Audience Theory

In media the audience is arguably the most important consideration of producers in the industry. Audiences can be broken up into groups based on their likes and dislikes, this is known as demographics. Demographics can be further split up into categories such as age, gender, race and income status.

Once producers have used demographics to identify their target audience, they can split the audience up into primary and secondary audiences. The primary audience is who the product is mainly intended for but there may be other groups interested in the product and they are known as the secondary audience. A good example of clear primary and secondary audiences is Disney films. The large majority of Disney films' primary audience is young children. However, children will go to watch a film with their parents, so Disney have identified this as their secondary audience and adapt their products to suit adults as well as children.

Audiences can also be split up into passive and active audiences. Passive audiences are audiences which do not actually interact with the product and therefore do not affect the production of said product, instead the product effects the audience. This is also known as the Hypodermic Needle theory and is most commonly seen in advertising in the media world. The theory is used to explain how audiences consume media and hypothesises that the audience is injected, without knowing, with information by media producers. This "injection" of information often effects what the audience believes and how they behave. Evidence of the Hypodermic Needle theory is commonly seen in the news when killers are suggested to have been influenced by violent video games or movies.

On the other hand, active audiences actually interact with the product which in turn affects the production of it. This gives the audience a feeling of control over the product which fits in with Uses and Gratifications theory. This theory insinuates that, due to humans inherent selfishness, we consume media for our own uses and satisfaction.