1. AUDIENCES

2. What is an audience?
An individual or collective group of people who read or consume any media text
Examples: Radio listeners, Television viewers, Newspaper and magazine readers, Web traffic on web sites.

3. Why are audiences important?
Without audiences there would be no media.
Media organizations produce media texts to make profit – no audience = no profit.
The mass media is becoming more competitive than ever to attract more and more audiences in different ways and stay profitable.

4. Impact of New Technology on Audiences
Old media (TV, Print, Radio) which used to have high audience numbers must now work harder to maintain audience numbers.
Digital technology has also led to an increasing uncertainty over how we define an audience, with the general agreement that a large group of people reading the same thing at the same time is outdated and that audiences are now ‘fragmented’.

5. Fragmented audience
The division of audiences into smaller groups due to the variety of media outlets.
EXAMPLE:Newspapers and magazines – you can now view the hard copy AND online version (sometimes free).
The aim is to hit as many people as possible/sell more copies/generate a larger audience. But measuring that audience becomes hard! You may have some people that only look online, some that only read the hard copy, or some that do both!

6. So how do institutions continue to make money?
Nothing in life is free
Free apps always have adverts, unless you pay to remove adds.
Websites and search engines work hard to target you with ads you consume .
With newspapers, printing less copies and switching to online distribution can reduce production costs

7. Types of Audience
Mass audience – often termed ‘broadcast audience’. Those who consume mainstream or popular texts such as soaps . Media and communication that targets a very large group of people (women, men, children, adults etc).
Examples of media with mass audience…

8. Types of Audience
Niche audience – much smaller but very influential. A niche audience is a small, select group of people with a very unique interest.

9. Categories Why do we categorise audiences?
Audiences can be divided into categories based on social class/grade.
Why do we
categorise
audiences?

10. Psychographics
Every advertiser wants to target a particular type of audience. Therefore, media companies produce texts that target a particular ‘type’ of audience.
In terms of commercial media, much of their funding is generated by advertising revenue. Their product needs to appeal to a specific type of audience so that advertisers will pay to promote their product.
Most media products can define their ‘typical’ audience member, often with a psychographic profile.

11. What types of media texts would they consume?
Lawyers
Doctors
Scientists
Well paid professionals

12. think about income boundaries
Teachers
Middle management
Fairly well paid professionals

13. Junior management
Bank clerks
Nurses

14. Electricians
Plumbers
Carpenters

15. Students
Unemployed
Pensioners

16. Research methods How do we measure media audiences?
Sales, subscriptions, ratings, figures .

17. New Media Facebook and other social network sites – ‘like’
Can you think of any NEW ways in which we can measure audience? Think about the picture below…
Facebook and other social network sites – ‘like’
Online forums – comments tools
Views on YouTube & Google +1
Twitter trends

18. Qualitative research will be very important in your coursework!
When looking at audiences, there are two main types of research:
Quantitative research – e.g. questionnaires.
Number based
Closed questions to generate exact answers
Very factual
Qualitative research – e.g. interviews, focus groups
Analysis of existing products
Open questions to generate answers open to interpretation
Individual preferences
Qualitative research will be very important in your coursework!

19. One-Way Communication1 2 3
Media Channel 4 5

20. Two-Step Communication Flow1 2 3
Media Channel 4 5
Opinion Leader

21. Multi-Step Communication Flow1 2 3
Media Channel 4
Supporter Opinion Leader + 5
Opponent Opinion Leader -
Opinion Leaders

22. Viral Diffusion

23. IMPACT OF MEDIA POSITIVE EFFECTS
Media provide news and information required by the people.
Media can educate the public.
Media helps a democracy function effectively.
They inform the public about government policies and programmes and how these programmes can be useful to them. This helps the people voice their feelings and helps the government to make necessary changes in their policies or programmes.

24. NEGATIVE EFFECTS
The traditional culture of a country is adversely affected by mass media.
Entertainment has become the main component of mass media. This affects the primary objectives of media to inform and educate the people.
Media promote violence. Studies have proved

25. Origin of Development Communication
The expressions such as Development reporting or Development news were coined during the early seventies when UNESCO, UNICEF and UNDP were willing to fund and encourage a new kind of reporting. The Press of the west was critical of these agencies. .
Consequently, the UNESCO formed the McBride Commission. This commission organized hearings in developing countries.. The developing nations were slow in learning that the western media were out to destroy their social, economic and political canvasses in stealthy fashion.

26. The progress of development reporting in India was slow due to the following reasons:
The mass media were catering to the needs of the urban literate readers. The newspapers & magazines publishers were developing content for the urban people and not for the mass markets. Hence, their content was urban oriented.

27. The journalism training institutes did not pay attention to the concept of training in development reporting.
The corporate publishing sector was driven by monetary gain. It did not depute development reporters to cover the news of development. It also did not start the in-house training programs to upgrade the reporting skills and research techniques of its existing set of reporters.

28. Hindustan Times can be given the credit of starting the concept of development reporting in India. Its editor, B G Verghese, took the initiative in this context.
The times of India started a feature on agriculture and appointed an agriculture correspondent in its Delhioffice. Later, Indian Express covered news and events related to environment, economic development and social conflicts..

29. Crisis communication
An organization can withstand both issues and crises better if they have established good, long-term relationships with publics who will be affected from decisions and behaviors of the organization.
Organizations should accept responsibility/be accountable for a crisis/issue even if it was not their fault.

30. At the time of a crisis/issue, an organization must disclose all that it knows about the crisis or problem involved. If it does not know what happened, then it must provide full disclosure once it has additional information. Provide facts.
At the time of a crisis, an organization must consider the public interest to be at least as important as its own. Public safety, for example, is at least as important as profits. Therefore the organization has no choice other than to engage in true dialogue with publics and to practice socially responsible behavior when a crisis occurs [as well as before and after