Audiences also respond to the media texts they watch, listen to or download. Media studies is also concerned with audience responses. Sometimes audiences identify with certain texts, like teenagers may like skins because they identify with the characters. Or maybe theyaspire to be like them, or are gratified by the story lines or action. Audiences also respond by participating like when they vote for the Last Choir Standing, or for a Big Brother eviction.
A Mass audience
The mass media are diversified media technologies that are intended to reach a large audience by mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place varies. Broadcast media such as radio, recorded music, film and television transmit their information electronically. Print media use a physical object such as a newspaper, book, pamphlet or comics, to distribute their information. An example of a mass media would be any artist in the charts. If an artist reaches the charts then it has reached a mass audience, as it has sold thousands of records to get to that place.
A Niche Audience
A niche audience is a group of people that have a unique interest, the product that is being sold will usually not be mainstream, however this doesn't mean it wont become mainstream in the future and have more of a mass audience. For example, The Arctic Monkeys have a niche audience; all of Domino records artists are niche audience targeted. This makes their music more unique, where as Rihanna is world wide known.
Our target Audience
We are targeting generally a mass audience in which is teenagers/young adults between the ages of 15-25. We have chose this as our target audience because we want the audience to be able to relate to the storyline and the main characters, if the audience can relate in a character of a film then it will make it more enjoyable for them.
At the same time we will also be targeting a Niche audience, which is the mothers of our mass audience. Mothers often watch films with their daughters, if we are able to target our mass audience efficiently, then mothers are likely to watch the film with them. For a mother it will give them an insight on what their daughters way of life is like, because things are different in this day and age compared to what it was when they were 18. A mother may even be able to relate to when they were younger, if they had a similar relationship with a best friend like the characters in the film do.
Our target Audience
We are targeting generally a mass audience in which is teenagers/young adults between the ages of 15-25. We have chose this as our target audience because we want the audience to be able to relate to the storyline and the main characters, if the audience can relate in a character of a film then it will make it more enjoyable for them.
At the same time we will also be targeting a Niche audience, which is the mothers of our mass audience. Mothers often watch films with their daughters, if we are able to target our mass audience efficiently, then mothers are likely to watch the film with them. For a mother it will give them an insight on what their daughters way of life is like, because things are different in this day and age compared to what it was when they were 18. A mother may even be able to relate to when they were younger, if they had a similar relationship with a best friend like the characters in the film do.
WWW: Well done Emily, you have confidently discussed the different types of audiences here and given examples from contemporary media practice.
ReplyDeleteEBI: Next time, try to include some images to illustrate the message you are trying to convey in your blog. You could have included some graphs or other visual pieces of information. Now try to consider how you will apply this theory to your own film project - will you have a mass and a niche audience? How will you target different types of audiences?