Audiences: Targeting, Categorisation and Identity

Knowing the audience

No media product is made for everyone. Behind every choice sits a clear idea of who it is for, and understanding that is central to media studies. This module works through it: - Targeting: how and why products aim at a chosen audience.\n- Categorising: demographics and psychographics.\n- Reach and identity: how audiences connect with what they consume.\n- Interpretation: why the same product is read differently. The named audience theories, such as uses and gratifications, have their own module. Here the focus is targeting, categorisation and identity.

Words for audiences

Five terms you need before you use them. Learn what each one means.

Match each way of categorising to an example

A mass audience against a niche audience

Products are aimed along a scale from the very broad to the very specialised. The two ends of that scale behave quite differently.

Which is a psychographic category?

Media organisations categorise audiences in different ways. Which of these is a psychographic category rather than a demographic one?

• Grouping people by their attitudes, values and lifestyle
• Grouping people by their age
• Grouping people by their gender
• Grouping people by their income

Tap the two demographic categories

Tap the TWO ways of grouping an audience that are demographic rather than psychographic.

• Grouping by age
• Grouping by income group
• Grouping by attitudes and values
• Grouping by hobbies and outlook

How producers target an audience

Targeting an audience is a deliberate process, not an afterthought. It shapes almost every decision a producer makes. First the producer settles on a chosen audience and studies who they are. Then the content and style are shaped to suit that audience, and the product is placed on the platforms they already use. Advertising is aimed where that audience will see it, and media technologies help producers reach and identify them. Throughout, producers make assumptions about what the audience wants, which is why knowing the audience well matters so much.

Pick the true facts about audiences

Select the TWO statements that are true.

• The same product can be interpreted differently by different people
• Producers target a chosen audience with content and marketing
• Every product is aimed at everyone equally
• Demographics group people by their personal values

Order how a product reaches its audience

Put the steps a producer takes to reach an audience in a sensible order.

• Decide the target audience for the product
• Shape the content and style to suit them
• Choose the platforms that audience uses
• Advertise where that audience will see it
• Review how the audience responds

One magazine, one audience

Follow how a publisher planned a new cycling magazine by thinking hard about its readers.\n\nWho it was for: the team pictured a clear reader in mind, keen amateur cyclists in their thirties and forties with money to spend on kit. Grouping by the facts: they described these readers by age and by income, the plain factual groupings advertisers ask for. Grouping by attitudes: they went further and described the readers by their values and lifestyle, seeing them as active, adventurous and keen on the latest gear. Reaching them: they filled the pages with content those readers wanted and advertised where keen cyclists already look, rather than trying to reach everyone at once. By picturing one clear reader, every choice from cover to advert pulled in the same direction.

Complete the audience facts

The particular group a product is made for is its _____ audience. Grouping audiences by facts such as age and income is called _____. Grouping them by attitudes, values and lifestyle is called _____. A very large, broad audience is a _____ audience.

Build an audience point

Choose the words that complete this statement about categorising audiences.

The audiences run

Five questions on media audiences. Three lives.

Target the audience

Read each situation and choose the best answer, then think about why.

• A producer is making a magazine only for keen anglers. What kind of audience is this?
• A producer wants to group an audience by their values and lifestyle. Which method is this?
• Two people watch the same programme and take very different meanings from it. Why?

Explain how media target and categorise audiences

A classmate missed these lessons. Explain how media target and categorise audiences using what this module has covered.

• Explain the difference between a mass audience and a niche audience
• Explain what demographics are, with an example
• Explain what psychographics are, with an example
• Explain how a producer targets a chosen audience
• Finish by explaining why the same product can be interpreted differently