Audience

toc =What is an Audience?=

An audience is a group of people. The group cannot be random; this means that the audience must have some sort of purpose or common goal. The common purpose of an audience is not to //do// something, but to //experience// something. The goal of many media, in relation to this definition of an audience, is to provide the audience with an experience that they will enjoy enough to want to repeat.

=Audience and Entertainment Experience=

The type of experience that audiences seek from media is usually entertainment experience. Each entertainment experience is important because it attempts to make the audience want repetition of the experience. A key point to remember is that the process of forming an audience is never complete. An audience can always be re-formed (and frequently wants to be re-formed) around //new// experiences at different times and different places.

=Characteristics of an Audience=

It is important to differentiate an audience from the public and the mass. One must acknowledge that although the three groups have similarities, ultimately they are three different concepts. An audience is an entertainment and/or consumer concept. . Media are often disapproved of because of the consumerism involved in relation to their audiences. Audiences are characterized by having preferences and wanting to experience enjoyment. An audience can be looked at as fickle and temporary, its members only staying for as long as they are satisfied.

An important distinction of an audience is that audiences come together on the basis of elective affinities. This means that members of an audience come together because they share a common experience or a common judgement on the nature, value, and desirability of the experience. The goal of audiences is to prolong the pleasure of an experience or to repeat it. An audience does not prescribe limits or controls on individual behaviour, it views individual preference as the precondition of its existence.

=Audience and Space=

Something important to understand about audiences is that they do not have to be in the same physical space to share an experience. Audiences for television and film are highly dispersed in time and space. For example, although a basketball game occurs at a particular location and time with an audience to witness the event, there are still other audiences. The other audiences consist of those watching the game on television, listening to it on the radio, reading about the game in the newspaper or on the Internet the next day, or recreating the event as a part of a video game.

=Audience: Mass versus Fragmented=

In the past, a mass audience has been assumed to be the modern audience. A mass audience is described as an undistinguished mass where everyone enjoys the same content, and draws the same meanings from that content.

More recently, the audience is being viewed as highly fragmented. Fragmented audiences are described to be multiple, interlocking, and driven by highly differentiated and interest and desires. One important point to remember is that in order to be a part of a fragmented audience, one must be exposed to generalized interests first. This means that for one to know what they like, they must experience a variety of interests to begin with.

An example of a medium which once had a mass audience and now has a fragmented audience is the television. At one point the television only had a few channels watching by mass audiences, whereas more recently the television has hundreds of channels watched by multiple audiences. Although audiences are typically fragmented for most media, there are still events that attract mass audiences. Examples of this are [|blockbuster] films, certain television programs (such as Survivor) or events (such as the O.J Simpson trial).

=Related Links=

Narrowcasting Egocasting Podcasting

=Works Cited=

Attallah, Paul. "The Audience." __Mediascapes: New Patterns in Canadian Communications__. Ed. Attallah, Paul, and Shade, Leslie R. Canada: Thomson Nelson, 2002. 90-104.