Media evalutation

1. EVALUATION PART 4 –
AUDIENCE IDENTIFICATION

2. IMPORTANCE OF AUDIENCE IDENTIFICATION
Audience identification is very important because they act as a form of advertising for films. They do this
because if they like a film, they will talk to their friends and family about it, raising the profile of it and
introducing more people into see it through word of mouth. This helps generate a large profit for the film
and production company. If a particular, and specific, audience is pinpointed by the film makers then it has
a larger chance of being successful. This is better than trying to target all audiences, because it may not be
watched by any of the target audience, but targeting a particular group will make it more likely to be
watched.
All of the primary research that we undertook through pre-production and through the construction of our
film opening became useful when we decided to target it to a specific audience. The characters we used
helped to determine this. The feedback definitely helped us add different aspects into it, enabling us to
choose the age and gender of our ideal target audience.

3. TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC
Age – Our target audience is teenagers and young adults, around 15 to 25 years old. However older
members of the public may want to watch it so they can get an insight into the dangers of cyberbullying.
Gender – Our target audience includes both genders
Sexuality – This film is not targeted at a particular sexual orientation.
Nationality – Our target audience would have to be countries that have English as a primary language, such
as the U.K., Australia and America because we do not think that the film is easily translatable.

4. SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC GROUPING
Demographic information is used in media marketing to classify an audience.
This is based on the type of job that our target audience would have, and would give an insight into their
income
Our audience would fit into either A or B on social grades. This is because our film does offer some insight,
and can educate those in these two social grades. Those in social grades C1 to E will most likely not
understand the narrative, or pick up on what we’re trying to educate them on.

5. PSYCHOGRAPHIC PROFILING
Psychographic segmentation divides the market into groups that are based on lifestyle, social class and
personality characteristics.
Our film would mainly be aimed at mainstreamers and explorers, this is because mainstreamers seek
security and sentimentality. They would understand the premise of the film and get involved with the
characters, caring for them. Explorers would be interested because they seek experience and going against
the conventions. They are also usually part of the younger audience, and because our film is different from
most others, they would be interested in watching it.

6. MEDIA GROUPING
Our film is to do with social media, and so this will attract the individuals that have a particular affinity with
it, whether they use it a lot or if they simply prefer modern films. They will be able to relate to the
characters in our film because of their use of social media.
In our pre-production focus group we showed our focus group clips of two movies, Unfriended and Ratter.
These two films are in the same subgenre as ours, and we took from this that they liked this particular
subgenre. This in effect, hopefully, shows that they would be interested in our film.
There are other films that would interest the people that enjoyed our movie on platforms such as Netflix or
Amazon Prime. Ratter and Shutter Island would be for members of the audience that enjoy the thriller
aspect. While for television shows, Prison Break is the main one that comes to mind.

7. USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY
This theory is to do with what media does to people, and how they use it to gratify themselves and fulfil
something without themselves doing it.
Our film will gratify those that feel isolated, and those that feel excluded. It also fulfils those that have the
needs of identification and social interaction.
Identity - I think the audience would be fulfilled by our film opening because I believe that they would
relate to our character, and also their stance on things such as cyberbullying may change.
Social interaction – Our film will have an emotional impact on the audience, as it will make them rethink
the social interactions they have with various people in their lives on social media platforms. This film will
hopefully have them have a think about how they need to change their own lives through this,

8. DYER’S UTOPIAN THEORY
This theory is linked with the uses and gratifications theory, and it offers them an escape from their own
sad reality into a better world through media productions such as TV shows or films.
Our particular production does not support Dyer’s theory because there is no perfect idyllic world for the
audience to escape into. The protagonist is in danger, or is being stalked, for most of the film opening.
Therefore the audience will not want to escape into the life of Jacob Wahlers, because it is probably not
better than their own.
Here we see and example of this:

9. MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
The needs that are targeted in our film are the requirements of belonging and of safety. The complete and
utter isolation that Jacob experiences help the audience to identify his needs of friends and family. With
him having people around him, but still feeling alone. The audience will get from this that they do not want
to feel like this at all and so will impact them positively. Getting them to improve their existing
relationships, by bringing them closer together.