17th September 2012

MEDIA STUDIES

Key concept:   audience

·         What pleasures the audiences get from different media and texts.

·         How audiences are targeted

·         Difference between primary and secondary audience.

·         How and why different audiences read texts differently (preferred negotiated, oppositional readings.  The idea of an active audience- uses and gratification)

·         How and why an audience might be positioned.

·         How and why institutions construct an audience.

·         What audience profiling is (demographics and psychographics)

AUDIENCE: is a very important concept throughout media studies. All media texts are made with an audience in mind, i.e. a group of people who will receive it and make some sort of sense out of it. And generally, but not always, the producers make some money out of that audience. Therefore it is important to understand what happens when an audience “meets” a media text.

DOES IT HAVE AND AUDIENCE?

Media producers have spent a great deal of time and money finding out who might be interested in their idea.

·         Income bracket/status

·         Gender

·         Location

·         Age

·         Race

THIS IS CALLED DEMOGRAPHICS

Audiences are divided into:

·         Less than 15

·         15-25

·         25-35

·         35-55

·         55 and above

PSYCHOGRAPHICS

This is a way of describing an audience by looking at their behavior and personality traits. Psychographics labels a particular type of person and makes an assessment about thierviewing and spending habits.