Introduction to audience

Why is media studies so preoccupied with audience?

• All media needs at an audience - aimed at a certain audience.
• Without an audience, the product cannot be sold.
• Generating a reaction is what we are interested.

What is a target audience?

• The specific group that the producer aims to captivate with their product. Generally, the target audience very specific.

The Primary audience - Is the first/main audience.

The Secondary audience - The second group considered by a producer.

Text 

Audience decodes text

Producer  encodes text

Audience -

Targeting : When the producer aims specifically for a certain type of audience. For example 18 rated video games are aimed at adults but little kiddos play it.

Attracting : How the producer makes the product appeal to a certain type of audience.

Reaching : "grabbing" the audience.

Addressing : The group of people the audience the producer tries to communicate to.

Constructing : Create an audience to go with your product.

"The Last of Us" game front cover

 Target audience - older male audience ( dominant ideology that men are the leaders )

Dull/desaturated colour scheme 

Mise en scene - the characters look really grimy and that might not appeal to women

Serious and depressing tone - young people look for fun games but "The Last of Us" sounds upsetting.

Post apocalyptic genre

How do we break down audiences:

Gender - but this is hard because some people don't conform to gender stereotypes 

Sexuality

Ethnicity 

Location

Age

Lifestyle

Social status

Secondary audience - teenage women - young girl character takes up most of the screen, she's not being sexualised

Social stratification

Demographic - a way of categorising an audience

Physcographics - the classification of people according to attitudes, aspirations and other physchological criteria

Aspirers : people who want to appear rich and attractive.

Reformers : people who want social change, are unimpressed by status and make decisions based on their values.

Explorers : adventurous people who like taking risks.

Mainstreamers : people who follow the crowd.

Strugglers : people who find it hard to achieve.

 Made for producers, not considering people as people, but as audiences