Audience theory and audience research

There are different types of audience depending on the type of media that is being presented. For example Vogue magazines audience would be for women because the magazine is based on fashion and beauty. The target audience can be formed by certain groups for instance age and gender. In media the term target audience means what the producers think that the product would be most suitable for. The type of gender is one of the most evident factors when considering audiences. You can tell who the gender is targeted at normally straight away. For instance if a magazine is blue and has football news and sport images on it you would automatically know that the target audience is boys/men. Age is another obvious and important factor when considering audiences. It is important because some media would not allowed people of certain ages to have access to some media. For example a film that is rated 15 would not allow anyone under the age of 15 to watch that film because it would not be appropriate.

When I was analysing the three school magazines on Microsoft PowerPoint last week I had to think carefully about the intended target audience. The target audience for the school magazines was the students and the parents. I think the students would be suitable because they would want to know if there was any school trips or any shows that they would be interested to participate in. Furthermore the parents would be the other target audience because they would need to know if there was anything new and important happening at the school for example a change in cost for school dinners.

I also will have to consider the target audience when producing my own music magazine. I will identify the target audience during my planning stage because this will affect the shape of the text. The colours would be significant for the audience and also the type of lanuage that is used whether it is informal or formal.

Informal newspaper 'The Sun' Formal newsaper 'the guardian'












Social class is important when we are categorising audience in media texts. The target audience is normally categorised as A, B, C, D and E.
A- higher managerial and professional
B- middle management
C1- office workers
C2- skilled manual workers
D- unskilled workers
E- unemployed, unwaged

The different social class depends how much money people will spend on a media product, if it is acceptable for them and if it is aimed for them. A good example is magazines and newspapers. People who read and purchase the guardian newspaper would be classed in the groups A and B, this is because the guardian is more formal and professional and its suitable for people who are interested in politics and the news. Whereas people who read the 'Sun' newspaper would be aimed at people in groups C2 and D, this is because the Sun is an informal newspaper and is based more on gossip and celebrities. Furthermore it has a lot of advertisements for free holidays and quizzes. People in groups A and B would be interested in the type of magazines and who actually produced the magazines because formal magazines and newspapers would be more expensive. While groups C2-E wouldn't be that bothered about who produced the magazines, these magazines would be cheaper as they are not as detailed compared to other newspapers and magazines such as the guardian. Moreover more magazines would be brought by people in groups C2-E because they would have more time on their hands to purchase and read them.

The uses and gratification theory is a popular approach to understanding mass communication. The theory focuses more on the consumer or audience instead of asking 'what people do with media?' instead of 'what media does to people' which Katz (1959) said. The theory holds the audiences responsible for choosing media to meet their needs. An example of this is some people love to hear and find out gossip in peoples lives so they would watch gossip media for instance The Only Way Is Essex. Whereas other people would like knowing about the way the government is so they would watch the various News channels depending on what their view is.
In 1948 Lasswell suggested that media texts had functions for individuals and society, these are as follows, surveillance, correlation, entertainment and cultural transmission. Researchers Bulmer and Katz expanded this theory and they published their own in 1974, saying that individuals might choose and use a text for the following purposes, Diversion, Personal Relationships, Personal Identity and Surveillance. Since then, Uses and Gratifications has been extended, particular as new media forms have been introduced such as the internet and video games.

The reception theory is extending the concept of an active audience further. In the 1980s and 1990s a lot of work was done on the way individuals received and interpreted a text and how their individual circumstances such as gender class and age affected their reading. The work was based on Stuart Halls encoding/decoding model of the relationship between audience and text. The text is encoded by the producer and then decoded by the reader.


The criticisms of this theory is that many people believe that the public has no control over the media and what it produces. It also takes out the possibility that the media can have an unconscious influence over peoples lives and how they view the world. However this theory may be more relevant in todays society as the internet and satellite TV such as Sky makes people have much more freedom and control over what people get according to pre-internet and TV.

Research is important when creating media text, the person creating the text must have a clear idea of who their target audience are because this would affect the shape of the text and how it is presented to others.

When I was doing my audience research I found that the main research that seemed to be most important was primary research and secondary research.

Primary research is the type of research which the person has created themselves this involves carrying out interviews and getting a variety of people to respond to questionnaires and surveys which that person has produced on their own.

Secondary research involves looking at existing material. It uses material such as books, newspapers and magazines. It allows the person to see the various resources that have already been created and it involves both qualitative and quantitative.
 
Qualitative research gathers information that is not in numerical form, for example diary accounts and questionnaires. Qualitative data is more descriptive and its harder to analyse than quantitative.
Quantitative research gathers data in numerical form which can then be put into categories or in rank order.

Focus groups are a group of people who participate in a discussion about a product before it is launched or provide feedback on things for example a television series. The group may consist of people from society and also potential customers. This is important because you can get a wide variety of views and responses from different people.
The focus groups are also likely to suggest the methods of advertising the product and which are most likely to be the most successful.

In audience research they consider how the audience may react to or engage in the text. There are some factors of how they analyse and predict the audiences reaction.
Audience engagement describes how audience interacts with media text.
Audience expectations these are advance ideas an audience may have about a text, this applies more to genre pieces.
Audience identification is the way in which audiences feel themselves connected to a particular media text, in a way that it directly expresses their attitude or lifestyle.

The Hypodermic needle suggests that the information from a text passes into the mass consciousness of the audience unmediated, for example the intelligence, experience and opinion of an individual are not relevant to the reception of the text. The theory suggests that the audiences behaviour and thinking can be changed easily by media and it is assumed that the audiences are passive.