This document discusses audience research and various audience theories. It provides an overview of John Hartley's classification of audience groups into 7 categories including self, gender, age, family, class, nation, and ethnicity. It also summarizes John Fiske's concept of "semiotic democracy" where audiences actively interpret media texts based on their own experiences rather than passively accepting the intended meaning. Additionally, it explains that a vox pops segment in news involves short interviews with public members to represent different opinions on events in an informal way.

1. Audience Research
What is it and Why is it so important?
https://ellosoja2media.blogspot.co.uk/

2. As a watcher of TV News,
Write down what you as a
viewer expect and prefer in
a news broadcast.
Name Super
Weather Forecast
News Tickers
Presenter / anchor
Graphics /
Animations
Formality e.g
clothings
Logo
House Style
Location
Live Footage
Interviews e.g
in person,
phone call
Sources /
Statisitcs
Variety of
Stories

3. Ofcom:
What is Ofcom?
It is the Office of Communication, the independent regulatory body overseeing the ‘communication industry’ which
includes the district area of telecommunication and broadcasting.
The Ofcom has two general duties set out in the Communication Act, To further the interests the citizens, and to further
consumer interests in relevant markets, by promoting competition where is it appropirate.
Percentages:
Number of UK homes with digital TV - 96.2% (2012)
Number of TVs in the UK - 60m (2011)
Number of minutes of TV people aged 4+ watch each day - 242 (2011 average)

4. Facts & Figures for Local TV News Viewing
According to the slide, we know
that we can deduce the TV News
programmes are still relevant
today. Not only TV News is
popular for example . The BBC
Local News is still popular than
any News Channel as it’s more
establish meaning it’s more
relevant today. Also, adverts in
between shows the promotion

5. Facts & Figures for Local TV News Viewing
Over 55 of age loves their
TV Local News than the
young adults. However, in
the social media section
in the 16 - 20 yrs, the
majority of them can
easily access to the apps
on their mobile phones

6. Facts & Figures for Local TV News Viewing
England has more number of
people who are interested in
watching TV News

7. Audience Theory: Hypodermic Syringe
There are many theories that have tried to make the sense of the question.
What effects do media texts have on audiences?
Researchers investigated the effects of media texts on audience have two districts:
● The earliest idea was the Hypodermic Syringe which suggested that a mass audience was passive and
inactive
● Member of the audience were seen as merely consuming media texts. It was thought that this did not require the
active of the use of the brain.
● The audience accepts and believes that all messages in any media texts they receive; the media is seen as
powerful and able to inject ideas into the audience who are seen as weak and passive.
● It was also thought that a mass audience could be influenced by the same message.

8. Audience Theory: Counter Argument to Hypodermic Syringe - John Fiske
● The concept of “Semiotic democracy” originates in the writing of John Fiske
● Fiske defined the term as the…
“delegation of the production of meanings and pleasures to the views.”
● He discussed how rather than being passive couch potatoes that absorbed information in the an unmediated way, viewers
can give their own meanings to the shows they watched that often differed substantially from the meaning intended by the
show’s producers.
● Michael Madow provides the following description of the scholarly tradition in which Fiske works:
“To varying degrees, depending on their social location and sophistication, consumers "resist" or even subvert these
meanings. They "recode" cultural and even industrial commodities in ways that better serve their particular needs and
interests, and "rework" them to express meanings different from the ones intended or preferred by their producers.”
(from "Private Ownership of Public Image: Popular Culture and Publicity Rights," California Law Review, Volume 8
● In other words, the audiences places their own meanings onto media texts in which resulted on their own preferences and
experiences.

9. Audience Theory: John Hartley
● John Fiske went on to co-author the best selling
book ‘Reading Television with a different media
theorist John Hartley.
● What Hartley theory was that institutions produce
saying that “invisible fictions of the audience
which allows the institutions to get a sense of
who they must enter a relationship with”
● In other words they must know their audience in
order to be able to target them effectively. As a
result he came up with seven different groups in
which he calls it ‘The Hartley Classification’
● Self – Ambitions or interests of the audience
● Gender - Associated motives by gender
● Age Group - Stereotypically have different politics,
needs and aims in life.
● Family - Places in the family
● Class – Different social classes required different
things
● Nation – The country a group of people come
from and their style
● Ethnicity – The ethnic grouping of audience may
play a role in the choice of actors or images.

10. Questionnaires
In order for me to create my own questionnaires, I was able to use John Hartley’s Classification. He grouped seven
categories to identify the audience based on their:
Self - Ambitions and Interests
Gender - Male / Female
Age - 16-25, 25-35, 35-50, 50-70, 70+
Class
Ethnicity
Family
Nation

11. Vox Pops:
A ‘Vox Pops’ is a TV program or a radio that consists of a series of short interviews putting opinions as it represents by
the informal comments from the members of the public, especially when broadcast or published.
First, the people who made a comment about an event are helpful because they’re gaining more publicity quickly.
Secondly, it’s related to the audience within the everyday situation by showing them on TV live; it also balances the
stories as it shows different perspectives. It visually breaks up the news story.
● We used a canon DSLR camera to record three interviews, two students and a teacher; we asked three questions
based on Hartley’s Classification and our own.
● To prevent any slight movements / shakes, the camera was attached to the tripod as this gives it more stability
than using both hands to record.