Audience Research

AreasProsumers (Tapscott and Williams),

Clark’s view of media audiences,John Hartley’s view of audience,

and Julian McDougall’s view of audience

ProsumersThe definition of prosumers is an amateur user of

electronic equipment that is of a standard suitable for professional use.

An example of this is YouTubers and non-proffessional short film directors.

YouTubers: They produce media text and content through a whole array of mediums. One of the most popular being a Video Blog (Vlog). By doing this has resulted in a change in how content is delivered to the consumer, with many institutions such as the BBC creating online services for their audience.

As people individually and collectively program the Web, they’re increasingly in command. They not only have an abundance of choices, they can increasingly rely on themselves. This i9s the new consumer power. Its not just the ability to swap suppliers at the click of mouse, or the prerogative to customise their purchased goods (that was last century). It’s the power to become their own supplier – in effect to become an economy unto themselves.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prosumer and OCR Media

Studies for A2, Third Edition, By Julian Mcdougnall, Page 93)

Clark’s view of media

audiencesClarke (2007) states that in

media industries it is important to carry out ‘regular audience research’ using methods such

as rating collection, questionnaires, surveys and

screen tests. By doing this you are able to find the most recent

interests of an audience and develop a film that they will enjoy and that will engage

them.

John Hartley’s view of

audienceJohn Hartley published a book in 1978 and co-authored

with John Fiske, was the first to analyse television from a cultural perspective.

The Hartley Classification there are 7 socially grouped categories when it comes to identifying audience:• Self – ambitions or interests of the audience• Gender• Age Group; Class – different social classes e.g.

working, upper etc.• Ethnicity• Family• Nation.

Hartley also suggests that institutions produce: “Invisible fictions of the audience which allow the institutions to get

a sense of who they must enter into relations with” In other words, they must know their audience to be able

to target them effectively.

“Institutions are obliged not only to speak about an audience, but – crucially, for them – to talk to one as well; they need not only to represent audiences but

to enter into relation with them’

(http://www.slideshare.net/MissMoore866/media-theory-audience-representation-narrative-genre)

Julian McDougall’s view

of audienceMcDougall explores issues in education, and calls on

educators to abandon prejudices and engage with what students are already actually doing with new media

forms.

He advocates a shift away from students viewing cultural products as texts to a view where even video games

need analysis, explanation and research. In this way, he is very much an advocate of exploring new and less traditional forms of literacy, as well as analysing the

relationship between new media and postmodern theories.

He believes it is harder to perceive a media audience as a stable, identifiable group in the online age. However, audiences still make sense of and give meaning to

products.

(http://www.slideshare.net/MissMoore866/media-theory-audience-representation-narrative-

genre)