CHERISH AILEEN A.

BRILLON, COMM 100

AUDIENCES OF COMMUNICATION
AUDIENCE IS AN UMBRELLA TERM THAT PERTAINS TO
THE RECEIVER OF THE MESSAGE IN AN
INTERPERSONAL, GROUP, ORGANIZATION, PUBLIC,
AND MASS SETTINGS.
TYPES OF AUDIENCES

Individuals

Interpersonal communication is the level of communication most

associated with this type of audience.

One of the most effective ways to deliver our message and is likely
the one we will engage in the most during the course of our lifetime.

Characterized by less interference because of its simplicity

TYPES OF AUDIENCES

Communities

Effective communication with communities require taking into

consideration their size, collective backgrounds and experiences,
and the main issues that impact their daily lives.
 TYPES OF AUDIENCES

Groups and organizations

1.Interdependence. Communicating with groups means being aware that each member is
an integral part of the whole and that it needs each other to maintain its existence and
achieve its goals.

2. Interaction. Members of a group or organization communicate in a purposeful manner

to achieve a goal.

3. Synergy. Cooperation with one another will lead to better results than when working as
individuals.

4. Common Goals.

5. Shared Norms. This pertains to a group’s or organization’s culture that they develop
through the course of time as members start working together.
 TYPES OF AUDIENCES

Media audiences

Are the readers, listeners, viewers, users, and consumers of media such as newspapers,
television, radio, and new media.

Characteristics:

1. Large and vast as they are numerous and are not within a fixed location, which also
means that direct feedback is not possible.

2. Unseen as messages are delivered to viewers or readers in the privacy of their own
home and in their own private time.

3. Measurable as they can be researched and analyzed through statistical

measurement like ratings and audience share.

4. Fragmented and diverse. Fragmented because from a large audience, they are also
categorized by media companies into consumers of different medium, products, and
services; and diverse because they are not limited to particular communities or groups
and they differ in age, gender, ethnic and religious background, etc.
 MEDIA AUDIENCES

Mass vs. Niche

Mass media used to target only large groups of people—men, women, children,
adults—called the mass audience.

Niche caters to the specific needs of a small, select group of people with unique
interests.
 MEDIA AUDIENCES

Theories on media audiences:

It is important for us to know how communication theorists saw media’s influence in

its audience so that we may begin to understand the complexity involved in
designing content for media audiences as well as knowing the extent of our
responsibility in delivering these messages.

1. Hypodermic Needle Theory. Also known as the Magic Bullet Theory.

 MEDIA AUDIENCES

Theories on media audiences:

2. Two-Step Flow Model

In 1944, a study by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet looked at the
process of decision-making during a Presidential election campaign.

Was a reaction to hypodermic needle theory.

Informal, personal contacts in the form of family members, kinship ties, persons of authority,
or opinion leaders, are far more likely to influence them in their decisions than exposure to
media content.
 MEDIA AUDIENCES

Theories on media audiences:

3. Uses and gratifications

Proposed in the 1970s by Jay Blumler, Michael Gurevitch, and Elihu Katz

Asserted that audiences are active and are in control of their media use.

Asks the question: “what do people do with their media?”

How audiences use media?

1. Diversion

2. Personal Relationships

3. Personal Identity

4. Surveillance
 MEDIA AUDIENCES

Theories on media audiences:

4. Reception model

Emerged during the 1980s in the work of Stuart Hall.

Highlighted the audience’s active interpretation and the role of media in shaping the
delivery and reception of the message.

The audience’s interpretation is termed as decoding and is classified into three:

1. Dominant reading in which the audience is able to interpret the message of the
media as it was intended to be interpreted.

2. Negotiated reading is produced when the audiences try to interpret the message
according to their social position.

3. Oppositional reading is produced by an audience whose social position puts them in

direct conflict with the preferred reading.
 TYPES OF AUDIENCES

Online audiences - Users of the Internet

Characterized as:

1. Dispersed. Internet audience is not confined to a specific location.

2. Interactive. Internet has made the relationship between receiver and sender more
interactive as opposed to the one-way and linear delivery of message from mass
media to its audience.

3. Having a certain degree of technical knowledge. Internet users are expected to

possess a certain degree of knowledge in order to navigate websites.

4. High consumption practices. Access to the Internet comes with a price (acquisition
of gadget and DSL or broadband connection, among others), which means that the
act of being online brings with it a purpose for the user.
 MEDIA AUDIENCES
This is how media classify its audiences:

Demographics – physical characteristics (age, income, education & family size)

Psychographics – psychological features of the audience

Psychodemographics – the study of interests, attitudes, and activities of specific population groups.

VALS – short for values and lifestyles. A consumer’s lifestyle and attitudes are considered better bases for
appeal than income
 ACTIVITY

Pitching an ad

Conceptualize and draw an initial mock up of a print ad for promoting the assigned
event.

Do the following:

1. Outline the purpose of the ad.

2. Discuss your proposed target audience and their demographics and

psychographics.

3. Give an overview of your print ad’s central message and how it would appeal to
your target audience.