempting to flush it away. This creates the negotiated reading for some partially active readers as it disrupts the suspense and loses the excitement due to the enigmas being answered giving less thrill to the purpose, however they still decide to accept the text to decode further enigmas.
Mad Men is a period drama series produced by the subscription AMC American company which received critical acclaim through its impressive character driven and sophisticated narrative capturing the Office Life set in the 1960's following complex individuals. Mad Men specifically targets to the preferred audience of the niche category as the text is inclined to appeal to an active audience who can actively decode the reasoning of the narrative feature or an enigma code. The stylised mise-en-scene of the episode 11 'The other woman' of Season 5 captures the authentic, attention to detail of the 60's era through the use of iconography imitating how people from this period use to dress contributing to the pop culture of 'retrophilia' producing a nostalgic environment of the past presenting an aspect of post-modernism which attracts to a niche yet cult audience. The use of complex characters breaks to follow the mainstream conventions that conforms to the cliché Propp theory which emphasises the niche convention of the text for audience to approach a preferred reading. In this particular episode, it focuses upon the complex representations of woman whom contrasts to one another creating a sense of an ensemble cast. Megan, the wife of the protagonist, Don Draper, is an aspiring actress which captures the abstract American Dream of many young woman of the 60's. However, slowly Megan realises and accepts that men are the dominant figure of her surroundings whether it is her husband Don or the males in the agency who holds the audition where they as soon as she enters, they ask her to "Turn around" presenting her as a sexual object through scopophilia of the male gaze theory by Laura Mulvey. In contrast, another female character known as Peggy is presented as a woman breaking into a man's world where she will not be claim to play the role of the shadows of the males. Sense of breaking of sexism appears as Peggy pitches for the advertising with praises for her idea however is not given full credential as Don throws money in her face conveying how woman in the 1960's were treated, how men got away with it presenting sexism still to have been an issue in the time. As she resorts to her office, she states "I'm not crying" presenting her overpowering attribute establishing that she is not prone to weakness. A cult fan base of Mad Men can respond to the complex characters through visiting their website and taking the quiz to view which character they are and share the same characteristic traits to.
Peaky Blinders is a prestigious, high brow crime drama interpreting to be culturally and intellectually rich. The text is aired on the BBC2 where they do not broadcast advertisements as it is paid taxes and is a public owned body. The text is set in Birmingham in 1919 following the former WW1 soldiers who have returned home and formed a gang known as Peaky Blinders. The text can appeal to both mainstream and niche audiences as it conforms to the uses of both mainstream and niche conventions settling between the Lost and Madmen. The use of the high production and cinematography capturing the refinement of a movie theatre experience to appeal to the mainstream audience. In the scene where Ada visits the nurse to check for her pregnancy with Aunt Polly, the cinematography is presented through the low key lighting to convey dramatic fallacy with the use of shallow depth of field against the gloomy, foggy street to portray the sense of surreal reality Ada has to face. The use of known actors in the text in contrast to the artist integrity in Mad Men where fairly unknown actors moved towards more opportunities, appeals to the mainstream audience as they can recognize the protagonist Cillain Murphy (Tommy Shelby) from past movies such as Inception or Batman, Sam Neil (Chester Campbell) from the classic Jurassic Park and Helen McCroy (Aunt Polly) from Harry Potter. This broadens to attract a wider range of audience who are fans of the actors to view Peaky Blinders.
The text however received a negotiated readings from some of the audience whom believe that it lacked originality as its constructed narrative seemed to display similarities between 'Broadwalk Empire' such as the period of the after-war effect, set around the same era and the use of highly produced cinematography with he drained tones of blue effect.
