The audience of a media text is it's consumer.
Audience over time
Conventionally an audience refereed to a passive, non-contributing recipient of the text. This isn't true though, as there is almost always a reaction from the audience.
As technology has evolved, audiences have become more interactive (E.g. email and texting).
| Then | The audiences would go out and gather (E.g. the theatre). |
| Now | People don't need to gather together any more, so groups consuming media will usually be of four people or less. |
Whatever media is available shapes the audience
There are various types of audience. There are audiences for:
- a particular product
- a type of product
- a certain time slot
- a particular group of people (e.g. age, gender, class...)
Producers must give serious thought as to what they want to provide the audience
Technology allows for increased and improved audience-producer relationships, allowing:
- local programming
- feedback
- televised forums.
Watson & Mill (1997): The audience can be either 'public' or 'market'.
| Public | What people need; values such as education and news. |
| Market | Trying to sell to a particular audience via advertising. |