1. MEDIA – AUDIENCES
Looking into audiences, how to categorise an audience,
audience effects theories and consuming habits.

2. CATEGORISING AUDIENCES
There are many different ways of categorising audiences, there are theories on how to
do this, and ways that they should officially be categorised, in this, I‟m going to look at
these different theories to help me decide exactly how I will create my media package.
Whilst looking at these theories, however, I will be looking at how effective they would
be and if opinion should come into the theories, almost as if I will be able to decide
what category my media package should go into, based on my own opinion, the
theories and ways of grouping audiences.

3. RATINGS
Some things use a rating system, this has been used for a long time and is an easy way
to see if things are liked by an audience, however, it does have it‟s major downfalls.
A criticism of this is that there are different audience markets, and so the same thing
would not appeal to different audiences, also, with ratings, it only shows a number of
people that have tuned in to watch something and so it cannot tell if a person has
enjoyed the show, will continue watching it, etc.
Another weakness with this is that is does not exactly categorise and audience, just sees
if something has been watched by a number of people, it would though, show what
kind of thing is popular.

4. INCOME/BRACKET STATUS
Based on this theory, a way of categorising audiences is based on their „class‟.
Usually based on their income.
This ranges from „upper-middle class‟ people such as doctors, lawyers, bankers
and other professionals all the way down to „people at lowest level of income‟
such as those who are unemployed, students, pensioners or casual workers.
The good thing about this as it gives us somewhere to start, however someone on
a low level income could quite easily be interested in the same things as someone
who is „upper-middle class.

5. YOUNG AND RUBICAM’S FOUR
CONSUMERS
Eventually, the concept of „class‟ became less fashionable and advertisers started
thinking about audiences in different ways, the most well know was developed by
the advertising agency „Young and Rubicam‟ known as „Four consumers‟.
This theory is made up on „Mainstreamers‟ that make up about 40% of the
population who like security and belonging to a group, aspirers that want status
and esteem of others and so want designers labels and live off credit and cash.
There are also succeeders that have already got status and control, finally there
are reformers who define themselves by their self-esteem and self-fulfillment.
Again, this theory gives a basis for defining people, however, that isn‟t to say one
person may not be a mixture of two or more, depending on what part of media
would be in question.

6. VALUES, ATTITUDES AND
LIFESTYLES
This theory is very similar to „Young and Rubicam‟s‟ theory, however, it offers
a more sophisticated range of audiences, based on their “Values, Attitudes and
Lifestyles”.
This gives a huge range of potential audiences, such as: Actualisers, Fulfilleds ,
Achievers, Experiencers, Believers, Strivers, Makers and Strugglers.
What makes this theory good, is that there is a lot of choice to pinpoint an
audience, however, this could be a criticism as there is too much choice, and so
you couldn‟t appeal to a broader audience.

7. LIFEMATRIX
One of the latest theories to tackle „Audience‟ is the „LifeMatrix‟ that looks at, and
defines ten audience categories in a way that looks at the person, not just their
background.
The ten categories are „Tribe Wired‟ which are „Digital, free spirited, creative young
singles‟, „Fun/Atics‟ which covers „aspirational, fun loving, active young people‟,
„Dynamic Duos‟ meaning „Hard-Driving, High-Involvement couple‟, „Priority
parents‟ referring to those who like „Family values, activities and are media strongly
dominate‟, „Home soldiers‟ that are „Home-centric, family orientated and are
materially ambitious‟, „Renaissance women‟ who are „Caring, active, affluent and
influential mums‟.

8. LIFEMATRIX-CONTINUED
Also, there are „Rugged Traditionalists‟ that have „Traditional male values and a love
of outdoors‟, „Struggling singles‟ who „Have high aspirations, low economic status‟,
„Settled elders‟ that live „Devout, older, sedentary lifestyles‟ and finally, „Free birds‟
that are defined as „Vital, active, altruistic seniors‟.
This theory gives a great insight to peoples personalities, but it doesn‟t quite cover
everything, or it doesn‟t define them (class, income, ect) clearly, and so could be
inaccurate.

9. COUNTING THE AUDIENCE
All aspects of media are made sure to be doing well and making profits, so they use
different ways of making sure they are/will get(ing) a good reaction from the
audience.
For my media package, a way that is commonly used to make sure things are selling
is to measure their circulation (Items Sold).
They even have to know these figures accurately for advertisers, so they know what
they are advertising into.

10. INFLUENCING THE AUDIENCE
HYPODERMIC NEEDLE
The most commonly known way (however most out-dated) of how an audience is
affected in by following the „Hypodermic Needle‟ theory which suggests the
media is like a syringe that injects ideas into an audience, for example – Violent
films influence violence.
This theory is a reason behind films such as „The Exorcist‟ originally being
banned, however, there is no direct evidence to suggest films, or any other media
provoke actions from people.
This suggests to me, in making my print, that I may have to be careful in what
exactly I put in my media package, to keep it relatively child friendly. With the
media package being very open to people, as they‟re advertisements, I do need to
keep it friendly, as almost anyone will be able to see it.

11. INFLUENCING THE AUDIENCE
CULTIVATION/CULMINATION
Because of the difficulty with proving the Hypodermic Needle theory, a new
theory, a more refined one was created.
This theory suggests not that films provoke something, but cause desensitisation
towards specific things, such as violence.
If constantly exposed to violence, then you do not find it as shocking, so may be
more open to committing it.
Again, it is still very difficult to prove this theory, but does not necessarily mean
that it is false.
Again, I could say I need to be careful with what I put in my media package.

12. THE AUDIENCE AS PEOPLE
USES AND GRATIFICATIONS
This theory states that people don‟t just view media for mindless entertainment, as
people, we expect something from it, some gratification. The theory goes that we
select media on what we are expecting from it to suit our own needs.
People generally want to achieve four things from media, these four things are:
Information, Personal Identity, Integration and Social Interaction and simply,
Entertainment.
This is criticised however, as we cannot always choose what we see, such as posters,
as so we do not get what we want out of media a lot of the time. This shows to me
that I will have to be clever in what I put, to try and appeal to all without upsetting
people in what I put at the same time.

13. THE AUDIENCE AS PEOPLE
AUDIENCE AS INDIVIDUALS
This says nothing has one meaning, we all look at something and decode it in our
own way, to give it a meaning, this is based on our personality, our gender, what
mood we are in, where we are at the time, and so forth.
There are said to be three groupings of audiences, and how they receive a text.
Dominant reading – Suggests we have a strong reaction to something; for
example, a McDonalds advert would make us hungry and therefore more obliged
to buy a McDonalds as that is we perceive that a McDonalds is good, as they want
us to.
Oppositional reading – Refers to someone who does not get an advert, take
McDonalds for example again; Someone who is -

14. CONTINUED…
health conscious or a vegetarian, would not get this advert, as they won‟t see it
in the way McDonalds want them to.
Negotiated reading – This looks at people who may see the McDonalds
advert, and understand it in the way that McDonalds want them to, but also
see other sides of the advert, so they may see that it would be tasty, but they
see it is bad for them as well.
This theory gives good insight into how to write a text for a media package, to
make it opinionated, but to try and make sure any point I am trying to make, is
made in a clear way and any connotations it would have, I know about and
want people to see.

15. IN CONCLUSION
Overall, from all of my research on audiences, I have concluded that I can‟t just
base my ideas of how I will construct my media package on one theory. Also, I
can‟t necessarily use all the theories. Due to the nature of my large package I can‟t
please everyone. In this, I mean that I can‟t stick to the idea of „catering to all
audiences‟ as this simply isn‟t practical. Instead, I will use the theories here to help
guide me on how to construct my media package, so that I know how to cater to
the audience in which I am targeting.
What audience this is, is not decided yet, as I need to gather more research and
evidence into what audience is best targeted.