Unit 6 Assignment 1 Task 1

Write an article for the February edition of the Media Magazine in which you comprehensively explain how media producers define audiences with elucidated examples and consistently using subject terminology correctly.

Your report needs to do the following:

1 - Explain and critically evaluate the different methods of audience profiling and categorisation. , eg socio-economic status, psychographics, age, gender, mainstream, alternative, niche etc. Compare, assess and discriminate between them, being able to say which method is the more useful for given purposes do this with reference to:

Advertising products;

Radio Stations

Theatrical statistics 2014

Music magazines

2 - Explain quantitative audience research with reference to BARB, RAJAR, ABC and the Theatrical Statistics report you analysed. Provide an extensive explanation of how media organisations gather information and how they use it to construct profiles of their audiences.

3 - Explain qualitative audience research, eg focus groups, questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, with reference to the primary research you carried out. And use research methods effectively to gather substantial information about an audience and construct a substantial profile of that audience.

Assignment 1 Task 1

At the moment, there are an extensive amount of different media industries such as advertising

products, radio stations, music magazine’s and the theatrical industry. Each of these industries have

distinct audiences. As a result, media producers have various different ways of profiling and

categorising their audience’s. These are all specific to different industries for various different

reasons.

One method of profiling and categorisation is socio-economic status. This is defined as where they

stand on the social status of raking in terms of money. It takes into consideration a wide range of

considerations such as occupation, income, education, wealth, background and various other

categories. Although the well-known structure of this has three categories - including ‘higher

occupations’, ‘intermediate occupations’ and ‘lower occupations’ – it’s full version is set up into eight

sections; ‘higher managerial and professional occupations’; ‘lower managerial and professional

occupations’; ‘small employers and own account workers’; ‘lower supervisory and technical

occupations’; ‘semi-routine occupations’; ‘routine occupations’; and ‘never worked or long term

unemployment.’ For example, teacher or doctor would put under the category of ‘a higher

managerial and professional occupations.’

These are good in particular for advertising and to a lesser extent radio stations and magazines. It

allows producers to make their products and advertising more specific to the audience that they are

attempting to reach. In the same way, they can adjust their content to suit their audiences. In terms

of advertising, it is good as it allows the advertisers to see what sort of products and services their

audience can afford. For example, someone selling a Ferrari will need an audience of a higher socio-

economic status as they can afford it while someone selling a ford can advertise for someone of a

lower socio-economic status. It can also help them in their methods of advertising. They can appeal to

certain money brackets. For example, if they are of a high socio-economic status then you could

advertise the product as ‘classy’ while if they aren’t, they can advertise it as ‘cool.’ In terms of radio

stations and music magazines, they can use this classification system to tie the content of their

services to the wage and background of their products. Music magazines, for example, can adapt their

music to the type that is specific to their target audience while radio stations can do the same. All of

this can insure to increase their target audience and therefore their income. To a lesser extent,

theatrical could use this to also adapt their price and content in order to increase their viewership.

This may also be good for these industries because advertisers want to know where they can get

people with a higher wage and if magazine’s have that sort of viewership, they can use it in order to

sell there advertisement space.

However, there are also many disadvantages. For example, it’s not specific. Just because you fall into

the upper class of the group it doesn’t mean you can afford what other can in the same bracket as

you. In the same way, some people may be unemployed and uneducated but still have a lot of money.

For example, they could have gotten inheritance or they could have gotten a good job without the

use of education. Another disadvantage to this is that it cannot analyse personality. Not all people in a

higher band will like the same things. You may make enough money to afford an expensive car but

not like them. Just as you could save up to buy something that you wouldn’t usually. This is applicable

even to the content of a service. For example, some people in a lower category may be very educated

and sophisticated and enjoy reading a broadsheet newspaper instead of a tabloid despite not falling

in that category. Finally, people may change category. For example, they may be in the higher waged

category but then lose all of their money. They still like the same things but they will be automatically

put into a different category because of this.

Another way in which an audience is categorised is through psychographics’. This is the categorisation

of people in terms of their personality, aspirations and many other areas. These will all be

psychological rather than physical. This category is particularly seen through Young’s and Rubicam’s

cross cultural consumer characterisation. These consist of seven different categories that segregate

people depending on their personality. These include The Explorer, The Aspirer, The Succeeder, The

Reformer, The Mainstream, The Struggler and the Resigned. Each of these have their own kind of

brands according to Young and Rubicam.

The Explorer is someone who is driven by exploration and discovery. They are always attempting to

discover new things. They are attracted to brands that are new, adapted and demonstrate great

potential for new discovery. For example, they may be attracted to an advertisement for a hiking trip

or thing related to hiking because they offer a sense of new. The Aspirer is someone who is always

trying to build status. They may not be high in society but they are always attempting to get there.

They are attracted to brands that are expensive and already hold a high status in society. These can

be brands such as Michael Kors. However these won’t be as expensive as the succeeded who can

afford it all because being an aspirer doesn’t mean you are good at succeeding. Succeeded are people

who are actually high in society and can afford expensive brands such as mulberry instead of Michael

Kors. They tend to reach in everything and usually end up to be successful. However, the struggler is

the exact opposite. They rarely succeed in anything and tend not to get far in life. The reformer, very

different from each of these categories are people that try and go against societies conventions and

especially the status quo. They will deter from the known, mainstream projects and will buy brand

that make a statement. They would go for an android phone instead of an iOS phone, for example.

This is because they don’t like to follow trends. The mainstream, which is the most common, is the

people that are average everyday domestic people. They will go for established, ‘family’ brands that

are the best you can get for money. They may buy brands such as Ariel because it is known and offers

various appealing aspects of what it can do. Finally, the resigned are older people who live in the past.

They like tradition, safety and economy. They want nostalgic products that are familiar.

In further depth two that particularly stick out is the Explorer and the Resigned. In terms of the

Resigned, the following link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdzNE46FEdE) is of an advert which

may be direct towards a person which falls under the resigned category. This may be considered a

good advertisement for the resigned as it follows a range of points from Young and Rubicam’s four

c’s. The four C’s suggest that the resigned are

‘predominantly older people’ that are ‘bathed in a

warm nostalgic glow’ and enjoy ‘traditional roles.’

The fact that they are supposed to be ‘Bathed in a

nostalgic glow,’ can comes from the product that is being advertised. The service being offered is

personalised goods. This may appeal, according to the 4c’s, because it suggests that they are

contempt in remembering the past which pictures tend to do. They generally lean towards memories

and the entire concept tends to lean towards that category. These good are also directed towards

‘predominantly older people’ as well. This is not to mention the feature of ‘traditional role’ within this

advertisement. The entire advert demonstrates the conventions of a conventional family. Even the

services are a conventional gift.

The explorer, however, would have a very different type of kind of an advertisement. The following

link is an example of an advertisement that may be directed towards the explorer.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y-MEGBdklg.)

There are various aspects of this advert

which gives across the explorer genre. The

entire advert show various shots of the

universe which is applicable to the explorer

as it is somewhere which had had to be

discovered and has more to discover.

This is one of the main aspects of an explorer. They use this sense of discovery to attract the explorer

because it then reveals that all of this is coming from the iPad air. This, therefore, represents the

product as a project of discovery which is the main theme of the explorer. On top of this, the only

light in the dark area is the product which may represent how the product is the light or guideline to

discovery. These aspects of the explorer and make it a perfect product and advertisement to appeal

to them.

Something that producers can use in order to analyse these is a theatrical stats document. This is a

documentation which is done yearly to give industries the information about the statistics.

This is an example of one of the

charts which is on the document. It

analysis’ the percentage of people

going to movies by age, in both

normal and 3 dimensional movies. It

clearly tells people that cinema

increases by age until the

adolescence age and then begins to

decrease with little fluctuation.

This sort of documentation is helpful because it allows the industry information about things that may

be useful. For example, if they know that people of the teenage age is more likely to go to the cinema,

they can release films that are more applicable to them.

The same thing can be done with the media industry. For example, with magazine’s, they can see

information about there viewers. This will allow them to apply it to their viewership or even attempt

to apply to other viewers. For the advertisement in cooperation with the magazine industry, they can

see who reads what magazine’s so they can choose who to advertise with and so on. Therefore, this is

very useful when it comes to the media industry. However, this information may be inaccurate

because generally not many people leave information when buying the tickets and any questionnaires

may be bias because of many things such as what sort of people you are asking.

One company that complies this kind of audience research is BARB (Broadcasters audience research

board) and Rarjar (Radio joint audience research.) They undergo and present various information

about audience research. They will do many different studies, using various methods to come up with

the most reliable results. They make money by collecting this data and putting it all together. Then

companies within’ the industry can pay to use the information which can help them with the

development of their projects or service’s.

Bibliography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Statistics_Socio-economic_Classification

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcasters%27_Audience_Research_Board

Assignment 1 Task 2

Write a follow up article for the March edition of the Media Magazine in which you comprehensively

explain how media producers create products for audiences with elucidated examples and consistently

using subject terminology correctly.

Your article should use examples of programmes from the following radio stations:

Radio 1

Radio 4

A music videos

Your report needs to do the following:

1 - Give full descriptions of the audiences at which products are aimed, audience classifications being

clearly understood and applied with confidence and subtlety.

2 - Explain in detail how media products are constructed to appeal to the audiences they are intended

for;

3 - Illustrate points made with well-focused, detailed examples, and drawing out of their examples

precisely what it is about them that exemplifies the points they illustrate. Your examples should focus

on the following:

Selection of content, eg words, images, sound, sequences, colours, fonts;

Construction of content, eg narratives, layout, captions, anchorage;

Codes and conventions, eg linguistic, visual, audio, symbolic, technical;

Modes of address

Audience feedback: eg focus groups, audience panels, trialing and testing, reviews, complaints

Assignment 1 Task 2

There are a variety of different products and all of these are tailored to various different audiences

and each of these are adapted to suit their specific audience’s through the use of various different

techniques. Some examples of service’s which are adapted to suit their target audience include the

Radio and Magazines. Radios include Radio 1, Radio 4 and Capital FM. Magazines include, ‘Beauty’

and ‘Closer.’

BBC Radio 1 in particular is a radio station which is a creation of the BBC. They tend to practise

‘modern and current popular music and chart hits’ but also range alternative music genres after

7:00pm. Their audience is predominantly 15 to 29 year older. However, it also ‘provides programming

for younger teenager,’ as they suggest on their website. One thing which makes it apparent that this

is their format of their programmes which tend to be quite chatty and tend to lack importance. For

example, two of their programmes include ‘9 girl band members who have successfully gone solo’

and ‘5 young stars who have been writing all of your favourite pop hits.’ On top of this, their format

tends to be foregrounded as the pop genre. These all suggest quite a young audience which is further

suggested by their range of guests. Some guests primarily seen on BBC Radio one is Zara Larsson, Ed

Sheeran, Matt terry, Little Mix and other guest which can be associated with young informal people in

these days. This particular radio show has a range of techniques and services which ensure that this

target audience is distinctively targeted towards its audience of people between 15 and 29.

Although all of these are targeted towards a specific audience, one distinct programme consists of

little snippets from these guests. In particular, one of them is called ‘are we going to the Premiere

together?’ - Greg tries to join the gang with Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick. This programme

particularly attempts to draw in their target audience because it’s overall content and subject. The

guests are two current known actors, their target audience of young people will be interested in. They

are referring to a movie predominantly directed towards children, which may also be relevant to their

target audience. The length also relevant to a younger generation of between 15 and 29. The duration

is only just over 2 minutes. This appeals to a younger generation because younger people have

shorter attention spans and will get bored with a high consistency of information which would be

more relevant to older people. This means that they will not get bored as only a little bit of

information is being given to them.

One thing that also may not be appealing to a target audience is the format of an interview. However,

radio one tends to adapt their interviews and go against convention in order to attract their target

audience. This programme does this by the fact that there are a lack of interrogatives in the interview.

He simply begins with ‘Let’s talk about trolls.’ And rather than the agenda of attempting to get

information out of the guests; he is simply just telling them something in order to make the show

entertaining. Another way in which entertainment is created is by the use of humour throughout the

entire interview. The characters are constantly creating humour between each other. For example,

Anna Kendrick’s comment about Justin Timberlake ‘just being informed’ about her ‘being in the

movie.’ Another humorous aspect of the programme is the reputation of the audio at the end. It is

done primarily for humour effect and is very satirical to other interviews. This attracts their target

audience because young people like humour.

This humour gets across the relationship between the two guests and the presenter as well. On top of

the comment about him only just realising she was on the show, suggests that he is self-centred but

in a joke like tone. Moreover, they also finish each other sentences. This is shown when one of them

say ‘In it’ and the other guest repeats this. This suggests that they’re comfortable with each other

which younger generations like when watching an interview as it is more entertaining as they all seem

very at ease. They even interrupt each other when she begins ‘he was just-‘before he interrupts ‘not

all about you.’ This level of informality is stressed to an even further extent by the use of colloquial

dialect such as ‘in it.’ This is appealing to younger people as it is the kind of idiolect which they use

regularly. It makes it more relatable to them watching it then a group of people using complex,

academic language.

All of the methods in which BBC1 use is good because it allows the audience to relate to and enjoy the

show as it is specific to them as a group of people. However, these methods may not be specific

because people have distinct differences. Not all people are going to be informal because they are a

young person. Also this means that people who do not fall into this age group or are different than

the conventional people who are will not be catered for. Finally, 15 to 19 is a large age group and

there is going to be a drastic change when it comes to what they relate to. Therefore, these methods,

although applicable to younger teenagers, may not apply to people in their late twenties.

BBC Radio 4, like Radio 1, is owned by the British Broadcasting Cooperation. Rather than being based

on music and chatty programmes, radio 4 broadcasters create a major amount of spoken

programmes. This suggest that the audience is adults and older people that will be attracted to

without losing attention because it isn’t interesting enough or it is too long. The programmes have its

own timings aswell. This is based quite loosely. Some of their programmes are quite long. One, in

particular last about three hours. However, some are extremely shorter and around half an hour;

sometimes even fifteen minutes. This caters to their audience as they will be the sort of people that

like longer shows. However, it may become boring if the shows were to long due to the fact that they

are just vocal based. That is probably why some of their shows are shorter. It helps to break down the

segments. The type of programmes is also catered to this audience. They talk about things such as

parliament, science, books, drama and other sophisticated topics. This suggests quite an intellectual

audience. These all create the impression that the audience is not only adults and older people but

also higher class people which are interested in society.

One example of once of the programmes they feature is Book of the week. This show is about fifteen

minutes. The presenter that presents this is quite well spoken and gives us background information

about the book with quite sophisticated language such as ‘significant,’ and many other similar words.

It goes on to weave a related topic into it. It suggests that the audience is maybe people who don’t

know about the book, in order to get them to read it. This is because they won’t know much about it

and will want some background information. Considering the length of the time spent reading the

book, suggests that they are trying to advertise it. The show ends with the formal presenter

introducing the next programme. He does this in a formal manner, with all the conventions and

etiquette of a formal radio show. The format is also quite organised suggesting that the show is trying

to get across some sort of structure. Finally, they go into the news. This is quite important news that

has great significance. This suggests the people reading it will be interested in what is going on around

them. They will want to be entertained as the subjects do have entertainment to some extent but

they will be more interested in finding out what is going on around them. This is also demonstrated by

the fact that there is only one presenter. That way they are not communicating and discussing with

each other; it is simply to entertain.

Capital FM, is ‘a radio network of twelve independent contemporary hit radio stations in the United

Kingdom, owned and operated by Global Radio.’ Its audience is generally informal teenagers and

young adults. This is suggested in various ways. There programmes are broken down into small

segments which is broken up by music. This suggests it is for young people because young people as it

is broken down into small segments meaning that they don’t lose attention. The programmes are

pretty much all music related as well. They aim primarily to entertain an audience rather than to

inform them about anything. The segments are also quite long and generally last a good couple of

hours as they are broken up by music.

One particular music programme is Dave Berry, George and Lilah. The hosts of this particular

programme are generally quite chatty, informal and young which therefore reaches a similar kind of

audience. They constantly use fillers and interrupt each other which suggests a good relationship.

These are all things which young people look for in hosts because they feel more like everyday

people. There is also three of them. This is targeted to a younger audience because it means that they

chat amongst each other, making it more entertaining for this particular audience. The format does a

similar thing. The small segments which are talking based are generally quite entertaining rather than

informative. They include things such as discussions and interviews. The guests tend to be quite

informal celebrities which younger people may be interested in. Also, unlike the other radio show

which consisted of a presenter talking at you, this show gets the audience involved. They do call ins

and contests. This make the entire process more entertaining which is what a younger audience

relates to. Even the news in which they produce is quite informal and doesn’t hold much significance.

This is because it is solely to entertain.

Beauty and Closer are two very different magazines and each of them have their own way of

appealing to their audience.

The picture of the right is of one of Closer magazines articles. It

is a mind and body special addition of ‘my chocolate addiction

made me sick. The target audience of this particular magazine is

most probably young adults and adults in general. They would

probably be educated to an extent but quite informal in

persona. There are various different way that this is demonstrated in this particular article.

It is first apparent that this is their target audience through the use of their selection of content. The

article features a variety of colloquial words of the writers/ subjects sociolect. Some examples include

‘Girlie,’ ‘Yuck,’ and ‘grumpy.’ These are both simple words and the particular use of ‘Girlie,’ further

extends this due to the fact that it is not an actual word and had been adapted. Although the article is

first shown in this informal light, it also has a lot of formal polysyllabic vocabulary such as ‘intolerant,’

‘lethargic,’ and ‘hypnotherapy.’ Some of these are even terminology words from the subject in hand.

Therefore the audience would have to have at least a little understanding of the subject.

The use of image also goes to the extent of doing this. The image is extremely informal and to some

extend even comedic. This makes the audience quite informal and they would need a sense of

humour since the image is intended to be crudely comedic. This gives

off an informal tone towards the magazine.

The colours and font tend to be quite bold and big block writing

which is quite informal. The use of the colour also gives off the

impression that the magazine is directed towards women, especially

with the subject and writer being one.

All of this is very different from Beauty magazine’s ‘great

presentenders. The audience is clearly more educated people. The

style is very formal with only the use of black and white colours. This is intensified by the plain font,

even on the title and the plain image.

The language also follows a well-educated audience, using polysyllabic words such as ‘compromise,’

‘alternatively,’ and ‘dermatologist.’ The people reading this would need a lot of insight into the

subject, unlike the previous magazine.

Bibliography

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/our_work/services/radio/service_licences/bbc_radio_1.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_One

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/our_work/services/radio/service_licences/bbc_radio_4.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_(radio_network)