Research: Audience Identification

Audience Identification

Introduction.

The audience is the group of individuals or an individual who may consume media such as TV, Magazine's music and books. The audience can be used to describe for various different media such as Books, Newspapers and Film etc. This is used to define the group and what certain groups of people may be interested in regards to genre or hobbies. Before companies can start production they must identify their key audience since it helps them ensure that they know who they trying to attract otherwise the company won’t make money moreover different audiences have different expectations and they will need to be satisfied.

How might some audiences be categorised?

Audiences are usually categorised on several important factors such as Genres, hobbies, income, interests and social class. This is done because people have various different tastes or different social backgrounds and will affect what media they will listen to. Music and music videos aren’t no exceptions there are certain expectations in various different genres and the artist needs to target his audience who have the same ideologies and is likely to listen to that audience as well as satisfying their fan base.

Audience categories are usually divvied by income

Audiences are usually divided by categories according to a stereotypical income. This is usually the basis for the categories for marketing purpose to see who has the disposable income which can be spent on advertising and promotions that are used in films.

Advantages and disadvantages of categorising audiences

Advantages

One of the main advantages of categorising is a target audience. Moreover, it shows what groups of people are more likely to see the film and how to appeal to them with Mise en scene, cinematography and soundtracks. You can use information that you gather to encourage companies for product placement to various media outlets or can advertise other products such as cars, foods and fashion, for example, shoes.

Disadvantages

One of the main issues with classifying audiences into limited groups is that people are different. They maybe have the same job, however, they may have a different background or cultural differences, therefore they may not have the same interests. Also, categories used don’t factor in disposable income, since sometimes people may have jobs in management and therefore have more disposable income.

Different genres have different audiences…

Pop | Both Genders, between ages 15-30. This would appeal to a large audience and won’t include any ethnicity. This would-be categories C1, C2, D & E

Rock | Males, between 28 and 50. This wouldn’t appeal to more audiences who wanted music that was against the ideals of the establishment. This would appeal to people with a white ethnic background or from a working-class background. This would-be categories C1, C2, D & E

Classical | Both Genders, Anyone. Classical is considered a niche genre, however, there isn’t any predetermined aged or ethnicity because it can entirely depend on the song rather than the genre. It is likely to appeal to a wide variety of audiences.

R&B | Females, between 18 -25. This would appeal to younger audiences from any background. Because of the connotations in the music videos and the impact on the audience. It’s more like to appeal to students and working class people

Audience reactions - The reactions from the audience will depend on how they consume the media and the audience thoughts about the actual media itself.

Audience Engagement – This describes how the audience interact and reacts to the music video.

Audience Expectations – These are general ideas that audience may have about what may happen and they should both live up to those expectations also they can play with or even shatter those expectations as well.

Audience Foreknowledge – This is what an audience thinks they may know about the song.

Audience Identification – This is when the artist needs to identify their audience. And how the audience needs to connect to a particular music video and/or artist and how they feelings towards it.

In relation to Hebdige, Dyer and Goodwin

• Audience Engagement – This refers to Hebdige’s theory that people will have different reactions, views and background reactions to the media text. Whether its music or a video suggesting that the power is with the audience on the how to choose to engage or like a product.
• Audience Expectations – This links to Goodwin’s theory since different audiences will have a variety of expectations on certain pieces of media and genre. Such as mainstream culture in which the audience include set characteristics and convections and these features should be met to the audience expectations.
• Audience Identification – This is referring to Dyer's theory on the relationship between the audiences. Dyer's theory states how the artist is constructed on how the audience must view the artist as ordinary so that they can identify with them and relate to them, and extra ordinary to show how they can view them as an iconic figure. An example of this is Jennifer Lawrence wearing a jumper and a see-through skirt at the premiere for her film Passengers.

Conclusion

Audience identification is important since you need to identify who may be interested and therefore who’s likely to watch the music video. So while planning the music video I need to do some research and find out the demographics of the audience that I want to target. Once I have got my initial ideas and find out what the key audience is that I need to attract, then research about audience identification, I will include questionnaires into the target audience likes and dislikes and the Mise en scene and pop i.e. current popular culture. Currently, the music videos I am looking at are for the pop genre and may attract people who may look at the mainstream audience.