Why audiences are important to media industries

1. Audiences are important
L.O: to be able to explain the significance of audiences
for media producers and recall how media products
make money.
STARTER:
What is an “audience”?
How many different types of “audience” can you think of?
Why might audiences be important to the study of the media?

2. But why are they so important?
Money!
Pleasure!
Entertainment!

3. Making money
• Money is a key imperative (function)
for media industries.
• They want to sell products and
services to audiences and advertisers
so that they can make money.
• They also want to build up a reliable
audience base so that their future
products are successful.
• Companies do this by having a “brand
image” which is reliable and
recognisable.

4. Revenue methods
• We call the way that a company makes money their revenue
methods.
• There are lots of different ways that different types of media
industries make their money.
TASK: How many different media types or media industries can you
think of? (i.e. the film industry)

5. How do they make money?
TASK: How do each of these industries make money? Think about it
carefully! There is almost always more than one revenue stream or
place that the money comes from.
• The film industry
• The music industry
• Television
• Print media (magazines, newspapers, etc)
• E-media (websites, apps)
• Videogames

6. Plenary
• Explain in your own words why media industries rely on audiences to
make money.
• Rank the ways that industries make money in order of reliability.