Audience Research

Defining The Audience
As Mass

For many reasons, Media producers and Institutions like to consider audiences in groups. This is particularly true of advertisers, who have led the way in targeting groups of consumers. Producers and Institutions quickly identified that there was not just one audience or one market, the audience can be segmented and marketed into different ways depending on the way they have been defined.  Some obvious ways to classify audiences are age, gender, race and location. 
However, you can also classify audiences by their class:


A:  Upper Middle Class
Top Management, Bankers, Lawyers, Doctors and other professionals.
B: Middle Class
Middle Management, Teachers, many "creatives" like Graphic Designers.
C1: Lower Middle Class
Office supervisors, Junior managers, Nurses, Specialist Clerical Staff etc.
D: Skilled Working Class
Skilled workers, tradespersons (White collar)
E: People at lowest level of income
Unemployed, Students, Pensioners, Casual Workers.


(Information Source: Audience Research Booklett)


Primary Research: Questionnaire

In my opinion, people's taste in music is classless. However, to find this out i am going to put together a general Music Questionnaire to find out if there is any connection between people's: age, gender, race and class with what their favourite style of music is. This will help me identify my audience for my Music Magazine and if there is any connection between the class of the person to what type of music style they enjoy the most. 

I'm going to print out 75 simple, straight to the point questionnaires and hand them out to a variety of different people of all ages, races, genders with different occupations.  

 To the right is the exact questionnaire i handed out, i asked for the person's "job" so i could match it up with their class because most people aren't aware of their class.

Questionnaire Conclusion: I found no correlation between class and what style of music was preferred. However, i did find that students (class E) aged between 15-25 circled more than one music style on the questionnaire except Folk, Jazz and Country whereas several people (mostly class B) aged 45+ only circled one particular style of music which was generally Rock, Country and Disco. This shows me that the older generation prefer mostly one specific type of music compared to the younger generation who likes a mixture of music styles.

To allow the questionnaire results to be consumed easily, i have constructed it into a bar chart (to the left) displaying which music styles were most popular within certain age groups. The bar chart shows that people within my age (the red bar) favoured Hip-Hop, RnB and Pop music the most. Because of this i am considering making my Music Magazine about Hip-Hop/Rnb/Chart Music. I am interested in targeting people of my age and upwards because i know what the lifestyles of people of my age are all about and i can relate to what they want. This bar chart has helped my view my questionnaire results more clearly which is alot helpful.

Defining The Audience

As People

Uses And Gratifications Theory

According to this theory, we all have different uses for the media and we also make choices over what we want to watch. This means when we encounter a media text, its not just some kind of mindless entertainment- we are indeed expected to get something from it; some kind of gratification. In this model the person has the power to select a media text that best suits them and what their need is. 
The four kinds of Gratification that have been identified are:

• Information: When we want to find out about society and the world- satisfying our own curiosity about what is happening around the world. This would fit into when watching the News or watching Documentaries, they give us a sense that we are learning.
• Personal Identity: This is when we are wanting to look for models in the Media for our behaviour. For example, we may identify with characters we see on a soap like in "Coronation Street". These characters help us to decide if we agree with other characters actions and even the own character's actions. Also if the particular character succeeds in something then we feel better about ourselves. For example that warm, happy feeling at the end of a programme when a character triumphs.
• Integration and Social Interaction: This is when we use the media in order to to find out more about the circumstances of other people, watching a show helps us to empathise and sympathise with the lives of others and maybe even of the characters in a programme as friends even though we might feel a little embarrassed admitting it! Also television programmes help us to get on with our own lives and maybe even talking about it with friends. 
• Entertainment: When sometimes we may just use the media simply for enjoyment, relaxation or to fill time.

(Information Source: Audience Research Booklett)


The Uses and Gratifications Theory is extremely important when creating a Media text. When it comes to Information, I need to put something on the front cover that makes the consumer want to know about something that is in the magazine. For example if something has happened in the music industry, people will want to know and learn about what has happened. Personal Identity is also essential, putting someone who is healthy, attractive and in some cases a real person (not been edited to be made look skinnier/prettier) makes that person want to be like them and look like them. You don't want someone looking un-healthy and un-attractive on the front cover as this could set a bad example to the targeted audiences and people wouldn't want to buy it. Integration and Social Interaction is important in the process of creating a magazine, even just simply having the main cover image looking into the camera would make the consumer feel drawn to the magazine and instantly interested. If the person was looking down, the audience wouldn't be able to connect with what the magazine is all about. Entertainment is again very very essential when designing and producing a Music Magazine, the cover and contents of the magazine needs to be bright, colourful, full of information and layers to make it look exciting and aesthetically amazing. The magazine cover with the most stuff on it will attract the audience more because of how exciting it looks.


Consumer Habits
Consumer habits is the study of when, why how and where people do or don't buy a product. 
When would you read a Music Magazine?
When it comes to music magazines people would normally read them at any time of the day, either in the morning at breakfast, or during the day or at night time when relaxing in bed. Overall it is in the person's power when wanting to read the magazine.
Why would you read a Music Magazine?
 When studying why people would want to read a music magazine there are several reasons, maybe to read about their favourite music idols, look up on touring dates for bands and solo artists, wanting to ring up and buy tickets, looking at the latest fashions, reading about the latest music orientated gossip and news, maybe even to collect the issues and if there are free gifts, to collect them aswell.
How would you read a Music Magazine?
When reading a music magazine there are a variety of ways people prefer to read them. Some people like to read each individual page in order taking in all the information and images. However, people who are in a rush might just have a flick through and stop at something that might take their fancy at that particular time like for example the fashion pages. People of a young age might just flick through and look at the pictures and some people might buy the magazine just for the latest gig dates for instance.
Where would you read a Music Magazine?
You could read a music magazine anywhere, at home, at work, on long journeys in a car/train/bus or plane.