Audience Profiling

There are many ways that an audience can be profiled for example by their gender, age, and demographically. 

NRS 'Super Profiles' classification UK

'NRS (National Readership Survey Ltd) is a separate organization specilaising in demographic information. NRS use the following summary headings as an alternative way of classifying lifestyle types in the UK. Percentage figures for the distribution of these types are available from various sources.'

My newspaper is aimed at young people but I also need to be aware of other audiences, in case I can corporate them into my product. By looking into different classifications I am becoming more aware of who will be reading my product. In this group I will be aiming my newspaper at group A, teenagers who wish to achieve, therefore having money to spend on my newspaper.

THE FOUR C’S (Cross-Cultural Consumer Characteristics)


This is one of the earliest, but still most popular, ways of profiling audiences. It profiles the audience in terms of wants and needs, not simply demographic. The categories are as follows:

• Mainstreamers (this is the largest group. They are concerned with stability, mainly buying well-known brands and consuming mainstream texts).
• Aspirers (they are seeking to improve themselves. They tend to define themselves by high status brands, absorbing the ideologies associated with the products and believing their status alters as a result)
• Succeeders (people who feel secure and in control – generally they are in positions of power. They buy brands which reinforce their feelings of control and power).
• Reformers (idealists who actively consume eco-friendly products and buy brands which are environmentally supportive and healthy. They also buy products which establish this ‘caring and responsible’ ideology).
• Individuals (highly media literate, expects high-production advertising and buys product image not product, requires high-profiling sophisticated advertising campaigns).

In this group my target audience will be people classed as aspirers and reformers because they are the will be the most likely group to purchase my product. Mainstreamers will not suffice here because they only buy well known brands, and since my newspaper will be local, therefore they will not purchase it. 

Uses and Gratifcation Theory 


This theory relies on the premise that audiences have free will and choose to consume certain things for different reasons. The theory was developed in the 1960s and was in expanded in 1974 by Blumer and Katz who suggested a series of possible reasons why audience members might consume a media text;

• Diversion (escape from everyday problems)
• Personal relationships (using the media for emotional and other interactions e.g. substitution soap opera for family life).
• Personal identity (constructing their own identity from characters in media texts, and learning behavior and values – useful if trying to fit into a new country/culture)
• Surveillance (information gathering e.g. news, educational programming, weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains etc).

My newspaper will be used by audiences for personal identity since it will be a local newspaper, and also for surveillance (keeping up to date with news)

Denis McQuail puts forward a more detailed breakdown of audience motivations:

• Information

-          finding out about relevant events and conditions

-          Seeking advice

-          Satisfying curiosity and general interest

• Learning

-          Self-education

-          Confidence gained through knowledge

• Personal Identity

-          finding reinforcement of positive values

-          finding models of behavior

-          identifying with celebrities e.g. David Beckham

-          Gaining insight into oneself

• Integrating and social interaction

-          gaining insight into circumstances of others

-          identifying with others – a sense of belonging

-          finding a basis for conversation and social interaction

-          having a substitute for real life companionship

-          helping to carry out social roles

-          enabling one to connect with family, friends and society

• Entertainment

-          escaping, or being diverted, from problems

-          relaxing

-          getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment

-          filling time

-          emotional release

-          sexual arousal

Ideologies

Ideology is an important factor to consider when creating a product because you have to represent the ideology your target audience wish to see. Ideology refers to the systems of beliefs that is constructed and presented by a media product. As Marx claims, the dominant ideologies are those that already underpin society. This can differ country to country, for example a soap made for a UK audience will differ to one made for a US audience, Spain or Iran. In terms of newspapers, the editor attempts to strike a chord with the target audience (hence why different paper may approach something like immigration differently) – all papers use language that connotes a certain view is ‘right’ e.g. “Foreign workers DEMAND a pay rise” could connote the workers are in the wrong. Another interesting example of a dominant ideology in the news media relates to Patriotism (this can also be applied to fiction films etc) when they cover war, royal stories or international sports stories like the World Cup.

This sort of language subtly attempt to influence the reader through putting forward the ‘facts’ in a way that supports the dominant ideology of the institution (newspaper, TV channel, film company etc). Gramsci defines dominant ideologies as ‘hegemonic’ and argues, like Marx, that media institutions are used by those in power to maintain their control.