Research - Audience Identification

Audience Identification

What are audiences?

Audiences are the target markets media products are deemed for. A target market are a set type of people who your media product is meant to be catered for. All media texts are made with a target audience in mind. With all media products it is always important to ask questions such as; " Does it have an audience?" If not, then there is no logical need to go further.
Audience research is essential in any media production; questionnaires, focus groups and comparisons to existing media texts. 

How might some audiences be categorised?

Some audiences may be catergorised into certain aspects such as:

1. Income brackets/ status
2. Age 
3. Gender 
4. Race
5. Location

This information is used alongside other information to help develop audience categories. 

Advantages and Disadvantages of categorising audiences

Advantages:

-You have an idea of what people are interested in

-You can make your content suit what the audience are interested in

-You know what sort of products they would buy, based on how much money they have to spend

-Use the information to encourage companies to advertise on your radio station

Disadvantages:

-It doesn't consider that people are different, despite having a similar job

-It doesn't consider people's interests, just their income and status

Different genres have different audiences

One Direction (1D)



Genre: Teen Pop 
Audience: Young girls 15 and under



Slaughterhouse




Genre: Hip Hop 
Audience: Teenage Boys and older





Audience Reactions

Audience reaction in relation to Goodwin, Dyer and Hebdige..

Goodwin - audience expectations

These are the advance ideas an audience may have about a text. This particularly applies to genre pieces. Don't forget that producers often play with or deliberately shatter audience expectations. 

Dyer - audience identification

This is is the way in which audiences feel themselves connected to a particular music video/artist, in that they feel it directly expresses their attitude or lifestyle. 

Hebdige - audience engagement

This describes how an audience interacts with the music video. Different people react in different ways to the same text. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, from this post i have learnt very valuable information on why knowing who your audience is can be of great importance. This information has helped me to discover who my audience will be when developing ideas for my own media product. This is because, without a clear audience a media product will not be successful. 

This is why my audience will be mixed genre teenagers and young adults who enjoy the lavish lifestyle of being out at night and having fun until the morning doing crazy things and just being surrounded by great people.