Audiences

AUDIENCE
• Audience Segmentation
• Audience Consumption
• Audience Engagement
• Affects on an audience
• The change in our relationship between
Institutions and Audiences

TARGET AUDIENCE
The group of people a product is aimed at

Why do we need to know who
our target audience is?

Constructing Audience
Does it have an audience?"
If no one is going to watch/read/play/buy the
product = 

How do you categorise a
target audience is?

AUDIENCE SEGMENTATION
TARGET AUDIENCE
Media producers want to know the:
• income bracket/status?
• age
• gender
• race
• Location (where do they live/watch?)

Socio economic demographics
A
Top management, bankers, lawyers, doctors and other
highly salaried professionals
B
Middle management, teachers, many 'creatives' eg
graphic designers etc
C1
Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses, specialist
clerical staff etc
C2 Skilled workers, tradespersons (white collar)
D Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers (blue collar)
E Unemployed, students, pensioners, casual workers

Socio economic demographics – job and income
A
Top management, bankers, lawyers, doctors and other highly
salaried professionals
B
Middle management, teachers, many 'creatives' eg graphic
designers etc
C1
Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses, specialist clerical staff
etc
C2 Skilled workers, tradespersons (white collar)
D Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers (blue collar)
E Unemployed, students, pensioners, casual workers

Audience: demographics
• What is your own personal demographic?
– Gender:
– Age:
– Occupation:
– Region:
– Ethnicity:
– Any other key aspects?

2 people may have the same
demographics but they have completely
different hobbies, ideals, beliefs etc

Audience: Psychographics
Psychographics is less about facts such as your age, and more
about attitudes and values.
The audience can be divided up into categories

Psychographics – Attitudes and Values
•Mainstreamers seek security
•Aspirers – seek status – like material wealth
•Succeeders – seek control
•Resigned – seek survival
•Explorers – seek discovery
•Strugglers – seek escape
•Reformers – Seek enlightenment

Psychographics
AttitudesandValues

Who is the target audience?
• Age
• Gender
• Demographics
• Psychographics

Why do you think that?
• Age – 15-35
• Gender – both male and female
• Demographics – BC1C2DE
• Psychographics – aspirers,
mainstreamers

• Colour / lighting
• facial expressions
• Body language
• Shot size / Framing
• Text /slogan
• Font/typeface
• logo

• Colour / lighting high key lighting
bright which connotes happiness

• facial expressions – content, in love

• Body language – close proximity
• Shot size / Framing centrally framed

• Body language – close proximity
• Shot size / Framing centrally framed
• Font/typeface bold, modern
• Logo –recognition, recognisable

• Age
• Gender
• Demographics
• Psychographics

• Age
• Gender
• Demographics
• Psychographics
Who is the target audience? Why do you think that?

What is the definition
of a Mainstream film
and a Niche film?

A Mainstream film is aimed at a wide
spectrum of different types of people
(Superhero genre etc)

A Mainstream film is aimed at a wide
spectrum of different types of people
(Superhero genre etc)
and a Niche film appeals to a small /
narrow spectrum demographic?
Arthouse, documentary film etc

Pearl and Dean are a long
established film advertising
company.
They categorise their films for
various audience profiles.
RUN VT

‘No film is for everyone.
Each film has a target audience.
It’s your job to know – specifically – who
they are.
Your film can’t communicate effectively or
succeed at the box office unless you know
the group of people for whom you are
making it’ from Canadian Filmmaker Website (2012)

Research the following 4 films. Summarise your findings
Target audience profile (age, socio-economic, gender)
VERSUS Release date, genre, budget and film production company
and distributor
Search: Pearl and Dean Film Guide
Budget and production info Wikipedia or imdb

Budget: $20m. Released 14th Dec. 3D
Audience profile:
Male 15-24 C1 (ABC1C2 even spread)
prod: Warner Bros & DC
Dist: Warner Bros
Budget: est $80m. Released 9th Dec. 3D
Audience profile:
Female 7-11 C2 + C1 (even spread ABC1C2DE)
prod: Universal Pictures (Comcast)
Dist: Universal Pictures (Comcast)
Budget: est $15m. Released 5th Oct
Audience profile:
Male 7-11 + 15-24 C2+C1
prod: Universal Pictures (Comcast)
Dist: Universal Pictures (Comcast)
Budget: est $4m. Released 11th Jan
Audience profile:
Female +45 AB
prod: co-lab: Number 9 Films,
Killer Films, Bold Films
Dist: Lionsgate
What is the
relationship between
the audience profile
and type of film
versus budget and
producer?

Look at this reader profile. What
statistics/info would be of
interest to potential advertisers?

Your audience profile:
Age, gender, income, socio economic categorisation
https://www.uktribes.com/
Independent TASK 1:
Research Channel 4 UK Tribes
– which are you?

HOMEWORK
Who are GenZ and Millennials – what are the differences?
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-beall/8-key-differences-
between_b_12814200.html?guccounter=1
Independent TASK 2:
Read the article and make up a table
showing the differences

Consider your profile.
Age
Gender
Socio-economic category
Psychographics
‘Tribe’
Most common consumption methods
(primary/secondary/tertiary)
Consumption platforms: TV/Radio/social media
platform/Music/video game/print
Independent TASK 3:
Write up YOUR media profile. Consider
all these categories/segmentations

Independent TASK 4:
Who watches the most TV? Which segment watches live TV the most? Who
sees the most adverts on TV? What do you find surprising?
Make sure you find out who BARB are also

Uses and Gratifications theory
• In 1970’s Blumler and Katz’s theory suggests that we
choose to watch certain programmes because it
satisfies a need
• We USE a programme to GRATIFY or please
ourselves.

Entertainment and diversion - taking you away from
your own problems and your own world for a while –
escapism.
Blumler and Katz’s
Uses and Gratifications Theory

Surveillance and information
helping you to get knowledge about the world and how
it works

Personal identity
Comparing yourself to characters on the TV – what
would you do in that situation? How would you
behave? Would you be as brave? As foolhardy?

Personal companionship
Getting involved with the characters as if they are real,
wanting to find out what happens in their lives; also
having something to talk about with other people – ‘did
you see that last night …’ conversations.
‘Watercooler moments’.

Entertainment and
diversion
Taking you away from your own problems and your own
world – escapism
Surveillance and
information
Helping you to get new knowledge.
Seeking knowledge.
Personal identity Comparing yourself to characters.
What would you do in that situation?
Personal
companionship
Getting involved with the characters as if they are real.
Having something to talk about with other people: ‘Did
you see that last night …’ conversations.

Same product - Different target audience
1. Nintendo DS commercial Ant and Dec
2. Nintendo DS commercial Nicole Kidman
3. Nintendo DS Commercial Julie Walters and Patrick
Stewart

- WHO is the target audience?
- HOW are they promoting the
game?
Why would people buy it?

ADVERT Ant & Dec Nicole Kidman Julie Walters & Patrick
Stewart
Who do you think is the
target audience (age
gender demographics,
type).
How are they persuading
the audience to buy it?
What is the message?
What are the benefits or
purchasing the game?
(Uses & Gratification
theory).
How have they encoded
meaning? Media language
eg mise en scene, lighting,
cinematography, sound
How might the
representations in the
advert appeal to the
audience? (Celebrity/type)

ADVERT Ant & Dec Nicole Kidman Julie Walters & Patrick
Stewart
Who do you think is the
target audience (age
gender demographics,
type).
Male
+30
C3 D E
Female
+30
ABC1
Male & Female
+50
ABC1
How are they persuading
the audience to buy it?
What is the message?
What are the benefits or
purchasing the game?
(Uses & Gratification
theory).
Prove how clever you
are
Competition
Improve your brain
power
Avoid dementia
‘Use it or lose it.’
How have they encoded
meaning? Media language
eg mise en scene, lighting,
cinematography, sound
Bloggie, cabbies,
working class
Hand held – realism
Cafe.
White, pure. Well
off. Long shots show
expensive house.
She has leisure time.
Location: theatre = well
off.
How might the
representations in the
advert appeal to the
audience? (Celebrity/type)
ITV celebrities C2C3DE
Comic, working class
northerners. ‘Boys
done good’
Attractive successful
female.
Playing the ‘dumb
blonde’ stereotype.
Celebrities are +50 but
very active therefore
inspirational role model
for older audience.

Media Consumption
It is possible to make distinctions between
different kinds of media consumption,
depending upon the attention that is given
to the text by the consumer.

PRIMARY INVOLVEMENT
This refers to the times when you are exclusively focussed upon one activity. Eg, watching a film at the cinema, or a
TV programme, or reading a magazine or newspaper.
Media Consumption

PRIMARY INVOLVEMENT
SECONDARY INVOLVEMENT
This refers to those occasions when media consumption occurs while you are engaged in another activity. Eg,
listening to the radio while tidying up, or listening to music while surfing the internet.
Media Consumption

PRIMARY INVOLVEMENT
This refers to those occasions when media consumption occurs while you are engaged in another activity. Eg,
listening to the radio while tidying up, or listening to music while surfing the internet.
TERTIARY INVOLVEMENT
This is the weakest and most passive category. It occurs when the consumption of media texts is merely incidental
background to your other activities. Eg, when you are vaguely aware that the tv or radio is on in the background or
in another room in the house. Or music is playing in the supermarket but you are snap chatting, and choosing
cereal.
It is possible to shift from one category to another within the same media text.
Media Consumption

PRIMARY INVOLVEMENT
Focussed upon one activity. eg, watching a film at the cinema, or a TV programme, or reading a magazine or
newspaper.
Whilst engaged in another activity. Eg, listening to the radio while tidying up, or listening to music while surfing the
internet.
TERTIARY INVOLVEMENT
Merely incidental background to your other activities. Eg, when you are vaguely aware that the TV or radio is on in
the background or in another room in the house.
Media Consumption
• Consider YOUR Media Consumption
• When do YOU consume media in one or more of these ways
• Which is your most common way of consuming media?

https://www.statista.com/statistics/269918/daily-tv-viewing-time-in-the-uk-by-age/
Analyse this data and summarize in your books what has been happening over the last 7 years

How media products target audiences
When considering how products attract and reach their target audience, methods may include:
•Technical and audio codes
eg genre, editing, music, headlines, mise en scene, anchorage copy.
•The language and mode of address
This might target a specific audience whilst alienating another, for example, Grand Theft Auto’s game cover might use
lexis and tone specific to an audience of primarily young males who will understand the references and language as
they are the intended audience. Esoteric.
•The Construction of the text
The way in which a text is constructed, such as the opening sequence to a TV drama might use enigmas, multi-stranded
narratives and stars associated with that genre.
•Platform
An audience can also be targeted through specific platforms and circulation via which a product is marketed and
distributed. For example, viral, online and social media campaigns for TV dramas are used to target a younger
audience, whereas as older audiences may be more targetted via TV ad campaigns
•The Positioning of the audience in the text- this may be through the camera shots and angles, the use of music and
other audio codes, the language and mode of address. (Stuart Hall)

How media products target audiences
• Media producers are keen to establish a relationship with their
perceived audience. How they address or speak to their audience is
a crucial factor in establishing a relationship and so constructing an
audience.
• Audience identity is written into texts in a number of ways.
Variations in tone, pace, language for example, will reflect the
producers’ notions of who the audience is.
• Modes of address will vary depending on the media form and the
perceived audience. As a general rule the more specialised the
target audience, the more distinctive will be the mode of address.
e.g. computer and other technical magazines will, through style and
language, restrict access to those with ‘special’ knowledge. Esoteric

Mode of Address
1.Direct mode of address: The model looks directly at the audience, or the writing speaks to ‘you’.
2.Indirect mode of address: The model looks away, or the writing refers to ‘people’ or ‘the public’.
3.Formal mode of address: Using formal phrasing and terminology.
4.Informal mode of address: Using more conversational language and slang.
5.Friendly mode of address: The tone is optimistic and comforting.
6.Hostile mode of address: The text challenges or insults the reader.
7.Humorous mode of address: The writer/presenter is trying to make you laugh. The tone could
be sarcastic or ironic.
8.Serious mode of address: The writer/presenter wants you to take their point seriously. The tone
would be sincere
9. Consider the use of personal pronouns and the effect that they have on address: I, YOU, WE, THEY,
US THEM
• MODES OF ADDRESS IN NEWSPAPERS:
• Broadsheets – impersonal, formal, detached. Subdued tone, non- participatory and less direct than tabloids.
• Tabloids – loud ,personal, more direct , use of participatory gestures. Front page/visuals more important than in
broadsheets.
• Daily Mail and The Sun – often adopt a sense of us versus ‘The other’

• Stuart Hall – Reception Theory (readings)
• Fandom
• Participatory Culture (Henry Jenkins)
• Prosumers (Producer consumers)

PRODUCER
FILMMAKER
MESSAGE/
INTENDED
MEANING
DENOTATION CONNOTATION
DIFFERENT
INTERPRETATIONS
Gender
Age
Nationality
Ethnicity
Political
Reception Theory
The Gatekeepers

Reception Theory
Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory
(encode/decode)
• Preferred/Dominant reading
• Oppositional reading
• Negotiated reading
Mr Hunter YouTube Reception Theory
Mrs Fishers Reception Theory

STUART HALL
• Meaning in texts is encoded through media language.
• The ways in which texts are decoded often reflect the encoded
meaning although this cannot be guaranteed.
• These ‘preferred’ readings are likely to be dominant due to the
positioning of the audience through media language.
• Other possible readings can be described as negotiated or
oppositional, reflecting resistance to the encoded meaning.

• PREFERRED READING: Attractive young
people drink Coca-Cola… I want to be like
that so I will buy a coke
• OPPOSITIONAL READING – I hate big
companies selling junk trying to appealing
to our material desires
• NEGOTIATED READING – I now they just
want us to buy their brand but actually
this ad is quite fun and I do like the drink
so I may consider buying next time I’m in a
supermarket

Fans and ‘Fandom’
• Fans bring an intense emotion response and
attachment to certain films
• Fans of genres, cult movies, film series, stars
and directors

Consumption of Films by Fans & Audiences
• Films are mostly commercial products (creative too)
• If a distributor marketing strategy is effective the target
audience will be drawn to consume to product
(cinema/DVD etc)
• The audience will be expecting a sensual, emotional
(perhaps intellectual) pleasure
• Steve Neal’s genre theory – Mastery – anticipating the
expected ingredients (codes & conventions)

X-Men (2000)
Twentieth Century Fox
Bryan Singer director of
Pre-existing fan base of Marvel
comics – audience
Fanzines, websites and email
network network
Ready to judge every decision
he made (ownership)

AUDIENCE
EXPECTATIONS
These are the advance ideas an audience may have
about a text. This particularly applies to genre
pieces. Don't forget that producers often play with
or deliberately shatter audience expectations.
Eg Rom-Com – predictability (Steve Neal ‘mastery’ theory)
Saw franchise
Stanley Kubrick/Quentin Tarantino – open minded as they often break
codes and conventions – unpredictable.
Coen Brothers - Disappointed if it isnt unpredictable (True Grit)

AUDIENCE
EXPECTATIONS
Woman in Black (2012) – ticked all the audience expectations
•Daniel Radcliff fans
•Literally Adaption
•Theatrical Adaption
•Horror Codes & Convention

AUDIENCE
EXPECTATIONS
Audiences go to horror films not only to see things feared...
but to experience fear, to explore the outer limits of
Knowledge
Christine Gledhill The Horror Genre 2007

AUDIENCE
FOREKNOWLEDGE
This is the definite information (rather than the
vague expectations) which an audience brings
to a media product.
The Blair witch Project – pre-selling via the internet
Cloverfield – viral marketing

Effects Model
Over the last century media analysts have
developed several effects models, i.e.
theoretical explanations of how humans ingest
the information transmitted by media texts and
how this might influence (or not) their
behaviour.
Influencing the Audience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt5MjBlvGcY

COPYCAT CRIME
Columbine shootings 1999 link youth violence and the
media. 15 killed
(Natural Born Killers – Oliver Stone 1994)
Bowling for Columbine e stream

Is said to have influenced two young boys
to commit murder and torture on a child;
James Bulger in 1993.
Effects Model
Copycat crime

https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/research-
resources/2018/10-years-since-the-byron-
review/

AUDIENCE
CHANGE between
Institutions and Audiences

Timeline of Technology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be3KZDFvDeA

• David Gauntlett
• http://davidgauntlett.com/making-is-connecting-second-expanded-edition/
• WATCH BOTH, and take notes on why relevant:
• 1. CHANGING RELATIONSHIP OF AUDIENCES AND INSTITUTIONS MEDIA CONSUMERS AND
PRODUCERS (2008)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlzu8UYidTY
• 2. Prosumer example
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTyTXN_t4rc
• 2 screen viewing https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/aug/03/study-children-multi-screen-viewing
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9640887.stm
• ACTIVE AUDIENCES – INVOLVED - INTERACTING

http://davidgauntlett.com/making-is-connecting-second-expanded-edition/

UGC: User Generated Content
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTosB6V_V24
Prosumers – Producer Consumers

The Music industry Evolution/Revolution
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=the+music+industry+timeline&&view=detail&mid
=E87EB73234516393F53FE87EB73234516393F53F&&FORM=VRDGAR

BBFC – British Board of Film Classification 1912 – to date
Why is there Media Regulation?
• To protect – social harm/ age unsuitability
• Safeguarding livelihoods – ie piracy
• Maintaining unbiased views
– anti-discrimination

Media Regulation?
• Should a democracy regulate the
media?
• Violence – desensitisation & Copycat
theory – any evidence?
• Media is big business – if unregulated
corporations gain power and influence

112
Examining: Issues
• Violence
• Language
• Sex
• Sexual References
• Sexual Violence
• Drugs
• Criminal Activity
• Weapons
• Imitable Techniques
• Horror
• Theme
• Legal Issues

Brief history
Key trend over time= liberalisation and rationalisation
Moralistic
paternalism
Bureaucratic
protectionism
• Unwritten rules
• Shared values, rigid moral code
• ‘We know what's best for you’
• Published guidelines
• Public consultation
• Child protection

COMMON MISTAKE
CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)
Was passed by BBFC but withdrawn
by Director Stanley Kubrick, after
copycat crime and death threats

Desensitisation
Apocalypse Now
• 1979 X certificate
• 1992 18 video
• 1995 Bfi 18
• 2011 redux BBFC 15
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/DFF014093/

Mark Kermode - Critic
Accuses the BBFC of being
more liberal in their classification
of ‘Arthouse’ and foreign language cinema;
taking into account assumptions
about the white, middle-class,
middle-aged audience
The public has a
responsibility to look after
itself and they are giving this
up to the regulators. We’ve
allowed the regulators to view
us all as children’

Antichrist (2009) Lars von Trier
• Nick, falls from a window to his
death on the snowy ground
below while his parents
passionately make love.
• She then takes a pair of scissors
and mutilates herself
• He strangles her to death and
burns her body on a funeral pyre

What have we learnt so far?
• WHY DO WE NEED CENSORSHIP?
• WHAT IS THE EFFECTS MODEL?
• DO WE NEED VIOLENCE?
• WHAT IS DESENSITISATION?
• WHAT ARE THE CRITICISMS OF THE BBFC?

Who are the media
regulators in the UK?
• Television
• Radio
• Advertising
• Press
• Video Games
• Internet content
• Social Media

Regulators
• Ofcom - TV
• RAJAR
• ASA / CAP/ Clearcast
• Independent Press Standards Organisation
(IPSO)
• Video Standards Council – Video games (PEGI)
• CEOP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdpspllWI2o
THEN
add to your notes:
• Who is the ASA and what is their role?
• Who is CAP and what is their role?
• Who is Clearcast and what is their role?
• Why was the Iceland ad banned?
• What are the issues/inconsistencies in
their ruling?
Read emailed article and weblink

add to your notes:
• ASA: The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the
UK’s independent regulator of advertising across all
media. We apply the Advertising Codes, which are
written by the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP).
• CAP: Write the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising
• Who is Clearcast and what is their role? Clearcast
operates the clearance system for television
commercials. This involves checking and making sure ads
follow the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising (the BCAP
Code), before they are shown on television.
• Why was the Iceland ad banned? Too political.
GreenPeace is classed s anti establishment
• What are the issues/inconsistencies in their ruling?
Viewers can watch it on other media eg YouTube

Regulation issues
• How can the internet be regulated?
• How can the Dark Web be regulated
• How can social media be regulated
• >400 hours uploaded to YouTube per minute –
how can that be regulated?

https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/zy24p39/revision/1
NOW REVISE AND TEST
YOURSELF

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy
of Needs. American psychologist
Theory of Human Motivation 1943

• Need to survive – used by advertisements for food, drink, housing etc
• Need to feel safe: adverts for insurance, loans, banks that promise security and freedom from
threats
• Need for friendship (affiliation) – adverts that focus on lifestyle choices like diets, fashion, people’s
desire to be popular. They also threaten them with the failure to be liked or to fit in!
• Need to nurture or care for something – adverts that show cute animals and small children brings
this viewing out of the viewer.
• Need to achieve – Adverts linked with winning, often promoted by sports personalities. The need to
succeed at difficult tasks.
• Need for Attention – adverts for beauty products often play ion the need to be noticed and admired.
• Need for prominence. Adverts for expensive furniture and jewellery may use people’s need to be
respected and to have a high social status. Aspirational.
• Need to dominate – adverts for products like fast cars offer the possibility of being in control through
the product.
• Need to find meaning in life – Adverts for travel or music may appeal to peoples’ need for fulfilment.
Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Audiences

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