Audiences and Attitudes

Learning Objectives After reading the chapter, you should be able to: 1. Describe characteristics of audiences in the media age 2. Identify the components of an attitude 3. Explain how persuaders use audience analysis in creating their messages 4. Understand how audiences are measured using polling, demographics, psychographics, geodemographics, and ratings

Key Terms Narrowcasting Broadcasting Attitude Belief Audience analysis Polling Segmentation Demographics Psychographics Focus group Geodemographics Cookie Ratings

Audiences and Attitudes American media organizations are measuring and analyzing audiences as never before You, and others like you, are assembled by programmers and sold to persuaders Television networks seek to achieve high ratings from advertisers interested in targeting their messages to this lucrative group of consumers Persuaders understand audiences through technology and use audience segmentation to pinpoint ideal audiences for an advertiser’s product

The Audience in the Media Age Media broadcast audiences are large, anonymous, and able to circumvent persuasive messages Potentially millions of audience members reached through television, print, radio, and the Internet Narrowcasting – targeting programming at small, narrowly defined audiences allows persuaders to reach their ideal audience Primary versus secondary audiences – secondary audiences hear about, see, or read a persuader’s message after it has initially reached the intended (primary) audience

The Audience in the Media Age Anonymity – persuaders communicate to unknown audience members Tweets and s make audience active participants in a program Persuaders foster identification through creating appearance of knowing the audience Taking control – audience members can create their own messages and content independent of media organizations iTunes Hulu Amazon.com customers interact Hypertext layout of Web pages

Audiences and Attitudes Attitude – an evaluative, learned, flexible predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to an object Attitudes are formed from three types of information 1. Cognitive – beliefs are ideas about what is true or false 2. Affective/emotional information – based on how something makes audience feel 3. Past behaviors – direct experiences lead to formation of an attitude

Rokeach’s Five Types of Beliefs Type A: primitive, 100% Consensus – basic truths that are shared Type B: Primitive, Zero Consensus – incontrovertible, learned through direct experience Type C: Authority – the faith we put in parents, friends, authority figures Type D: Derived – ideological (political/religious) derived secondhand through identification with authority Type E: Inconsequential – matters of taste

Changing Attitudes Attitude of audience member is the linchpin to changing audience behavior Cognitively formed attitudes more easily changed by affective information than new cognitive information Affectively formed attitudes more easily changed by cognitive information than new affective information Attitudinal ambivalence – evenly balanced between negative and positive Apathy – absence of an attitude

Components of an Attitude Attitudes are comprised of cognitive information, affective/emotional information, and past behavior. An attitude is simply a behavioral intention. It may or may not lead to an actual behavior by the audience member.

Audience Analysis Audience analysis – the process by which persuaders break down their audience into small, observable units Persuaders learn about audiences in order to communicate effectively to them Persuaders use audience analysis to create their audiences

Adapting to Audiences Persuaders use a variety of ways to learn about audience and then tailor message to change their attitudes Example, a president uses polling data to determine how receptive an audience will be to a particular argument

Creating Audiences Persuaders create audiences that have attitudes consistent with their message Persuaders assemble the right people to hear, read, and see a message – often crucial to the persuader’s success Politicians create target audiences by choosing to focus on issues appealing to the audience Attorneys interview potential jurors and select those sympathetic to their cause to create jury for trial

Polling Polling – the use of statistical theory to gauge opinion of a larger population based on a survey of a smaller representative sample of the population 1. Determine audience attitudes 2. Gauge effectiveness of the message 3. Use poll results as persuasive proof to demonstrate acceptance of message

Polling Began in mid-1930s George Gallup – Institute of Public Opinion sampled public opinion for syndicated newspaper feature Fortune magazine commissioned Elmo Roper to conduct similar surveys Archibald Crossley – 1936 presidential election surveys Functions Politicians test public opinion of issues Market research – evaluate persuasive campaigns Advertisers poll to find best advertisement Entertainment programmers poll to test potential products – focus-group testing

Assessing Polling Approach polling with healthy skepticism 1. How informed are respondents about poll topic? 2. Is question wording loaded? 3. Random sample? 4. Poll results reported in an impartial manner?

Audience Segmentation Segmentation – divides population into units based on demographics, psychographics, and geodemographics to more precisely infer audience attitudes Demographics – audience analysis based on Age Sex Race Income Memberships Ethnicity Religion

Demographics Age Youth – purchasing power $211 billion in 2012; have influence on parental purchasing decisions Baby boomers – 78 million reaching retirement; control 70% of U.S. wealth Gender – women make or influence 85% of all purchases Race – increase in minority and mixed-race populations Sexual orientation – gays have more discretionary income, live throughout U.S., likely to have children

Psychographics Psychographics – combines demographics with audience attitudes, opinions, and interests VALS – Values, Attitudes, and Life Style – based on idea that personality drives behaviors VALS profile based on (1)self-orientation and (2) resources Innovators Thinkers Achievers Experiencers Believers Strivers Makers Survivors

Qualitative Analysis Focus groups – probe audience emotional connection to a product, image, or idea to tweak concepts and images used in commercials, packaging, and product development Personification – respondent pictures company as a representative character to indicate attitudes Concept mapping – product ratings graphically represented in a map to show relationships between products Collage – consumers use various photos or objects to create themed visual representation of feelings and concepts about a product

Geodemographics Geodemographics – shows where demographic groups live Persuaders divide counties and cities into one-block units to target their communication more narrowly Swing states – voters can go either way; political persuasion efforts concentrated in these areas

Segmenting Internet Audiences Internet offers opportunity to understand and segment online audiences Websites can determine software use, user location, time spent on sites Cookies Retain ordering information Track site navigation Personalize Web pages

Ratings Ratings – measurements of media audiences by a third party Print and broadcast advertising all sold based on audience as determined by impartial third party Television – Nielsen ratings Ratings – percentage of all households tuned to a particular show at a particular time Share – percentage of current television viewing audience tuned to particular show at a particular time

Ratings Radio – Arbitron ratings Portable People Meter (PPM) – electronically monitors radio listening and television viewing Print Media Based on circulation figures from Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) Readership often considered rather than circulation to consider multiple readers of publication

Ratings Internet audiences - Nielsen/NetRatings Sites visited Time spent on each site Frequency of online use