Evaluation question 4 who would be the audience for your media product?

1. Evaluation Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media
product?
To sum up our audience entirely, we have aimed our radio bulletin at young locals of
the Isle of Wight, with our primary target audience, being females aged 15-19
‘islanders’. In a previous post I have described our ideal listener profile, however it is
essential to us producers, to know exactly who were aiming our product to, in order
to achieve a substantial audience, and therefore target them as directly as possible.
This includes demographics and psychographics.
Demographics
Demographics is the study of population based on factors such as gender, age,
social status, level of education and income level, which is used by institutions to
learn more about a population's characteristics for many purposes, including market
research. Therefore it is vital we look at this approach in order to understand the
population we are targeting and how to do so effectively. Our audience would be
aged between 15-23 including all sections of our target audience (primary,
secondary and tertiary). We decided on this after knowing of only one specific radio
station for our local area, was aimed at much older target audience, thus the island
does not provide a station aimed for the younger population.
To understand this we researched any alternate radio stations for the island, and
again found no radio stations specifically targeted at the audience we have chosen,
thus it would be a new station, targeting a new generation. We believe the reason
behind this was because the Isle of Wight is often known for having an older
population, which we discovered online, shows more people aged 45+ are residents
on the Isle of Wight, rather than people of 12-17. We chose to target an audience of
15-23 year olds, as this a obtainable audience for the members of our group, as we
sit in the middle of the ages targeted. Essentially, we are the target audience. As a
result of ourselves living on the island, as well as our ideal listener profile (a previous
post) we are targeting the young locals of the Isle of Wight, rather than being a
National radio station. This allows your audience to again be reachable, as we are
also young locals of the Isle of Wight, thus we can provide content that they also find
relatable, within their age and regional area.
Gender
Both male and females are included in this, despite our primary audience focussing
on females only, however we asked people to listen to our bulletin and to note
whether or not they gender is portrayed equally, in which they voted yes. Both
genders are targeted by our stories included, as well as using an equal mix of
genders in vox pops, and our newsreaders. Despite me and Phebe, being females in

2. our two person group, we realised once producing our bulletin, we have managed an
equal portrayal of genders, which widens our audience, linking back to our idea for
creating a radio station, aimed at the young people of the island.
Furthering our research, our ideal listener profile, and
our results from our target audience survey, show our
audience access radio through a smartphone app, tv
or via the internet. This allows us to understand, that
despite our audience listening through a more
traditional way such as FM or DAB, they strongly like
to alternate,
with the use of
advanced
technology. This shows within the
demographics of our audience, they would
most likely be of a middle class, as they’re able
to access various media in order to listen to
our bulletin. People who are considered lower
class may not be able to access via the
internet therefore will opt for a more traditional
radio station. Within the NRS social grade
table, our audience would fit into categories B
and C1. This relates back to the individual
income level, of because of their age, the
income levels from their parents or carers. If the income level is particularly low
they’re less likely to be of our audience, due to the technological ways in which to
access our radio station. Or even not owning or having the opportunity to listen
through an FM or DAB radio.
Psychographics
We learned from our target audience research, not many members of our audience
liked sport, in fact they all voted for it not to be included in the bulletin, however if it
was to be only 30 seconds. Nonetheless, they evidently liked entertainment news.
This allows us to view and construct and audience through the element of
psychographics. Our audience would have a interest and enthusiasm in
entertainment and music, rather than a passion for sport. As found out by our target
audience survey, our audience preferred a mixture between local and national news,
meaning our audience would be somewhat mainstream, as many young people are
often associated with listening to mainstream radio stations, such as Capital FM or
BBC Radio 1. This proved evident as when asked which radio stations they typically
listen to they ordered them in BBC Radio 1, Capital FM and Isle of Wight radio.
Our ideal listener profile stated they want to know about local news however, they
didn’t want to seem naive to the rest of the world, therefore a mixture of both would
fulfill this demand.
In order to achieve this we combined the structure of both BBC Radio 1 and Isle of
Wight radio. BBC Radio 1 has a similar audience to whom we are targeting
therefore they’re more likely to relate and engage with our bulletin. They also like to

3. hear about the weather, suggesting our audience may be continuously going out
such as to sixth form or school.
I have included information through an older post named ‘Ideal Listener Profile’
which includes both demographics and
psychographics, which reinforces the points I
have made, including their age, 17 years old.
Their geographical location, the Isle of Wight.
As well as additional information on their
preferences, such as listening to radio 3 to 4
times a week, usually in the mornings on route
to sixth form, through FM in her car. However
she also listenes via a pre downloaded
specialist app when on public transport, or
through the internet in study periods at sixth
form, and occasionally through her TV when
getting ready for the day ahead. They show no
preference in gender of the newsreader, as
long as the voice is clear and easy to interpret.
Nonetheless they do prefer a younger presenter as they find the bulletin much more
approachable, rather than an older person giving them the news as they wouldn't
show the emphasism a young person provides. They prefer different voices for each
news category, such as one for sport and one alternate for entertainment. This is to
make sense for when a new story is ending and another beginning, but also to show
a variety of newsreaders, those who also show a equal balance in gender. They
don’t have a preference in whether or not local news is spoken first, they prefer to
alternate between the two, starting with the most hard hitting news first, transitioning
into softer news. They appreciate an entertainment section in a bulletin, to enlighten
the word news, by portraying positive news stories they can relate to, as the stories
surround their age group, for example Sarah Close’s reaction to her latest single.
They do however, like to hear local news as this is centered around them and
informs them on the news near to them, linking to proximity. Personalised stories are
valued to our audience as they’re able to engage and understand the story, as it
speaks to them directly, giving someone's personal experience or view, rather than a
simple Copy Story. Being a mainstream audience they also like news referring to
elite persons, as ‘mainstreamers’ celebrities are highly valued. Our second story,
referring to the fight between David Haye and Tony Bellew, fulfills this need.
The NRS Social Scale
Going back to our audience’s class, the categories C1 and B from the NRS Social
Scale, portray people who shop at shops such as Topshop or Urban Outfitters for
clothes. Our primary and secondary audience would watch tv programmes such as
Gossip Girl or the E4 Skins. Dramas such as Prison Break and Pretty Little liars. The

4. will often watch TV shows from BBC one, or the online BBC Three. Our tertiary
audience is likely to watch similar programmes however slightly more adult themed
programmes such as those on BBC 2 or Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black.
Our bulletin produces stories which are relatable to our audience, such as including
young people, e.g Sarah Close as well as the vox pops of people their age, giving
their opinions on Bestival’s move to Dorset. The story about Bestival alone, targets
the younger locals as it is easy to refer to. The Drug Bust also targets our audience
as it's within their local area, and shows young people the consequences on things
such as Drugs and Crime, things often not spoken enough about to young people.
Our Approach
Our psychographics approach is the talented, aspiring people. This can be shown
through our story on Sarah Close’s success on her single.
She is within the same group as them, thus they can relate to
her rather someone a lot older whom they may feel they
cannot relate to or look at them something to appreciate
rather than aspire to. Our story on Bestivals move, also
reinforces the talented people were approaching as in one of
our vox pops a student at our sixth form replies on how she
was to perform at Bestival for her dancing.
Structure Of Stories
We widely value our audience and show this through our bulletin, including the
opinions of local young people through vox pops, clips and a two way. This allows
them to understand that they’re our only target audience and therefore we care for
their opinions on news matters. We also offer opportunities for them to get involved
in our radio station, such as a website, which we mention in a back anno after our
second story. We also offer access through social media, which we thought widely
targets our audience of young people, at the end of our bulletin we mention our
website again, as well as our twitter name SouthCoastAS1, which allow them to
tweet and follow us.
We believe we have targeted our audience through the forms of demographics and
psychographics, which is evident within our bulletin, and therefore we targeted our
desired audience effectively and appropriately.