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Media Audiences: Who Watches, Why, and What They Do With It

Audiences are grouped by demographics (age, gender, income) and psychographics (values, lifestyle) into mainstream and niche groups. Producers target them through genre, scheduling, stars, marketing and data. Effects theories ask what media does to people: Bandura says we may imitate behaviour we see, and Gerbner says heavy viewing slowly cultivates a view of the world. Reception theory (Hall) says audiences decode messages in preferred, negotiated or oppositional ways. Jenkins shows fans actively remaking texts, and Shirky argues the internet ends the old idea of a passive audience because everyone can make and share.

🎬 Step-by-step story

  1. An audience is not one big crowd. We sort people by age, gender, income and interests into mainstream and niche groups.
  2. Producers aim at a chosen group, using genre, timing, stars, adverts and online data to reach the right people.
  3. Effects: Bandura says people may copy what they watch. Gerbner says years of heavy viewing slowly change how you see the world.
  4. Stuart Hall: the same message can be read three ways β€” accepted, partly accepted, or rejected. Audiences think for themselves.
  5. Jenkins: fans remake stories as art, videos and memes. Shirky: online, the audience can make and share too.
  6. Free play: pick a viewer β€” a fan, a casual viewer or a critic β€” and watch how they read the message.

Tip: drag the 3D scene to turn it. Use two fingers to zoom.

πŸ€” Common doubts, cleared

Why do producers split audiences into groups?

Different people want different things. Knowing the group lets producers choose the right content, timing and adverts, as the coloured groups show.

Are audiences a product?

In commercial media, yes: advertisers pay for attention. The more of the targeted group a show reaches, the more it can charge.

Does watching violence make people violent?

Bandura found children may copy what they see, but real effects depend on context, age and many other factors. Gerbner's point is more about slowly changing beliefs, like fear of crime.

If people read the same advert differently, is one of them wrong?

No. Hall says decoding depends on the viewer's background. Preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings are all valid responses.

Is a fan who makes memes still an audience?

Yes, and also a producer. Jenkins and Shirky show the line between audience and producer is now blurred.

Audience categories

An audience is the group of people who read, watch, listen to or play a media product. Producers describe audiences by:

A mass / mainstream audience is large and varied (a prime-time talent show). A niche audience is small and specialised (a podcast about chess openings). Audiences can be local, national or global, and primary (targeted) or secondary (others who also watch).

How producers target audiences

Producers try to reach and keep the right people through:

For commercial media, audiences are also a product sold to advertisers; ratings and clicks set prices.

Effects: what does media do to audiences?

Media effects β€” Bandura

Social learning theory: people, especially children, may imitate behaviour they observe, particularly if it is rewarded. His 'Bobo doll' studies in the 1960s found children copied aggression they watched. Critics say lab settings are artificial and effects are not automatic.

Cultivation theory β€” Gerbner

Long-term heavy exposure to the same repeated messages slowly shapes viewers' picture of reality. Heavy TV viewers tended to overestimate violence: the 'mean world syndrome'. The effect is gradual and adds up, not instant.

Uses and gratifications

A different view: audiences use media to meet needs β€” information, personal identity, social interaction, entertainment and escape.

Reception: active audiences

Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model: producers encode a meaning into a text; audiences decode it, and their background shapes the result.

Age, gender, class, ethnicity, culture and past experience all affect decoding. So the same advert can delight one viewer and annoy another.

Fandom, participation and the 'end of audience'

Fandom β€” Jenkins

Henry Jenkins called fans 'textual poachers': they take characters and worlds and make new things β€” fan fiction, art, videos, theories, wikis. This participatory culture builds communities and can influence producers.

'End of audience' β€” Shirky

Clay Shirky argued that cheap digital tools and the internet let anyone publish, so the old split between a few producers and a passive mass audience is breaking down. Audiences now comment, remix, review and create.

Limits

Big companies still own most platforms, and only some users create a lot; many still mostly watch.

Try it

Pick one advert or trailer. Write who it targets (demographics and psychographics), the preferred reading, and how a different viewer might read it in a negotiated or oppositional way. In the 3D, try all three viewers.

Key formulas and definitions

Worked examples

1. Identify the target audience of a late-evening crime drama with a famous detective actor, trailed on social media.

Primary: adults (18–54), interested in mystery and suspense; the star attracts existing fans; the evening slot suits working adults; social media trailers reach younger adults.

2. Apply Gerbner to a viewer who watches six hours of news and crime shows a day.

Over months the repeated images of crime may cultivate a belief that the world is more dangerous than statistics show, so the viewer may fear going out β€” the mean world effect.

3. Use Hall to explain three responses to a car advert linking a big SUV to freedom.

Preferred: a viewer agrees an SUV means freedom. Negotiated: likes the car but thinks it is too expensive for them. Oppositional: an environmental campaigner reads it as encouraging pollution.

4. How does a fan community show Jenkins's ideas?

Fans of a fantasy series write new stories about minor characters, make art and theory videos, run a wiki and campaign for a new season β€” they 'poach' the text and create a participatory culture.

Common mistakes

Practice quiz

1. Psychographics describe audiences by:
2. Cultivation theory is linked to:
3. An oppositional reading means the viewer:
4. 'Textual poachers' describes:
5. Shirky's 'end of audience' idea says:

Practice: answer these yourself

Type or choose your answer, then press Check. Use a hint if you are stuck; the full solution appears after you answer.

Frequently asked questions

What is Stuart Hall's reception theory?

Producers encode meanings and audiences decode them in three ways: preferred (accept), negotiated (partly accept) or oppositional (reject), depending on their background.

What is Gerbner's cultivation theory?

Heavy, long-term exposure to repeated media messages gradually shapes how people see reality, for example believing the world is more dangerous than it is.

What did Henry Jenkins say about fans?

He called fans textual poachers who take media texts and create new work, forming a participatory culture of active, creative communities.

Where this is taught

England (GCSE, A level)Year 133.7 Media audiences

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