Audience.

Audience research is the most important part of the media industry as a whole.
For instance, media producers tend to think most about their target audience.
Target audience is important because it can set you up for the production of the media itself.


If your target audience are teenage girls aged 14-17, you might consider making a magazine about thing which the stereotypical 14-17 year-old girl would like, e.g.

• Celebrities
• Gossip
• Fashion

If your target audience is 30-45 year-old males, you don't want to make a T.V. show about furry ponies named Daisy, Coco and Bubbles. It's not grabbing your target audiences attention.

'Family Guy' is a good representation of this fact.
'Family Guy' is a cartoon. 

You may think cartoons are for children, but Family Guy plays upon this stereotype and intends it for older audiences, it contains sexual representation, violence, bad language and everything children shouldn't see.

This is good because adults, as much as they will deny it, like to watch cartoons, because it takes them back.
So therefore 'Family Guy' is a cartoon intended for adults. 

Audiences are categorized using 'demographics', which are peoples different characteristics. People can be categorized by things such as:

• Age
• Gender
• Interests
• Musical tastes

Media producers have many methods of attracting audiences. This is by building a relationship with the people they want to send messages to. One method is called 'The Hypodermic Needle Effect'.

The Hypodermic Needle effect, is effectively a way of making your audience believe what you say. This method relies upon building trust with your audience first.
An example of this is the 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds, which caused MASS hysteria. The broadcaster made he listeners believe that the world was under attack from aliens. They believed this because they saw the broadcaster as an authoritative figure, therefore believing that they couldn't possibly lie to them.