Task A Targeting and Defining Audience (Illustrated Report - Audiences and Film Producers)

In media terms, an audience is any group of people who receive a media text, and not just people who are together in the same place. They receive the text via a media carrier such as a newspaper, television, DVD, radio or the internet. It can also be via a mobile phone, iPod, or any other device that stores or receives media messages.
   Every media text is planned with a particular audience in mind, a television producer has to explain to the broadcasting institution (e.g. BBC or ITV) who is the likely audience demographic for the particular programmes.
   Audience research is a major element for any media producer. Companies are set up to carry out audience research for media producers, broadcasters and advertisers. These research companies use questionnaires, focus groups, one-to-one interviewing, and electronic devices to find out about people's life styles, and television viewing habits as well as the type of products they want to buy.
   Profiling an audience allows media businesses and corporations to better specify their demographic to find their desired target audience. It is always better for a media business to find their target audience before they market a new product so they can get the best results and profits.

Psychographics is the study of values, interests, personality, attitudes and lifestyle. Every advertiser wants to target a particular type of audience; therefore, media companies produce texts that target a particular "type" of audience. In terms of commercial media, much of their funding is generated by advertising revenue - their product needs to appeal to a specific type of audience so that advertisers will pay to promote their product. Most media products can define their "typical" audience member, often with a psychographic profile.
   An American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, suggested that we all have different layers of needs, and we have to achieve certain needs before going onto the next layer. Basically, we all need to be able to eat and sleep in safety before we're able to go on to more complex social needs, such as getting married. His Hierarchy of Needs suggests that once people have their basic needs met like housing, food, safety, shopping, technology, and a job they can then go on to satisfy successively "higher needs" that occupy a set hierarchy or system of ranking. Maslow came up with this pyramid where basic needs are at the bottom, slowly building up to the peak called "self-actualisation". This describes a person who has gained the respect of a lot of others and has a high level of self-esteem and respect.

Audiences can be divided into categories based on social class. The NRS social grades were developed by the National Readership Survey to classify both magazine and newspaper readers, they are now used by many other organisations and have become a standard for market research.
   Starting from grade A to E, social grades are based upon occupation; the idea being that your choice of occupation also reflects your income and level of education. A represents the highest of the social classes and is known as "upper middle-class", these are the people at the top within the workplace, an example occupation for this social grade is a banker, or perhaps a judge. Class B is represented as "middle class" and is fairly similar to class A in terms of job roles, people within the class B demographic are expected to be employed in a management position, or in a medial profession. Grade C is split into two categories: C1 and C2. C1 is essentially people below class B but in the same line of work, this includes general office workers and nurses - also referred to as white collar professions. C2 is known as "lower middle class", and includes people who's line of work is based around a particular set of skills that that person possesses. Class D covers the "working class" category, they are considered to be the slightly skilled and often have low qualifications, a cashier or a waitress is a good example of a working class job role. Grade E is reserved for the lowest social grade in our society, which includes the unemployed, pensioners and students.
   Social class grouping are not the most reliable resources to use when trying to create a media product. The method relies on difficult stereotypes such as people falling into a high social class are more intelligent than those in a lower class. However, we can see these demographics being useful when looking at comedy shows. Comedians are normally based around social class D, using their stand-up to make a living, but many often have a secondary job to support them financially. They then create comedy on their experiences of lower class life so it appeals to people of a similar social class, which often proves very successful as a majority of their audience will be of lower social class.

   Social Classes can also be used to try and price their product. If they are targeting a younger age group they will try and make the product affordable for people with low income, whereas the opposite is often used when targeting older audiences as they are most likely financially stable and able to afford the product at a higher price. 

Another method used by media producers to define and segment the audience is by employing a geo-demographic. This method is used to group together a potential audience through the use of the area that they live in by researching the characteristics of that area. Geo-demographics are often used to determine different lifestyles and wealth, this type of data can be used in various ways, but are usually used for marketing and sales forecasting. Media producers will have to think about where their main target audience are and if there are any, how they will tackle the language barrier. It is good to know where your target audience is situated because then you will know what backgrounds they come from and how they interact with media. However, you can get a mix of different types of people in one area so it isn’t very accurate. An advantage of using this type of data is that companies and the products they make can be sold at different places as one part of a country may have wealthier people that another side. This is taken into account when creating media products, as the product may only be suitable for a range of people, rather than everyone. For example, an iPhone would be aimed at a more wealthy demographic audience, while a low-end android device would be aimed at a less wealthy audience. This data could be used effectively by a company to determine if their product will sell well in the area, or if opening a new store would benefit them. But this could come as a disadvantage because there is no way to know if every person living in an area are of the same or similar wealth.

The two major categorisations for audiences are Mass and Niche. A mainstream text has a wider and less specific target audience than a niche text may do, due to aspects such as airing time, subject content, and mode of address. A niche text is generally less popular than a mainstream text, and also has the following of a niche audience - in comparison to a mainstream text, which is followed by a mass audience. 

   The audience for mainstream media sometimes prefer these outlets because they are so much easier to find. Alternative media outlets have to make a bigger effort into garnering and maintaining an audience. Many alternative media audiences do not trust mainstream media, or believe they ignore certain stories or details in the news. Some people prefer to tune into both mainstream and alternative media in order to get a variety of perspectives. 

   Mainstream media outlets are found on television, radio, online and in newspaper and other publication forms. They include internationally recognised TV networks such as BBC, CBS, ABC and NBC, as well as national and international news channels like CNN and BBC World News. They also include large newspapers like The Guardian and The New York Times, mainstream media sources are normally easy to find, and they reach large [mass] audiences.

   Alternative media outlets tend to be smaller, and in many cases are polarised towards conservative and liberal perspectives. Much like mainstream media, alternative or independent media outlets are found online, on the radio, in newspapers or other publications and to a lesser extent, on television. For example, Democracy Now! is an American alternative news program broadcast online, on television and on the radio in certain finite areas of the country. Many alternative, or niche media outlets have considerably less funding and smaller budget margins than mainstream media, so it if often easier to find alternative media sources online, since creating a website is typically less expensive than operating a radio or television station.

Quantitative data is mostly numerical data; It gives a specific information about a subject. This is good because the data collected can be used to make a graphical representation of the information gathered. Because of this, the information can be easily processed and media producers can get a broad view of what they want to know. For example, in the gaming industry, producers might want to know if people prefer first person shooter games or platformer games and they would get a percentage showing what games people preferred so they could make that sort of game. However, with quantitative data, it tells you the “what” but it doesn’t answer “why”.
   Qualitative data is mostly focused on opinions and gives more detail.  An advantage of  qualitative data is that, compared to using quantitative data, it gives much more detail about the demographic that quantitative data wouldn't provide. This is useful because it is good to know why a person likes
market spin-offs and products similar to the original that first successfully garnered the audience. Media producers can take the data and use it to form their product around their audience. However, a disadvantage of using qualitative data is that it is difficult to get the data and look at it collectively because you would be looking at lots of different opinions. This is why if you were creating a questionnaire you would have one or two open questions included in order to gain the best detail of your demographic. 

BARB is a form of quantitative audience research platform. BARB viewing data offer clients, such as broadcasters and advertisers a breakdown of viewing at regional and national levels. This information is vital for assessing how programs, channels or advertising campaigns have performed and provides the basis for airtime advertising trading. 

   Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board. BARB) get their figures by carefully selecting a panel of private home, they create a survey which is carried out by Ipsos MORI in order to track changes in the UK household characteristics. From the survey they can ascertain the types of households they need to be on their panel that suits the necessary demographics, TV platforms and geography and other variables. The panel consists of 5100 households which represent 5000 other households across the UK. Once the household has a BARB panel Kantar Media fits every TV set in the home with a meter. Software meters are installed on laptop's and desktop computers and tablets. This is done so the BARB meters know who and what the household is watching. In order for the meter to know who is watching, each member of the household over the age of four is assigned a button on a special remote control. If they enter a room while the television is on they must press their designated button to register their presence and press it again when they leave to show they are no longer watching. To make sure the panel members are watching they install audio matching process. The meter takes an audio sample of the programs. Which is then turned into a digital fingerprint and matched to a reference library of programs. The data from the panel is sent back to Kantar Media at 2am before being processed to be representative of the whole of the UK. They are then released to the industry at 9:30 am every day. They are able to measure time shifted viewing that happens up to 28 days later. Then the data is matched to the programs and advertising schedule to give viewing estimates for every programs and commercial that has been broadcast.

   BARB numbers are extremely important to media producers as well as commercial television station that rely on advertising. The advertising agency will pay the television station a certain amount of money based on the number of people watching a show. The BARB numbers are used to work this out. The higher the BARB numbers are usually means more advertising revenue for the television station. By using BARB this also helps media producers to know what time is the best time to put on a programs and is to continue airing the programs or discontinue airing it.

Lifestyle magazines often employ a gender profile to attract their audience. They may be read by anyone - but they are specifically targeted towards a specific gender profile. For instance, GQ is a men's lifestyle magazine which features articles on male fashion, style and culture. Cosmopolitan targets a female demographic with similar content based on popular female interests. Although a female reader may buy GQ, but the content will be tailored to a male audience.
   Many major magazine publishers produce press packs to attract potential advertisers. These are packs containing information, images and other media, and are often created in order to promote something. The press pack will give details on the audience demographics of the magazine and provide the advertisers with information about their target audience.
   TV programmes may target an audience through age. For example, CBBC's Newsround is aimed at younger viewers, so it selects and presents news content in a straightforward way which engages young people. However, BBC's News at Ten targets an older, adult audience and therefore presents news with more detailed or in-depth content and analysis. Whilst older viewers may watch Newsround and some younger viewers may find the content from News at Ten more interesting, but both programmes are primarily targeted at a defined age group.

In the industry, different films have different target audiences, however to make a film sell successfully the film producers must be aware of the target audience, and must to produce content that pleases them. The primary target audience of any film is mostly identified through the demographic variables, however the secondary target audience is a unique grouping with a certain specific criteria of the product, this group is usually not defined demographically.
   The general age for the target audience of a horror film is usually 15-25. This is because the content of a horror film is typically more graphic and violent, and more likely to excite and be enjoyed by a younger audience rather than an older one. Horror films are generally aimed more towards a male audience rather than a female one, this is because of the popular stereotype of males enjoying violence more than females. The thrill-seeking attitude depicted by this audience type is also associated with males much more so than females.
   The horror movie genre is generally aimed towards the middle class, this is due to the fact that horror movie production has a much lower budget than an action or a comedy, so they're cheaper to go see in the cinema or buy on DVD. Today, more and more horror films are rated 15 and older, this is a marketing scheme by producers to gain a wider audience. For teenagers, it is a common social event to watch a horror film as a group and experience the graphic content from the film together, so the producers making a film with no restriction on teenagers going to watch it ultimately makes for a potentially huge audience.
   The Paranormal Activity film series is aimed primarily at a younger audience. The main characters of each film are of a younger age, making the film more realistic and appealing to that same age group. The characters being a similar age to the audience also allows the audience to immerse themselves into the film, being able to relate to any of the character's experiences and reactions to the dangers in the film, making it ultimately scarier for the audience. However, the films being made into a series means that the film series still retains an original audience from the first film of the franchise, meaning as more films of this franchise are being made the older fans are still part of the growing audience.