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The Business of Media

The Business of Media. Chapter Two. Identifying an audience. AUDIENCES – the people whom a media product is directed MEDIA PRACTITIONERS –the people who select or create the material that a mass media firm produces, distributes, or exhibits.

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The Business of Media

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  1. The Business of Media Chapter Two

  2. Identifying an audience • AUDIENCES – the people whom a media product is directed • MEDIA PRACTITIONERS –the people who select or create the material that a mass media firm produces, distributes, or exhibits

  3. Table 3.1 The Top Five Largest Media Companies by U.S. Revenue, 2010 Largest Media Companies by U.S. Revenue

  4. Identifying an audience: Increasing Practitioners’ success • How should we think about our audience? How should we define our audience? • Will the material we are thinking of creating, distributing or exhibiting to attract that audience generate adequate revenues? • Were the people we thought would be attracted to our products in fact attracted to our products? Why or why not?

  5. Constructed audience Figure 3.1 The Constructed Audience

  6. Defining and constructing a target audience • ADEQUATE REVENUE – enough cash to allow the enterprise to pay for itself and give the owners or bankers who put up the money the desired return on their investment • DEMOGRAPHICS & DEMOGRAPHIC INDICATORS – characteristics by which people are divided into particular social categories by factors such as age, gender, occupation, ethnicity, race, and income • PSYCHOGRAPHICS – a way to differentiate among people or groups by categorizing them according to their attitudes, personality types, or motivations

  7. Demographic and psychographic analysis Figure 3.2 Demographic and Psychographic Analysis

  8. Creating content to attract the target audience • TRACK RECORD • RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (R & D) • SURVEYS • FOCUS GROUP • ANALYSIS OF EXISTING DATA • Measuring the content’s success with the target audience may depend on counting sales. • In cases in which sales are not involved such as radio, broadcast television, and the web, ratings companies conduct regular surveys to count audiences to help executives determine how many people watched particular programs.

  9. Genre and mass media content • GENRE – Major categories of media content • ENTERTAINMENT – material that grabs the audience’s attention and leaves agreeable feelings, as opposed to challenging their views of themselves and the world FOUR SUBGENRES OF ENTERTAINMENT Festivals Gaming Drama Comedy

  10. Entertainment subgenres Figure 3.3 Entertainment Subgenres

  11. Entertainment formulas • FORMULA – a patterned approach to creating content that is characterized by the use of setting, typical characters, and patterns of action SETTING: the environment in which content takes place TYPICAL CHARACTERS: those who appear regularly in the subgenre PATTERNS OF ACTION: the predictable activities associated with the characters in the settings

  12. Hybrid genres • HYBRID GENRES is a term used by some academic writers to describe mixed genres • Example: Taylor Swift’s music – blurs the lines between country and teen pop music • HYBRIDITY is the process of mixing genres within a culture and across cultures • Example: Bollywood meets Hollywood, Bride and Prejudice, 2004 • DRAMEDY is a subgenre that blends the rules associated with drama (serious) and comedy (funny) • Example: Desperate Housewives, Psych, Monk, Ugly Betty, Californication

  13. News • News, like entertainment, involves telling stories. The stories presented in the news are a tale with a beginning, middle and end. JOURNALISTS today must present the news using many forms of media including audio and video reports on the web. • Subgenres of News • HARD NEWS • INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS • EDITORIALS • SOFT NEWS

  14. HARD NEWS • What most people think of as news. It is the firsthand reportage of a battle, the coverage of a congressional bill’s passage, or the details of a forest fire. • Other important elements associated with hard news are OBJECTIVITY and ACCURACY • Four Guidelines that determine what is and isn’t hard news • Timeliness • Unusualness • Conflict • The Closeness of the incident

  15. THE INVERTED PYRAMID Figure 3.4 Inverted Pyramid Approach

  16. Investigative news • INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS are in-depth explorations of some aspects of reality Share the same standards of objectivity, fairness and accuracy with hard news Difference between hard news and investigative reports is the amount of time journalists devote to the project

  17. Editorials • An EDITORIAL is a subgenre of news that concentrates on an individual’s or an organization’s point of view • COLUMNISTS – individuals who are paid to write editorials on a regular basis—usually weekly, monthly, or daily • BLOGS – journalistic websites or opinion sites in which writings are in the style of journal entries, often in reverse chronological order

  18. Soft news • The kind of news story that news workers feel may not have the critical importance of hard news but nevertheless would appeal to a substantial number of people in the audience • Also known as a human interest story • Examples: cooking, sports, daily life tips, local and community events like plays or recitals

  19. Advertising • An ADVERTISEMENT is a message that explicitly aims to direct favorable attention to certain goods and services • A broad definition of advertising even includes PRODUCT PLACEMENT, which is the paid insertion of products into TV shows and movies in order to associate those products, often quietly, with certain desirable characters or activities • Subgenres of Advertisements • INFORMATIONAL ADS • HARD-SELL ADS • SOFT-SELL ADS

  20. Five primary business activities • PRODUCTION • DISTRIBUTION • EXHIBITION • AUDIENCE RESEARCH • FINANCE Figure 3.5 The Process of Mass Media

  21. PRODUCTION • PRODUCTION for the mass media means the creation of materials for distribution through one or more mass media vehicles • A MASS MEDIA PRODUCTION FIRM is a company that creates materials for distribution through one or more mass media vehicles Who Does the Work? ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL CREATIVE PERSONNEL ON-STAFF WORKER FREELANCERS TALENT GUILD

  22. How production takes place Figure 3.6 Collaboration in Mass Media Production Production in media industries is a COLLABORATIVE ACTIVITY, in which many people work together to create, and polish the end material Other important aspects related to production include the SCHEDULE and the FORMAT

  23. Distribution and exhibition • DISTRIBUTION is the delivery of the produced material to the point where it will be shown to its intended audience • EXHIBITION is the activity of presenting mass media materials to audiences for viewing or purchase SHELF SPACE is the amount of area or time available for presenting products to consumers

  24. Vertical integration Figure 3.7 Vertical Integration & CBS An organization’s control over a media product from production through distribution to exhibition

  25. Financing mass media content • The cash coming into a mass media firm can be divided into two categories • 1. Money to fund new production • 2. Money to pay for already-completed products Taking out loans Investments LOAN STOCK OFFERINGS INVESTMENT BANKS VENTURE CAPITALISTS SYNDICATE INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING (IPO)

  26. FUNDING WHEN PRODUCTION IS ALREADY COMPLETE • The primary indicator of the health of any company is its PROFITS. In mass media firms, there are several ways to bring in revenue • Direct Sales • License Fees • Rentals • Usage Fee • Subscriptions • Advertising

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