Demographic and psychometric audience profiles

Demographic and Psychometric audience profiles.

Demographic audience profile

Categorises an audience from A to E according to their class, occupation and income, where categories A and B are the wealthiest and are assumed to have the most disposable income. It is used by advertisers to determine where advertisements should be placed according to the demographic profile of the audience. Some media texts will use the demographic profile of the audience to inform advertisers of the target audience. Retired people used to be in category E to reflect the loss of income but with the rise of early retirement this group has moved to a higher category to reflect their disposable income.

A psychometric audience profile

Defines an audience by their values, attitudes and lifestyles. As the concept of class and income became a less appropriate way of defining an audience. One of the most useful to consider when discussing how advertisers define audiences is Young and Rubicams Four C's. This advertising agency considered how Cross Cultural Consumer Characteristics can group people into 7 recognisable stereotypes: security, control, status, individuality, freedom, survival and escape. The main groups are

• Mainstreamers: These make up 40% of the population. They like security, tried and trusted brands and like to think they belong to a group of like minded people. They like value for money and are unlikely to take risks.
• Aspirers: This group want status and prefer brands that show their place in society. They are happy to live on credit and will buy items like designer labels. They are stylish and dynamic and may be persuaded by celebrity endorsement.
• Explorers: Like to discover new things. They are attracted by brands that offer new experiences and instant results.
• Succeeders: These are people who already have status and control and have nothing to prove. They prefer brands that are serious and reliable and believe they deserve the best. 
• Reformers: This group are defined by their self-esteem and self-fulfilment. They tend to be innovative and are less impressed by status. They are not materialistic and are socially aware. They may be more inclined to buy brands that are environmentally friendly or those that are considered healthy.

Black Mirror review

Black Mirror review

Black Mirror is a television anthology series that shows the dark side of modern day life and technology from the view of multiple different people throughout the seasons. The show first came out in 2011 and was created by Charlie Brooker. In episode 1 of Black Mirror titled 'The National Anthem' the entire country comes to a stand still when the princess is kidnapped and a video is posted online stating that her life will be spared if the prime minister has sexual intercourse with a pig on live TV.

The first thing this episode teaches us is that media can be spread anywhere in a very short amount of time as one of the PM's associates tells him the video was uploaded to YouTube and in the 9 minutes it took them to remove it, it had been downloaded and spread and there was a potential 50,000 views already. This comes as a shock to the prime minister who wanted the information to remain between the people who had showed him. He also understands the newsrooms will soon be broadcasting to the entire world. Later in the episode it is revealed that the original video had 18,000,000 views on YouTube.

Next, the show tells us that the world is full of corruption and blackmail, firstly when one of the women working for the local news sends revealing images to one of the PM's associates hoping for some inside information in return. The news company also try to pull the wool over the eyes of the public by not revealing details of the ransom put forward by the kidnapper, they also push people to believe that a terrorist group is behind the kidnapping even though they are unaware of their identity. This leads the general public (who we see throughout the episode) to spread rumours and group up in the workplace and in pubs to watch the situation unfold.

Lastly, the episode shows how powerful technology can be when the kidnapper brings the entire nation to a standstill when the broadcast begins and no one even notices that the princess is returned safely before the broadcast even begins, it is now revealed that the kidnapper was proving a point about how easy it is to control people's lives using the media. The show puts a message across that technology can be dangerous if used in this sort of way and that is the message the kidnapper leaves us with before he hangs himself at the end.

The first episode of Black Mirror shows us representations of issues regarding corruption . This shows us that the government will do whatever they can to hide details of incidents like these and will leave the public with leaks and fake news to influence the way they view the situation. Also representation of national identity as whilst the event was unfolding many British citizens took to the pub (a common British pastime) to watch the events unfold from there. The last representations are Ethnicity and Gender as the PM and the majority of his associates are generally from the dominant ideology: White, middle class, middle aged men.

In conclusion, I enjoyed the first episode of Black mirror because the idea of technology being potentially dangerous and the media taking over the world interests me, I also enjoyed the strange but intriguing storyline and I think that important lessons can be learnt from watching this show.

Weekly News #20

Weekly News #20
Source: BBC News and The Daily Mail

Groom raped woman in a park hours before he got married.

Snaresbrook crown court

A 28 year old man who was recently released from prison raped a woman hours before he was due to marry his pregnant fiancé. The attack took place in Hackney, East London and it was said that it took place within sight of the woman's front door. Later in the day he married he's partner and posted pictures of himself and his bride on Facebook. The court heard that McCann, 28 taunted his victim and stole her phone. In court he pleaded to 3 counts of rape, 1 count of assault and 1 count of robbery and the judge at Snaresbrook crown court say's he will receive a minimum of 9 years.

This story is representation of gender because the man assaulted and raped the woman simply because he felt like it and also representation of issues with crime because rape is becoming more common and not enough is being done to stop it.

Weekly News #19

Weekly News #19
Source: BBC News

Muslim teacher Juhel Miah denied entry to US 'not given reason'

A Muslim teacher denied entry to the US whilst on a school trip say's he has still not been told why. Before his plane from Reykjavik, Iceland to New York was about to take off he was escorted away by security staff. Mr Miah was in charge of a group of 8 children at the time and said there was a total of 39 children and 5 teachers on the trip. The teacher from Swansea has a valid visa until 2019 and does not have a criminal record, he said "everyone was looking at me like I had done something wrong"

This story is a representation of racism as the people at the airport escorted Juhel off of his flight just because he is a Muslim, no other explanation can be given as to why he was treated like this, Juhel said that "he would like someone to put their hands up and admit they made a mistake" after he was not given a reason as to why he was escorted off of his flight in February. The way he was treated was awful and the fact that the people won't even admit they made a mistake makes it even worse.

Weekly News #18

Weekly News #18
Source: BBC News

Transgender girl, 11, shot in school with BB gun

A BB gun

The mother of an 11 year old transgender girl has said that schools do not do enough about bullying after her daughter was shot with a BB gun at a school in Manchester. The school have confirmed that the student who fired the BB gun has been permanently excluded but the mother of the girl that was shot has said that her daughter had been attacked and bullied for months leading up the incident. She told the BBC that the girl had told her parents about the bullying in December and the school was informed shortly after but never really done anything to prevent it.

In my opinion the school should of done more after they were first informed about the bullying and it is wrong that it took a big incident for the school to take action. This story shows representation of gender as the girl was being bullied for being transgender, also it represents age as the girl was only 11 and told her parents that she had suicidal thoughts at points during the bullying. Lastly, it is representation of issues, bullying is obviously a massive problem in schools but even though schools claim they take bullying seriously, issues are not always resolved.