(12) Target audience & Demographics

Herbert Blumer's theory consisted of 6 factors. These factors were:


- Age
- Gender
- Culture
- Education
- Class
- Region

He believed in simple terms that 'mass audience' were individuals who all wanted/believed or shared the same thing in common. He believed that these mass audiences were not able to act within a huge crowd and were a "loose organisation". This theory was believed in the 1950's and since then, everything has changed and to believe this theory still would be inaccurate. Why? Because if a mass of people went to see a new movie in cinemas, and they wanted to share their opinions on it? Blogs, reviews and social media sites. In the 1950's nobody could do this but in the 21st century anyone can share their opinion on social media or any form of the web. Therefore to say 'mass audiences are unable to act within a crowd' would be wrong. When choosing my audience for my film at the end of this blog I will not take into consideration barely any ideas from this theory as it is sixty years old and a lot has changed.




Another inaccurate theory is the audience segmentation theory. This is because, again, times have changed and it reflects upon job roles and job roles only. No factors nor beliefs, ethnicity, age or gender are considered and not even class. Class is not defined by your job role, especially when put into a category. In fact, the jobs and their place in this theory are categorised by what type of job they are. E.G. Secretary and solicitor, both different paid jobs but similar in terms of telephone use, writing, emails and smartly dressed.

                                                               

An example of a teenage audience and how they are targeted is a film called 'ZombieLand'. This is because zombies are often conventional of teenage horrors, it usually involves group of teenagers surviving an 'apocalypse' and coming together to defeat these 'zombies'. The main characters are mainly teenagers and this is also relatable to the teenage target market. The print on the front of the DVD is showing teenagers with an adult holding guns, and a setting of a theme park, which is where the film is set, again the location is relatable to teenagers as teenagers are stereotypically seen as to enjoy theme parks.

So the setting, the name, the print, the characters and other conventions all come together to target teenagers in this horror movie.                                            

                                                                         
                                                           Another example is a film called 'Cabin In The Woods.
                                                           This film reaches its teenage target audience by using the                                                                    characters as a way to connect. All the five main characters                                                                are teenagers and this means the teenage target market can
                                                           automatically relate to these characters in their moods,
                                                           choices they make throughout the film,
                                                           feelings and the characters fashion and interests.
This works because if a 45 year old man decided to watch this film,
he could not relate to the modern day teenagers and their dress sense,
their language, for example; Slang and texting speech.
The characters use of drugs and alcohol and sex,
 these are all very stereotypical.