Types of audience

Demographic
The demographic is the age, race, gender, class, ethnicity and nationality of an audience. Grouping certain people together through their backgrounds instead of personal interest
Psychographic
The psychographic would be the audiences interests, beliefs and hobbies. This is within the personality of the audience, grouping together their similar interests.



Mass audience - often termed ' broadcast audience' Its those who consume mainstream or popular texts, such as soap operas and sitcoms. Media and communication that targets a very large group of people like women, men, children, adults etc..

Niche audience - This is a type of audience which is very small but specialised and influential. It is a small group of people with a very unique interest. For example there are programmes and magazines which may be about bird or train watching, gardening or fishing, aiming their audience at a very small, specific group of people
Michael Winterbottom was a man who directed small, niche independent films, such as 'I want you' and 'butterfly kiss'. '24 hour party people' was a niche film which became quite popular, this brought Michael up into the more mass audiences', where he created movies like 'Road to G

Audience research

Audience research
This is a major part of any media company's work. This they have to do in order to find out who would be interested in their products. They use questionnaires, focus groups, pre-film screenings and they spend a great deal of time and money doing so.

The audiences are categorised into different groups:

Group A                                                                                 

-lawyers

-doctors

-scientists

-well paid professionals

 Group B

-Teachers

-Middle management

-fairly well paid professionals

Group C1
-Junior management
-Bank clerks
-nurses
-'white collar' profession

 

                                                        Group C2

                                                       -Electricians

                                                       -plumbers-carpenters
 -'blue collar' professionals

Group D

-Manual workers such as:

-Drivers

-post sorters

Group E
-Students

-unemployed-Pensioners

Audience Positioning

Created with Padlet

Audiences

Audiences

What is an audience?
An audience is a group of people who read or consume anything which includes any media text
All texts in media are made with a specific audience in mind. When planning a media text, a very important question to consider is 'Does it have an audience'

Why are audiences important?
Well without an audience there would be no media, the Media organisations produce media texts in order to make a profit..therefore, no audience = no profit. The mass media is becoming a lot more competitive, this is to attract more audiences in different ways which helps the media stay profitable.

Uses and Gratifications
Two theorists Katz and Blumler were two men who researched audience behaviour to find out the uses of media text for a variety of reasons.
The information which they would find out is

• Information - they find out about events, satisfying curiosity gaining a sense of security through knowledge. For example,  Newspapers which would enable them to learn about current events
• Personal Identity - The reinforcement for personal values, finding models of behaviour, insight into ones self. For example, Twitter. This enables us to follow certain people who reinforce our personal values.
• Integration and social interaction - insight into circumstances of others; social empathy, identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging, interaction, enabling one to connect  with family, friends and society. For example a television sitcom or soap, such as Eastenders or scrubs, which enables us to connect with the characters and relate to them and their situations

Impact of new technology on Audiences
Older media such as television, print and radio used to have high audience numbers which now must work a lot harder to maintain their audience numbers.
Digital technology has also led to an increasing uncertainty over how we define an audience, with the agreement that a larger group of people reading the same thing at the same time is now outdated and that audiences are now 'fragmented'