Critical Approaches: Assignment One

How Media Producers Define Audiences 

For this assignment I am researching into how media producers define their audience and why audience research is important to them and how they use their findings with their research. Ill be showing that I have a good understanding of audience research and classification through providing detailed examples and using consistently correct subject terminology.

Audience Profiling:

Audience profiling is the research that a media business does into their targeted audience before they market a product, this is important to media producers as they need an idea of who they can aim a certain product at so that it is successful, this also lets the media business put across their message to the right people in the most effective way that they can so that you can come out with the best results and profit. Once a media producer has got their findings they then have a rough idea of the background and demographics of who they are targeting, doing so can be done by asking the audience to fill out surveys, questionnaires or to sit in on a focus group. 

A media producer must not be ego-centrism, they shouldn't regard their own opinions or interests as being the most important or valid when it comes to producing a product, they need to aim the product on their audience’s opinions and interests. Media producers also have to understand their audience’s backgrounds and beliefs, if they don’t then the targeted audience could either feel offended by the product.

Ego-centrism: The belief that one’s own opinions or interests are the most important or valid. 

When a media business is defining an audience to find their target audience, there are many factors that they have to consider so that it is successful, this includes the audiences; socio-economic status, psychographics, geo-demographics, and:

• Age
• Gender
• Sexual Orientation
• Regional Identity
• Mainstream
• Alternative
• Niche

Demographics: Demographics is a very traditional and important method when it comes to audience profiling, media producers break down their audience into; age bands, social class and gender and ethnicity, employment status. Demographics refer to the characteristics of the population. Media producers would use a demographic chart so that they can break down the search for their target audience that they need. The main purpose of this method is to define the adult population greatly by their occupation, the population is then broken down into six groups and they are then labelled in a chart from 'A, B, C1, C2, D, E'. 

Geo-demographics categorize people by the area/surroundings that they live in, they see how the area impacts on the characteristics of the person. For example if someone from a well off area, they would automatically think that the people from that area are well off and have a good income, and if someone from a not so very nice area, they would think that they aren't as well off and don't' have such a good income. Media producers can't be bias when it comes down to this are they could be seen as offending their audience.

One example of demographics would be Capital FM, they broadcast 'Capital Reports' which are news updates that are happening around the area, this is broadcasted 7 days a week every half hour between 5am and 9am and then is broadcasted hourly between 9am to 6pm. They gather their research statistics from RAJAR which is a form of secondary research, Capital pay so much for RAJAR to be able to fund this. The listening range for Capital is growing rapidly as more and more people are tuning in to listen to what the show has to offer. To date they have about 500,000 listeners per week across the UK.

Socio- economic status: Socio- economic status is a well-known research method that is used by media businesses, this is important in research, as they are able to find the right economic class audience that fits their targeted audience. There are three main classes that they could come under these are; upper class, middle class and working class. Upper class consists of people who are well born, wealthy or even both. Middle class consists of people who fall between the upper class and working class, and working class consists of people who don’t have a well-paid job or income.

This method is important when it comes to a media producer, the producers wants to know which class their target audience falls into so that are able to market the product to them and they need to be able to know if their audience will be able to afford the products at the marketing price. For example, if a company is trying to market and sell a brand new expensive car, they would automatically appeal to the upper class, and if a company was trying to market and sell a mobile phone they would appeal their product to the middle class since there in the middle of upper class and working class and would be able to afford the product.

Psychographics: This is comparable to demographics except psychographics deals more with the audience behaviour and personality rather than the work class that they are in. Demographics finds outs what the audience does as psychographics explain why they do what they do. This is important to media producers as they can use the psychographic graphs to help define their audiences, the charts offer a larger variety of audience to choose from and they are much more detailed. For example; a media producer could be looking for their target audience for a new product that they are marketing so they need to research into the audiences behaviour and personality so that they can suit the product to them, so that it becomes a successful product. 

Age and Gender: The age and gender is one of the main parts when it comes to researching your audience. Media producers need to have their target audience set to an age group and gender group before they can define their audience any further. The age and gender is the structure of finding their targeted audience. An example of why age and gender is important when it comes to profiling the audience is; if a media producers was creating a new toy that was for kids then they would have to make it appeal to the right gender and age, e.g, if it was a doll, then it would be aimed at girls in the age range of 3-10 years of age. So this means that the toy would have to appeal to girls of that age in order for it to be a successful product.

Sexual Orientation: When it comes to producing a program or product, a media producer needs to make sure that they show equality in them, this is so that a media producer doesn't offend anyone in the targeted audience. So no matter what a persons sexual orientation is, a media producer will include them in their programmes or product marketing so no one in the audience is excluded. There is three main classifications of sexual orientation: bisexual, heterosexual and homosexual, these are all apart of the heterosexual- homosexual continuum. 

Regional Identity: Regional identity is where someone is from a certain location, so for example it could refer to a area like ‘West’ or ‘East’ or a country like ‘English’ and ‘Scottish’ or a certain town like ‘London’ and ‘Sunderland’.  Coronation Street was the show that brought regional identity to the front of the public eye.

Mainstream: This is media that is on large scale of distribution channels, the platforms that it has are mainly more available to the public. This includes:
- TV
- Radio
- Online

Alternative: This media is not as popular as mainstream media, alternative media is more for the independent viewers, the platforms that this has doesn't go as far as TV. The platforms that it is available to are:
- Newspapers
- Radio
- Online

Niche: This is more of a small basis market. Media producers target a specific audience on a specific subject. So for example; if a magazine company was producing a magazine based on fishing then they will target people who like fishing, if they are creating a magazine that was based on sport then they would aim it at people who are interested in sports.

Qualitative Research: This is a method of research that is more open and personal, this is because you can choose how much information you want to find out, this means you can dig deeper in a question until you are happy with your result. This can be done by using techniques like; focus groups, questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. This is an important way of doing research for a media producer to define their audiences as this allows them to be very specific with their questions.

Examples:

Focus Group: A focus group is a form of qualitative research, where a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions and beliefs. This is important because the person who is holding the focus group can get the right information that they need to produce their product with, also a good thing about a focus group is that you can dig deeper in the answers you get from the questions you have asked. There's a few disadvantages of this method as they could not be honest with their ideas and they might not agree with other peoples ideas within the group, also its a very time consuming process. 

Questionnaires: Questionnaires are also a form of qualitative research, this is where you write up a set amount of questions and give them out to your targeted audience to receive the feedback that you need in order to create a product. This is good way of collecting research as the its cheap and quick to do. Theres a few disadvantages of this method as people who you give out the questionnaire to may not be entirely honest with their results which can lead you to get false information, also they may not be bothered to fill in the questionnaire and just tick any box that they can so that it doesn't take up any of their time.

Face-to face interviews: Face-to-face interviews are another form of qualitative research, this is a really good way of collecting the information you need, there are many advantages of this method as you can ask a set amount of questions but also go into more detail in the questions so that you can get detailed answers, there is also a few disadvantages of this method as its very time consuming, some of the interviewees may not want to answer any of your questions or may not answer them truthfully. Also, the interviewer has to be careful not to offend anyone that they are interviewing and go around topics carefully just in case.

Quantitative Research: This is a method that is used by many media producers; this is so that they can define their target audience easier. One example of this research method would be to allow media producers to see TV viewings on BARB, this would help them if they were producing a TV show, then they are able to see what show and channels gets the most views when they are aired. This will help them define their target audience by finding the peak time of the day when the highest amount of people is viewing TV. Another example would be RAJAR; this would help a radio producer define their audience by looking into the listening figures of how many people have listened to a certain radio show at a certain time on a day. This will help producers choose the time and day that is best to air their show for the audience. In my opinion a disadvantage of using barb is that for a media producer I dont think its a very useful method of research as it does not give you any information about the audience that watches the channels. 

Main Research Agencies:

ABC (Audit Bureau Circulations)

The Audit Bureau of Circulation provides information to the magazine and newspaper industries, it also includes directories, leaflets, exhibitions and websites in the range of products that they research. The Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) founded the ABC in 1931; the purpose of this agency is to provide an independent verification of data figures to promote the buying and selling of the advertising space within the UK national newspapers.
The board who works together to control ABC consists of media agencies, advertisers, media owners and trade bodies. Each of these represent the different areas and interests within the media industry and come together to research into new data for the industry. Advertising platforms are constantly growing and changing all the time, so this means that ABC have to make sure that their reporting services are adapting to the changes so that they can offer the best that they can to the industry. ABC always has loads to offer to their clients this ranges from delivering certification to make sure that the data and statistics they find meet the industry reporting standards.

BARB (Broadcasters Audience Research Board)

The BBC and other independent broadcasters use the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board; this is to provide an estimated figure on the amount of people who watch their programmes. The data that is produced from their research is very specific, it includes what channels and programmes it is that are being watched, it also tells you the time that they were aired on and other details that need to be known about the show. BARB provides the television audience for both analogue and digital channels that are received within the UK.  How they find their data is quite simple; they select a panel of viewers from the selected television-owning households and BARB monitor the viewing activity of what they watch, what channel it is on and what time they are watching it. . There are around 5,100 homes that are participating in the panel, the box will record the programs that they are watching, and they will get back to the panel stating who else is in the room watching the program by pressing it in on a remote control. The data that they collect are published as overnight rating. BARB use quantitative data in their research as they are recording the amount of people that watch a show at a certain time. Here is an example of their audience figures:

http://www.barb.co.uk/whats-new/weekly-top-30?_s=4

BARB is a not-for-profit limited company that was founded by the major players in the industry it supports.

RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research)

Radio Joint Audience Research was founded in 1992, this was to align, design and operate a single audience measurement system for the UKs radio industry, it not only serves the BBC but licensed commercial stations as well. The Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) own RAJAR. RAJAR carry out quantitative research as they list down the listening figures of the radio stations. The board consists of representatives of the BBC and from commercial radio and the advertising community. Each of these pay an annual fee towards RAJAR this is what funds the company and keeps it up and running. Subscription fees are payable by the stations that subscribe, if you subscribe you then have to complete a 7 day self completion diary, the diaries are given to one adult who is over the age of 15 years and two children who aged between 10 and 14 years in each selected household.
Here is an example of their audience figures:

http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php

It is a not for profit company, as its funded by an annual fee that is payable in part by the BBC and the balance from the commercial operators via subscription fees that are payable by the participating stations who subscribe to the service.