Audiences are assembled spectators or listeners of various forms of media such as, TV, books, newspapers, radio and film. Audiences include the spectators of these specifically such as television viewers, book readers and radio listeners. Audiences are important to almost every industry as without them media would not exist, an audience is needed for profit, to demand the supplier for content. The importance of audience interests and expectations is very important as media owners and controllers are able to adapt their content to satisfy the constant demand for media.
How can you categorise audiences?
Audiences can be categorised in various ways, including gender, age, race, social class, income, status, political views or interests and hobbies. Audiences are generally categorised as different audiences aquire different tastes in media content. Due to the amount of people that consume media content on a daily basis, categorising audiences makes it significantly easier to target particular audiences and their tastes and satisfy their expectations. An example of this is when artists are aware of their audience and continue to create music that satisfy their fans, One Direction are an example of a teen boyband who were aware that their audience are generally young females, therefore they continued to create music to cater to their expectations.
Audience categories
Audiences can be categorised according to their annual income, this can be used as a factor for determining their social status. This shows that those of upper middle social status are at the top of the hierarchy, with the higher managerial jobs and the casual workers at the bottom who tend to be widows, pensioners, very low skilled workers or unemployed and dependent on state.
Advantages of categorising audiences
- Categorising an audience makes it easier to target an audience
- Allows people to adapt their content to appeal to fans specifically
- Can identify how much audiences can spend according to how much they earn
- Specific advertisements can be made which may interest the audience
Disadvantages of categorising audiences
- Categorising does not take into account that people have different personalities and tastes , two individuals having similar jobs does not mean they consume the same type of media.
- Only considers peoples income and status, rather than interests and hobbies
- Makes very general assumptions about people
Different genres have different audiences
Pop - popular music appeals to most audiences but is generally aimed at females aged 11-25, no particular ethnicity as the music is generally universally appealing, also all incomes are applicable as pop music is seen as the most general.
Rock - rock music appeals to males mostly aged 25-50, generally white males from working to middle class backgrounds.
Rap/Hip-hop - appeals to males aged 18-25, usually from a working class background
R&B- usually appeals to females aged 18-25, from working class backgrounds
Country - appeals to both males and females aged 25-40, usually white working class
Classical - appeals to females aged 30 and above, white middle to upper class backgrounds
Audience reactions
Audience engagement - This describes how an audience interacts with media text. Different people react in different ways to the same text.
Audience expectations - Advance ideas an audience may have about a text. This particularly applies to genre pieces, also producers often okay with or deliberately shatter audiences expectations.
Audience foreknowledge - This is the definite information (rather than vague expectations) which an audience brings to a media product.
Audience identification - This is the way in which audiences feel themselves connected to a particular media text, in that they feel it directly expresses their attitude or lifestyle.
Audience placement - The range of strategies media producers use to directly target a particular audience and make them feel that the media text is especially 'for them'.
Audience research - Measuring an audience is very important to all media institutions. Research is done at all stages of production of a media text and once produced, the audience will be continually monitored.
Linking audiences to Hebdige, Goodwin and Dyer
Audience engagement - This can be linked to Hebdige's theory for subcultures. Different people react in different ways to the same text, Hebdige states that subcultures exist within society and everyone is different in society and therefore have different views and reactions. It is also suggested by Hebdige that companies attempt to assimilate the resistance by creating products that these subcultures are more likely to consume which results in the audience deciding whether to accept these products or resist them. Therefore proving that the audience have a certain degree of interaction with the media by influencing.
Audience expectations - Linked to Goodwin's theory as it is suggested that the audience have expectations regarding the artist and the conventions associated with the artist and genres. Goodwin also identifies features that are evident in mainstream music videos including, genre characteristics, star image motifs and intertextual references. These are all features that are conventional to music videos that are used to meet audiences expectations.
Audience identification - This is linked to Dyer's theory due to the suggestions of how audiences relate to an artist, also how an artist is constructed to look a certain way to appeal to the audience. An artist could look ordinary in order for the audience to relate to them as well as very different and 'out there' so the audience can view them as an iconic figure.
Conclusion: How has this information helped you develop your ideas for your own media products. Who will be your audience and why?
Researching into audiences has helped me develop an idea of who the audience for my own media products will be. I understand that I will have to engage the audience, meet their expectations and identify with them to an extent to ensure my media product is successful. As the genre of my music video will most likely be Rap/Hip-hop my audience will most likely be males, aged 18-25, from a working class background. When creating my music video I will have to apply this target audience as much as possible and find what appeals their expectations and identify with them, to ultimately engage them.
There are several ways of profiling audiences, being the most commonly used the demographic profiling model, the socio-economic one (which you have included here in the form of the Standard Occupational Classification, which categorises people in terms of their occupation or income) and the psycho-graphic profiling model. You can find a PowerPoint on this topic in the student area (T:\Student Area\Media\A LEVEL FILM AND MEDIA_KEY CONCEPTS\Audience) which will help you to gain a broader insight on this matter.
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