Audience and demographics

Audience and demographics

1. mainstream audience: if a media product is said to have a mainstream or mass audience it will appeal to a wide range of people and are often distributed by well known conglomerates.

2. Niche audience: often smaller and usually target people of a specialist interest, skill or belief. They may be produced by large companies but are often produced independently.

3. demographic profiles: different attributes and characteristics of audiences can be collectively described as different demographics.

   • this includes: a persons age, gender, ethnicity, social, grade, economic status, level of education, hobbies, interests, and lifestyle choices.

4. The NRS social grade model

   • this is a way for media producers to categories their audience by job role and income.
     • A: upper/middle class
     • B: middle class
     • C1: lower/middle class
     • C2: skilled/working class
     • D: working class
     • E: casual workers

5. audience profiling: there are dedicated resource organisations who gather information and audience profiles that are useful to media producers.

   • RAJAR
     • Radio Joint Audience Research: collates listening figures for over 300 radio stations across the UK
   • NRS
     • Broadcasters Audience Research Board: collates viewing figures for all the major UK TV broadcasters such as Sky, ITV, and the BBC.
   • BARB
     • National Readership Survey: provides audience research for print industries in the UK and covers over 250 of Britain's major newspapers and magazines, showing the size and nature of the audiences they achieve.