Unit 6 Task 1 and 2
- 1. Unit 6 Assignment 1 Task 1 Write anarticle for the February editionof the Media Magazine in whichyoucomprehensively explain how media producersdefine audiences with elucidated examples and consistently using subject terminology correctly. Your report needs todo the following: 1 - Explainandcritically evaluate the different methodsof audience profiling and categorisation. , eg socio-economic status, psychographics, age, gender, mainstream, alternative, niche etc. Compare, assessanddiscriminate between them, being able to say which method is the more useful for given purposes dothis withreference to: Advertising products; Radio Stations Theatrical statistics 2014 Music magazines 2 - Explainquantitative audience research with reference to BARB, RAJAR, ABCandthe Theatrical Statistics report you analysed. Provide an extensive explanation of how mediaorganisationsgather information and how they use it to construct profilesof their audiences. 3 - Explainqualitative audience research, eg focus groups, questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, with reference to the primary researchyou carried out. Anduse researchmethods effectively togather substantial information about an audience and construct a substantial profile of that audience.
- 2. Assignment1 Task 1 At the moment, there are an extensive amountof different media industries suchas advertising products, radiostations, musicmagazine’sandthe theatrical industry. Eachof these industrieshave distinct audiences. As a result, media producershave variousdifferent waysof profiling and categorising their audience’s. These are all specific todifferent industries for variousdifferent reasons. One methodof profiling and categorisationis socio-economicstatus. Thisis defined as where they standon the social statusof raking in termsof money. Ittakesinto considerationa wide range of considerations suchas occupation, income, education, wealth, backgroundandvariousother categories. Althoughthe well-knownstructure of this hasthree categories - including‘higher occupations’, ‘intermediateoccupations’ and‘loweroccupations’ – it’s full version is set up intoeight sections;‘higher managerial andprofessional occupations’;‘lowermanagerial andprofessional occupations’;‘smallemployersandown account workers’;‘lower supervisory andtechnical occupations’;‘semi-routineoccupations’;‘routineoccupations’;and‘neverworkedorlong term unemployment.’ Forexample, teacher or doctorwould put underthe category of ‘a higher managerial andprofessional occupations.’ These are goodin particular for advertisingandto a lesser extent radio stationsandmagazines. It allows producersto make their productsandadvertisingmore specific to the audience that they are attemptingto reach. Inthe same way, they can adjusttheir contentto suit their audiences. In terms of advertising, it is goodas it allows the advertisers tosee what sortof productsandservices their audience can afford. For example, someoneselling a Ferrari will need an audience of a higher socio- economic statusas they can afford it while someoneselling a ford can advertisefor someoneof a lower socio-economicstatus. Itcan also help themin their methodsof advertising. They can appeal to certain money brackets. For example, if they are of a highsocio-economicstatusthen youcould advertise the productas ‘classy’ while if they aren’t, they can advertise it as ‘cool.’ In termsof radio stationsandmusic magazines, they can use this classification systemto tie the content of their services to the wage andbackgroundoftheir products. Musicmagazines, for example, can adapt their music tothe typethatis specific to their target audience while radio stationscan dothe same. All of this can insure to increase their target audience and therefore their income. To a lesser extent, theatrical could use this toalso adapttheir price and contentin order to increase their viewership. This may also be goodfor these industriesbecause advertiserswant to knowwhere they can get people with a higher wage and if magazine’shave thatsort of viewership, they can use it in order to sell there advertisementspace.
- 3. However, there are also many disadvantages. Forexample, it’snot specific. Justbecauseyou fall into the upper class of the groupit doesn’tmean youcan afford what other can in the same bracket as you. Inthe same way, some people may be unemployedanduneducatedbutstill have a lot of money. For example, they could havegotten inheritance or they couldhave gottena goodjob without the use of education. Another disadvantagetothisis thatit cannotanalysepersonality. Notall people in a higher bandwill like the same things. Youmay make enoughmoney toafford an expensivecar but notlike them. Justas youcould saveup to buy somethingthatyouwouldn’tusually. Thisis applicable even to the contentof a service. Forexample, some people in a lower category may be very educated andsophisticatedand enjoy reading a broadsheetnewspaper insteadof a tabloiddespite not falling in that category. Finally, people may change category. Forexample, they may be in the higher waged category butthen lose all of their money. They still like the same thingsbut they will be automatically putinto a different category because of this. Another way in which an audience is categorised is throughpsychographics’. Thisis the categorisation of people in terms of their personality, aspirationsandmany otherareas. These will all be psychologicalrather thanphysical. This category is particularly seen throughYoung’sandRubicam’s cross cultural consumercharacterisation. These consistof sevendifferent categories thatsegregate people dependingon their personality. These include The Explorer, The Aspirer, The Succeeder, The Reformer, The Mainstream, The Struggler andthe Resigned. Each of these have their own kindof brandsaccording toYoungand Rubicam. The Explorer is someonewho is driven by exploration anddiscovery. They are always attemptingto discover new things. They are attracted to brandsthatare new, adapted anddemonstrategreat potentialfor new discovery. For example, they may be attractedto an advertisementfor a hikingtrip or thing related to hikingbecause they offer a sense of new. The Aspirer is someonewho is always tryingto build status. They may not be high in society but they are always attemptingtoget there. They are attracted to brandsthatare expensive andalready holda high statusin society. These can be brandssuchas Michael Kors. However these won’tbe as expensive as the succeeded who can afford it all because being an aspirer doesn’t meanyou are goodat succeeding. Succeeded are people who are actually high in society andcan afford expensivebrands such as mulberry insteadof Michael Kors. They tend to reach in everythingand usually end upto be successful. However, the struggler is the exact opposite. They rarely succeed in anythingandtendnot toget far in life. The reformer, very different from each of these categories are people that try andgo againstsocieties conventionsand especially the statusquo. They will deter from the known, mainstreamprojectsand will buy brand thatmake a statement. They wouldgo for an androidphoneinsteadof an iOS phone, for example. This is because they don’tlike tofollow trends. The mainstream, which is the mostcommon, isthe
- 4. people thatare average everyday domesticpeople. They will go for established, ‘family’ brandsthat are the bestyoucan get for money. They may buy brandssuchas Ariel because it is knownandoffers variousappealing aspectsof what it can do. Finally, the resigned are older people who live in the past. They like tradition, safety andeconomy. They want nostalgicproductsthatare familiar. In further depthtwo thatparticularly stick outis the Explorer and the Resigned. Interms of the Resigned, the following link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdzNE46FEdE)isof an advert which may be direct towardsa personwhich falls underthe resigned category. This may be considereda goodadvertisementfor the resigned as it follows a range of pointsfrom YoungandRubicam’sfour c’s. The four C’ssuggestthat the resigned are ‘predominantly olderpeople’ that are ‘bathedin a warm nostalgic glow’ andenjoy ‘traditionalroles.’ The fact thatthey are supposedtobe ‘Bathedin a nostalgic glow,’ can comes from the productthatis being advertised. The service being offered is personalisedgoods. Thismay appeal, according to the 4c’s, because it suggeststhatthey are contemptin remembering the pastwhich picturestend to do. They generally lean towards memories andthe entire concept tendsto lean towards thatcategory. These good are also directed towards ‘predominantly olderpeople’ as well. This is not to mentionthe feature of ‘traditionalrole’ within this advertisement. The entire advert demonstratestheconventionsof a conventionalfamily. Even the services are a conventionalgift. The explorer, however, would havea very different type of kindof an advertisement. The following link is an example of an advertisementthatmay be directed towardsthe explorer. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y-MEGBdklg.) There are various aspects of this advert which gives across the explorer genre. The entire advertshow variousshotsof the universewhich is applicable to the explorer as it is somewherewhich hadhad tobe discoveredand hasmore to discover. This is one of the main aspects of an explorer. They use thissense of discovery to attract the explorer because it then reveals that all of thisis comingfrom the iPad air. This, therefore, representsthe productas a project of discovery which is the main theme of the explorer. On topof this, the only
- 5. light in the dark area is the productwhich may represent how the productis the light or guideline to discovery. These aspectsof the explorer and makeit a perfect productandadvertisementto appeal to them. Somethingthatproducerscan use in order to analyse theseis a theatrical stats document. Thisis a documentationwhichis doneyearly to give industriesthe informationabout the statistics. This is an example of one of the charts which is on the document. It analysis’ the percentage of people going tomovies by age, in both normaland 3 dimensionalmovies. It clearly tells people that cinema increases by age until the adolescence age andthen beginsto decrease with little fluctuation. This sortof documentationishelpful because it allows the industry informationabout thingsthatmay be useful. For example, if they knowthat people of the teenage age is more likely to go to the cinema, they can release films thatare more applicable to them. The same thing can be donewith the media industry. Forexample, with magazine’s, they cansee informationaboutthere viewers. This will allow them to apply it to their viewership or even attempt to apply to otherviewers. Forthe advertisementin cooperationwith the magazineindustry, they can see who reads what magazine’sso they can choosewho to advertise with andso on. Therefore, thisis very useful when it comes to the media industry. However, thisinformationmay be inaccurate because generally not many peopleleave informationwhen buyingthe tickets andany questionnaires may be bias because of many things suchas what sortof people youare asking. One company thatcomplies thiskind of audience research is BARB (Broadcastersaudience research board) andRarjar (Radio joint audience research.) They undergoandpresent variousinformation aboutaudience research. They will do many different studies, usingvariousmethodstocome up with the mostreliable results. They make money by collecting this dataand puttingit all together. Then companieswithin’ the industry canpay to usethe information which can help them with the development of their projects or service’s.
- 7. Assignment1 Task 2 Write a follow up article for the March edition of the Media Magazine in which you comprehensively explainhow media producers create productsfor audiences with elucidated examples and consistently usingsubject terminology correctly. Your article should use examplesof programmes fromthe following radiostations: Radio 1 Radio 4 A music videos Your report needs todo the following: 1 - Give full descriptions of the audiencesat which productsare aimed, audience classifications being clearly understoodandappliedwith confidence andsubtlety. 2 - Explainin detail how media productsare constructed toappeal to the audiences they are intended for; 3 - Illustrate points made withwell-focused, detailedexamples, and drawing outof their examples precisely whatit 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; Constructionof content, eg narratives, layout, captions, anchorage; Codesandconventions, eg linguistic, visual, audio, symbolic, technical; Modes of address Audience feedback: eg focusgroups, audience panels, trialing and testing, reviews, complaints
- 8. Assignment1 Task 2 There are a variety of different productsandall of these are tailored to variousdifferent audiences andeach of these are adaptedto suittheir specific audience’sthroughthe use of variousdifferent techniques. Someexamples of service’swhich are adaptedto suit their target audience include the Radio andMagazines. Radiosinclude Radio 1, Radio4 and Capital FM. Magazinesinclude, ‘Beauty’ and‘Closer.’ BBC Radio1 in particular is a radio stationwhich is a creation of the BBC. They tend to practise ‘modernandcurrent popularmusic andchart hits’ butalso range alternative musicgenres after 7:00pm. Theiraudience is predominantly 15 to29 year older. However, it also ‘providesprogramming for youngerteenager,’ as they suggeston their website. One thing which makesit apparent thatthis is their formatof their programmeswhich tend tobe quitechatty andtend tolack importance. For example, two of their programmesinclude‘9 girl bandmemberswho havesuccessfully gone solo’ and‘5 youngstarswho havebeen writing all of yourfavourite pophits.’ On topof this, their format tendsto be foregroundedas the popgenre. These all suggestquite a youngaudiencewhich is further suggestedby their range of guests. Someguests primarily seen onBBC Radio oneis Zara Larsson, Ed Sheeran, Matt terry, Little Mix andother guest which can be associated with younginformal peoplein these days. This particular radio showhas a range of techniques andservices which ensure that this target audience is distinctively targeted towardsits audience of people between 15 and29. Althoughall of these are targeted towardsa specific audience, one distinctprogrammeconsistsof little snippetsfrom these guests. Inparticular, one of them is called ‘arewe going to the Premiere together?’ - Greg tries to join the gang with Justin Timberlakeand Anna Kendrick. Thisprogramme particularly attemptstodraw in their target audience because it’s overall contentand subject. The guestsare two current knownactors, their target audience of youngpeoplewill be interested in. They are referring toa moviepredominantly directed towardschildren, which may also be relevant to their target audience. The length also relevantto a youngergeneration of between 15 and29. The duration is only justover 2 minutes. This appealsto a youngergeneration becauseyoungerpeople have shorterattention spansandwill get bored with a high consistency of informationwhich wouldbe more relevant to older people. This means thatthey will notget boredas only a little bit of informationis being given to them. One thingthat also may notbe appealing to a target audience is the format of aninterview. However, radio one tendsto adapttheir interviews and go againstconventionin order to attracttheir target audience. This programmedoesthis by the fact thatthere are a lack of interrogativesin the interview. He simply beginswith ‘Let’stalk abouttrolls.’ And rather thanthe agenda of attemptingto get
- 9. informationout of the guests;he is simply justtelling them somethingin orderto make the show entertaining. Another way in which entertainment is created is by the use of humourthroughoutthe entire interview. The characters are constantly creatinghumourbetween each other. For example, Anna Kendrick’scommentaboutJustinTimberlake‘just being informed’ abouther ‘being in the movie.’ Anotherhumorousaspectof the programmeis the reputationof the audioat the end. Itis doneprimarily for humoureffect andis very satirical toother interviews. This attracts their target audience because youngpeoplelike humour. This humourgetsacross the relationshipbetween the two guestsandthe presenter as well. On topof the commentabouthim only just realising she was on the show, suggeststhathe is self-centred but in a joke like tone. Moreover, they also finish each othersentences. This is shownwhen one of them say ‘Init’ and the other guestrepeats this. This suggeststhatthey’recomfortable with each other which youngergenerationslike when watching an interview as it is more entertainingas they all seem very at ease. They even interrupt each other when she begins‘he was just-‘beforehe interrupts‘not all aboutyou.’ Thislevel of informality is stressedto an even further extent by the use of colloquial dialect suchas ‘in it.’ This is appealingto youngerpeople as it is the kind of idiolect which they use regularly. Itmakes it more relatable to them watching it then a groupof peopleusing complex, academic language. All of the methodsin which BBC1 use is goodbecause it allows the audience torelate to and enjoy the show asit is specific to them as a groupof people. However, these methodsmay notbe specific because people havedistinct differences. Notall people are going to be informal because they are a youngperson. Also thismeans thatpeople who donot fall into thisage groupor are different than the conventionalpeople whoare will not be catered for. Finally, 15 to 19 is a large age group and there is goingto be a drastic change when it comesto what they relate to. Therefore, these methods, althoughapplicable to youngerteenagers, may not apply to people in their late twenties. BBC Radio4, like Radio 1, is owned by the BritishBroadcastingCooperation. Ratherthanbeing based on musicand chatty programmes, radio4 broadcasterscreate a major amountofspoken programmes. Thissuggestthat the audience is adultsand older people thatwill be attracted to withoutlosing attentionbecause it isn’t interestingenoughor it is toolong. The programmeshaveits own timingsaswell. This is basedquite loosely. Some of their programmesare quitelong. One, in particular last aboutthree hours. However, someare extremely shorter andaroundhalf an hour; sometimeseven fifteen minutes. This caters to their audience as they will be the sort of people that like longer shows. However, it may become boringif the showswere tolong due to the fact that they are justvocal based. That is probably why some of their shows are shorter. It helps to break down the
- 10. segments. The typeof programmesis alsocatered to thisaudience. They talk aboutthingssuchas parliament, science, books, dramaandothersophisticatedtopics. This suggestsquite an intellectual audience. These all create the impressionthat the audience is not only adultsand older people but also higher class people which are interested in society. One example of once of the programmesthey feature is Book of the week. This show is aboutfifteen minutes. The presenter thatpresents thisis quite well spokenandgives usbackgroundinformation aboutthe book with quite sophisticatedlanguagesuch as ‘significant,’ andmany other similar words. It goeson to weave a related topic into it. Itsuggeststhat the audience is maybepeople who don’t knowaboutthe book, in order to get themto read it. This is because they won’tknowmuch aboutit andwill want somebackgroundinformation. Consideringthelength of the time spent reading the book, suggeststhatthey are tryingto advertiseit. The showends with the formal presenter introducingthe next programme. He does this in a formal manner, with all the conventionsand etiquette of a formal radio show. The format is also quite organisedsuggestingthatthe show is trying to get across somesort of structure. Finally, they go intothe news. This is quite importantnews that has great significance. This suggeststhe people reading it will be interested in what is going onaround them. They will want to be entertained as the subjectsdo have entertainmentto someextent but they will be more interested in finding outwhat is going on aroundthem. This is also demonstratedby the fact thatthere is only one presenter. That way they are not communicatinganddiscussingwith each other; it is simply toentertain. Capital FM, is‘a radio network of twelve independent contemporary hitradio stationsin the United Kingdom, ownedandoperated by Global Radio.’ Itsaudience is generally informal teenagers and youngadults. Thisis suggestedin variousways. There programmesare brokendowninto small segmentswhich is brokenupby music. This suggestsit is for youngpeoplebecause youngpeople asit is brokendown intosmall segmentsmeaning thatthey don’tlose attention. The programmesare pretty much all music related as well. They aim primarily to entertain an audience rather thanto inform them aboutanything. Thesegmentsare also quite long andgenerally last a goodcouple of hoursas they are brokenupby music. One particular music programmeis Dave Berry, George andLilah. The hostsof thisparticular programmeare generally quite chatty, informaland youngwhich therefore reaches a similar kind of audience. They constantly use fillers and interrupteach other which suggestsa goodrelationship. These are all things which youngpeoplelook for in hostsbecause they feel more like everyday people. There is also three of them. This is targeted to a youngeraudience because it means thatthey chat amongsteach other, makingit more entertaining for this particular audience. The format doesa
- 11. similar thing. The small segmentswhich are talkingbasedare generally quite entertaining rather than informative. They include thingssuch as discussionsandinterviews. The guests tendto be quite informal celebrities which youngerpeoplemay be interested in. Also, unlike the other radio show which consistedof a presenter talkingat you, this showgets the audience involved. They docall ins andcontests. This make the entire process more entertainingwhich is what a youngeraudience relates to. Even the news in which they produceis quite informal and doesn’tholdmuchsignificance. This is because it is solely toentertain. Beauty and Closer are two very different magazinesandeach of them havetheir own way of appealing totheir audience. The picture of the right is of one of Closer magazinesarticles. It is a mind andbody special additionof ‘my chocolate addiction made me sick. The target audience of this particular magazineis mostprobably youngadultsandadultsin general. They would probably be educatedto an extent but quiteinformal in persona. There are variousdifferent way thatthis is demonstratedinthis particular article. It is first apparent thatthis is their target audience throughthe use of their selection of content. The article features a variety of colloquial words of the writers/ subjects sociolect. Someexamples include ‘Girlie,’ ‘Yuck,’ and ‘grumpy.’ Theseare bothsimple words andthe particular use of ‘Girlie,’ further extends thisdue to the fact thatit is notan actual word andhad been adapted. Althoughthe article is first shown in thisinformal light, it alsohas a lot of formal polysyllabicvocabulary suchas ‘intolerant,’ ‘lethargic,’ and ‘hypnotherapy.’ Someoftheseare even terminology wordsfrom the subject in hand. Therefore the audience would haveto have at least a little understandingofthe subject. The use of image alsogoes to the extent of doingthis. The image is extremely informal and to some extend even comedic. This makesthe audience quite informal andthey would need a sense of humoursince the image is intended tobe crudely comedic. This gives off an informal tonetowards the magazine. The colours andfont tend tobe quite boldandbig block writing which is quiteinformal. The use of the colouralso gives off the impressionthatthe magazine is directed towardswomen, 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
- 12. style is very formal with only the use of black and white colours. This is intensified by the plain font, even onthe title and the plain image. The language also follows a well-educated audience, usingpolysyllabicwords suchas ‘compromise,’ ‘alternatively,’ and‘dermatologist.’ Thepeople readingthis would need a lot of insightinto the subject, unlikethe previousmagazine. 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)