Media Studies, GCSE Media Studies, Media, AQA GCSE Media Studies, TV Drama, Television, Audience, Target Audience

1. LEARNING
OUTCOME:
•
•
To develop an understanding of the key
concept of audience and geodemographics
To develop analytical skills by identifying
audiences for TV Drama
Audience
Demographics

2. Audiences are different and in media studies we Media
are particularly interested in the target audience. This is
the audience that media producers aim their product
at.
Media Institutions often put their audiences into
categories depending upon their social, ethnic or
economic backgrounds. This is called Demographics.
They use this to work out how to best target their shows
and products.
Of course this is not an exact science but look at the
following advert and think about how different
demographic groups may respond to it.

3. Media producers have a profile of the group
and individuals whom they see as their
intended audience.
A music magazine with young people will
have a target audience of teenagers. Glee
will have teenagers as the target audience.
For any media text we ask who is the target
audience for this text. Then we have to ask
what sort of audience is the target audience?
Is it a mass audience?

4. There are many different ways of categorising
audiences.
The Registrar General’s Social Scale
A
Upper Middle Class
Higher managerial, administrative or professional (Doctors, Lawyers)
B
Middle Class
Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional (Farmers, teachers)
C1
Lower Middle Class
Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional (carpenters, nurses)
C2
Skilled Working Class
Skilled manual workers (electricians , plumbers)
D
Working Class
Semi and unskilled manual workers (bus drivers, lorry drivers)
E
Those at the lowest levels of subsistence (porters, bar staff, general labourers)
State pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual or lowest grade workers

5. Segmenting Audiences
Psychographic
Socio-economic
Is an economic and
sociological combined
total measure of a
person’s work
experience.
Is attributed to the following
factors:
• Personality
• Values
Main Factors
• Attitudes
• Income
• Lifestyles
• Occupation
• Education
• Interests
Demographics
This typically involves the
following:
• Age Bands
• Social class bands
• Gender

6. Modernised - Improved Version
1. Higher managerial and professional occupations
1.1 Employers and managers in larger organisations (e.g. company directors, senior company
managers, senior civil servants, senior officers in police and armed forces.)
1.2 Higher professionals (e.g. doctors, lawyers, clergy, teachers and social workers.)
2. Lower Managerial and professional occupations (e.g. nurses and midwives, journalists, actors,
musicians, prison officers, lower ranks of police and armed forces.)
3. Intermediate occupations (e.g. clerks, secretaries, driving instructors, telephone fitters.)
4. Small Employers and own account workers (e.g. publicans, farmers, taxi drivers, window cleaners,
painters and decorators.)
5. Lower supervisory, craft and related occupations (e.g. printers, plumbers, television engineers, train
drivers, butchers.)
6. Semi-routine occupations (e.g. shop assistants, hairdressers, bus drivers, cooks.)
7. Routine occupations (e.g. couriers, labourers, waiters and refuse collectors.)
8. Plus an eighth category to cover those who have never had paid work and the long term
unemployed.

7. Demographics
Demographics are the statistical characteristics of human populations, such as age
and income, that are used by businesses and the media to identify markets for their
goods and services. Demographics are used to identify who your customers are
(now and in the future), where they live, and how likely they are to purchase the
product you are selling. By studying your customers and potential customers
through demographics, one can identify changing needs in the marketplace and
media landscape and adjust to them.

8. Languages
(other than
English)
Which of 19 languages
spoken other than English?
Next 6 months:
Getting married
Having a baby
Retiring
Moving job
Moving home
Buying a new car
Spending £500 or more on
home improvements
Future Plans
South-West
South-East
Greater London
Wales
Scotland
North
North-West
Yorkshire and Humberside
West Midlands
East Midlands
East Anglia
Region
Marital
Status
Owned outright
Mortgage/loan
Rented from Council
Rented from someone else
Tenure on
Rent free/tied house
Single
Married/Living with partner
Widowed
Divorced/Separated
15-17
18-24
Home
25-34
Demographics
Ownership of:
Credit cards
Banking accounts
Investment products
Stocks and shares
Personal pensions
Private healthcare
Number of
children
Items owned
Age
35-44
Employment
Status
45-54
55-64
Financial
65+
Gender
Income
Net annual income after
deductions - Informant's own
income
Income of Chief Income Earner in
household.
Ethnic
Origin
White
Black – Caribbean
Black – African
Black – Other
Indian
Men
Religion/
Culture
Women
Pakistani
Bangladeshi
Chinese
Asian – other
Other ethnic group
Education and
Qualifications

9. Demographics
What is your own personal demographic?
- Gender
- Age
- Occupation
- Region
- Ethnicity
- Any other key aspects?

10. Psychographics
Psychographics is looking at the way people see themselves and the kind of lifestyle
they would like to have. It involves looking at where you think you are now and
where you want to be in the future.
Traditional, conservative, conformists; family orientated
• Belongers: Young people searching for an identity, desiring to fit into adult world,
• Emulators: discouraged from prospects
but can be
acquiring things and buy brand names
• Emulator Achievers: Successful, enjoy peace and environment more important
• Societally conscious achievers: Inner fulfilment, lovers of outdoors and fitness,
than financial success; want personal
like to experiment
• Needs Directed: Survivors on incomes that only allow needs and not wants to be
fulfilled; pensioners and those on unemployment benefits, for example
Which one are YOU?

11. Demographics and psychographic profiles
Profile a typical TV crime drama fan, and explain why you think a typical fan would
be like this.
• Demographics: gender; age/stage; occupation; region; ethnicity; any other key
aspects?
• Psychographics: Belongers, emulators, emulator achievers, societally conscious
achievers, needs directed

12. Niche Marketing
Breaking Bad
Not all TV Crime dramas are
aimed at exactly the same
audience groups. Some are
aimed more at younger
people, some at older people,
some are more gritty and
disturbing, while others are
more reassuring. Audience
groups can overlap too.
Sherlock Holmes
CSI Miami

13. Matching the target audience to the
programme
Look at this IMDB list summarising the new TV Drama shows in 2013-14.
Try to work out what kind of people (demographics and psychographics)
might like each programme
IMDB TV Drama List

14. Repetition and Variation
All TV drama series have to have a certain thing to be a TV drama - they
repeat key elements of the genre. For example a crime drama will
include a crime solver, a criminal and a victim. But they also each need
something new or different - a spin to make audiences want to watch
them - some variation.
Steve Neale in his work on genre theory, discussed how this tension
between repetition of genre elements and variation (changing genre
elements, adding new elements) is what keeps programmes fresh.

15. Genres and Sub Genres
Within the main genre
of crime dramas, there
can be lots of different
types of sub-genres.
Crime
Dramas
Forensics
e.g. CSI,
The Body Farm
Private
detectives
e.g. Sherlock Holmes,
Poirot,
Miss Marple
Police
procedural
e.g. Prime Suspect,
Law and Order

16. Genres and hybrids
Within TV drama genres there can also be hybrids,
where the programme is mixture of different genres.
•For example Almost Human takes elements of Action
Crime Drama and elements of Science Fiction and
mixes these together. This makes Almost Human a
hybrid genre programme.

17. Genres, sub-genres and hybrids
•Watch this clip of Almost Human
What typical crime drama elements does it have?
What typical sci-fi elements does it have?

18. Key Words
Socio-economic categorisation
Pyschographic research
Demographics
Franchise
Genre Marketing
Scheduling Cloning/ Hammocking/
Clustering
Intertextuality

19. Research
Research and identify the three main ways of targeting and classifying
target audiences. Describe in as much detail as possible the target
audience of How I Met Your Mother.
HOMEWORK