Applying Audience Theory - Curriculum Press

................................Media Studieswww.curriculum-press.co.uk # 210

© Curriculum Press 2020 Media Studies Factsheets, 2019/20 Series, Issue 3 of 3, April 2020. ISSN: 1351-5136

Applying Audience Theory

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The aims of this Media Studies Factsheet are to:

1. Provide an overview of some audience theories.

2. Demonstrate how they can be applied to media products.

3. Offer some debate on contextual influences that relate to audience theories.

IntroductionThere are many different audience theories which are designed to be applied, used to explain and analyse the relationship between the media and its audiences. According to the exams boards there are ‘set audience theories’ which will need to be studied, but that does not mean that other theories are not useful. The more knowledge you have of audience then the better you will be able to answer any questions that involve this theoretical concept.

Here are the set theories:

Theorist TheoryLasswell Effects/Hypodermic Needle

Bandura Effects/Social Learning Theory

Gerbner Cultivation/Mean World Theory

Hall Reception theory

Jenkins Fandom

Shirky End of Audience

In this Factsheet we are going to the first stage of applying audience theory by look at how media producers identify and target their audiences and then we will look at Hall’s Reception Model which is a very useful theory that can helps us understand the complexity of audience response.

Targeting and Appealing to Audiences

In order to effectively target and appeal to their audiences, media producers need to make products that communicate with them in a meaningful way. All media products are created for a specific audience through the media language choices that are made. Unless no one ever sees the product, every media product has some form of an audience consuming it. Audiences can be huge like the followers on Cristiano Ronaldo’s Instagram account, or they can be as small as one, e.g a post/tweet aimed just at you. In a digital age, adverts for example, will be made with a particular group in mind but the people they are presented to are increasingly being targeted through more and more sophisticated means. The information we are giving away about ourselves online is being mined and, as audiences become harder to reach, this information has a high value to media producers.

Some media products can almost guarantee their audiences. Marvel films for example have a global reach with multi-platform power that is able to reach a broad audience. To date, Avengers Endgame (dir: Russo and Russo, 2019) has made almost 3 billion worldwide on a budget of 356 million and has become the highest grossing film of all time, creating profit for Disney/Marvel Studios.

As of 2019, Avengers Endgame is the highest grossing box office film ever https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/20/avengers-endgame-to-

be-the-highest-grossing-film-of-all-time.html

Audiences can now voice their opinions about media products (both good and bad) in ways that were not possible before the arrival of the internet. For example, the film Cats, (dir: Tom Hooper, 2019) was panned by critics and audiences alike and has lost millions at the box office. Negative responses to the trailer by audiences online had an influence and even before the film was released the director made changes to the CGI to try and please audiences. The box office takings were disappointing to the producers but not all films that get bad reviews do badly, for example, Transformers Age of Extinction (Dir: Michael Bay, 2014) received a poor critical response but did well at the box office,

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Media Studies Factsheet 210 - Applying Audience Theory


making 1.1 billion on a $210 million budget. Products can also have a long shelf-life in this digital age and some films that have been box-office flops have gone on to be either cult classics or done well on digital sales via DVD, streaming etc.

1. Cats has reportedly lost 100 million dollars at the box office.

2. Tom Hooper acknowledged that audience responses did matter.

3. Twitter responses about Cats being shared immediately.

Activity: Go to the twitter accounts of a film or TV show you have recently watched.

• Make a note of a range of different tweets from people.

• What is the general response? Positive? Negative? Mixed?

Understanding Audience – Demographics and PsychographicsAudiences are very important to producers and they need to be persuaded to consume media products. Media producers utilise a range of persuasive approaches to enable the right messages get to the right people. Demographics categorise the audience in groups such as gender, age and economic status.

Applying DemographicsHere is an advert from a Nivea Campaign in 2017:

https://ppcprotect.com/top-controversial-ads/

If we apply a simple analysis of the media language choices used in production, we can see that it targets a female adult audience. But if we look more closely at the denotations, we can also ascertain other aspects about who the producers think they are aiming their product at. The hairstyle, clothing and the location provides an indication of age. She is older than a teen and not a pensioner. We could perhaps hazard a guess and say 30+ but have no actual way of knowing her exact age. This is why it is better to go with broad age-range definitions or generational groups.

Age Range (very roughly)

Age Range Definition

0-2 Babies

2-4 Toddlers - PreSchoolers

5-12 Tweens

13-19 Teens/adolescents

20-25 Younger adults

25-40 Adults

40-65 Older Adults

65+ Pensioners

Or

Generational Group Year BornGen Z, iGen, or Centennials Born 1996 – ?

Millennials or Gen Y Born 1977 – 1995

Generation X Born 1965 – 1976

Baby Boomers Born 1946 – 1964

Traditionalists or Silent Generation

Born 1945 and before

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The mise-en-scene of a bedroom, with the subject looking out at a garden and lilies on the windowsill suggests that advert is targeting women who are potentially home-owners and/or living on her own. The room is simply decorated and furnished; for example, the brown bedside table, the yellow cotton sheets suggesting that this is advert is targeting female adults in the mid to higher economic groups.

Using demographics is a good place to start when beginning your analysis of audience, a simple deduction based on the foregrounded signs can help identify the product’s target audience. Demographics aim to categorise audience through age, gender and economic status. Media producers use this information in a statistical way so they can target audiences effectively and also give advertisers the necessary knowledge about who the audience is so they can find the right people with their adverts.

Activity:

1. Access: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zy24p39/

revision/1

2. Identify what types of jobs these demographics include and add

them to the table.

3. Using the example identify a product you have studied so far and

analyse why you think it appeal to that age group.

Group Job? Example Why?A

B The headline clearly indicates that its audience is middle-class adult/pensioners, this corresponds with the average age of The Daily Mail reader audience of 52. It both constructs the values of this audience demographic, ‘the voice of middle-England,’ as well as reflecting what it assumes will be of interest to them.

By headlining a story that directly addresses ‘the middle-classes’ it also constructs a binary within the narrative about the ‘poor’ and ‘rich’ middle-classes. Those who are poor are being paid for by those who have more money, wealthier pensioners ‘subsidising’ poorer pensioners’ social care in this context has connotations of unfairness. This also aligns with The Daily Mail’s anti-welfare state stance.

C1

C2

D This Mirror is aimed at C1-E groups. They are attempting to construct a narrative of social conscious which focuses on the idea that some people in society are struggling with the very basics of survival, such as feeding and clothing their children. ‘Skint mums’ reinforces gender roles in family care but the use of ‘parents’ in the sub-heading implies that even households of two people they are struggling. The Daily Mirror readers are assumed to have a pro-welfare stance.

E

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Applying Psychometrics Clearly audiences are more complex than just their age, gender and income so media producers also use psychometrics to build a more detailed way of looking at who the audience is. This field of study is concerned with measuring knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and personality traits and is primarily concerned with the study of differences between individuals. It attempts to create categories that reflect the more individualised nature of audiences.

To exemplify why demographics is too limiting in this day and age Arrowsmith, a data analyst strategy manager for a company that gives data information to other media companies gives the following example of two men with similar profiles. Both were born in 1948, grew up in the UK and have been divorced and remarried. They both have grown-up children, are wealthy and both take skiing holidays in the Alps. A quick look at these characteristics might lead to the opinion that they belong in the same consumer segment. But one is Prince Charles. The other is Ozzy Osbourne.

Two Peas in a Pod?

One of the first attempts to target audience beyond demographics was VALS, short for Values, Attitudes and Lifestyle.

• High Resources = higher economic spending power.

• Low Resources = lower economic spending power.

• Primary motivation = the driving forces behind their consumer choices.

The United Kingdom’s Consumer Groups

• Activators are at the forefront of innovation, consumer activity, and change and are the most open to new ideas, products, and services. They have wide-ranging interests and a strong sense of personal identity. Activators divide by motivation: Tradition Activators, Achievement Activators, and Self-Expression Activators.

• Traditionalists focus on preservation. They regulate social change, forcing reassessment of new ideas in the light of proven and established standards and ethical codes.

• Achievers relate achievements to the fruits of hard work and professional endeavor. They focus on success, status, and family. They value knowledge, influence, and qualifications.

• Seekers want individuality, self-discovery, display, and action. They actively seek self-gratification, excitement, experimentation, and sociability.

• Pragmatics like to play safe. They dislike standing out from their peer group and have a relatively low attachment to any particular lifestyle. Similar to Activators, Pragmatic consumers differentiate by motivation: Pragmatic Involvers have a tradition motivation, Pragmatic Rationals have an achievement motivation, and Pragmatic Aspirationals have a self-expression motivation.

• Constraineds prefer to try to hold on to the familiar and the past. Their world consists of immediate family and a few friends, who reinforce rather than challenge or renew their opinions and ideas.

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Activity: Access this link and read in more details about the psychometric groups: http://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/international/uk.shtml

1. Match the adverts in the table to the group you think it targets.2. Using the 2 examples give a mini-analysis of your advert to include the characteristics of your psychometric

group. It may target more than one group.

3. You should spend around 15 minutes on each.

Advert Group(s) and AnalysisThis advert might appeal to activators who are the most open to new ideas. Activator’s have a strong sense of personal identity and may be willing to try something different. Veganism for many years was considered a niche idea but with the greater visibility in the media about animal welfare there have been campaigns that are encouraging people to go vegan. Trends on twitter can be highly influential #SaveLittleEric personifies and individualises the chick to persuade through emotional appeal encouraging the audience to identify with the vulnerability of the chick as a male and given information that is designed to shock, ‘killed at about day’ is emboldened and connotes the throw-a-way nature of the animal’s life. It might also appeal to seekers who value experimentation.

This advert could appeal to traditionalists who have a tendency to avoid social change and reassess new ideas in light of established knowledge. In the i-phone advert we can see that Apple ™are trying to establish them as brand to be trusted. The mise-en-scene setting of a towel on a decorative tiled seat without the person present connotes the idea that you could just be absent-minded enough to eave a phone where someone might access it, but the anchorage of the dimple statement ‘Privacy. That’s i-phone’ suggests that this does not matter your information would be safe. This would appeal to the psychographic as well as pragmatics who like to play safe.

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Stuart Hall – Applying Reception TheoryHowever hard media producers try to get their messages across by targeting their supposed groups effectively, there are no guarantees that the audience will interpret the messages in the ‘correct’ way. According to Hall, ‘a message must be perceived as meaningful discourse and be meaningfully de-coded before it has an effect, a use, or satisfies a need.’ It highlights the fairly obvious point that to be successful the audience must understand the messages being sent. It would, for example, be very hard for English speaking audience to understand foreign language TV programmes or films if there were no subtitles; even then, some of the more nuanced meaning of spoken language are inevitably lost in translation.

This theory of audience attempts to explain how meaning is interpreted through a mixture of how the producer/encoder construct products and what meaning they intend to communicate in combination with how the audience receives the information.

Hall argues that:

• Meaning is not simply fixed or determined by the sender (Encoder).

• The message is never transparent (Message).

• The audience is not a passive recipient of meaning (Decoder).

By passive he means that the audience could potentially have many different ways in which they interpret the message.

Hall attempts to address the complexity of interpretation by offering the following:

1. Dominant, or Preferred Reading - how the producer wants the audience to view the media text. Audience members will take this position if the messages are clear and if the audience member is the same age and culture; if it has an easy to follow narrative and if it deals with themes that are relevant to the audience, but even within this group there will be differing response.

2. Oppositional Reading - when the audience rejects the preferred reading and creates their own meaning for the text. This can happen if the media contains controversial themes that the audience member disagrees with. It can also arise when the media has a complex narrative structure perhaps not dealing with themes in modern society. Oppositional reading can also occur if the audience member has different beliefs or is of a different age or a different culture.

3. Negotiated Reading - a compromise between the dominant and oppositional readings, where the audience accepts parts of the producer’s views, but has their own views on parts as well. This can occur if there is a combination of some of the above e.g. audience member likes the media, is of the same age as you and understands some of the messages, but the narrative is complex, and this inhibits full understanding.

Many factors could affect whether the audience take the dominant, oppositional or negotiated reading, such as age, beliefs, culture, gender, life experience, mood at the time of viewing.

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Acknowledgements: This Media Studies Factsheet was researched and written by Di Naylor and published in April 2020

by Curriculum Press. Media Studies Factsheets may be copied free of charge by teaching staff or students, provided that their

school is a registered subscriber. No part of these Factsheets may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in

any other form or by any other means, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Now let’s see how this would work with the Nivea advert.

Encoder (Media Producer) Nivea is a German skincare brand that makes a range of beauty and skincare products. They would have paid an advertising agency to come up with the idea for their advert. They would have given them a brief with some information about age gender, region etc. They would want their brand to be seen in a positive light. In this advert the main message is that the deodorant is effective and doesn’t leave a stain on clothing.

This is the preferred reading, the intended reading of the messages that aligns with the producer’s intentions. The audience would need to read these messages in this way for the advert to be successful.

Message Media language choices (denotations) such as colour, lexis, mise-en-scene, models, positioning and proxemics and their connotations (implied meanings) are used to relay this intended meaning. For example the choice of the lexis, ‘White is Purity.’ This is supposed to be a reference to the non-stain ability of the deodorant. White therefore connotes cleanliness, but may also signify the idea of sexual purity, drawing on cultural references such as brides wearing white etc.

Decoder (audience) The audience for this particular advert was the women in the Middle-East. The wording was decoded by many as being racist as it could be read as suggesting that ‘white is pure’ so conversely women who aren’t white are not.

The advert was also decoded and used by Alt-right groups, who have a political agenda, which includes promoting ‘whiteness’ as the superior racial identity above all others.

Clearly here the preferred meaning has not been decoded. Two different types of audiences have interpreted meaning based on their own values and beliefs. This is an example of Hall’s oppositional reading.

The audience could possibly have a negotiated reading of the meaning if they have some understanding of how advertising works, or are not sensitive to racial stereotypes, they may recognise them but also understand the link to the products’ usage.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/gogglebox

• Watch any clip from Channel 4’s Gogglebox about a particular show.

• Identify the demographic and social group of the viewers.

• How do the different audiences react to the different shows?

• How do you account for the differences of reactions?

• What consensus of reaction did you notice and why might this be?

Applying Audience Theory - Curriculum Press

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