‘AUDIENCE’ IN MEDIA’:

• Audience’ is a very important concept when you are studying media. Without an audience there would be no purpose for media. So therefore, all media texts are made with an audience in mind, e.g. a group of people who will receive it and make some sort of sense/benefit from it. The producers will make some profit out of that audience. For example; magazines and newspapers measure their circulation (ie numbers of copies sold).

• Audience research is a major part of any media company’s work. They conduct an audience profile which usually is attained by questionnaires, focus groups, and comparisons of existing media texts. Companies spend a great deal of time and money finding out if there is anyone out there who might be interested in their idea.

FIRST A MEDIA PRODUCER(S) MUST KNOW:

◾Income bracket/status – (One common way of describing audiences is to use a letter code to show their income bracket)

• A= Top management, bankers, lawyers, doctors and other highly salaried professionals • B= Middle management, teachers, many ‘creative’ e.g. graphic designers. • C1= Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses, specialist clerical staff etc. • C2= Skilled workers, tradespersons (white collar) • D= Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers (blue collar) • E= Unemployed, students, pensioners, casual workers

◾age◾gender◾race◾location◾sexuality◾ethnicity

Marketing campaigns are intended to create awareness of a media text. Once that awareness has been created, audiences will purchase that media text.

AUDIENCE PLACEMENT

• This is the range of strategies media producers use to directly target a particular audience for a media text and make them feel that the media text is specially ‘for them’.

• It is very relevant to advertisers, and institutions that carry advertising – newspapers, cinema, television and radio channels. Maslow’s upper levels at the top of the pyramid are about self esteem and gaining the respect of others. This can be linked to the idea that consuming particular media texts fulfils self-esteem, as does buying certain products.

• Maslow is suggesting that if you buy a new pair of trainers of the right brand as shown to you on in the media, then you will feel better about yourself, because you have the respect of other people. (Abraham Maslow, Motivation and Personality, 2nd ed., Harper & Row, 1970).