1. WHAT IS AUDIENCE PROFILING AND WHY DO MEDIA
COMPANIES NEED IT ?
- Audience profiling refers to factors which define a certain type of audience and to
help determine this certain factors have to be considered such as age, gender,
ethnicity, education, sexuality, beliefs and values, annual income and disposal
income, cinema habits, lifestyle, media interests and many more.
-Media companies need to know this information because it will help them to decide
how to market their film to the right target audience and to make sure it is successful.

2. STUART HALL THEORY OF HOW AUDIENCE CAN RECEIVE AND UNDERSTAND
TEXTS
 Preferred readings – where the audience can relate and empathise
directly with media texts. For example, Muslim/Pakistani families can
relate culturally to films like ‘East is East’.
 Negotiated readings – where the audience do not directly relate to
the media text but will place themselves into the ‘world of the text’.
For example, non Muslims/Pakistani’s might watch ‘East is East’ and
relate to the themes or idea behind it.
 Oppositional readings – where the audience are resistant to the
media text as they have no relation to it and are not willing to place
themselves in the ‘world of the text’. For example, a BNP member
watching a a film like ‘East is East’ or ‘Yasmin’.

3. DEMOGRAPHICS.
 This is a common and traditional method of audience profiling. It defines
them largely by the work that they do. It breaks them down into 6 groups.
A Higher management - bankers, lawyers, doctors and other
professionals.
B Middle management – teachers, graphic designers etc.
C1 Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses (White collar people)
C2 Skilled manual workers, plumbers, builders (blue collar people)
D Semi skilled and unskilled manual workers
E Unemployed, students, pensioners, casual workers.

4. PSYCHOGRAPHICS
 This is another method of audience profiling and refers to the mental
element of the audience.
Main streamers Seek security – conformists, domestic,
conventionalists. Favour the typical conventions of a
genre.
Aspirers Seek status – Materialistic, care much about
appearance. Typically the younger generation
Succeeders Seek control – Have strong goals and confidence, good
work ethic, are stable. Typically the higher management
workers and professionals.
Resigned Seek survival – traditionalists, have strong values.
Explorers Seeks discovery – energetic people, risk takers, love
adventure
Strugglers Seeks escape – disorganised people, not stable
Reformers Seeks enlightenment – want freedom and space for
personal growth, not materialistic but aware of good

5. OUR FILM
 Our film is a drama with an idea of revenge.
 It is aimed at 15- 25 year old working class (E) people who are strugglers. This
is because the rioters in our film are young and are working class. They are also
unemployed or students who attend comprehensive schools. They are
strugglers because they are living a disadvantaged lifestyle.
 Their annual income is very low because their parents might not have high paid
jobs or might not work at all, some may even live in single parent families where
the parent is living off benefits. This would also impact their disposal income
because they would not be able to buy any materialistic luxuries for themselves
such as Xbox and Nintendo DS’s , or will not have the advantage of going out
someplace nice or enjoyable such as the cinemas or restaurants etc. They also
can not afford good clothing so may wear some clothes over and over again.
 They may also live in estates full of tall building blocks or crowded houses or
apartments.
 Because of these elements the audience may not have strong goals or any
confidence like succeeders which will lead to them having an unhealthy lifestyle
of drinking, hanging out with friends all the time, having no career aspirations,
eating junk food all the time, lazing around or clubbing or partying all the time
around friend’s houses, being completely engaged with technology such as
Blackberries and might even participate in criminal activities.

6. OUR FILM
 I think our film will attract an audience with preferred readings and negotiated
readings. This is because our theme is not only revenge but also the idea of
poverty and disadvantaged youths. This means young youths aged 15 or over
can relate to the film if they are in the similar situations. It will attract audiences
of negotiated readings because people who are older might be able to put
themselves in the world of the rioter in the film and may try to understand the
reason behind their behaviour. Also in the film, our main character is from a
middle class background and is the complete opposite of the rioters and thus
older middle class people may relate to the main character.

7. 