Analyse the ways a media product of your choice targets a specific audience

Fantastic Beasts and where to find them is a new film inspired and written by the author J.K. Rowling who also wrote and helped direct the Harry Potter franchise. The Imaginary entity would have already been put into place when pre-production happened and before the film came out as all the millions of Harry Potter fans would be the primary target audience because Harry Potter is loved by millions of people and all those fans would want to see J.K. Rowling next phenomenon. The movie is brining the book to life just like Harry Potter did so if it is just as successful, it will bring in many fans who love magic and are a fan of fantasy and the supernatural genre. They would also target people who read the book because when reading, you imagine what it would be like if you see it, so if what people are imagining is brought to life, people would want to go and see it.

This film would target a mainstream audience full of people who like films to do with magic and use escapism through this film as a way to make it seem real. Although the idea of a mainstream audience is a large group of people who watch a certain genre for pleasure and enjoyment and as a hobby, There millions of Harry Potter lovers who are overjoyed at the idea of a prequel to the phenomenal series that J.K. Rowling also produced which makes the public feel surreal and excited for her next project. The age rating for Fantastic Beasts is 12A so the general demographic is a smaller audience then if it was a PG where younger children would be able to watch it even though it isn't appropriate for their age group. Also it is quite technical and some people over the age restriction struggle to understand the the concept and type of language so younger children would struggle as well.

Magazine poster

Unit 1- Section 4- Audience Theory

Audience Theory

Uses and Gratifications- Blumer and Katz, Denis Mcquail

Denis Mcquail (1972) discussed four theoretical audience pleasures:

1. Surveillance – our need to know what is going on in the world. The News/ Documentary 
2.  Personal relationships – our need for to interact with other people. Sports/ Reality TV/Dramas
3.  Personal identity – our need to define our identity and sense of self. fashion programmes/Soap operas
4. Diversion – the need for escapism, entertainment and relaxation. Superhero programmes

Unit 1- Section 4- BARB/RAJAR/NRS

BARB/RAJAR/NRS

What do the letters stand for in each of these companies?

BARB- Broadcasters' Audience Research Board.
RAJAR- Radio Joint Audience Research.
NRS- National Readership Survey

Which industries does each company provide audience research for?

BARB- BARB is owned by BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky and the IPA ( Institute of Practitioners in Advertising).

RAJAR- BBC, Radiocentre and IPA

NRS- Ipsos Mori and RSMB

How does each, conduct audience research?

BARB- In order to estimate viewing patterns across all TV households they fit meters into TV's to find out audience sizes.

what audience demographics are included? 

BARB- All individuals aged 4+ are measured and reported by BARB. Within this, a user may look at any age group they wish.

Example of each companies most popular products-

BARB- Strictly come dancing on BBC1 had the most views in November according to the figures that BARB collate.

Why do you think this product is popular?

BARB- A lot of people like Dancing and singing so it is quite mainstream show. It also features celebrities that the audience like. Finally, the public love a competition and competitiveness shown on TV.

Section 1- unit 1- Horizontal and Vertical integration

Horizontal Integration

• A production company expands into other areas of one industry. It is shared across.
• The company can develop in a particular area of production or they can buy out another company that deals with these areas.
• Example- Casino Royale: Casino Royale was mostly made by Sony. Sony owns companies such as Columbia pictures, however other companies were involved in the production such as Eon Productions (production) and MGM (production and distribution). This means that Casino Royale used horizontal integration because it expanded into other companies during the making of the film.

Vertical Integration

• The production company has complete ownership of the production, distribution and exhibition of the film. It is all passed down. They receive all of the profit- Brand identity.

EXAMPLE - Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Walt Disney Productions

Walt Disney Studios

Walt Disney Distribution (Buena Vista)

       Walt Disney DVD/Bluray                 Walt Disney Toy Store                             Disney Land

Section 1- unit 3- 3 different narrative theories

Laura Mulvey (1975)- Objectification of Women in the media

• Voyeurism: Erotic pleasures gained from looking at a sexual object
• Presence of women solely for the purpose of display
• Female on display is passive and objectified for a male gaze regardless of viewers gender. 
• Voyeuristic treatment of female body in ‘male’ videos - use of dancers as adornments to the male ego.
• The inclusion of women for display is a staple element in music video's - across all genres 
• Women connote to be looked at and are the object of the male gaze.
• A test called the Bechdel Test is relevant to this theory because it is about woman having a role in film and TV other than being directly linked to the male characters. It tests whether films have at least 2 female characters in it who have a conversation about anything other than the other male characters. This links to the male Gaze theory as it suggest that in a lot of film and TV, women have nothing better to do then talk about the male characters.

Rick Altman Genre Theory (1999)

Genre offers audiences 'a set of pleasures'

Emotional Pleasures - The emotional pleasures offered to audiences of genre films are particularly significant when they generate a strong audience response.

Visceral Pleasures - Visceral pleasures are 'gut' responses and are defined by how the film's stylistic construction elicits a physical effect upon its audience. This can be a feeling of revulsion, kinetic speed or a 'roller coaster ride'.

Intellectual Puzzles - Certain film genres such as the thriller offer the pleasure in trying to unravel a mystery or a puzzle. Pleasure is derived from deciphering the plot and forecasting the end or being surprised by the unexpected. 

Vladimir Propp's Analysis of Folk Tale (1920's)

Propp analysed a whole series of Russian Folk Tales in the 1920's and decided that the same events kept being repeated in each of the stories, creating a consistent framework. His seminal book, Morphology of the Folk Tale, was first published in 1928 and has had a huge influence on literary theorists and practitioners ever since.

Propp extended the Russian formalist study of language to his analysis of folk tales. He broke down the folk tales into the smallest possible units, which he called narratemes, or narrative functions, necessary for the narrative to exist. Each narrateme is an event that drives the narrative forward, possibly take it in a different direction. 

Section 1- unit 4- Understanding the target audiences of media products

Classifying audience

Mainstream- The ideas, attitudes, or activities that are shared by most people and regarded as normal or conventional OR An audience that consumes a product that appeals to a wide range of age groups and cultures.

Niche- A small select group of people that have a unique interest OR The audience of a specialist interest media product that may only appeal to a small number of people or those that fall within specific demographic profile (for example, ethnicity or age).

What is an audience?

An individual or collective group of people who read or consume any media text. 

Why are audiences important?

Without audiences there would be no media. Media organisations 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.

Impact of new technology on audiences

Old media 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 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 fragmented.

Fragmented audiences

The division of audiences into smaller groups due to the variety of media outlets. The aim is to hit as many people as possible/ sell more copies/ generate a larger audience. But measuring that audience becomes hard. 

How do institutions continue to make money?

• Free apps always have adverts, unless you pay to remove them.
• Websites and search engines work hard to target you with ads whilst you consume ' free online' versions of your media product
• These adverts are carefully constructed and selected for the primary audience for each text
• With newspapers, printing less copies and switching to online distribution can reduce production cost

Mainstream

NICHE

Demographics- Measurable characteristics of media consumers such as age, gender, race, education and income level.

Psychographics- Psychographic segmentation divides the market into groups based on social class, lifestyle and personality characteristics.

Family Fortune- E

Golf magazine- A

Business section of newspaper- B

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