HOW MEDIA TARGETS AUDIENCES

 THEORY 4: HOW MEDIA TARGETS AUDIENCES

The audience determines if a media product is successful. For instance, the media might give the audience what they want, then receive feedback from the audience about what to improve, and finally discover a gap in the market. Since it would be too difficult to please everyone, media goods focus on specific demographics. Then, to keep the target demographic interested, the media uses codes and conventions that they will enjoy

DEMOGRAPHICS

are the very blunt division of people into broad and easily measurable segments (age, gender, social class, ethnicity/race, income, location, political learnings, star appeal)

• Age
• Gender
• Social class
• Ethnicity/race
• Income
• Location
• Political leanings
• Star appeal

PSYCHOGRAPHICS

are the study of consumers/audiences based on their activities and psychological attributes of traits in humans (personality, behaviour (passive/active), values, interests, spending habits)

• Personality
• Behaviour (passive/active)
• Values
• Interests
• Spending habits

Example:

Magazine: GQ

Genre: Men's fashion

Age: 18-40

Gender: Men

Social class: Working/middle class, some disposable income, not poor people

Hobbies/interests: Business, fashion, shopping celebrities, movies

Likely jobs: Business and/or jobs that require you to look presentable

Star appeal: e.g. Harry Styles, Leonardi DiCaprio

Genre: a way to categorise media products by grouping them together via their shared characteristics (codes and conventions). Genre creates restrictions, but it also creates templates for media producers to follow. The style or category of a particular piece of art (media)

• Sub-genre: a subcategory within a particular genre, taking the categorization of media a step further (it goes beyond the generalization of the genre)

• Hybrid genre: blends themes and elements from two or more different genres
  
  
• Genre convention: the different elements that are commonly found in a particular genre

Example:

Text: A Harry Potter book
Genre: Fiction
Sub-genre: Fantasy