The Audience and The Text
Every media text is produced with the intended reader in the mind. It is important therefore that the producer considers both the;
Content of the text – is it suitable/appropriate for the audience?
Style of presentation - is it attractive to the audience and will the content be understood by them.
For example boy bands videos and rock videos will differ in content and style.
Expectation and Pleasure
Repetition
Audiences play an active part in media texts by demanding repetition and difference. We learn from an early age how image relates to music making genre conventions seem natural to us.
We reject anything that is not convincing to that type of video, so we play an active role in agreeing structures and conventions.
Repetition of familiar conventions ensures the return of core fans.
Targeting the audience
Media producers need to be aware of a target audience – the ideal or preferred audience for the text they are producing.
There is a difference between the targeted audience and the actual audience. For example cartoons in the day may also be watched by university students.
Advertisers need to know their target group when placing ads on T.V, in magazines or the cinema. One of the ways to identify audience groups is to break them down statistically into 3 groups – age, gender and social class
Gender: the different interests of men and women are the most obvious factor in considering audiences, by advertisers. Women are still assumed to buy most grocery items, whereas technology is assumed to interest men.
There are still references to women’s magazines and films (chick flicks) without the same reference to men’s mags & films.
Social class: Advertisers have not been persuaded by the ‘classless society’ in the UK. The social classes are categorised as:
ABC1 – the middle class market
C2DE - the working class market
These categories are based on the occupational groupings developed for the govt census every ten years.
A- higher managerial and professional;
B- middle management
C1- office workers
C2- skilled manual workers
D- unskilled workers
E- unemployed, unwaged
