Educational Purpose

1. TYPOLOGY OF MASS
MEDIA AUDIENCE
Moneeba Iftikhar
Lecturer (Lahore College for Women University)
Department of Mass Communication

2. How to create a chart
Audience is the important part of communication process. By media audience
we mean the recipients of Mass Media messages. There is the audience of
newspaper, television, radio, theatre, film and non-broadcast media.
Audience of the above media re heterogeneously scattered. They are a
mixture of age, sex, profession, education and social class etc and are
strangers to one another. Audience is the ultimate source of Mass Media
revenue. If there is no audience to purchase movie tickets and recording,
subscribe to newspapers and magazines and attend to radio and TV
programmer, no mass medium could stay in business. The messages of TV
newspapers and film etc,. are determined according to the nature and
behavior of the target audience.
Media Audience

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 The elite audience
 The mass audience
 The specialized audience
 The interactive audience
The Elite Audience comprises of highly educated people and their number in the
society in relatively small.
The Mass Audience represents the dominant majority in a society. They are
relatively average people. Mass audience represents almost all segments of the
society.
The Specialized Audience refers to the special interest groups in the society.
The Interactive Audience consists of those who have control over the
communication process in a society. They may be newspapers journalists or
Radio or TV broadcasters.
VARIOUS CATEGORIES OF MEDIA AUDIENCES

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The history of the audience is one of continuities and discontinuities (Livingstone,
2005).
“radical political economy tradition argues that the mass media powerfully shaped
by their political, economic organization which include ownership, cross
ownership, monopolies, competition, public service, broadcasting and content
of advertising and that this political and economic structure influence media
audience” (Amobi, 2010, p. 9). Notable media scholar,
Dennis McQuail, summarises factors affecting the audience as;
Multiplication of channels
Conglomeration increasing some audience sizes
Fragmentation of the mass audience
Segmentation according to market characteristics
Escape of the audience from management and measurement
New types of audience emerge: interactive and consultative
Changing Nature of Audience

5. Multiplication of Channels
It can be argued then that ‘multiplication of channels’ from the tradition linear
model (one-way) by Harold Lasswell, that is sender-message-receiver have
given way to not only turning table (changing role of sender to receiver and
receiver to sender) but also to the phase of audience being active user of what
message is being communicated, how such message is deciphered, in what
context, to what effect which in turn determines what and how the audience
will encode as feedback. By this, we are beginning to experience what I will
describe as ‘audience dictating and shaping’ media.
The evolving role of the audience is no doubt as result of the nature and
characteristics of new media platform which allow for instant interactivity
with media content creators on same platform thereby making the then
traditional all-time receiving ‘audience’ reactive encoding-decoding audience.
This surfacing reality is what gave birth to the concept of ‘media framing’ and
‘audience framing’ thereby making approaches to audience research vague
and perhaps a cumbersome charge.
How to create a chart

6. Conglomeration increasing some audience sizes
In similar regard, ‘conglomeration increasing some audience sizes’ as
identified by McQuail, although barely expatiated by the scholar, could
point toward audience being bought, huddled and bundle by
dominant conglomerate. Audience in this context are likely consumed
in the contents they consistently consume from the media thereby
making more susceptible to being victim of ideological ‘spiral of
silence’ (Noelle- Neumann, 1991).
How to create a chart

7. Fragmentation of the mass audience
Fragmentation of the mass audience as another factors responsible for ending
paradigmatic shift in audience research account for the multiplicity of
divisions among audience, thereby making audience study a cumbersome
task. Disintegration of mass audience has over the time makes capturing the
media audience a demanding task. However, mass media audience
disintegration seem inevitable.
How to create a chart

8. Segmentation according to market characteristics
Segmentation according to market characteristic is yet another factor influencing
the changing nature of audience. Market segmentation focus on slices of
media market (targets) according to certain criteria. These criteria are
carefully fashioned out of mass audience composition. According to Cantor
(1994 p.168), ‘audience as market segments rather than audiences as cultural
politicians remain the most important powerful influence’. Segmentation in
respect of market features emphasize strategic need to split and target the
audience, who are considered buyers (consumers) of the product (contents)
the media sells (publish) in their different markets place (media platform).
The implication of this is that idea of segmentation is driven by market
forces. The balances between demand and supply of media contents is
paramount to determining which segment of the general audiences is being
appeal to. Therefore, the medium with the most demanded content attracts or
pulls larger share of the audience.
How to create a chart

9. Escape of the audience from management and
measurement
“It has become more difficult to keep track of the audience, to manage or
predict its composition and the direction of its interests, even if new
technology such as that of the people meter and other forms of computer
analysis of system users also improves the flow of information back to the
media. However, the potential ‘escape’ of the audience from management
and control, as well as the greatly increased choice, seem to be entries on the
credit side in the balance of audience power” (McQuail).
Escape of the audience leads to new types of audience i-e Interactive and
Consultative, invoking the idea of balanced relationship, what he described as
“invoked the idea of an equilibrium model”, where reaction to information
overload by reducing the ‘quality’ of their attention to the media.
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10. Approaching, Exploring, and Understanding
the Media Audience
Audience research is not new in media study, it dates back to its earliest day. The
two conceptual levels of audience are
o Micro: At the macro level, it tends to look at audiences from the “outside”.
This perspective sees audiences as markets and/or publics and is often rooted
in economics and marketing” (ibid). A good example of this approach is The
Mass Audience: Rediscovering the dominant marketplace and Audience
economics: Media institutions and the audience marketplace
o Macro: A well done outside approach to audience study often allows
“researchers to develop models or “laws” of audience behaviour”. Studies
which has led to valuable models include: The Television audience: Patterns
of viewing , Advertising Models: A practical Guide (Rust, 1986) amidst
others.
At micro and macro level of understanding mass audience, significant
findings “are used to direct or control both consumer and political
behavior”
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11. Conclusion
The concept of audience remains central element of media studies even when it
indicates many different, sometimes contradictory things. The changing
nature of the media audience cannot be side-stepped. This remains so because
of the complexities that come with developments in various media. A lot can
also be said of the implications following the advancement of new media
channel, multiplicities of all existing forms of media and the great power of
media conglomeration which ultimately affects audience size and
segmentation according to market characteristics
How to create a chart