Audience
An audience is
important to a media producer as they need to make sure they are meeting the
audiences needs. Knowing who their audience is allows the media to cater and
adapt their products or services in order to specifically please their audience.
The audience also gives the media producers feedback which help the producers
to know what they are doing right and what they need to improve on or change.
Audiences will respond to media in different ways depending on their, age,
gender and background. Different audiences will also look for different needs.
Some of these needs may be: entertainment, information and education.
Target Audience
A target audience is also important to the
media producers as they are who the product is aimed at. If a target audience
does not give good feedback or use the product at all then the media producer
has failed at what they set out to do. It is very important for media producers
to reach their specified target audience.
Defining the Audience
An audience can
be defined by the products they consume. You are able to get a rough idea of
the audience and their personality through the products they consume. Audiences
can also be defined by the types of products they consume, for example
something animated is more likely to have a younger audience, while this is not
always the target audience it can still help us to define the audience through
the type of products they consume.
The Mass Audiences and Niche
Audiences
These two types
of audiences are important as the media must know which type of audience their
product should be aimed at. A product that is created through a gap in the
market will most likely have a niche audience where as an already popular
product will have a mass audience. Media producers need to know what type of
audience they have in order to cater their marketing to that type of audience.
Occupation Groups
There are 6
occupation groups, ranging from ‘Well paid-professionals’ to ‘Students and the
unemployed’. These occupation groups are used to define a media producer’s
target audience. For example, if a media producer is to create a lengthy video
game their target audience would be ‘Students an the unemployed’ as compared to
the other groups this group has the most free time.
John Hartley’s 7 Areas if
Classification
John Hartley
suggests there are 7 socially grouped categories when identifying and defining
and audience. These categories being: self, gender, age group, class,
ethnicity, family and nation.
Audience Experiments and Theories
Hypodermic Needle Model
This model suggests
that audiences to what they like through the media. So, the audience is not
really choosing what they enjoy, rather the media is manipulating their
audience to enjoy specific products made by the media. This model says that the
media has control over peoples likes and dislikes which would make the media
very powerful.
Bandura Bobo Doll Experiment
In 1961 Albert
Bandura studied aggression. He created an experiment he would use on young
children of ages 3 – 5. A child would be placed in a room with a bobo doll
after watching an adult beat up the doll for 10 minutes. Every child copied the
adult, what the children saw the children did. This experiment shows how
children copy their adults and could show the reach of mass media, suggesting
that children will do what they see in TV and movies.
Uses and Gratification Theory
The uses and
gratification theory is the theory that the audience has complete control over
what they want and don’t want to watch and purchase. This theory opposes the
hypoderm needle model and suggests that the mass media does not have enough
power to manipulate the audience’s interests.
Cultivation
Theory
Cultivation
theory suggests that the audience choses media that reinforces their own
beliefs. The theory argues audiences chose to watch media with their opinion
which overtime reinforces their opinion even more. With this theory the mass
media would have lots of control and power over their target audiences but only
their target audiences.
Reception theory
The reception
theory argues that the audience decide the message of the media. The theory
says that media texts are encoded by creators and decoded by the audience. The
media is interpreted in different ways by different people dependent on their
backgrounds. This theory suggests the media does not have much power at all
over their audience and is rather giving them the freedom to interpret the
media how they chose.
Representation
Representation is important in the media as it
shows how majority and minority groups are being shown in the media. The
representation of people in the media also affects the judgement and opinions
of the audience. The media choses how they represent different groups and
therefore choses what they went their audience to think of these groups. Some
examples of media representations are: black men who are presented as either
criminals or being good at sports and wealthy middle-class white men who are
presented as successful but arrogant.
Representation Terminology
Stereotype
The main stream
media holds up a set of generalisations about specified groups of people
causing many stereotypes to be reinforced by the media. The media helps to
reinforces stereotypes in order to push their personal agenda and to create
negative or positive opinions around groups of people.
Archetype
An archetype is someone who crystallises the
view of a stereotyped group. The media uses archetypes to argue that their
stereotyping is correct as an archetype will portray a perfect example of their
stereotype.
Countertype
A countertype
focuses on the positive representation of an often demonised group. The media
may use this themselves in order to create a more positive representation of a
group or it may be used against the media if they are demonising a group with
unfair stereotypes.
Ideology
An ideology is the
established thought process of the main stream media. The main stream media
always aim to spread their ideology to the audience watching and do this
through using stereotypes, archetypes and countertypes.
Representation Theories
Laura Mulvey and The Male Gaze
Mulvey is a
feminist film scholar that argued that women in cinema are only there to look
nice for men and be sexually submissive. Mulvey also argued that we usually see
all events from a male perspective. The male gaze theory suggest that the media
is full of patriarchy and that media producers are misogynistic as they only
see women in media as objects. This theory also suggests that the media causes
misogyny in its audience as it trains the audience to also view the female
characters as objects.
Mary Ann Doane, the
‘Masquerade’ Theory
The
‘masquerade’ theory created by Doane argues that women show off their sexuality
in an impowering way. This opposes Mulvey’s theory as it suggests that rather
than women becoming objects for men they are showing off their sexuality in an
impowering way. This theory suggests the media is not misogynistic but actually
the opposite, allowing women to impower others.
Richard Dyer
and The Representation of Men
Dyer suggest that in the media men are not
objectified and resist the gaze of the camera whereas women are objectified and
have to look directly into the camera. Men in media will always be active and
usually doing something to make themselves look strong. Dyer argues that this
reinforces patriarchy in our society. This theory suggest that the media does
not objectify men and reinforces patriarchy within our modern day society.
