Friday, 15 May 2015

Assignment 3: Producers & Audiences (Part A: How do Producers Target Audiences)

Part A: How do Producers Target Audiences

11.     What is an audience? A person or group of people who will read, listen or watch something you have produced /created.

22.     Why are audiences important? Audiences are important because without audiences, no media work would be created. Media organisations produce media products to help make a profit. No audience = no profit. The mass media is becoming more competitive than ever to attract more and more audiences in a variety of ways and to stay profitable.

33.     What is the impact of new technology on audiences? The impact of new technology has made a massive impact on audiences. Old media such as TV, Print and Radio, used to have high audience readership/listenership. To an extent, they’re still fairly popular today but they now have to work harder to maintain audience numbers. New technology like tablets, Ipads, smart phones etc which allows audiences to download apps such as BBC Iplayer and instead of watching a programme at its correct scheduled time on TV, they can instead watch it at any time they wish to.

44.     Explain a ‘Fragmented Audience’ The division of audiences into smaller groups due to the variety of media outlets. For example with newspapers and magazines, you now view a hard copy and an online version. Or people can watch the same television program despite living in completely different areas of the country, like people in New York and Alaska can watch the same television channel. But because of this, it makes advertising more difficult because they’re unable to advertise local products/companies etc.


55.     How do institutions continue to make money? They continue to make money for numerous reasons. Free apps always have adverts and although they’re considered to be “free”, you often have to pay if you want the advertisements to be removed. Websites and search engines target audiences with adverts. They’re carefully constructed and selected for the primary audience for each media text. With newspapers, printing less copies and switching to online distribution has helped to reduce production/printing costs.

66.     Types of audience:
o   Mass – A public communication reaching a large target audience
o   Niche- A small, select group of people that have a very unique interest


77.     Why do we categorise audiences? Audiences can be divided into categories based upon on social class. Sites are designed by people, for people. If a site is intended for or targeted to a particular type of user, than and the appeal and functionality of the site so that the user’s needs and desires are met.

88.     What are Demographics? Demographics are the studies of a population based upon factors such as age, race, sex, economic status, level of education, income level and employment etc. This is the NRS Social Grade, which shows classification of income level:



9.     
What are Psychographics? Psychographics are the use of demographics which help to describe an audience by looking at their behaviour and personality traits. Psychographics labels a particular type of person and makes an assessment about their viewing and spending habits. The advertising agency Young and Rubican invented a successful psychographic profile. They put the audience into groups with labels that suggest their position in society. Here is the psychographic profile:



10. What is Quantitative audience research? Use of research method such as constructing and conducting surveys; usually expressed in numeric or statistic data. E.g. It may be used to gather information about what laws are working and why.

11. What is Qualitative audience research? Deep understanding and in depth knowledge of a particular event or piece of research; usually presented in a diary or log of data and as reviews. E.g. it could be used to monitor behaviour which produces notes and observations.

12. How do we measure audiences? Depending on what type of media production work it is, there is a variety of ways we can measure audiences through radio listenership, television viewership, newspaper and magazine readership, web traffic on websites etc.


13.Who are?:
o   NRSNational Readership Survey
o   ABCAudit Bureau of Circulations (UK)
o   BARBBroadcasters Audience Research Board

14. What is audience profiling? Gathering research of your target audience. Factors include age, gender, race and sexuality, education, occupation, annual income, likes/interests etc.


My Audience Profile:
o   Name: Isabelle Pollock
o   Gender: Female
o   Age: 18
o   Race: White British
o   Education: St Pauls Schools For Girls, South and City College
o   Occupation: Unemployed
o   Marital Status: Single
o   Likes: Listening to different genres of music, singing, playing piano, 1950s/60s fashion, cinema, musical theatre, playing sports
o   Dislikes: Spiders, clowns, smoking, horror films, reality TV programmes

A shy and confident person with strong goals in life, is socially aware and likes to make decisions often by her own independent judgement. She is a fairly organised person and likes to get tasks completed to the best standard she can. She likes to explore and try out new experiences, that pushes her beyond her usual boundaries, helping her to develop her confidence.



15. Why do companies need to know this profile information? Companies need to know this information, not only to suit their consumers needs but in terms of advertising slots for TV or cinema adverts etc, they have to make sure they have the correct information to help grab the attention of their specific target audience. For example, if a 15 rated film wanted to be advertised on a particular channel, then from researching and doing an audience profile, they would found out what the best time slot is and when they’re target audience is most likely to watch TV, ideally this would be after the 9pm watershed.

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