Identifying the audience

In a cinema or at a concert its easy to say what the audience is- the people looking at the screen or stage! But who are they really? They have one thing in common- they all entertained at the same time. But do they have any other similarities? For instance, it you go to see a horror movie at the cinema on a friday evening you'll probably find that most of the audience will be the aged 16-25. That doesnt mean that there arent any people over the age of 25, or that they shouldnt go to the cinema. It just means that different films, like magazines and newspapers, attract different audience.
Can be the same age and have complete different tastes to the people around you. Everyone consumes different media texts compared to their friends, music, films and news. So its hard make a film for a persifice target audience.

How i the media produceres researched our audience.
a media product cant exsist with out an adience, for too long. Media producers need to know that there is an audience out there and they spend a great deal of time and money finding out who their audience is. We'll me and my group didnt really spend money only on props but looking for a target maket did take time and we have to cater and change our films language, images and music to fit in with our thriller film.
Media producers categorise people into different groups according to age, ethnicity, gender, where they live, their occupation and income, their education, their attitudes and political persuasions. there are lots of other categories too.
One way of categorising audience is by occupation and income according to the social grade classification used by the National Readership Survey. The classification groups people according to their social status and the amount of money they earn. It identifies six groups.






















This scale is problematic in a number of ways but its still widely used. Many people feel insulted by being categorised in this way i know i am. The scale is limited in that it assumes each household or family has single main earner(probably male) and that all in the family have similar tastes. It also classifies students as being part of group E, when most are from a much higher background and are probably headed for jobs that are much higher up the scale. However with 60 million people in britain it was never going to be perfect in six little categorises.
Our film is aimed at students who get ema and want to go out or spend the night in watching movies and having a luagh and students dont really fit in on the NRS grade classification, so it was quite hard to make sure we catered for them and that they could afford it or want it.

How audiences use media texts
Another important aspect of audience study is to consider how audiences use media texts. Some television programmes are watched closely and thoughtfully and make us think about issues of importance. Others are an escape from their lives to relax and forget about their troubles. In the 1970s, media theorists Blumler and Katz presented their model of audience uses and gratifications, declaring that there were five main reasons why audiences consumed media texts:

1. To be informed and Educated
2. In order to identify with characters and situations
3. To be entertained
4. To enable themselves to socially interact with others through watching and listening or reading, then discussing it with friends.
5. To escape from their daily troubles and woes.

I would say a thriller is to entertain the audience and it also enables them to socially interact becasue they would talk about this new thriller film out and that would give them status in their group for a while. People like to be the first to find things out and tell other people the word of mouth is still the most important roll to advertising and promting the product.

by caryn meyer