Vlog 3

Intro

Hi it’s Lewis once again from Like Media with another Educational Vlog. In this Vlog I will be talking about Analysing Audiences for media products and giving a snippet of the lifestyle of a Bigjohn@breakfast listener and from this you will hopefully understand Hallam FM and Bigjohn@breakfast’s audience reach and understand why they target this audience.

Gender

The Gender of Bigjohn@breakfast is 51% female audience to a 49% male audience so Hallam FM are pushing towards a more female audience rather than a target of male listeners. This shows (relating to the target demographic age of Hallam/ 25-45) that Hallam FM like to focus their morning show towards middle-aged mums. As it is a early morning show parents getting there children ready for a school day are more likely to be listening compared to someone who may work different hours of the day or aren’t in that routine of getting up and dropping there kid up at school as they don’t have that lifestyle (ether there two old or young to have children or simply don’t want kids at all). As of this Bigjohn@breakfast are very aware of their audience and regularly give information to help the targets out for example they regularly give traffic updates and reports, they also use the “Uses and Gratifications” Escapism to entertain, using media as a source to “get away” from reality using things like funny stories from other listeners to keep them entertained and to let them focus on something else for a change instead of there own life, this is used in a way to calm down the listeners and relief stress.

Age

Bigjohn@breakfast target there age group as I mentioned in the last section of there Vlog and they do this as it is the easiest age group for them to target as this middle aged group of listeners are at the perfect age and time to be listening to the radio station. The aim of Bigjohn@breakfast knowing there audience is the same as any other radio stations, to generate more followers and listeners every time they do a broadcast in a morning.  When planning a broadcast the presenters and writers have to take a lot of consideration into their audience like:

·      What is the age range of your listeners?

·      What level of education do they have (Which will relate to spending power/lifestyle)?

·      The gender of listeners?

·      How will they use this service?

·      What do your customers value most?

·      Where are your clients located?

For Hallam FM and Bigjohn@breakfast this is thought of a lot and could change depending on time and how well a broadcast went so this may be thought of allot

Lifestyle

The lifestyle of Bigjohn@breakfast listeners could be related to the spending power of the listeners as well as their income. Hallam FM and Bigjohn@breakfast as well as other radio broadcasted shows use the NRS (National Readership survey) as I mentioned before to target their categories of ABC1, which is, 41.2% of their full audience range so the rest of their audience (58.8%) would C2D’s. the show being ABC1s and C2D’s has quite a mixture of stereotypical lifestyles but being a Sheffield based show the lifestyles for people in this area would be things like:

·          Large football based hobby (Sheffield Wednesday and United)

·          Large shopping based activity (Meadowhall/Town)

·          Going to the cinema (Cineworld)

·          Lots of night clubs and bars

·          Gym –keeping fit (Zumba)

·          Golf and other sporting activities

These are just some activities that a Bigjohn@breakfast listener could do or might be into as a hobby/ activity or is apart of their lifestyle.

Spending Power

Bigjohn@breakfast have quite a split audience when it comes to spending power and income for example 41.2% being ABC1s which in power and money would be top end upper class people and families, being a big difference between them and Bigjohn@breakfast’s main audience that covers more than half the listeners tuned in, in a morning (C2D’s- 58.8%) the difference is that more top end bigger products and companies like car manufactures and expensive watch brands and more expensive items in general are targeting the audience with more money (ABC1’s) compared to subway and fast-food brands that are targeting lower class groups of people with less money and a lower income.

Uses and Gratifications

Denis McQuail (1987) discussed the use and gratification theory and said that there is four use and gratifications:

1.     Personal Identity- which is own behaviour, modelling personality- so radio stations try to model the typical lifestyle around you so whatever there advertising they expect you to buy.   (Shopping, Adverts and Music)

2.     Personal Relationships- Basis for conversation in a social situation- where the radio presenters talk about lifestyles or gossip. (Social Interaction between presenters)

3.     Surveillance- Finding information about something. (News, Information, Traffic Updated)

4.     Escapism- Entertainment using media to “Get away” from real life. (Personal stories, Music)

Sam is a 34-year-old hairdresser with two children. Sam spends a lot of time at home looking after her 18-month-old son called jack. As Sam is a hairdresser she has many clients that take up her time over the week, which often means her having to take Jack to her mums house in the morning when she has a hair appointment. All this traveling around all week long often leaves Sam with little time to rest her legs or do activities that she might enjoy. Because of this Sam regularly listens to Bigjohn@breakfast in a morning when driving to different clients it helps her relax in conditions that may be stressful like traffic. When Sam does have free time she likes going shopping and having a coffee with her best friend Amender or if all things fail they like to catch up on the phone and have regular talks. Sometimes on a weekend when Sam’s not working she leaves the kids at home with her loving husband Bill and goes down the Plug where she can get away from every day life and take a well deserved break where she can spend her money at a C2D disposable income all she wants. Sam enjoys listing to music and regularly listens to bands such as Take That, U2 and Madonna. Sam loves T.V and it is one of her favourite pass times she enjoys watching Hollyoaks, Coronation Street and Emmerdale. Because Sam likes to keep in touch with her child hood she uses Bigjohn@breakfast as a source to do this a listens regularly to School years and competitions that are featured on the show.