Today in my media class we learnt about audiences. Audience is an individual or collective group of people who read or consume any media text for example radio listeners.
Why is the audience important?
- Without a audience there would be no media
- Media organisations produce media text to make profit and without the audience there would be no profit made.
Impact of new technologies on audiences
Old media such as TV, print and radio used to have a high audience numbers now they have to work hard to maintain the high audience numbers. Digital technology has also lead to an increasing uncertainty over how we define an audience, with general agreement that a large group of people reading the same thing is seen as the audience as being “fragmented”.
Fragmented: The division of audiences into smaller groups due to the variety of media E.g. news > online and hardcopy
Aim to it many people
With magazines they aim to print less so by putting there magazines online not only does it give a wider audience it also reduce the amount of printing.
Type of audience
Mass audience: Media and communication that targets a very large group of people (women, men, children etc)
E.g. friends, heat magazine, top gear, Disney films
Niche audience: Much smaller audience but very influential and has a unique interest that would only appeal to a small audience.
E.g. Birds magazine, aimed at people who like bird watching.
Categories
Categories are divided by social class.
Psychographics
Every advertiser wants a particular type of audience. In terms of commercial media, much of fundraising is generated by advertising.
In society there are different types of class, the class ranks would generally generate what type of media they would watch or buy.
Group A
- Lawyer
- Doctor
- Scientist
- Well Paid Professionals
Group B
- Teachers
- Middle Management
- Fairly Well Paid Professionals
Group C1
- Junior management
- Bank
- Nurses
- White Collar Professional
Group C2
- Electricians
- Plumbers
- Carpenters
- Blue Collar
Group D
- Manual
- Drivers
- Post Sorters
Group E
- Students
- Unemployment
- Pensioners
Research Methods
How do you measure audiences?
- Sales
- Subscriptions
- Ratings
- Figures
Who measures audiences?
- NRS
- ABC
- BARB
- Booksellers
New Media
Facebook and social networks
Online forums
Views on YouTube
Twitter trends
Quantitative research is to do with questionnaires, numbers, closed questions and factual. These type of questionnaires not that wide range and very factual but t the same time they are not specific enough. Qualitative research is doing focus groups or interviews, analysis of existing products, open questions this is for open interpretations and individual preferences.
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