2. What is an audience?
An individual or collective group of people who read or
consume any media text for example: Radio listeners,
Television viewers, Newspaper and magazine readers,
Web traffic on websites.
3. Why are audience important?
Without audiences there would be no media or cinema.
Media organisations produce media texts to make
profit – no audience = no profit. The mass media is
becoming more competitive than ever to attract more
and more audiences in different ways and stay
profitable.
4. What is the impact of new technology on audiences?
Old media (TV, Print, Radio) which used to Have high
audience numbers must now work harder to maintain
audience numbers. Digital technology has also led to
an increasing uncertainty over how we decline an
audience, with the general agreement that a large
group of people reading the same thing at the same
time is outdated and that audiences are now
‘fragmented’.
5. Explain a ‘Fragmented Audience’.
The division of audiences into smaller groups due to the
variety of media outlets.
Example: Newspaper, and Magazines – you can now
view the hard copy and online version (sometimes
free).
The aim is to hit as many people as possible/sell more
copies/generate a larger audience. But measuring that
audience becomes hard! You may have some people
that only look online, some that only read the hard
copy, or some that do both!
6. How do institutions continue to make money?
Nothing in life is free.
Free apps always have adverts, unless you pay to remove adds.
Websites and search engines work hard to target you with ads
whilst you consume ‘free online’ versions of your media
product.
These adverts are carefully constructed and selected for the
primary audience for each text.
With newspapers, printing less copies and switching to
online distribution can reduce production costs. (see your
local newspaper).
7. Types of audience:
Mass audience – 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 (women, men,
children, adults etc).
Niche audience – much smaller but very influential. A
niche audience is a small, select group of people with a
very unique interest.
Examples of niche publications...
8. Why do we categorise audiences?
Audiences can be divided into categories based on social
class/grade.
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
professions
Group C2 – Electrician, Plumbers, Carpenters, Blue collar
professions
Group D – Manual workers such as, Drivers, Post sorters
Group E – Students, Unemployed, Pensioners
9. What are Demographics?
Demography involves the statistical study of
human populations. As a very general science, it can
analyze any kind of dynamic living population, i.e., one
that changes over time or space (see population dynamics).
Formal demography limits its object of study to the
measurement of population processes, while the broader
field of social demography or population studies also
analyzes the relationships between economic, social,
cultural and biological processes influencing a population.
10. What are Psychographics?
Every advertiser wants to target a particular type of
audience. Therefore, media companies produce texts
that target a particular type of audience.
In terms of commercial media. Much of their funding is
generated by advertising revenue. Their product needs
to appeal to a specific type of audience so that
advertisers will pay to promote their product.
Most media products can define their typical audience
member, often with a psychographics profile.
11. What is Quantitative audience research?
Quantitative data is data that may be presented in
numbers or graphs. This may include using graphs, pie
charts, percentages and tables. The disadvantage of
Graphs may be them providing a quick show of data
but could be misread by the audience. Percentages
may provide you with an instant result but may not be
suitable and not understood by some individuals.
12. What is Qualitative audience research?
Qualitative Research is a way of collecting data in words such
as interviews, using leaflets, reports or presentations.
Leaflets may be more attractive with images and colours,
they may also have sections that the audience would find
easier to read but it may also not be enough information as
it might short and concise and difficult to produce. Reports
encourage being straight to the point as you may have
restricted amount of words. A presentation helps you
widen your imagination and expand ideas but may also
have a time limit.
13. How do we measure audience?
Readership and circulation
For print media, the two main measures of audience are readership and circulation. Circulation relates to the number of
copies circulated to the public. Readership is the number of readers - either of a specific issue of the publication, or
over a certain time period, such as 3 months. Circulation is measured from sales figures, but readership is measured
from surveys of the population.
Measuring circulation
As circulation is defined as the number of copies circulated, this should be a simple, unambiguous measure of a
publication's success. If only it were so easy! In fact, defining circulation can be quite a problem - because "circulated"
can have several different meanings. When a publication is circulated mainly through sales, the circulation can be the
number of copies sold.
Measures of radio audiences
The data from diaries is converted into several types of audience measure, each of which is useful for a different purpose.
The main measures are:
average audience
reach, or cumulative audience
share
duration
impressions
frequency - average and distribution
Loyalty
Measures of TV audiences
From the raw data of the numbers of households or people viewing TV channels, these measures are calculated:
Ratings (of households and/or people)
Households Using Television (HUTs)
TARPs (Target Audience Rating Points)
Reach and frequency
Program rankings
Audience share
14. Who are?:
NRS -The NRS social grades are a system of demographic classification used in the United Kingdom. They were
originally developed by the National Readership Survey to classify readers, but are now used by many other
organisations for wider applications and have become a standard for market research. They were developed over 50
years ago and achieved widespread usage in 20th Century Britain. Their definition is now maintained by the Market
Research Society.
ABC - The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (stylized in its logo as ABC since 1962; corporate
name American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. Throughout its history, ABC has supported its financial operations by
diversifying into the press, the publishing industry, theatre operations and filmmaking. Many of the company's assets
in these fields have since been sold to other entities, and since 2007, when ABC Radio (also known as Cumulus Media
Networks) was sold to Citadel Broadcasting, ABC has reduced its broadcasting operations almost exclusively to
television.
BARB - The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) is the organisation that compiles audience
measurement and television ratings in the United Kingdom. It was created in 1981 to replace a previous systems
whereby ITV ratings were compiled by JICTAR (Joint Industry Committee for Television Audience Research), whilst
the BBC did their own audience research.
BARB is jointly owned by the BBC, the TP companies, Channel 4, Channel 5, BSkyB, and the Institute of Practitioners
in Advertising. Participating viewers have a box on top of their TV sets which tracks the programmes they watch.
15. What is audience profiling?
"Audience profile“ is a term used to describe the characteristics of those who
read, view, or listen to a given medium, such as a television channel or a
magazine. Such a profile generally contains economic information, such as
approximate income, home ownership, car ownership, and buying
patterns.
It may also contain information about social habits and geographic location.
An audience profile can be particularly important to advertisers who want
to display their advertisements where people likely to buy their products or
services will see them.
General social and economic information about the audiences of various
media sources can greatly help advertisers choose the most effective
placement for their advertisements. An audience profile can be helpful to
advertisers for a variety of different reasons. Economic information about
an audience allows advertisers to judge whether or not readers, viewers, or
listeners have the financial resources or the need for the products or
services offered.
17. Why do companies need to know this profile
information?
Companies need to know this to ensure and satisfy the
information base on media in order to produce a film
to attract the audience is beneficial... Such as gender,
age group, this profile will help them to understand
the concept and understanding of what this profile is
about... And how they will out grade it to people...
