Audiences

What is an audience?

An individual or collective group of people who consume any time of media text. All media context has the media in mind as they are the ones who will ultimately determine the successfulness of the text.

Why are audiences important?

Audiences are important as they bring in the income which will lead the film to be successful. No media product would be successful without an audience as they would have no way of bringing in money produced from the content. The mass media is becoming more competitive so producers strive to bring in the bigger audiences.

Katz and Blumler

Katz and Blumler proposed from their research into audience behaviour that audiences use media texts for a variety of reasons, these include;

Information - Finding out about event, satisfying curiosity gaining a sense of security through knowledge.

Personal Identity - Reinforced by personal values, finding models of behaviour, insight into ones self.

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.

Impact Of New Technology On Audiences

Old media (TV, Print, Radio) which used to have high audience numbers must now work hard to keep up there high number of audiences with the new technology available, including Social networking sights such as Facebook and Twitter.

New technology makes it harder for these old media technology's to keep up the numbers and have now attempting to create the best coverage and texts in order to keep these audiences.

Demographic - Age, race, gender, class/status and nationality
Psychographic - Interests, beliefs,hobbies

Types Of Audiences

Mass Audiences - Often termed 'broadcast audience'. Those who consume mainstream or popular texts such as soaps or sitcoms. Media and communication that targets a very large group of people.

Niche Audiences - Much smaller but very influential. A niche audience is a small, select group of people with a very unique interests.

Audiences research is a major part of any media company's work. They use questionnaires, focus groups, pre-films screening and spend a great deal of time and money finding out who would be interested in their product.

http://www.thinkbox.tv/ describes how audiences are categorised

Group A - Lawyers, Doctors, Scientists, Well paid professionals

Group B - Teachers, Middle management, Fairly well paid professionals

Group C - Junior management, Bank clerks, Nurses, White Collar Professionals

Group C2 - Electricians, plumbers, carpenters, blue collar professions

Group D - Manual workers, Drivers, Post sorters