Audience Analysis

Audience Analysis

It is important to identify a target audience, and how your media product can convince them to consume what you are aiming, to provide them. There are many ways the media can go about targeting their consumers to use their media first they need to examine and understanding their audience’s demographics as well as psychographics; and how they can entice them with their information. I will be analysing these methods myself and seeing how I can use theory to target my own audiences.

My genre is indie/folk music, it would not be considered very mainstream genre, unless it was combined with pop; so it will only target a niche audience ageing between: 20 to 33 years, no sex restrictions as both males and females would listen to this music.

Their class and status can be varied but generally this is not the type of music that will target an urban/street environment; as when considering audience theory you would be able to identify that, urban social groups would have a more ‘oppositional reading’ to this type of music, as they have contrasting ideological views and a different cultural understanding to the people, who would enjoy this music genre. Also the race of my audiences would be varied, but statistically, the majority of people who enjoy folk/indie music are white people.

The location in which my music would be most popular, will be more country locations some city locations like Camden or Soho in London, but not really  urban city locations; as like I established earlier urban environments would have a more ‘oppositional’ view on the music, I would be targeting. I could also sell my media product globally and it could be produced in some area in America especially parts of Southern America, as folk music is a popular genre there.

When examining my audience’s psychographics, they are not easily manipulated; and I would not be able to target them, by using the Effects Model. Where they are passive in consuming media, and that they do not question, what is being targeted towards them, they just consume the information with thought. This is similar to the Hypodermic Syringe Model where information is thoughts as an injection of propaganda into their brains. I do not wish to target my audience in this way and want them to be active consumers, when they view my media product and are able to challenge what media they enjoy and what they don’t.

Therefore I will be following the Uses and Gratifications Model as a means to describe and even target my’ audiences. This theory is the opposite of the effects model; it is where the audiences are involved in their own enjoyment of the music. They have their own views on what it means to them, they use the media, the media does not use them.

The music that I am targeting towards my audiences gives them as much power, even not more then the producers; as the genre is alternative and the music is made for the art and not the sales, unlike pop music which is very controlled. So the audiences ‘use’ the music not because its being passively consumed, but because they ‘use’ it to fulfil certain needs, such as: Escapism: people like listening to music to relax and escape from day to day life, also Pleasure: they enjoy the music and want to listen to it for their own enjoyment, and Identity: they can identify with the lyrics and the message that they have un-coded.

This leads me on to Stewart Hall’s Reception Theory in which the writer’s and producers have encoded the music with a message; and it is for the audiences to decide and decipher what that message is, and this can be a different message for each individual. Some audiences can understand what the writer and producer are communicating towards them; however some reject the message and can wrongly interpret what it being said.