Football Mania

Take A Break – Mainstream audience:

• Biggest selling women magazine in the UK
• Sell over 10 million copies a year
• Contains entertainment
• Games and prizes
• Fascinating stories

Trout Fisherman – Niche audience:

• The only dedicated trout fishing magazine in the UK
• 76% of readers are A/B/C1

Mainstream audience – An audience that consumes a product that appeals to a wide range of age groups and cultures.
If a media product is said to have a mainstream or mass audience it will appeal to a wide range of people. Blockbuster films and video games produced and distributed by some of the large media conglomerates will generally make a large profit, and primetime television programmes will command large viewing figures.

Niche audience – The audience of a specialist interest media product that may only appeal to a small number of people or those that fall within a specific demographic profile (for example, ethnicity or age).
Niche audience or markets are often small and they are targeted very much on specialist interests, skills or beliefs. Products like Bauer Media’s Trout and Salmon magazine might not be well-known but it has been in publication since 1955 and therefore its loyal following means that it is still profitable enough to print every month. It is also clearly valued by fishing companies as a way to reach their ideal audience in terms of advertising their products.

Demographics – When media producers study the breakdown of their target audiences based on variables in age, ethnicity, gender, economic status or class, level of education, nationality, sexuality etc.

Psychographics – Profiling of audience members based on their personal beliefs, values, interests and lifestyle.

Geodemographics – A profile of audience members based on the area where they live and how much they earn.

NRS social grades – A method of classifying demographics based on occupation and income, developed by the National Readership Survey.

RAJAR – The acronym for Radio Joint Audience Research, which collates listening figures for over 300 radio stations across the UK.

BARB – The acronym for the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board, which collates viewing figures for all the major UK broadcasters such as BBC, ITV and Sky.

Reader Profile
Before their takeover by Time Inc., IPC Media also used interesting visual methods that included profiles accompanied by imagery and ‘mood board’ collages, created as part of their press pack information for flagship magazine such as NME and Uncut. These used official ABC1 age and gender data analysis gained from NRES research and also utilised ideas around psychographics to visually communicate audience lifestyle choices to potential advertisers.

‘Invisible fictions’
John Hartley suggested that media producers create ‘invisible fictions’, a term which suggests that media producers have a specific audience member or demographic in mind before they plan a media product.

Uses and Gratifications Model – Denis McQuall (1987)
This theory suggests that active audiences seek out and use different media texts in order to satisfy a need and experience different pleasures. It places more focus upon the audience, or the ‘consumer’ than the message of a text by asking “what do people do with media?” rather than “what does media do to people?”

• Escapism – People use media products to get away from reality
• Surveilliance – People use media products to find out information
• Personal Identity – People use media products as talking points
• Personal Relationships – People use media products as a means of shaping their own identity

Reality TV shows and soap operas are often cited as being escapist texts and, as we have previously seen, primetime shows such as The X Factor pull in large viewing figures. Social media and online forums have also contributed to such shows acting as talking points, with Facebook, Digital Spy and Twitter acting as ways in which poeple can communicate their thoughts and views. Music artists and celebrities/actors on TV programmes and films act as ‘ideal selves’ and opinion leaders or fashion icons. Indeed, magazines such as Heat and Now often feature spreads based on copying the look of a celebrity.

Britains Got Talent –
Britains got talent can be a form of escapism as it is entertainment and could seem like you’re actually at the show rather than in your home on the sofa. It is also a talking point, as friends and family can talk about the acts that were shown or the drama that goes on in the show. It could also be seen as a form of surveillance, as it will keep people updated on the entertainment and what goes on in the show – especially towards the end of the series when the finals are shown.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
The Hierarchy of Needs is a theory coined by an American psychologist named Abraham Maslow in 1943.

This theory is usually presented in the form of a pyramid diagram. The theory suggests that to be the ‘perfect’ version of yourself you must fulfill these steps.

Physiological needs are the fundamental requirements for maintaining the human body – also known as survival needs
Safety needs relate to our desire to avoid health issues and harm and hacve security, not just personally but also financially
Belongingness and love needs, also knows as social needs, refers to our wish to maintain friendships, intimacy or affection for others. If these are not fulfilled , Maslow argues that you cannot move up the pyramid
Esteem Needs requires an individual to have self-respect as well as respect from those around them. Self-esteem involves being valued and respected by other individuals and this may be through their achievements, social status achieved or mastery
Self-Actualisation This is the ‘real’ goal – to reach your full potential

Pride (2014) was distributed to America by CBS, an American television broadcast company. This company is well known in America, and broadcasts shows like Star Trek, The Big Bang Theory and NCIS.

A French company called Pathe distributed the film to Europe

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Focus Group:

• Range of ages
• Range of occupation
• Class
• Race/ethnicity
• Religion
• Disability
• Sexuality

Primary research – Research that has been undertaken by you personally in order to gain new data. This is also knows as first-hand research.

Secondary research – The use of data or findings from research that has already been undertaken.

Qualitative data – Typically descriptive data, useful for studies at the individual level, and to find out, in depth, the ways in which people think about the product.

Quantitative data – Data that can be measured numerically. Things that can be measured precisely, such as the number of people who listen to a radio station or who have purchased a video game online.

There are many methods of primary research and the most appropriate will depend on the information needed. Methods include:

• Questionnaires – These consist of a series of questions that are tailored to gather specific information from audiences and they are an integral part of market research. Open questions allow the audience to write extended responses acting as qualitative data that can help identify specific likes, dislikes and trends. Closed questions are often those that answer in a ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ranking style and provide quantitative data that can be easily translated into percentages or graph formats.
• Focus Group – A group of people assembled to participate in a discussion about a product before it is launched, or to provide feedback on a political campaign, television series, and so on.
• Interviews – These are a standard part of qualitative research. They are also used in journalism and media reporting and, like questionnaires, are integral to market research.
• Online Surveys – These are questionnaires that the target audience can complete over the internet. Online survey services such as SurveyMonkey make them quick and easy to create.

Secondary Research is commonplace when gathering information about audiences. Some examples of secondary research are:

• Internet Research – This is when internet search engines are utilised and data, personal opinions, news articles and academic research are gathered on a particular topic.
• Books and Journals – Textbooks and their digital editions can still provide a valid way of gaining information and ideas. Academic journals that can be accessed online are also a good way of gaining up-to-date information about a particular topic.
• Magazines and Newspapers – Can provide a wealth of information. Very often, articles have been written by professional journalists who have used primary research methods, such as interviews, to gather information about a particular subject.
• Television – Documentaries, news and factual advice programmes can provide a lot of information. The use of audio-visual media is a visual aid and whilst some documentaries (such as historical documentaries) may have a particular bias, they can condense vast amounts of information into a shot, manageable chunk.

Key Terms

Circulation – A count of how many copies of a particular publication are distributed.

Readership – An estimate of how many readers a publication has (there may be more than one reader per copy).

Gap in the market – A group of potential customers who are not yet purchasing a service. This creates opportunities for companies to expand their customer base.

Audience feedback – When the audience provide a media producer with feedback about a product or brand. This is done through market research instigated by the producer or by the audience members themselves giving feedback via Web 2.0 technologies.

Competitors – Media institution, products or brands which are direct rivals against each other

Market possibilities – The ways in which institutions believe their brand or product can expand into another medium as a cross-media product or spin-off.

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Four reasons for why companies conduct research:

1. Identify potential new customers
2. Understanding your existing customers
3. Set realistic targets for your company
4. Develop new, effective strategies

Product Reach
Media institutions expect that mass media products have a large potential product or audience research. This means that the product is likely to be successful and will make profit through sales numbers or advertising revenue. However, one of the main reasons that media institutions conduct research is to find out how many people actually consume the product within any given potential reach.

Audience Feedback

• Vital part of raising awareness of a product
• Can spot a gap in the market
• Media institutions use online methods to identify pros and cons about products and for advertising campaigns
• Social media used for this

Advantages of using social media
An advantage of using social media as a tool to gain both qualitative and quantitative feedback is that it is cheap and, on the whole, easier to administer. Online surveys are also cheap and many institutions will ask you to complete a questionnaire about their experiences with you, which is distributed to smartphones as a popup advert once a user has clicked on a product website.
In terms of identifying a gap in the market for a special product or service, producers will need to have completed a qualitative research before they launch a brand.

Competitors
Research is undertaken by media producers to find out what audiences think about the products and brands owned by direct competitors. BBC and ITV are constantly using online technologies to conduct focus groups about what viewers thought about major storylines such as EastEnders Live week (2015) and Coronation Street’s ‘Who Killed Tina?” storyline (2014).

Market possibilities
In terms of market possibilities, the most successful products will often have spin-offs and sequels. However, this will only be based on audience feedback.

Analysing
It is important that you can interpret the data that is presented to you about the ways in which audiences consume products. If you are, for example, a researcher for a television company or radio station, then you will need to be able to interpret that data.

Distribution – The methods by which media products are delivered to audiences, including the marketing campaign. These methods will depend upon the product (for example, distribution companies in the film industry organise the release of the films).

What does it involve?

• Acquiring legal rights/ownership to present media product to the public
• Marketing/promoting the media product
• Releasing the media product and sustaining its position in the market place
• Creating multiple prints/files of product for consumption – film prints to cinemas or DVD/Blu-Ray copies to shops, for instance.

There are many different ways in which products are able to reach and be distributed to audience. For example, technological convergence means “the tendency for different technological systems to evolve towards performing similar tasks”. This is when new technologies are created that take over from past technologies and perform the same task but in a more advance manner. In the past for example, the only way you would be able to view a film would be at the cinema. However, nowadays you can view films on laptops, phones, television etc. Another example is music, as ways to listening to music has drastically changed over the years. Music went from being played on a gramophone, to vinyl, to cassettes, to CDS to being digitally played on an electronic device.

Traditional methods of distributing a media product still exist today. These include going to watch a film at the cinema, watching a programme on television in your living room, listening to the radio in the car and at home, and purchasing magazines, newspapers and music in shops. However, technological convergence has made online distribution of media products has become commonplace in contemporary society.

A mobile phone strings all of this together as a multi-media device, making it a prime example of technological convergence.

Black box – a device, such as a smart phone, that supplies us with all of our information communications technology and media requirements.

As Henry Jenkins suggests, the arrival of Web 2.0 software, high-speed broadband and black box devices such as smartphones, tablets and smart TVs in the 2000s and onwards meant that media products could be bought and consumed without leaving the house.

Streaming – The way in which media products are consumed online, usually through video/audio on-demand sites.

Simulcasting – When a product is broadcast both online and via a traditional medium at the same time. In terms of TV programmes it can also mean when a programme, such as a big sporting event, is shown on two channels at the same time.

We can now download, stream and simulcast films, music and television programmes at the click of a button . There are dedicated video-on-demand services such as YouTube, Amazon Prime, Netflix and BBC iPlayer that allow us to access films and TV programmes, specifically allowing you to search and pick outside of scheduling time. There are also audio streaming services and content management systems such as Spotify and iTunes that offer millions of songs from which you can build vast playlists.

Sonia Livingstone suggested that the new digital age would bring the era of “death to the schedule”. In terms of television programmes, video on-demand services allow us to access programmes such as ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent still draws in mass audiences at a specific, scheduled time, the broadcast is accompanied by targeted social media, or “social TV” campaigns that encourage audience participation in the lead-up, during and after the programme. Behind the scenes extras and “director cuts” are also now available for audiences to access online, which have drastically changed the experience and relationship audiences have with media products.

ISP 21 Powerpoint

NRS Social Grades

The NRS social grades are categorised A-E. They are based on different job roles/class category. Although it first developed over 50 years ago, the classification still provides the UK publishing and print industry with a means of classifying audiences in a way understood by the vast majority of potential advertisers.

Powerpoints:

BARB copy

BARB-2

Media Product and Audiences PP

NRS-2

RAJAR

RAJAR-2

Diegetic Sound – When the sound is implied in the film, for example footsteps, dialogue or doors closing.

Non-diegetic sound – Everything the audience can hear but the characters cannot, for example narrative, music or sound effects.

i

The Hunger Games Analysis