Audience #8

Audiences

Audience is an individual or a group of people watching or reading any media text.

Mass audience - A film with a large scale audience. Often called a "broadcast audience". It is an audience that consume popular or mainstream texts such comedies or sitcoms. Examples are "F.R.I.E.N.D.S" or "TopGear"  



Niche audience - A film with a specific or smaller audience. Small and select audience with unique interest.

The most vital point when producing a media production is whether it has an audience. This can decide whether production goes any further.

Audiences are vital as without one, no media would be produced.

Media is produced as an attempt to make profit. If there is no audience to consume the media then organizations will lose money.

Organizations compete as they attempt to make more money and attract a wider audience

Katz and Blumler

Their research proposed that media texts are used by audiences for 3 main reasons.

1. Information
    The reader uses media to find out about events or topics that interest them. Also to "satisfy curiosity". An example of this is newspapers.

2. Personal Identity
    To reinforce a persons beliefs and find other people that share their beliefs. This is shown with social media such as Twitter or Tumblr. 

3. Integration and Social Interaction
      To gain a sense of belonging, feeling part of a group or movement. The ability to interact and empathise with people that share similar beliefs. We see this with soap operas as people tune in every week to follow the storyline.

Impact of new technology

Old media like TV, print and radio now have to compete to maintain audience numbers even the they once had very large audience numbers.

Digital technology now affects how people define audience. The belief that an audience is a large group of people all watching or listening to the same thing is out dated as it is now commonly thought of as "fragmented"

Demographic - audiences age, race, gender, class/status, nationality

Psychographic - Audiences interests, beliefs, hobbies

Audience research - This is a major part of any media production. Companies use questionnaires, focus groups, pre-showing and many more. 


http://www.thinkbox.tv/server/show/nav.914

From this link I have learnt how audiences consume media and how audiences are divided into categories so they are easily recognisable.

Group A -  Lawyers
                   Doctors
                   Scientist
                   Well paid professionals

Group B - Teachers
                   Middle management
                   Fairly well paid professionals

Group C1 -  Junior management
                     Bank clerks
                               Nurses
                     White collar professionals

Group C2 - Electricians
                     Plumbers
                     Carpenters
                     Blue collar professionals  

Group D -  Manual workers such as:
                                                           Drivers
                                                           Post sorters

Group E - Students
                  Unemployed
                  Pensioners