Niche VS Mainstream Audiences

Niche-
The Niche market is used to focus on a specific product, they are not as popular as mainstream products but can improve and expand to become mainstream.
Some examples of Niche products are ones such as Apple around about 9 years ago there were hardly any shops that sold an Apple product, they were only bought by designers people as they were reasonably expensive, they then over the years have become more popular and more people have wanted to buy them, shops are now selling them with standard computers and more apple shops have been opened around town.

Mainstream-
Mainstream market are classed as the ones who are wide ranged and aim an example of something mainstream could be the BBC1 channel it has been around for years and is very popular with people who watch TV, there are other channels that have been invented by the BBC such as BBC 2 , BBC Three and BBC Four, BBC 2 being relevantly as mainstream as BBC 1 where as 3 and 4 are more Niche , they will broadcast not as popular shows as the others and if they do well and our very successful then only then will they might be shown on the mainstream BBC1 and BBC2.
For example BBC 1 shows Eastenders, it has been broadcasted for years and has a very wide fan base, it is very popular and is shown 4 days out of 5 in the week and an omnibus on a sunday.

Insight social value.


Social value groups & characteristics.
The groups that are most likely to purchase niche products would be the Self Actualisers, innovators and Disconnected I think the group most open to mainstream would be the Self Actualisers.
Where as the rest Esteem Seekers, Strivers, Contented Conformers and Traditionalist are all mainstream but I think the 2 groups that are most likely to be open to niche products would have to be Esteem Seekers and the Strivers they seem to be more open to other suggestions.

Media producer- I think it would be more beneficial for a media producer to target a Niche market because they are individual, they seem to be more success than the mainstream market which are very popular but the popularity will eventually wear off.
the niche market deals with its own specific product its original and not easy to find, the difficulty is keeping it niche because most niche markets sometimes end up going mainstream because they become increasingly popular.
Another advantage would be that they are more likely to be a success. they are coming from nothing into something if it is liked then it will become popular and make money.
for example a band that is not well known would be classed as niche, it will have only a small fan base but when others click on to this they become more and more popular , this can effect the original fans because they were the originals and it was something they shared with the band, when they become mainstream everyone knows about them and the novelty wears off , some bands also change whether it be their music, attitudes or even dress sense.

Passive and Active Audiences

Passive Audiences
Some examples of Series with Passive audiences are ones such as Eastenders, Coronation Street and Hollyoaks.
Passive means that the audience do not have any influence on the structure of the show, they can not change it.
Such as Eastenders it is filmed 6weeks in front, this is the way they have organised it so it is of a good structure and it works in time for more scripts to be written.

Advantage: Having a fixed structure helps make production easier, there is no conflict with viewers giving their opinions, some viewers may want one things while the other half would prefer to see something else.

Disadvantage: People may not be as loyal to the show as things in that one episode might not be as interesting to them, the topics being acted out are not some that relate to the person, where as if they had a choice that would be watching what they wanted. Also it could be irrelevant to what the viewers are wanting to see.

Active Audiences
Some examples of programmes that have active audiences are ones such as Seven Days, Big Brother and X Factor where the audience depict the way the show runs, they have a say on the how the show will plan out whether it be phoning in to vote someone out or having an opinion by commenting on a website they are still involved. They can change the way the show is and it gives them a chance to enjoy it more because they have chosen the outcome.

Advantage: Audiences get to choose what they see making them want to watch it more, as its things that they want. It is also a chance for the company to make money of the viewers through phoning and texting, most of the time this money is used to give out prices or actually fund the show.
Another advantage is that the viewers will feel ownership as if they have created this it is something that they will invest in because they have had their own say in it.

Disadvantage: Audiences sometimes do not have the best ideas when it comes to making a programme they will sometimes manipulate the situation to see a lot more drama, making arguments between contestants.
it also limits the structure and control of the programmes, once the viewers are allowed to dictate to the planning on the show they will expect that all the time, if this is then suddenly slowed down or stopped they will loose all the viewers.

There has been a media stir with the fact that a certain X Factor finalist should not be there, is name is Wagner and he can not sing, there has been reports on this that there are certain Facebook group that have launched a campaign to keep him in despite him having no talent.
People are trying to keep him in , they think without him the show would become too tense and after all it is a entertainment show.
Tony Cowell wrote that "I was with Simon when Rage Against the Machine went head-to-head with The X Factor for Christmas number one. He didn't lose any sleep over it".

It is seemed to be that even though you can watch this show an be a passive audience as well as an active by voting and deciding who you want to be gone, there is some people out there that want to interact with the show by deliberately changing the point of it all, if they keep voting for Wagner then he will get through and other good acts will be voted out, this is not the aim of the show, the aim is to find a bunch of talented people and make them fight it out for the  winner.

 There has been many Facebook groups made to support the X Factor finalist who has not been saved for the 6th time from being voted off the show, on the other hand there have been a lot of Facebook groups been made to suggest that he needs to go.
with this happening and him getting saved every week the shows viewers are causing up raw as good contestants are leaving the show and they think its not fair , but enough people must be voting for him to get through.

Seven Days

The Show 
Seven days is a new programme that is viewed on Channel 4, it shows the lives of some people that work and live in Notting Hill.  It is allowing the viewers to interact with the characters by posting feedback to them on ChatNav, this is used so that the viewers can tell the characters their opinions and maybe tell them how to change or act for the next show.

Because each episode of the series is broadcast in the same week that it's filmed, you'll see the characters on TV reacting to, and in some cases acting on, your postings sent in through this website, Seven Days ChatNav.

Adverts 
The adverts that were used between the programmes are obviously used to bring in a target audience, the adverts used are ones such as Times Online , Revlon Mascara, Cars and Exxon mobile.
From these adverts you can see the relevance and what type of audience was thought to have been watching, the general over view would suggest that the adverts were aimed at the older generation of women or men, but as the show went on to the third episode there was a change in the adverts this could be due to some comments made about the show on the ChatNav, looking from the range of people who commented they can depict what type of audience is watching.
The adverts changed by adding in such things as Glade airfreshner which could probably only be used to aim at house wifes to things such as Tena ladies for women that could be up to 50+.
Other things that was used were Abosolut which could be aimed at people as low as 18, to snickers which could be aimed at the middle- aged working men.


Target Audience 
Over all I think that the target audience that could be aimed at people who are the main locals of Notting Hill also including other people in the London area and some across England, I think it could be hard for some people from other areas to relate to as there seems to be a lot about the people with money although there is a range of people on the show , the people who have less are out numbered by those who have more.

In my own opinion I think the show would be targeted at people of the same age as the people on the show but not younger people who come from different backgrounds.

Representation
The representation of the show is really good they have a wide range of ethic groups so more people can relate to the show this way, there is a range of sexualities that can apply to other people so they might be interested to see how people respond to that.

I think the location that has been chosen is a good one its not too posh and its not too rough, but i think seeing how these people live will be a good thing to other people from different areas as most areas have different classes of people, ethnic groups and sexualities. i think using these different techniques to draw an audience in is a good thing, it brings all ethnic groups together and helps them to relate and respond to each other.


Success and Competition
The success rate of the show is not how the channel 4 people expected it to go, the show only got a small amount of viewers 1.1 million for the first show and that halved on the second viewing, some reviews state that why would anyone want to watch these people, and that its just a copy of big brother but not as effective.
Channel 4 have even moved the show to a Tuesday instead of a Wednesday to try and improve the shows audience as the show is competing with other shows such as The only way is Essex  and other shows such as CSI:NY showed on Channel 5.

I think the biggest competition would have to be The only was is Essex , it has the same audiences I would say but has a lot more drama which is what I think the audiences are looking for , its more dramatic more devious audiences will like this kind of thing.
The characters look more interesting and intriguing this will draw more audiences in rather than them watching Seven days, I guess this would be the reason why they moved the show to a different day as people were leaving channel 4 to go to ITV2

After some research about the show as a lot of episodes have passed now I have found out that even though it might have been a little more successful than Seven Days it still is not one of the most viewed programmes on the TV, most reviews are saying that it is too set out to be a proper life series like they said it would be. Reviewers mark the programme as
 "It is like a one-night stand between Hollyoaks and The Hills. I like trashy TV as much as the next person, but this really is a new low. An insult to viewer intelligence and more importantly, an insult to Essex".

The representation coming from the show, says to younger men and women its perfectly alright to be all fake and wear tuns of make up and stick gems to your personal parts, I don't think that this show is appropriate it allows us to think up this image of Essex as being this town where all this is just normal, people watch it they start to do it , before long we will be living in a world full of fake tan , pure make up and clothes that are in appropriate.
It represents young women as if they have to be skinny, plastered with fake tan and they have to do all of this just to look good.
They represent surgery as if its just an every day thing to do, young people watching this will be inspired and as a girl myself I don't want to be represented as a girl who has to wear these revealing clothes and all that make up just to be classed as a women.


The guys represent themselves as being players and that they can have any girl they want, I think this is really stupid to the point where they are representing to younger girl and boys who watch the show that it is ok to be this boy who plays girls off against each other and go around flaunting themselves because they think they are something their not. People should be theirselves but when they have programmes like this taking advantage of their representation what else are they supposed to think is right.



Ratings
And as from the 7th November it only made position 22 in the top 30 programmes from BARB.
Where as the Seven Days did sadly not make it on to the list.

Ratings are not looking good for the rest of the Seven Days shows that are still to be aired not many people are making a big deal out of it as expected, the audience on the websites ChatNav are basically just giving their own opinions whether they are nice or horrible, I think the show is out of its depth.
 
Acorn.
Relating to the acorn listing of people the categories in which I think the people of Seven days are ranges from Urban Prosperity to Hard pressed , this gives the show a range of different people from different backgrounds, some with more money than others but they all seem to get along with the money they do get, the highest person I would say is Malcolm and Susanne as I have marked them as "older professionals in suburban houses and apartments, I think they are some of the richest, where as Cassie and her family are earning a lot more.
  

Reception Theory

The theory originates during the 1980's and 1990's it suggests that the audience completes a media product and reads it on their own terms dictated by their own perspective.
Social and academic background including experiences of a individual are all influences or how they will perceive a media product.

British cultural studies suggests three frameworks for reading texts, based on the work theorist Stuart Hall:

Dominant: Preferred reading accepts completely the ideology of the text.
Oppositional reading absolutely opposes the ideology involved.
Negotiated reading, both accepts and opposes parts of a text's ideology in order to suit the specific needs of the individual.

Two-Step Flow Theory.

The theory was introduced by Paul lazersfeld, Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudet in 1994, it was introduced in the Peoples choice as it was used for a study focused on the process of decision making during a presidential election campaign.

The theory divides the information into two distinct stages. Firstly, individuals (Opinion Leaders) who pay close attention to the mass media an its messages receive the information. Opinion leaders pass on their own interpretations over the original information making the information more an more obsolete as the information gets passed on to person after person.

This theory improved the understanding of how the mass media influence decision making. The theory refined the ability to predict the influence of media messages on audience behavior, and it helped explain why certain media campaigns may have failed to alter audience attitudes and behavior.
The Two-Step flow theory gave way to the Multi-Step flow theory of mass communication or difusion of innovation theory.

This could be an example of some (Opinion Leaders) and a speaker, these people could go and tell their friends part information that this speaker has told them and add there own opinion on to, this will make the information personal, and if the information is passed on it will have more and more opinions added on.

Uses and Gratification Theory

Uses and Gratification theory is a popular approach to mass communication, it originated in the 1940's but did not expand till the late 70's by Blumler and Katz. There were 4 purposes for why individuals might use the consumer media:

Diversion- Escape from everyday problems

Personal Relationships- Using the media for emotional and other interaction, e.g substituting soap operas for family life.

Personal Identity- Finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behavior and values from texts.

Surveillance- Information that could be useful for living e.g weather reports, financial news and holiday bargains.

The theory assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives and also suggests that the consumer is also the one who choses which media is to suit their own needs. ( Such as the above)

When an audience actively seeks out media, they are looking for it in order to fulfill a need. For example, in social situations, people may feel more confident when they have specific facts and stories from media to add to conversation. By looking for information from the media, a person fulfills a need to be informed.

The Hypodermic Needle Model Theory

The Hypodermic Needle is classed as a model of communication, rooting back to 1930's the Needle is meant to give a mental image of a message being inserted into the mind of an individual.
The theory is said to be used to infuse messages into an individual, meaning that audiences passively receive the information via the media without any attempt to process the data.

It also suggests that the information being passed from a media text is passed through the mass consciousness of the audience whether they want the information to be there or not, this process could result in character and behavior changes.

This image shows that the needle is inserting into the head, which is what the needle theory is trying to explain.

Something that also can be related to this theory is Propaganda which is a form of communication set out to influence the behavior and attitudes of a Mass media in order for them to make decisions for some cause of problem.
Some images produced are used with loaded messages to get a emotional response rather than a rational one.
For example.....

They use images like this one to influence the audiences decision, using emotional messages to get a positive response to what they are trying to aim at.
the use of bright colours and emotional imagery it leaves the audience no choice to be drawn in by it.