CHAPTER 5 CONSTRUCTING AUDIENCES Mass audiences

• The word audience has its roots in the idea of a

LESSON 1 – The Notion of Audience
spectator or the captive set of listeners or viewers
• We are all audiences. assembled in a more or less public and common space
• Producers and creators of media and information- the • The dramatic change that has happened because of
creative people, media executives, marketers, those the advent of technology is that media now can be
who decide on what should be shown and distributed, experienced by people even if they are alone.
and those who decide what should not be are • Listening to a song on Spotify or watching a video clip
audiences of their own work and of the work of others on Youtube, we become part of the mass audience
• Audience is a highly valued concept in media and even though we are separated from all other members
information production. of this mass by both time and space
• Audience evokes images of gatherings of people in a • The idea of a mass audience came from the invention
specific location. of photography, film, radio, and television
• They are imagined as a mass of people congregating • These developments allowed media that might have
in space as in the case of live shows, a smaller group been restricted to just a few to be transmitted to huge
of people in a cinema or a smaller family unit gathered numbers of people in different parts of the world.
in the living room. • These platforms include now electronic media gadgets
• This gathering of people in various spaces could be the such as PCs, tablets, and mobile phones, expanding
first image that comes to the mind of media producers audience access at unprecedented levels
and creators
From "mass audience" to audience segments
• The audience is the receiver in the process of
information communication. • Segmenting audiences customize the content to a
• Audience is the reader, listener, viewer and spectator specific sector of the society, thus improving the quality
(Dictionary of Modern Journalism) of the material that will most likely be relevant and
appropriate to the needs and desires of the target
Six features of audiences today (Mcquail 1997)
audience.
1. Audience plan and organize viewing and listening, • Audience segmentation, according to Turrow (2014), is
even the performances or events themselves the direct result of channel fragmentation, a
2. Audience engages with events that have a public phenomenon that started way ahead before the web.
character • In the 70s, under the grip of martial law, Philippine
3. These events are secular in nature television was confined to five channels, one of which
4. Audiences engage with an event on a voluntary basis was government-owned.
5. If there are audience and spectators, there are • After the EDSA revolution and the restoration of
performers, authors and media creators democracy in television broadcasting, the number of
6. Spectator engagement is physically located even if the channels rose to more than 100
audiences are scattered in various physical locations • Cable television was introduced in 1969.
• In the decade of 90s cable TV gained ground with the
Different Media, Different Audience establishment of Sky Cable
• Level of activity and engagement with the media and • Decades of expansion both in traditional and cable-
information text satellite TV have resulted to channel fragmentation, a
• Level of interaction with fellow audience situation marked by the increase in the number of
• Location and space occupied channels and the personalization of program content to
• Amount of time devoted to watching or viewing a niche market
• Accessibility and proximity • Today, the attention of the audience is divided across
multiple channels and platforms to include movie-on-
Nightingale proposed a typology of audiences demand (video-on-demand) services such as NetFlix,
iFlix and Amazon Prime
• Audience as "the people assembled" and paying • The advertising industry also benefits from audience
attention to a media performing before them segmentation
• Audience as "the people addressed" referring to a
group of people who were imagined by the 1. It becomes easier to decide which airtime
communicator in the creation and dissemination of the will align with their target markets
text, such as the women who are advertisers think
should be patronizing the product 2. It makes advertising messaging and
• Audience as "happening" which could be the content creation more specific to target
experience of reception alone or with others as an markets
interactive event, like live streaming on the internet of
• Globalization has allowed target audiences to expand,
a global event
with new nationalities and user segments emerging as
factors to consider

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LESSON 2 – AUDIENCE THEORIES Kinds of gratification that can be derive from media

• From the side of the creators and producers, the • Information. We want to know about the society we live
audience is the perceived receiver, the viewer, and the in. We want to make sense of the world.
end user of the media texts that will come out of the • Personal identity. We watch TV to validate our
production cycle understanding and appreciation of our identities
• Media corporations spend a huge amount of funds • Integration and Social Interaction. WE can integrate
trying to learn about their target audiences and interact with social groups through media
• Television executives prioritize audience research as a • Entertainment. We use media for enjoyment,
prerequisite before embarking on any media project relaxation, or just to fill time. We are attracted to TV
• Politician on the campaign trail conduct poll studies to programs that provide us with the simple pleasure of
finetune their campaign messages to win over a bigger song and music or fictional programs that engage us
fraction of the voting population with engaging narratives with plot twists and dramatic
conflicts
Two main school of thoughts about the audience
Cultural Effects Theory
• On one end, the assertion that media and information
messages emanate from powerful structure and the • Cultivation theory regards the role of television in
audiences are passive recipients. shaping the viewer's perceptions, beliefs, attitudes,
• On the other end, the belief that audiences create or and values.
generate their own meanings from the media and • The development of the cultivation theory as the
information texts and are therefore considered active. product of a more expansive cultural indicators project
that pursued three directions:
In between two ends of this spectrum is a give-and-take
situation, where the audience exercise their ability to interpret 1. How media messages are produced and
meanings enabled or constrained by their personal disseminated
circumstances and the context surrounding their communities
2. The content of actual media messages probed
Passive or active audiences through a message system analysis

PASSIVE 3. How exposure to media messages influences the

recipients' conception of the real world
• •Audiences accept media messages
• Audiences easily Influenced CULTIVATION THEORY
• •Do not make own use of texts or interpret in own way
Cultivation theory is a sociological and communications theory
ACTIVE that examines the ways exposure to media (primarily television)
affects individuals and society.
• •Audiences are involved in their interpretations of
media texts EXPLANATION
• •Audiences create their own meanings
• Audiences question and respond to Institutions Cultivation theory is a social scientific theory that explains the
long-term effects of media on people who are exposed to it for
Passive Theories long periods.

• The hypodermic needle theory emerged in the late It posits that the messages and themes in the media shape
1920s and gained prominence until after World War II people's attitudes and beliefs about the world, even if they are
• It asserted that media and information messages aware that the messages are not entirely true or representative
injected messages directly to their audiences of reality.
• Media was described as powerful conduits of
messages and audiences as passive recipients. EXAMPLE
• Audiences simply take in and believe anything and
For example, people who watch a lot of crime dramas may come
everything told to them by the media
to believe that the world is a more dangerous place than it is,
• Audiences are largely homogenous and
even if they know that the shows are fictional. This can lead to
undifferentiated, thus, media texts generate the same
moral panic in society.
interpretation
• The uses and gratification approach argued that the To counteract this phenomenon, there is a need for greater
audiences accessed media with their needs and media literacy.
desires, which in turn structured the way media is
received. • The cultivation theory was developed when TV was the
• The individual has the power, and he/she selects the most dominant media platform
media texts that best suit his/her needs and wants, so • It builds on the relationship between the amount of time
he/she can derive some gratification spent watching TV and the behaviors cultivated by
such practice

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 • For instance, voting behavior can be influenced by The Notion of Constructed Audience
exposure to media platforms with a particular political
slant • Something is constructed when there is a deliberate
• The strength of the cultivation analysis was the focus attempt and effort to turn an idea into material reality.
in some studies. For instance, some studies sought to • The audience for teleserye does not exist per se, but
develop empirical means to assess the relationship the creators and producers build in their minds the kind
between the amount of viewing time vis-à-vis behavior o people the teleserye will attract
and the attitude and opinions of the viewers • Media outfits, as they embark on a media project, start
off with the question, "Who is the target audience?"
• Constructing target audiences is making audience
specific.
➢ In decades to come, more complex insights on • By identifying why this product is relevant to a particular
audience reception would emerge. We need to invoke group of people and by bringing in that imagined group
our basic understanding of encoding and decoding of people to the drawing table, the media text actually
messages. constructs the audience for whom it is intended.
➢ Meaning and power always intersect in media and • A target audience is a specific group of people
information texts • There is at least one dominant identified and aggregated from selected population
message coming from media's tendency, consciously segments who are the intended users. The information
or unconsciously, to reproduce the meaning preferred they generate helps them develop media messages
by the most powerful groups in society that will attract this group or in the case of advertisers,
➢ On the decoding side, the media and information texts help them recommends products that will be potentially
are always open to a range of meanings in terms of attractive and useful to this target audience. They
interpretation speak to your interests, work around what will attract
➢ There is a notion of a polysemic text. "Poly" implies you, and avoid what might drive that away
plurality, while "semic' is a Greek word sema meaning
audiences see various meanings in the signs that are How Audiences are Constructed
in the media and information texts.
➢ Polysemic texts carry multiple meanings. Audiences • Demographic audience analysis enables media
can make multiple meanings out of media texts producers to tap into similarities and differences so
➢ An individual's interpretation of a media text is shaped they can narrow down their target audiences
by the social circumstances surrounding him/her and • Demographic information includes attributes such as
by the contexts that govern his/her existence. Social age, gender, or geographic location and socio-
factors are summed up as the triumvirate of class, economic status
gender and ethnicity • Media producers are guided by the acronym GEARS
to build a demographic audience analysis
Context is the set of conditions that locate a media and ➢ Gender
information text in a particular historical period and social ➢ Ethnicity
context that should include the social institutions like business ➢ Age range
and economic institutions. the mass media, art and culture. It ➢ Region or nationality
also includes current issues, even political movements, and the ➢ Socio-economic group
social forces competing to gain access to power

Reception and resistance

Three modes of reading media texts on TV(David Morley)

1. There is the dominant reading where the reader fully shares

the text's code and accepts and reproduces the preferred
reading. For example, the shampoo commercial featuring
luscious hair of a woman ignites the desire to have the same
hair as the product endorser so women will buy the product

2. There is negotiated reading where the audience partly shares

the text's codes and broadly accepts the preferred reading but
modifies it in a way that reflects one's own position, lived • Psychographics is largely derived from the concept of
experiences and opinions demographics but is focused on psychological traits. It
covers attitudes, personality types, opinions and
3. There is the oppositional reading, where the audience takes motivations
a directly oppositional stance to the dominant code of the media • Consider the producers of a Saturday afternoon teen
and information texts and resists it completely. show who would like to illustrate the current lifestyle
habits of their viewing public. They build a research
For example, the viewer might totally see the advertisement as
design to probe into the psychological habits of their
a sham, a blatant attempt to turn women into passive consumers
target market. The researchers find out certain
aspiring for something they can never have because the whole
elements about the target viewers: 13-16 age group is
advertisement is a scam

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 mostly apolitical; 17-19 age group find delight in CHAPTER 6 MAKING SENSE OF MEANING:
discussing social issues
• The research company, after the first season of the VALUES, LIFESTYLE, AND IDEOLOGY IN
telecast, declared thar their findings, indicate three MEDIA
types of viewer who are drawn to the TV show: those
who follow their favorite performers; those who are LESSON 1 – MAKING SENSE OF MEDIA: FRAMES OF A
drawn to the narratives; those who seek lifestyle and STORY
role models
• The TV producers can refer to the result of the research • Common Assumptions and implications of media and
to finetune their narratives to sustain a base of loyal information
viewers. As such, there might be changes that will be • In planning, producing, and creating these texts,
implemented mid-stream, such as narrative revisions, choices must be made and decisions implemented.
changes in the line-up of performers to appeal to the The producers and creators make choices. Their
fans choices reflect their values, opinions, and points of
view.
• Integral and viral to the creation and production
process is the selection of what to include and what to
exclude. The selection of news sources implies that
there will also be other sources that will either
corroborate or invalidate the opinions stated by the
news source
• The process of inclusion and exclusion is best
illustrated by the way we frame an event or a scene
before we click the shutter of the camera

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

➢ Study design - Empirical research (experimental,

quasi-experimental, observational studies, evaluation
studies, qualitative studies, mixed methodology
research, meta-analysis, systematic review)
➢ Participants - Aged over 18 (students, Instructors, adult
learners)
➢ Game Intervention - Games for knowledge acquisition/
content understandings, skills, engagement,
motivation, emotion. Games for educational purposes
➢ Types of selected research - Journal articles and
Conference papers
➢ Written language – English and French

Exclision Criteria

➢ Study design - Non empirical studies (thesis, reports,

reviews
➢ Participants - Ages younger than 18
➢ Game Intervention - Non-game-based learning tools
and technologies. Games for entertainment purposes
➢ Types of selected research – Thesis, Reports, Reviews
➢ Written language - All other languages

• In the production of media text, the creators will focus

attention on certain events and place them within a field
of meaning
• Framing is the way creators and producers organize
and present the events and issues they cover. They
focus attention on certain events or elements and place
them within a field of meaning.
• Framing is also called agenda-setting.
• In the feature story or investigative report, the frame
can be a powerful organizing tool for storytelling
• Frames can be both enabling and constraining to
audiences.

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 • Framing is a process of putting together the elements Propaganda and Persuasion
to create or produce a media text and the process of
not including some elements in the creation and • In 1872, three Filipino priests Gomez, Burgos, and
production of a media text Zamora were sentenced to die because of their alleged
• These choices will inevitably bear the values, opinions, participation in the uprising in the Cavite Naval Yard.
and points of view of the media creators and producers. Feelings of anger were stoked. This event inspired the
Every decision they make lifestyle to portray, opinions Propaganda Movement, spurred by young men whose
expressed by major characters, the actions in the plot- families could afford to send them to study at Spanish
are enfolded in the media text universities in Madrid and Barcelona
• The leaders of the Propaganda movement used the
Media and the Status Quo power of the written and spoken word to advance their
causes
• Status quo refers to the prevailing state of affairs in • Today, the means of disseminating propaganda have
society and social institutions and the relationships that evolved into more technologically advanced channels
exist between institutions and social classes • With The rise of social media, every internet user has
• The prevailing state is that very few hold economic and been given access to advance his/her personal
political power elite that discriminate, exclude, and opinion, thus making him/her a bit of a propagandist
marginalize those who do not have economic and • Propaganda means to disseminate or promote
political resources. particular ideas.
• Mainstream media and how it supports and • In Latin, it means "to propagate" or "to sow"
perpetuates the status quo have been the cause of • It has been used in history to advance religion and to
many reservations and resentment about the justify conquest
institution's role in society • Essentially, propaganda is about communicating ideas
designed to persuade people to think and behave in a
Values and Attitudes
desired way.
• Values are a special kind of belief that endures and is • When you update your status on FB. when you express
very unlikely to change. an opinion about a social issue, or when you share, re-
• As a belief, it can be prescriptive and can serve as a tweet, and circulate information, you are attempting to
guide for a person's behavior. influence how people think about matters and issues,
• Values are principles that we use to judge the worth of and you are marshaling resources to change or further
an idea or a practice their opinions
• Value systems are coherent and consistently aligned • Terms that are associated with propaganda are spin,
sets of values from which you derive your sense of news management, and public relations
identity and integrity • Propaganda is a deliberate, systematic attempt to
• Attitudes are the affective expressions of our shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct
responses to events, circumstances, or people behavior and further the desire of the propagandist
• In cognitive psychology, attitude may be described as (Jowett and O'Donnel)
a predisposition to react favorably or unfavorably to a
Seven Propaganda Devices (institute of Propaganda
situation, event or person
Analysis IPA)
Lifestyles
1. Bandwagon
• Lifestyles are ways of living and consist of interests,
It asserts that everybody is doing it and convincing members of
hobbies, behavior, and opinions of an individual, or
a group to jump onto the bandwagon. It leaves the impression
family group.
that if you don't join the rest, you will be left out and be at a
• Both tangible and intangible elements combine to
disadvantage Example: Everybody's doing it, don't be left out"
render the kind of lifestyle that an individual is
cries out an advertisement
predisposed to lead
• Tangible elements could be the social class. largely 2. Card stacking
determined by income and other material possessions
as well as the spaces inhabited It involves making a biased argument by combining falsehood
• Intangible elements could come with the values and and leaving opposing evidence hidden or discredited. The team
attitudes a person or a group is predisposed to organized from the famous magician's trick of "slacking a deck
• Media exposes its viewers to lifestyles that may be of cards that appears to have been shuffled but stacked in a
different from what they know certain order to favor the trick that will be played out.
• Local TV programming has always valorized the
lifestyle of the rich and powerful classes engendering Example: Current economic managers and planners blame the
aspirational directions for its viewers previous administration for the economic slump
• Mass advertising encourages people to patronize
products that encourage certain lifestyle

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3. Glittering Generalities LESSON 2 - MEDIA AND IDEOLOGY

These are vague, broad statements that will connect with the • Today, the word ideology is associated with rigid
audience's beliefs and values but don't say anything political beliefs or with social movements espousing
substantive. Most slogans fall under this category radical ideas about reform and revolution.
• When someone is admonished as "being too
Example: An electoral candidate woos the voters by making this ideological". It only means that one subscribes to some
his clamor call " I will lead this country out of the dark." political ideology and is unyielding to other beliefs.
• A French aristocrat and revolutionary coined the term
4. Transfer
ideology from the Greek idea "form pattern" - logos
It is a technique that carries the authority of a person to promote denoting discourse
one's message. The person's credibility is transferred and
Examples of Ideologies
eventually, fused with the message. Sometimes it uses symbols,
such as the flag, to evoke a sense of patriotism. There can be lots of different sources of ideological beliefs and
values: religion, politics, education, etc. Can you think of any?
Example: A product uses the symbols of the Philippines flag to
connote it's nationalistic intent • Capitalism Conservatism
• Socialism
5. Plain Folks
• Vegetarianism Christianity
It is used by propagandists to give the impression that the one • The Nuclear Family
carrying the message or the spokesperson comes from a • Environmentalism
humble origin, or identity with the masses and so will keep their • Feminism
interests to hear.
Marxism
Example: Politicians carrying babies to win votes or directing
traffic in a busy street Karl Marx 1818 – 1883

6. Testimonial • Class Conflict- A ruling class harmfully controls a ruled

class
It involves using the voice of the people to speak for the • Oppression - A moral, political, social and economic
message or to endorse a person, an idea, or a product. system in which some groups are held down so others
can benefit
Example: The use of a disenfranchised framer to speak for the • Exploitation - treating people like things
cause of other framers • Alienation - When an oppressed group does not seem
themselves authentically, but as the oppressor defines
7. Name-Calling
them
It creates fear and prejudice by using negative words to create • Karl Marx believed that ideologies were systems of
an unfavorable option or hatred against a group, beliefs, ideas, thought perpetuated by the ruling classes to preserve
or instructions they would have us denounce an existing social order that only serves the interests of
the ruling classes. For example, the ruling class can
Example: The head of the executive branch of the government perpetuate religiosity through the church institutions
discredits the Catholic Church by calling its names or calling out they support
as excessive

• Persuasion is a complex, continuing interactive process in

which a sender and a receiver are linked by symbols, verbal and • Ideology means a more coherent system of concepts
nonverbal. through which a persuader attempts to persuade the and beliefs held by an individual or a group. This
persuadee to adopt a change in a given attitude or behavior coherent body of concepts and beliefs flow through
because the persuade has had perceptions enlarged or social institutions such as the school, the church, the
changed law, and the media
• Media is a purveyor of ideology
• Ideology flows through the systems of meaning that
define and explain reality to its audience and to the
representations of character and events and to the
inclusions and exclusions of the content in media
messages
• For Marxism, ideology is always hinged on the idea of
false consciousness.
• False consciousness means that what they receive is
not the ideology of their own class but the ideology of
the powerful classes in society
• Ideology is a powerful mechanism that exerts control
over the people. especially the oppressed classes that
are forced to accept the ideology of the ruling class.

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• Antonio Gramsci asserted a more expensive idea,
hegemony, the interaction of power, cultures, and
ideology
• Persuasion enforces consent, and it is the media's
cultural leadership that enforces this as they produce
and reproduce ways of thinking
• The idea of power as "hegemony" has also influence
debate about civil society

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