Audiences - Mass and Niche

Evaluation questions relating to audiences are:

How does your media product represent particular social groups? •Who would be the audience for your media product?

How did you attract/address your audience?

Task1: Define mass and niche audiences and thriller films that apply to them. Select a Thriller film and investigate as much as you can about their audience (start by researching on IMDB). 

Task 2: Outline the theory of Katz and Blumler (see help below).

What is an audience?
An individual or collective group of people who read or consume any media text.
Mass Audience: Often termed 'broadcast audience', those who consume mainstream or popular texts such as soaps or sitcoms. Media and communication that targets a very large group of people (women, men, children, adults etc.)

Friends would be categorised as a Mass Audience

This is England

Niche Audience: A niche audience is much smaller but very influential. A niche audience is a small, select group of people with a very unique interest. An example of a film which is aimed towards a niche audience is 'This is England' directed by Shane Meadows. It is a story about a troubled boy growing up in England, set in 1983. He comes across a few skinheads on his way home from school, after a fight. They become his new best friends even like family. The film is based on the experiences of director Shane Meadows

Why are audiences important?

Audiences are important for various reasons, firstly without audiences there would be no media, secondly the mass media is becoming more competitive than ever to attract more and more audience in different ways in order to stay profitable. Also media organizations produce media texts to make profit this means that no audience will result into no profit which could potentially lead a company to bankruptcy.

How audience use media and the gratifications they receive from it:

The belief that audiences passively receive messages is long gone.

Theorist Katz and Blumler discovered from researching into audiences that there were three main elements that provided audiences with either gratification or encouraged the use of

1) Information
Using sources such as newspapers to retrieve information about current events which satisfies curiosity gaining a sense of security through knowledge.

2) Personal Identity
Reinforcement for personal values, this is to find models of behaviour, insight into one's self. For example Twitter can reinforce your own values by only following that certain criteria in which you are relating to.

3) Integration and Social interaction
Insight into circumstances of others; social empathy, identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging, interaction,  enabling one to connect with family, friends and society. For example someone may tune into a TV drama so that they can relate and reinforce into their own lifestyle.