Unit 6 LO1 Introduction Why do media producers need to know their audience?

It is vital producers know their audience is to create a good production to whatever

doing, you need to find out the vital information which can make your production
a success, so this would be to find out what gender you are targeting, what age group?
What do they want to see? And why would they want to see it, the more Quantitive and
Qualitive research the better which will make a better production. With knowing all
this information producers can then go towards making their production and taking the
research in using it into their production to make more income. The drawbacks that if
producers do not do this I think personally are huge, you could create a production and
it be completely all wrong, you may have a idea in your head of what you want to do, but
there may not be a market for it, and people may not want to see it, usually when
you dont know your audience, the production you make could be completely wrong and
make no money of it. A good example of this is the film that Madonna directed and
acted in called Body of Evidence, this was a film with strong Nudity and sexual
references, but it was huge flop, this was because there was research into their
audience, and what they wanted to see and what would work, instead they came up with
the idea to make the film and just made with no research being put into it.
Give Examples of 2 Media Theories
Hypodermic Needle Theory

Most of the theories on media explained about the effects media had on people. It is
the theory which explains of how people use media for their need and gratification. In
other words we can say this theory states what people do with media rather than what
media does to people. Also this theory is contradictory to the magic bullet theory which
states the audience is passive. According to uses and gratification theory, it is not so
people make use of the media for their specific needs. This theory can be said to have
a user/audience-centred approach. Even for communication (say inter-personal) people
refer to the media for the topic they discuss with themselves. They gain more
knowledge and that is knowledge is got by using media for reference. There are several
needs and gratification for people they are categorized into five categories.
Cognitive needs
Affective needs
Personal Integrative needs
Social Integrative needs
Tension free needs
The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people
directly and uniformly by shooting or injecting them with appropriate messages
designed to trigger a desired response. So for example if a passive audience saw a film

where a strong influence was given of all Americans are bad, then the audience will
then believe all Americans are bad and they are bad
people. When really this isnt true but it is almost like we
are being told, this is what we are saying,
this is true, youre sitting down and watching this and were right.
A great example of this is the Columbine massacre, which was influenced by the music
of Marolyn Mancen, which made the group of people who committed the crime think
that shooting and killing kids was acceptable and because he was singing about it was
okay to do it, so they were influenced by what the music was and believed it was ok.
Uses & Gratifications Theory

This theory suggests that we as an air active audience feel more involved, so therefore
we are not being told what to believe and what to watch, we have our own choice and we
can feel more involved, a example of this would be X Factor, we have a influence in the
programme as we can have a option to vote who we want to stay in the competition and
who we want to win. Another example of this is a negotiated version, this is where the
director has given us what they want us to believe, but we have our own opinion to think
no this isnt right and we have the opportunity to think, a good example of this is
Godzilla, everything about the film, the story, the advertisement, the plot suggests
Godzilla is the bad person in this film, but really we feel tricked and it turns out that
Godzilla is the good person in this film and saves the city, but we may pick things as the
film goes on and figure this out ourselves.
Which Organisations supply audience information?
Organisations like BABB can supply information on the amount of viewers that watch
British television so for BBC and ITV Etc. This is very useful to find out information on
what people watch on their TV the most and what time they are actively on their
television and what kind of things they like to watch. Another one is RJAR which is a
radio research company, so they carry out research which will help radio stations like
the BBC stations and other commercial radio stations. They are very similar to BARB
but instead operate in the radio department.
List a variety of ways how producers can obtain information?
Producers can easily obtain information by using different methods of research, so this
could be done making and using questionnaires to find out information on what they
would prefer. You can use internet surveys to which is also a good way to find out
important information and also internet is a very good access as millions of people are
on the internet every day. Also research using the internet which is a massive tool as
there is many pieces of information you can get on the internet. Old Archives maybe to
if you needed old information which could be of some use. I would advise personally a
questionnaire survey on the internet, this way this can give you personal research and
people can offer you their opinion to what you are asking, also as well the internet is a
massive tool in todays world which means there is much more possibility of other
people from all different places

and different people with different interests who could answer your survey as well and
you could get strong feedback and come to a conclusion.