Audience classification

 Audience classification: blog tasks 

1) Media Factsheet

Read Media Factsheet 232 - Approaches to Studying Audiences. You'll find all our factsheets in our Media Factsheet archive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets. You can also access them online here if you use your Greenford Google login. Read the factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) How is audience defined in the Fact sheet?

The audience is the general term for all the individual people who consume a media product.

2) What does the infographic for Gen Z in the age of Covid-19 suggest about the media Gen Z consumes? 

It shows how Gen Z consumes media more using online resources and digital streaming sites such as online videos rather than the use of print and physical press such as newspapers, explaining the increasing use of technology.

3) How do media companies target and measure their audience in the digital age?

Media producers use data which may be simple or complex to target their audience, whether that is through choice of platform, scheduling or algorithm. Many media companies rely on the services of another organisation to tell them who consumes their products, and the companies that collect this data may be the host service in the case of a web or digital text, sales analytics, or a specialist company who collect data about who is purchasing print media or watching specific television programmes.

4) What did the NRS used to do and what does PAMCO do now? 

The National Readership Survey was operational from 1956 to 2018 and was used to collect demographic information In 2018, the NRS was absorbed into PAMCO, which collates information on traditional newspapers and magazines in print form but also their digital presence, producing some complex data about who consumes them.

5) How are demographics and psychographics defined in the factsheet?

Demographics at its simplest involves collecting relatively impersonal data about individuals and what they are consuming. This can then be used to predict wider trends in consumption.

Psychographics, sometimes called lifestyle profiling, is sometimes considered to be a more subtle way of categorizing media audiences. Rather than taking more rigid aspects of their identity such as their age or gender, it looks instead at their interests and the way in which they behave or perceive themselves in relation to consumer goods, including the media.

6) Now read the rest of the factsheet - we'll be studying these theories over the next few lessons. Choose one audience theory you think is interesting and explain why. 

Uses and gratifications theory seems interesting because it reflects the audiences relationship with the media text, how they react to it and how they engage with certain aspects such as characters in the text. It also shows the audience's perspectives and thoughts/ ideologies on the text and allows producers to use the theory to adapt their media products and make them suitable and provide great connections for their target audiences.

2) Psychographics presentation and reflection

1) Post the details from your psychographics presentation (details in the blog post above) to your blog with all details of the couple you created and their media consumption (it needs to be on your blog individually but can be a duplicate of your partner's post).

Who you are working with: Tara

The psychographic group you are researching: Succeeders

Introduce your example couple that represents your group: 

1) Make up their names: Jessica Pearson and Rachel Zane

2) Where do they work/study? At the top law firm in the country

3) What do they do in their spare time? They read the news and keep up with new laws and regulations as they are top tier lawyers.


Now suggest their media consumption:

Print: What newspapers/magazines does your group read (if any)? Is this on paper or tablet? They read the news (mainly broadsheet) to get full details about certain stories that may link to there cases (tablet to save time) and sometimes magazines that may seem interesting that are high brow and may give information about the people that may be involved in their cases.

Broadcast: What TV programmes/channels do your group watch? Radio stations? TV package – Freeview or Sky? Films? Probably news radio stations and to channels so they can keep up with changing rules and regulations that may affects their cases as lawyers.

Online: What technology do they own? What websites do they visit (if any)? What social media do they use? They probably use computers and laptops while doing their work and phones to make phone calls with their clients but not 

much of social media other than to interact with other lawyers and less for entertainment since they have certain goals in life as succeeders that they have to professionally achieve in a certain elegant manner as rich and impressive top tier lawyers.

2) Reflect on what you have learned about psychographics. Which psychographic groups do you feel best fit YOUR lifestyle and personality? Explain how and why you made your decision and provide evidence justifying this.

I have learnt that audiences can be categorised into groups based off their psychographics, which explain how they portray them self to be and how they aspire to be. I believe that I am an aspirer because I am really into fashion and things like makeup and appearances and just trying out different styles etc. but I also think I am a succeeder because I want to achieve the best out of my life and become a successful person (which is what my presentation was about- how a succeeder may portray themselves). I made this decision based off the fact that aspires and succeeders have goals and portray themselves in a rich manner that looks elegant and professional, which is what I intend to be.