This is how to break down an audience.

1. Maisie Bloor
HOW TO BREAK DOWN AN AUDIENCE

2. AGE
Children continue to race to maturity at an astonishing rate. They have complex social networks,
formed both inside and outside the home through everything from school to online social media.
They also soak-up new technology, with most showing none of the trepidation in relation to new
developments that their parents experience. In fact, technology is firmly rooted at the heart of
children’s lives. In recent years, the entertainment options available to them have exploded –not
least in terms of TV where they have a dazzling array of channels available to them through the
digital network. For both boys and girls, music channels, children’s channels, sport and film are the
main drivers of viewing, although there is some variation between the sexes on the genres
consumed. In terms of programming, there are significant variations by gender, but even in multi-
channel homes, EastEnders and The Simpsons remain firm favourites amongst both sexes.
Increasingly, and especially as children develop, content aimed at adults becomes firmly embedded
in the viewing habits of kids. Films have to be carefully adjusted in order to adapts the film to be
appreciate for young viewers, parents are able to recognize whether a film is appropriate by ratings
e.g. PG, U, 12, 12A, 15,18.
There are currently over 6.7 million housewives with kids in the UK. Although there is an obvious
crossover between women 16-34 and ABC1 women, there are also some key points of
differentiation.

3. GENDER
According to research done boys are less inclined to watch the BBC1 than girls but their consumption of
five is higher. Sky one is a firm favourite amongst this audience, particularly the 13-14’s where it’s
watched by nearly 60% of them. Perhaps surprisingly, news channels are appealing to boys with 27% of
11-16 years olds tuning in. Music and kids channels are as equally important to boys as to girls and
continue to form the crux of their viewing. Boys are particularly avid consumers of cartoons with 30%
claiming to have watched a cartoon channel in the last week. Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney
channel remain firm favourites. Although there is some variation by age, cartoons still rank highly with
boys under the age of 12. As they hit their teen years, sports and music become the main focus.
The same research shows that girls claim to watch 2.4 hours of TV per day, although this increases as
they mature and their tastes switch to a broader range of genres such as soaps and reality. Virtually all
have access to digital with over 80% claiming to have watched BBC1 or ITV in the last week, although
they still watch high levels of terrestrial. 65% of girls have a DVD player in their rooms (boys are more
likely to have DVDs, perhaps as they demand newer technology). Channel 4 proves more popular with
girls than boys largely due to content such as Hollyoaks and Big Brother. Digitally, ITV2 is proving an
increasing favourite for girls, especially amongst the 15-16 year olds. However, their tastes are varied and
music, movies, news and documentaries also feature strongly on their programming radars. Drama,
soaps, comedy and sitcoms (usually aimed at adults) provide the basis of most of their viewing and this
distinguishes them most from boys who favour cartoons. As girls develop, so do their tastes. Until the age
of 9, girls favour children’s channels and cartoons, but music rapidly takes over as they near their teens.
As they move through their teenage years, music become the primary focus, particular MTV and the pop
based channels, although the older element become more c to entertainment programming across
channels like ITV2, Trouble and E4.

4. SEXUALITY
As the idea of homosexual couples becomes more widely accepted by society, more
films are being based around this concept in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience.
This story is the same in the magazine industry and as it will then be aimed at
homosexuals and bisexuals, this will then become more and more common.
According to research lots of homosexual people liked less “traditional films”, for
example films like Noir, Classics, World cinema and biography movies. The homosexual
audience was fairly mainstream in their film viewing habits and watched films via a mix of
visiting the cinema, renting DVD’s, subscribing to movie channels and watching films on
TV.

5. EDUCATION
The educational background of the target audience can affect the way in which you produce
your media text. This is because the educational background directly affects how well
educated you are, and how well educated you are can greatly affect what concepts you
understand fully, and also what concepts you’re interested in. Therefore, when you decide
upon a concept to base your media text around, you need to decide upon how educated a
person needs to be to understand and fully appreciate it, and then gear the marketing towards
this group of people.

6. ETHNICITY
Ethnicity and Cultural/religions backgrounds can affect audience because it can impact upon
how relatable the production is to different ethnic groups and different religions because
generally, different ethnic groups and different religions because cultures which stem from
their backgrounds and religion. Usually, media texts aimed at particular ethnic groups will
include people from those ethnic groups, and will incorporate the culture that they’re a part of
an order to make the production relatable, but it the production isn’t aimed at one ethnic group
or religion in particular from all ethnic backgrounds and cultures are included so that the text
is as widely relatable as possible. It’s also important to show all ethnic backgrounds and
religions to be equal within media texts, no matter who the text is aimed at to avoid an claims
of racism.