This document discusses various methods for researching audiences, including quantitative, qualitative, and demographic research. Quantitative research uses surveys to determine the size of an audience. Qualitative research collects information on audience interests through focus groups, interviews, and questionnaires. Demographic factors analyzed include age, gender, socioeconomic status, and psychographics like lifestyle and location. Understanding these audience characteristics helps media companies create content that appeals to specific target audiences. The challenges are that some methods may not capture accurate information or certain groups may be excluded.

1. Critical Responses
By Shania Carter and Abygail Jones

2. The Audience!
• The audiences have a large
impact on the print industry
• They control the success or
failure of a media product
• A magazine/newspaper
doesn’t depend on the quality,
it depends on it’s audience
• There is an entire industry
based on finding out every
detail about a particular
audience

3. Quantitative Research
•
Defining how big the audience is for a
product.
NRS and ABC are the biggest companies
devoted to finding out figures and audience
numbers for print and digital companies.
A continuous survey lasting 12 months, seven
days a week.
As an overview of what the NRS does:
Asks about online behaviour/ personal
information.
Short interviews at your own home.
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Advantages:
Get to find out how large your audience is.
Can adapt when audience changes
Better understanding of your audience
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Disadvantages:
A large amount of people might not take in
the survey
Receiving bad comments from a lot of
people
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How could PB Media use this?
Contact NRS or ABC to ask
them to develop an online
survey or interviews for them.

4. Qualitative Research
Used to find out the requirements, interests
and needs of individual audience
members such as their:
•
Likes
•
Dislikes
•
Salaries
•
Where they live
This information is collected using techniques
such as:
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Focus Groups
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Questionnaires
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Face-to-face Interviews
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Advantages:
From face-to-face interviews you can get
a more personal and true statement.
Questionnaires are quick and easy.
Makes it easier to meet the requirements of
the audience.
Disadvantages:
People could lie in their answers.
People might not like being approached
for face to face interviews.
Hard to form a focus group.

5. Audience Profiles
Audience profiles are significant to give specific details
about different types of people buying certain
products. Including:
•
Age
•
Gender
•
Class etc.
•
Magazines such as Q use audience profiles to sell
advertising space and present their statistics In front of
their magazine.
•
Companies who appeal to similar audience profiles
often approach others.
These statistics show, on average how many people buy
this magazine, what age they are, their readership specific
and many more facts that will help choose what goes in to
the magazine/newspaper.
•
Advantages:
Easier to find out the relevant information about the
audience
Easier to produce products that piece the chosen
audience.
Easier to avoid stereotypes
Disadvantages:

6. Socio-Economic Status (SES)
• This is measuring the
social position of an
individual or a family.
• SES focuses on 3
categories which are:
• Income
• Education
• Occupation

7. The NRS use 6 categories:
These are marked down as grades, starting from A
and finishing at E.
• Grade – A – Upper Middle Class (4%)
• Grade – B – Middle Class (23%)
• Grade – C1 – Lower Middle Class (29%)
• Grade – C2 – Skilled Working Class (21%)
• Grade – D – Working Class (15%)
• Grade – E – Lower Level of Subsistence (8%)
• Also, according to the NRS only 2% of the UK is
respectively upper class, whilst the rest of the
population is grouped in to ABC1 and C2DE.
• The NRS social grades were developed 50 years
ago and are now widespread across the UK.

8. NRS Social Grades
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Developed by the NRS to
distinguish the differences
between readers using social
classes.
Information received from this is
then used for market research.
Overall status of a household
depends on the occupation of
the head of the household.
The population is separated in to
two main social groups, one
including: Upper Middle Class,
Middle Class and Lower Middle
Class. The other group includes:
Skilled Working Class, Working
Class and Unemployed.

9. Lifestyle or Psychographics
There are 7 different types of categories for
psychographics:
Belonger- Family Oriented- Iceland
Achiever- Better at their job, craves success – Asda
Wanna Be- wants to have wealth etc but can’t quite
achieve it – Go Compare
Socially Conscious A- How actions effect the world – very
aware of how their actions affect the world. Sony’s
recycling advert.
Socially Conscious B- Do not care about change- Tango
advertisement.
Balanced/Totally Integrated- Achieving goals when saving
the earth – McDonalds.
Needs Driven- people who shop/buy on impulse/don’t
really need.

10. Postcode or geodemographics
Collects information from the
national census
• collect knowledge in certain
neighbourhoods and
compare how similar in some
households are to others.
• Important information is
obtained such as: the amount
a household ears, their class
etc.
• Enables advertising to the
correct audience
• Also used to direct mail to
certain addresses.
• Looks at retired couples,
young families and young
adults.

11. Age
Extremely important to any media product.
Uses the idea that: similar ages have similar likes and dislikes.
Using this idea it will appeal to most of the targeted audience- may not
appeal to some.

12. • There are two main types
of gender structures- male
and female
•it is easier to appeal to
one gender specific.
•Men and women want
different things
•Some magazines push
one gender away from
another
•Specific gender
magazines (OK!/Men’s
Health)
Gender
PB Media could
include both female
and male opinions
with a mixture so
that is appeals to
everyone rather
than one gender
because, then it can
feel like one gender
is being pushed
away from the
other.
Advantages:
• Easier to write about
one specific gender.
• Women’s and Men’s
opinions are
different.
• Magazines are
always tailored to
mens/women’s
needs.
Disadvantages:
•
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Some women like
men’s sport i.e.
football so it is harder
for them to find a
magazine, that isn’t
just tailored to
men/women.
Some magazines can
be sexist e.g. making
fun of women or
men.

13. Mainstream
•Mainstream6audiences tend
to be larger reading
magazines/newspapers to do
5
with:
•Chart Music
4
•Blockbuster Films
•Majority all like the same
3
things e.g. Hollyoaks or
Eastenders. 2
Advantages
1
• Easier to appeal to the
majority of the public.
0
• Easier to write about ‘the
Males
main headlines’
• Easier to find out more
about your audience
because they don’t have
specific demands.
Pop
Country
Rock
Reggae
R&B
Disadvantages
• Gets harder to write about the
same things e.g. films because
there isn’t a release of a
Females
blockbuster every day.
• Everyone is the same
• Can get boring when the same
music for example, chart music,
is played 24/7.

14. Niche
These tend to be
smaller groups with
more specific needs
such as:
•A Doctor Who
magazine
•Kerrang Magazine
•Adventure Time
magazines