Module 21 “The Audience”

Understanding the Audience

• Audiences play a vital role in the media, distinguished from other social institutions due to their necessary presence.

• Can be identifiable and finite (e.g. audience at a jazz club) or larger and undefined (e.g. viewers of Black Panther).

• Audiences may be primary (family watching a movie) or secondary (an audience in a large auditorium).

Levels of Audience Analysis

Micro Level

• Focus on interactions among audience members and their responses to media.

• Can influence performers during live events.

Macro Level

• Broader societal consequences of media exposure (example: educational shows like Sesame Street).

• Collective characteristics of an audience may differ greatly between genres, e.g., ballet vs alternative music.

• Audiences can be segmented by various attributes: age, gender, income, political party, education, race, and ethnicity.

Targeting Specific Audiences

• Media outlets actively market to a particular audience they identify through surveys.

• Specialization driven by advertising—enabling targeted campaigns.

• Political media specialists used targeted messaging in the 2016 elections; employed social media to micro-target audiences.

• Facebook enhances targeting tailored by demographics (education, income, political affiliation).

Implications of Segmented Audiences

• Scholars question if segmented media implies the end of large collective audiences.

• Despite the rise of personal computers, large organizations still communicate messages to vast and diverse audiences.

• Campaigns adapt messaging strategies using micro-targeting based on user data from social platforms.

Audience Behavior and Interaction

• Audiences are not merely passive; they engage and interact among themselves.

• Opinion Leaders:

  • Individuals who influence the opinions and decisions of their peers (example: movie critics).

  • Pioneered by Paul Lazarusfeld’s research on voting behavior in the 1940s.

  • Includes modern Influencers who operate on platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

The Active Role of Audiences

• Audiences can take on activist roles, exemplified by political protests.

• Their reactions can influence collective actions, including booing, supporting, or protesting.

• Growing concern over audience manipulation through misinformation and targeted fake news.

Summary and Key Terms

• The audience is essential for distinguishing mass media from other social institutions—varying in size and definition.

• The rise of media outlets has increased segmentation of audiences.

• Study of opinion leaders reveals their significant influence on audience perceptions.

Key Terms

• Influencer: A social media user who has significant credibility in a specific niche.

• Opinion Leader: An individual who informs and influences the opinions of others.