Audiences

 

Audiences

 

Niche: Audience for a specific set of people, not everyone will watch that particular film - A niche audience is a much small audience, however more influential. Basically, this particular audience is a group of people with a unique interest, which others wouldn't be interested in.

 

Mass: A mass audience is aimed at everyone, where a niche audience is for only a specific set of people, a mass audience is named at everyone - Often termed 'Broadcast Audience'. A mass audience consume mainstream/popular texts, this can be done through soaps and sitcoms. Essentially it is media and communication that targets a very large group of people, of any gender/age/race etc.

 

What is an Audience?:

• An audience is an individual/collective group of people who read, consume or watch any form of media.
• All pieces of media are made with a particular audience in mind. When a media text is being planned, one of the most important questions the producers have to consider is 'Does it have an audience?'

Why are Audiences Important?:

• Without any audience there wouldn't be any media.
• Media organizations that produce forms of media to make profit, will have no audience and therefore will make no profit.
• The mass media is becoming more competitive in a variety of ways, this is to attract more audiences, doing this means they can stay profitable.

Uses and Gratifications:

• The belief that audiences passively receive messages is gone. Katz and Blumler proposed, from the research they had collected that talked about audience behaviour, that audiences use media texts for a variety of different reasons.

Information - Finding out about events, satisfying the audiences' curiosity, which gives them a sense of security through knowledge.

E.g. Newspapers/Gossip magazines to learn about current events.

 

Person Identity - Reinforcement for personal values, finding models of behaviour insight into one's self.

E.g. Twitter and Facebook, you only add/follow people who you are interested in or want to interact with.

 

Integration and Social Interaction - Insight into circumstances of others; social empathy, identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging, interaction, enabling one to connect with family, friends and society.

E.g. Soap Operas & Sitcoms - might tune into a programme like Scrubs to catch up with the characters.

 

Impact of New Technology on Audiences:

• Old Media, e.g. TV, Print, Radio, which used to have a big amount of audience numbers must now work harder to maintain these audience members.
• Digital Technology has also led to an rising uncertainty over how we define an audience. The general agreement that a large group of people who are reading the same thing at the same time is outdated, and that audiences are now 'fragmented'.