Task 6– Audience Information DONE

Importance of Audience

Audience play a big role in the media industry and they help the industry to be successful audience. All media texts are made with an audience in mind, i.e. a group of people who would receive it and understand what it means. It is vital to study an audience in order to know what they like and what they would be attracted to and would like to spend their time and money on. Audience research reveals the target audience's viewing habits. It divides an audience into groups with similar information needs and preferences. It can select the best television programme to reach an audience. Audience are able to analysis the television advertiser to determine the types of incentives and barriers that the audiences perceive to exist with the product

Audiences are divided and labelled in the following ways

Standard Occupational Classification (sometimes called Social Grade by advertising companies)

Psychographics (a common attitude)

Geodemographics (where they live)

Age

Gender

Standard Occupational Classification

Social grade is different classes of people. They range from the lower class to the upper class, this influences what the media likes. There are three classes in the society; Lower Class, Middle Class, Upper Class. In most cases they lower class are more likely to watch shows that are more entertaining and Reality TV like EastEnders, Coronation Street, Jeremy Kyle and Big Brother. And the Upper Class are more likely to watch shows that are more informative for example News. It is important to divide market research into social grades in order to know what class would and would not watch it. One knows the appropriate time, language, brands to use that would not seem offensive to any other group of people. This helps to create a more productive work.

Geodemographics

This means where a person reside, this is important because in some areas they are used to some specific activities and would only watch things that have to do with that particular activity for example, people in London are more likely to watch ' THE ONLY WAY IS ESSEX' than people in America or Canada. It is important to consider this factor so one would know the type product to produce for the right audience.

Psychographics

This factors could also be called as IAO variables.  These are the variables that affect what people watch. An example of this is a religious person who is most likely to watch a religious programme. People choose different things to watch according to what they believe in or what they have interest in. It is important to divide market research by Psychographics so one can know what to include in adverts and films. Also if a particular audience was being targeted they would include things that could apply to them for example, if  fashion show was the adverts that are likely to come on would be about clothing websites, make up, hair and body products.

Age

Nowadays there is a blurred line between the ages of individuals some young people prefer to watch programmes that housewives or elderly people would like e.g., The Wright Stuff. And some parents still enjoy watching cartoons with their kids, however this is not always the case some young and elderly people have different interest. Some programmes are not suitable for young kids e.g. Big Brother, Geordie Shore. Directors need to know what is suitable or it would not be able to sell or be advertised.

Gender

In some cases the audience for TV shows are socially constructed. Some people are influenced by the peers to watch or to not watch something. For example, EastEnders is mostly seen by the elderly people, housewives and a few young adults. Most male from the age 16 - 20 do not care much for soaps like EastEnders. And most women would not normally watch a football march.  This could be because their friends do not find it right for their age group or is boring. It is good for directors to be sure to know what both genders would watch this way they know what to produce and what to include in the media.

BARB

Is an acronym for Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. It gives the official viewing figures for UK television audience. Research companies such as MORI, Ipsos collect data that shows the television viewing behaviour of 26 million households. This data gives a very accurate breakdown of what the public are viewing locally and nationally. This is really important because it gives information about how well programmes are doing advertising campaigns and how each channel compares. Viewing patterns are estimated by looking carefully at 5,000 TV homes. This sample represents all TV households incorporating the full range of demographic and other variables found across the country.

An Audience Measurement Panel 

Is a group of audience on the BARB research. This group measure the popularity of a TV show. One person out the group has to list the number, age, gender of the people that reside in the area. A Strength of the panel is that you can get a lot of reliable reviews yearly. A weakness of the panel is that it is time consuming, and it is costly. This is because, one has to dedicate a lot of time to gather and arrange the information gotten, and also it takes a lot of money to go into different areas to collect all the information.