Audience

When I started my research into what type of magazine genre i wanted to base my magazine on i thought it would be a good idea to also look into audiences, how they are affected by media, the various types of audience and how they are important to media in general, this is what i discovered:

Your audience is the group of people your product appeals to, in media there are various types of audiences,

• An individual or collective group of people who read or consume any media text.

Without audiences there would be no media, this is because media organisations produce various media texts to make profit

No Audience = No Profit

The mass media is becoming increasingly more competitive with each passing year, to attempt to attract different audiences to gain more profit to therefore produce more media text.

There are two types of audiences:

1. Mass Audience - Also known as 'Broadcast audience', this is audience that consume mainstream or popular media texts and content.
2. Niche Audience - This is contrasted to mass audience as it would be a small select group of individuals that have very unique interests.

How media affects the audience:

The hypodermic needle modal -

• This theory suggests that media is like a needle, in the sense that it injects various ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audience.
• E.g. Watching an act of violence causes you to want to do something violent, mostly occurring in younger minds.
• The audience would be seen as passive audience.
• This occurs in both Mass and Niche.

Audiences can be divided into set categories of social class.

Group A (Upper Class):

• Lawyers
• Doctors
• Scientists
• Well paid professionals

Group B (Social-economic):

• Teachers
• Middle management
• Fairly well paid professionals

Group C1:

• Junior management
• Bank clerks
• Nurses
• 'White collar' professionals

Group C2:

• Electricians
• Plumbers
• Carpenters

Group D:

• Drivers
• Post sorters
• Manual workers

Group E:

• Students
• Unemployed
• Pensioners

Note: Categories aren't fixed, you can move up or down (Based on income)!

Uses and Gratifications Theory:

• The audience decides what to do with the media rather than the media having an influence on the audience...
• When an audience actively seeks media, they want to gratify a need - the message of the media is not being forced on them, they chose to interpret the message it's conveying.

E.g.

1. Identity
2. Information
3. Entertainment
4. Social Interaction