Audience Research - Documentaries and News Reports

To get a better understanding of my audience and the reason why there needs to be a Black Lives Matter movement, I recorded a lot of documentaries and news reports on the situation.  These gave me a true understanding of how shocking everything is and showed me that I need to convey a great deal of emotion in my music video to truly capture the devastating effects of it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I watched 'Hip Hop World News' which has helped me to understand my target audience more and also to understand where this hate for the police has come from in the black community and how music has helped so much as an outlet of this anger.

The documentary included various songs about police brutality such as Sound of da Police by KRS-ONE and F*ck The Police by N.W.A

The documentary also showed the moments before Eric Garner died from asphyxiation and the moments after Philando Castile was shot.  Although these videos are incredibly distressing, it's imperative that people get an insight into what racism can result in and why it must stop.

 Videos from a Black Lives Matter Rally have helped me to understand my audience better and see their responses to the matter.  This will help me to give a sense of simulacra of the rally in my music video

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rubble Kings - BBC Four - Broadcasted on 30/09/2016

'Rubble Kings' was a 1 hour documentary featured in the 'Hip Hop Stories' series on BBC Four.
It gives us an insight into gangs and violence in New York in the 1960's and 70's, with interviews with ex gang leaders and influential people in that era.  It shows how hip-hop had an influence on the gang culture and actually helped to end it.  Fast forwarding to 2017, I think hip-hop is still having an influence on youths, but instead of helping to end gang violence, I think it helps to end the worry about police brutality, gun violence and racism towards black people.  I myself find solace in the lyrics and music videos of current and old hip-hop songs and believe that  hip-hop music and music videos have had such a strong, positive effect on it's audience throughout many years.  This research has further confirmed my beliefs but I'm also going to research further to see if this is the case with other people.