Unit 10 Audience Research

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Why do we watch and consume media? & Audience theories

Maslow's Hierarchy of needs

The pyramid on the left is called Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. It explains people's motivations and is predicted on the need for humans to fulfil their needs in order of priority. So in the theory the lower level needs need to be met before the higher level need can be achieved. Im referring to this theory in terms of how it applies to media and what media texts we consume.

Different types of media can be categorised into these levels. For example, we can build personal relationships with a character in a movie because they are relatable to us in some way, which fulfils our need to belong. Watching the news for surveillance/safety to fulfil our need for knowing what's going on in the world. Have you noticed how horror films will often target the need of safety. We get an adrenaline rush when watching a horror movie and feel the need to turn all the lights on after, our sense of safety has been impacted. Or we can get a sense of safety when the antagonist or monster has been defeated. Factual and informative shows like documentaries, can link to self actualisation because a person is expanding their knowledge of the world and what's around them, therefore they are more likely to succeed and achieve their full potential.

We are living in a digital age, the pyramid on the right was interesting to me because it categorises different social media apps and platforms into the different need levels. It reflects contemporary audiences and how media has become an integral part of our lives, it addresses the needs without which your digital self could not exist. Taking a digital picture, finding a location using gps, your phone running out of battery or not having access to wifi connection makes your digital world crash. To be able to move up the pyramid you first need to have access to the internet or a technological device. Moving onto safety, we cannot enjoy the benefits of being online without privacy. We expect our data, messages and transactions to be kept safe and private. Phones have fingerprint sensors to meet this need of security. After we have access to the internet and digital technology and feel safe (layer one and two) we can then meet our needs of belongingness and love and can socialise with our online friends. We share images and messages online with friends and colleagues to feel part of a community. The next layer is wellness and self esteem, it deals with us wanting to feel better and happier about ourselves. Devices like the Fitbit and apple-watch record information about our physical health, platforms like headspace help with meditation and emotional wellbeing. Onto the final need of self actualisation. We become self actualised when we are able to learn more about ourselves and we figure out our purpose and special skills. Which is why doctors or lawyers are more self actualised, they use their skills to achieve their full potential. (mentioned below in demographic theory). Apps like Pinterest and YouTube can be used for inspiration and education which leads us closer to our potential.

In conclusion it can be said that our digital needs correlate to our physical needs because our digital online persona and self is almost a reflection of ourselves in real life, in this modern day and age. In the same way as the original pyramid, the lowest needs need to be addressed before the higher ones can be met. Off-course not everyone can access higher levels of the pyramid due to not having access to technology or because of war or poverty.

The subject of social media has led me onto discuss a recent documentary called The Social dilemma. We live in a digital age where social media and the internet has changed the way we live our day to day lives and the way we consume information. I particularly liked this documentary when it came to explaining why social media is so addictive, how companies study the way audiences consume media online for their own advantage to make platforms like facebook and instagram as addictive as possible. The business model of these companies is to make us spend as much time on our screens as possible. Everything we do online is measured and tracked, companies can then make models out of our data, so we end up seeing advertisements for a product we googled a day ago on our instagram time line for example. As humans we have a constant need for communication and connection, social media optimises this connection which gets us addicted, even the typing icon we see when someone is typing back or responding is there to keep us engaged and not lose our attention.

Gratification Theory - Blumler and Katz

The audience consumes media to fulfil one of our basic needs, the media gratifies these needs: they are

Diversion- the need for escapism and to distract from the mundane everyday life

Personal relationships- Using the media to fulfil the need for companionship and using the media to form relationships with others (social media)

Personal identity- using the media to find out about ourselves

Surveillance- using media to find out what's going on (news)

It's interesting how different types of media falls within these different categories. This theory is closely related to Maslow's pyramid because each need that can be gratified falls into one of Maslow's hierarchies. For example, a show with well written and diverse characters, can make an audience form personal relationships with these characters because they can relate to how a character is feeling or what they are going through. This can fall into the belongingness and love category. People sometimes watch a show because it was recommended to them, they can then discuss that show with the other party that recommended it, so they now have something in common, also fulfilling a relationship need. As mentioned above, the news is used for surveillance to gratify our curiosity for what's going on in the world. Diversion is simply anything that makes us forget about the mundane daily routine of life, it could be a videogame or a YouTube video ect.

Our show will gratify the need of diversion. Late night with Lou is inspired by Alan Carr and Jimmy Fallon, our show's basic premise is to be entertaining and lighthearted like any other late night talk show. We will have a celebrity guest and the host will play games with the guest after an interview, followed by a cooking segment and a musical performance. It's all entertainment value, the only other part of the show that could satisfy a need, is the need for personal relationships. During the interview part of the show, the host and famous guest are being humanised because they are having a casual conversation, they aren't just public figures, they are like us viewers at home. So as an audience we can relate.

Passive and active audiences and the hypodermic needle theory

A passive audience doesn't actively engage with what they are watching and the media they are consuming, they don't form their own opinions about what they see. Whereas an active audience has their own opinions, beliefs and chooses to like, dislike and believe what they want about the media that they see.

The hypodermic needle theory is a linear communication theory which suggests that media messages are injected into the brains of a passive audience. It proposes that all audience's are the same and we respond to the media in the same way. The theory was developed in the 1920s and 30s during World War one after researchers observed the effect of war propaganda and the Orson Wells war of the worlds podcast (which we discussed during unit 10). His radio show was presented in the form of a news bulletin in 1938 on Halloween, he tricked his listeners into thinking that the earth was being invaded by martians. The New York times claimed that the public was overcome with mass hysteria. Natzi Germany released propagandist films to push their Natzi agenda, which affected a mass population, proving that the theory, even though it is quite general, influences the way we discuss media and the powerful effect that mass media has. In my opinion we still see elements of this theory today in social media and various trends, if someone famous wears a certain type of outfit then most people will all value it and want it as well, and it will influence a mass amount of people.

Audience demographics and Psychographics

This graph measures a populations socio-economic status. We had to do an activity as part of audience research in a lesson (I mention this lesson in my blogs in a powerpoint with all of my groups findings and data) Our group had to research channel 5, how their channel has grown and what the channels commission editors are looking for. This will help us determine what is aimed at contemporary audiences and what modern audiences want. In my research, as mentioned in my blogs for this unit, i found it interesting that when Channel 5 first started out they wanted to gain a lot of attention by having very controversial and conflicting shows with various titles including the word 'benefits' and classic shows like 'If you cant pay we'll take it away'. The channels original demographic and viewership came from C2, D, E audiences. However now the channel has shifted their content to be more 'aspirational' and factual, more cultured shows like 'The Yorkshire Vet' and documentaries rather than conflict. You can say that they changed their content to achieve the audiences self fulfilment needs in reference to Maslow's theory. Therefore their audience changed to be of a A, B, C1 demographic, who are typically more self actualised because they have jobs like 'doctors' 'lawyers' and business professionals, where they achieve their full potential, capacities and talents, which is the meaning of self actualisation.

Our talk show is a late night talk show and would be ideally aired at prime time when people come home from work or want to relax (higher managerial and administrative roles will typically come home late or work later hours). As mentioned below, our target demographic would be younger audience's that are aware of todays issues, celebrities and gossip, (which would be discussed in our show) younger audiences typically fall into being aspirers and explorers. These psychographics categories are typically more self actualised because these two types of people know what they want and have their own persona, individuality and confidence which makes them more geared towards success. The nature of our show would be very inclusive and progressive which would appeal to an explorer that seeks discovery within themselves or an aspirer that seeks the status that the celebrity on screen has. Considering this our show would have to fall into the A, B, C1 and C2 demographics, because aspirers and explorers are the people who would have a wider range of professional skills due to their characteristics described in the psychographics table.

Psychographics is the study of consumers based on their activities, interests, and opinions. It goes beyond classifying people based on general demographic data, such as age, gender, race and social status within society. Psychographics seeks to understand the cognitive factors that drive consumer behaviours. This includes emotional responses and motivations; moral, ethical, and political values; and inherent attitudes, biases, and prejudices. Even within clearly defined demographic groups, there is often significant variance between individuals. Just because two people are roughly the same age and earn similar annual incomes doesn’t mean they share similar political views or personal values.

Psychographics provide insight into why someone might buy a specific product, support a given cause, vote a certain way, and much more. For example if we analyse a media text and look at a vogue cover. We can assume that the cover would be aimed at a A, B demographic because of the haute couture that a model is usually wearing, high fashion and designer labels are advertised and a higher demographic can afford it. In terms of psychographics a typical vogue cover would be aimed at Aspirers who are materialistic and keen on appearance and fashion.

In my opinion, our show would be aimed at aspirers and explorers . The show from its contemporary young humour and young host, would be aimed at a younger demographic that has social media and follows trends, typically millennials and Gen z audiences. We would want the humour and nature of the show to be very inclusive and progressive. Explorers could watch the show to explore a different type of show with its own individual charisma. Aspirers would want to watch the celebrity interviews to fulfil a certain part of themselves that seek the status that a celebrity has.

Survey

As part of the audience research for this unit I wanted to conduct a small general survey that combines questions about talk shows and the media theories that I researched, my objective is to see what the opinions of a Gen-z contemporary audience are on talk shows, and if viewing habits have changed. I will evaluate and back up my opinions and findings. The survey I conducted was small with only 11 responses, so it can be interpreted as a small focus group survey. I am aware that if I had more responses my answers and conclusions would vary. The age range of the survey was 17 to 20.

Referring to the first question, I wanted to find out if British media had become more westernised. More people preferred American talk shows to British shows even though it was a close tie. The majority of talk shows and the attributes for the genre are associated with American talk shows like Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Letterman, Conan ect. The tonight show was also started in America, in New York.

I wanted to see if modern viewing habits have changed. Nearly all of the participants in the survey apart from one would have rather watched the best parts of a talk show online. We don't need to watch anything in real time anymore because we can catch up on platforms like Netflix, BBC iplayer or YouTube etc. I found an interesting qualitative study that Ofcom conducted to investigate viewers behaviours and attitudes to different viewing platforms. Their report is based on qualitative research findings from a series of ten two-hour workshop groups and ten one-hour ethnographic depth interviews conducted across the UK. The research sample was not designed to be nationally representative. Some of the interesting points that I found in reference to this survey and audience research are as follows.

Linear and non linear consumption has started to vary and change with younger audiences preferring convenient catch up on demand services, For the younger and more tech-engaged participants who are more accustomed to touchscreen devices and connected games consoles, the experience of using a remote control to access video on demand content was slow and frustrating resulting in many opting to search for on-demand content via personal electronic devices.
Most of the younger participants were frequent users of portable devices to watch video on demand content. These were seen as enabling them to watch what they wanted rather than having to fit with the preferences of other household members.
Online services such as YouTube were most widely used by younger and more tech engaged participants, with viewing occasions predominantly focused on short-form content, such as user-generated content and music videos. They preferred tablets and laptops for non-linear viewing at home due to the relatively large screen sizes and ease of navigation. The study does give a broader and more in depth reasoning as to why younger audiences prefer non linear viewing, the 90% of participants who answered that they would rather catch up on a talk show on YouTube proves that veiwing habits in younger people have changed to be more on demand. Particularly in this small focus group.

In my opinion This links to the fact that modern audiences are used to, and getting adapted to consuming information much quicker. Overstimulation is the behaviour perception when a more than normal amount of chemical reward fills our brains, the most common being dopamine. We are always seeing advertisements and posts on our phones and social media, always being shown images and being stimulated by fast media. Earlier I mentioned 'The social dilemma' documentary which does state how social media gives us a dopamine reward, Social media provides instant reward quickly with a minimal effort, through a simple thumb tap. Companies know this and use it to make their platforms as addictive as possible. My objective for this particular question was to see if overstimulation conditions people to want to consume information at a faster rate, we would rather watch the most exciting and funny parts of a show straight away, than sit through a full length show that altogether would take longer to watch and be at a slower pace. When reading the Ofcom study and finding more information about non linear viewing, I found out that sometimes non linear viewing can also be passive viewing. Most of the time people just like to have something playing in the background while they are on their phones or doing something, could this also be connected to the fact that we like to be overstimulated with information because we have become used to it?

Question 3 and 4 were for me to see what stuck out to people. The answers had interactivity and comedy, as the most common reasons for being memorable. Answers ranged from Adele on the Alan Carr show, Tyler the Creator on Eric Andre, and the Late Night Show. Most of these shows and interviews that the participants mention are very interactive between guests and hosts and are fun to watch. In my talk show research interacting with your guests is a trait of a good talk show host and it also boosts viewership online, with celebs and hosts playing games together. Some of Jimmy Fallon's youtube videos of him playing a game with a guest have got more that 10 million views. Interactivity is the main reason for my group to incorporate a game into our talk show.

The majority of audiences not watching anything in real time anymore or only sometimes, also links to the non linear viewing explanation i did above. The last question of the interview was about audience psychographics. I wanted to see if my opinion on my groups talk show target audience being predominantly aspirers and explorers was correct. I was partially correct because 27.27% of participants were aspirers, however there were less explorers than I thought there would be, because explores are typically younger people. Succeeders tend to be higher administrative professionals however in this case i think it 27.27% identified with succeeder because younger people tend to set strong goals in their life and want to meet them with a good work ethic.

In conclusion my findings for this survey were that the majority of younger age demographics are non linear viewers with focuses on short form content and convenience. The Ofcom survey showed this on a larger scale using more participants, however my survey proves my point because 90% of participants identified as non linear viewers in the second question and only 9% of viewers watching anything in real time anymore in question five. I made a link between interactivity and comedy being fundamental to a talk shows success online and its overall enjoyability. Making it even more crucial to make my groups game segment in our talk show to be as comedic and entertaining as possible.