TV producers need to research their potential target audiences before pitching a show

to a network to be broadcast. This is so they can tailor the programme to a specific

demographic and be reasonably confident that their new show will appeal to them. In
addition, knowing their target audience will enable the network to be comfortable in
funding the new programme as the producers will know that theyll be able to make a
profit from the show via advertising and possible merchandise if the show is successful.
TV producers are also able to predict their viewers using gathered data from
organisations that will be discussed later on, and can categorise their viewers into six
different social classes, using the NRS social grading system. The first category is labelled
A, and includes upper middle class citizens, who are often in positions of higher
management in administrative and professional careers. The second category, labelled
B, is where middle class people are categorised, citizens who usually have intermediate
management careers, as opposed to higher management. Class C1 includes lower
middle class viewers, who often have jobs in clerical areas or junior management; C2 is
the category for skilled working class people, who are listed as having jobs in manual
labour sections that involve specific skills. Class D is the class for working class viewers,
who generally hold down unskilled, simple jobs in the manual labour section. Finally
Class E is the category into which non-working people are placed, including people who
rely on pensions and benefits to live. Clearly all these social classes will have different
viewing habits, with people in groups which involve manual labour probably being more
interested in soaps such as EastEnders and Coronation Street; and people who are in
categories A through C1 having a greater interest in television shows such as Downton
Abbey or Blue Planet. Obviously these are great generalisations as not everyone in each
social class watches the same thing, however TV companies do use these social
categories in order to tailor programmes to a certain demographic and psychographic.
There are also three separate types of interpretation of media, or reading which all
depend on how much the producer researches the audience:
Preferential reading is the ideal type of reading for a producer, where the audience
agrees with the message and tone of the product and dont have any contradictory
opinions to the producer when they watch the film. An example of this could be the
animated Pixar film Dinosaur, there was a simple enough storyline to the film and clear
set characters so there was little to no room for additional interpretation from
audiences.
Negotiated reading is slightly more confrontational than preferred reading, as the
audience generally agrees with the producers intentions and message through the
media, however read further into the production and interpret it slightly differently to
how it was intended to be interpreted. An example of a film that received negotiated
reading is Bugs Life, where a colony of ants have to live under the rule of a gang of
grasshoppers; for a young child this appears to be a simple good vs. bad film, but older

people can also see parallels to modern dictatorship, which may or may not be
intentional.
Oppositional reading is when the audience completely disagree with the tone and aims
of the producer, which tends to show that the producer hasnt sufficiently researched
their target audience or designed their product properly for their target audience. One
example of this could be Sharknado, which is acted and produced as a serious action
film, but overall comes across as a jokey and mostly farcical production. All these types
of reading demonstrate the fundamental need for media producers to research their
audiences.
There are two main media theories: hypodermic needle theory and the uses and
gratification theory. The hypodermic needle theory (such as Fox News, an extremely
right-wing American news station who have a habit of producing exceptionally racist,
sexist and homophobic news items), the more outdated of the two, relies on a mostly
passive audience, who dont question the media that they are consuming, and are
instead happier just to watch and accept everything that they are shown. The uses and
gratification theory is the more modern and accepted theory, which relies on an active
audience, who seek out what media they want to consume and question what they are
shown; this means that media producers have to do larger amounts of in-depth research
into what their audiences want to get out of the media that they are broadcasting and
creating so that the audience remain engaged with the product. Viewers will look for
gratification from the media they consume, for example they can identify with a
character in a TV show or film, which can make them relate more effectively to the
product. Additionally consumers can find media products gratifying as simple
entertainment to help them escape from everyday life; and consumers can also find that
media products help them to engage with new people who consume similar things e.g.
EastEnders, Game of Thrones, through discussing the media product that they all watch
or read.
One organisation that provides information on audiences in Britain is BARB
(Broadcasters Audience Research Board), they take samples of television audiences and
provide statistics for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BskyB and IPA (Institute of
Practitioners in Advertising). The purpose of this is to make sure that companies that
produce and broadcast media are aware of who they are marketing to so they can spend
their money efficiently. Another company that researches audiences is RAJAR (Radio
Joint Audience Research), they are the official organisation in charge of measuring UK
radio audiences. It was set up by the BBC and the RadioCentre in 1992; data from RAJAR
is the most reliable source for radio companies to plan their advertising and buying on
commercial radio. They also make sure that they have a wide sample range, from 15
upwards so that they can get a clear picture of radio listeners throughout the UK.
There are also a wide range of methods that media producers can use to research their
target audience. The first is analysing viewing figures for their programmes, to gauge

which are most popular and which are suitable for renewal and additional funding; this
can also work for viewing figures when it comes to films and their box office numbers.
Another way to research audiences outside of the two main organisations is looking for
the publics opinions via blogging platforms and social networks where discussions about
media products such as films and TV shows take place; these are useful as they can
always find honest opinions of products on these sites due to the fact that people are
often much more straightforward online than in research techniques such as
questionnaires or interviews. However, questionnaires and interviews or focus groups
also have their merits as they can be accurately handed out to a wide sample group to
eventually bring in a large and therefore more reliable response to a media product.