Audience

1) Why is audience important?
The audience is important as it allows for media products to gain money. This can be an example for movies as they use money to make the movie and promote to the audience so they can buy tickets to watch it. The movies then hope that enough people in the public watch it so they can gain a profit. This is why they spend so much money to promote a product. This can also be used for music videos as a video that is released needs views from their target audience and also needs people to buy their records for them to gain money.

2) Explain the term mass audience?
A mass audience is a large audience that is targeted by the makers of a media product. This is usually done to gain more money and views An example of this is could be a television programme such as a soap opera. This is because they are targeted to most people as they try to have material on their shows which can satisfy different kinds of audiences such as teenagers, families and adult. This is done by a lot of companies as they are then able to gain more money from this kind of audience.

3) Explain the term niche audience?
A niche audience is the opposite to a mass audience. This means that the makers of the product try to target it to a small audience. This can be done to cater peoples specifc likes in a show. An example of a programme could be custom my ride or pimp my ride for car lovers. This only really interests them as they like those kinds of programmes. This type of audience could also be targeted when doing local news shows as they can show main news stories from the area which a person is in. An example of this could be midlands today.

4) How does the media shape the perception of the world?
The media can influence the world in many different ways. This can inlude the use of newspapers, movies and video games. Newspapers have the oppertunity to tell stories which may or may not be true, to the public and they can make them believe it. They can be biased in newspapers and can tell lies which are harmful to the people invloved. An example of this is when the sun printed out a story which made false claims about the liverpool fans in the hillborough disaster and for many years the liverpool fans were criticsesd until recently when the allegations were proven wrong. Video games can promote voilence with some of the fighting games that are played. This means that little kids will try to imitate them and may get hurt. This can also happen with movies.

5) How powerful are the media in influencing the ideas and behaviours of the audience?
The media can can influence the behaviour of the public as they can show stuff on television or print stuff on newspapers that affect the publics way of life such as what they eat or how they sleep. This has been done when there is an outbreak of a disease which is then shown on a media product as is made to look worse than it actually is. An example of this could be the swine flu out break which lead the media to create a craze for the public on what is acceptable to eat and what is not. This shows how the media is able to create unrest in the mind of the public and cause them to alter their behaviour in some way.

6) Explain the blulmer and katz theory (the four areas)?
The uses and gratification theory from bulmer and katz is a popular way to understand mass communication. This theory does not focus on the message but more on the audience by asking what people do with media? The theory assumes that the audience have an active role in using media and also holds the audience responsible for choosing media to meet their needs.