Target Audiences

The Mass/Mainstream Audience :

Some media texts attempt to appeal to a broad range of people. Although difficult to achieve, this is an ideal way to create very large audiences and, therefore, maximize the potential for success and ultimately profit. This group, consisting of males and females, young and old and a wide range of social groups is often called the mainstream or mass audience.

Niche Audiences :  

The mass audience is not the only one that can make a lot of money for media producers. Some media texts are created with a specific sub-section of the audience in mind - a niche audience. Whilst a niche audience is likely to be smaller in number than a mass audience, there are many ways appealing to a specific group can be profitable. Niche audiences are ones which have a specific interest in the content of the media text. This means they are more likely to:
• be loyal (watching or reading on a regular basis)
• purchase other products related to the media texts – merchandise/ DVDs etc.
• respond to advertising which is targeted towards their interests

Target Audience vs Actual Audience : 

Even though media producers may have a specific audience in mind when creating a media text, this is not to say that only those people targeted will access these texts.
Men are known to read women’s lifestyle magazines and women will watch Fifth Gear even though they may not be the target audience for these texts and are in the minority.
The actual audience may end up being quite different to the intended target audience.