Audience Research

Audience research is important because the producers of a film or programme need to know who they are setting out to entertain otherwise they wouldn't know what their text is supposed to include.
The audience is categorized by...

• gender
• self image
• age group
• family
• class
• nationality
• ethnicity
• education
• politics
• religion
• location

If they are categorized in social class then its from A-E

• A - Upper
• B - Middle
• C1 - Low Middle
• C2 - Skilled Working
• D - Working
• E - Lower Class - Students, pensioners, people who don't recieve an income

Key Audience Theories

• Hypodermic Needle Effect
• Two Step Flow
• Uses and Gratifictaions
• Reception Analysis
• Effects Debate

I think Hypodermic Needle Effect best explains the audience relationship and it suggests that the media is capable of 'mass manipulation'. Its based on assumption that the audience believes what it sees. That is what actually happens because when people watched 'Paranormal Activity' and 'The Fourth Kind' they actually believed what happened in the movie.