Potter, Introduction to Media Literacy 1e 1
Introduction to Media Literacy, 1st edition
W. James Potter
Chapter 5: Mass Media Audience: Industry Perspective
Lecture Notes
Learning Objectives:
1. Describe what is meant by a “niche audience” in the media business.
2. Describe the three-step strategy that media businesses use to construct and maintain
audiences.
3. Identify three families of segmentation schemes that media businesses use to identify
Outline:
I. Identifying opportunities—media industries have shifted their strategy from focusing
on the mass audience to identifying the needs of different segments of audiences.
A. Geographic segmentation is the oldest form of segmentation.
i. Most useful for newspapers, radio, and local TV
ii. Also useful when thinking of messages for certain parts of the country
B. Demographic segmentation focuses on gender, ethnicity, age, income, and
education.
C. Psychographic segmentation is based on people’s values and lifestyles.
i. Twelve American lifestyles
a. Developed by William Wells, director of advertising at Needham,
Harper & Steers.
b. Each lifestyle is characterized by certain purchasing and media
habits.
Potter, Introduction to Media Literacy 1e 2
ii. VALS Typology
iii. Psychographic segments are less crude than the former two methods
because they focus on the needs of individuals.
II. Attracting audiences is critical for advertisers.
A. Appeal to existing needs and interests by developing content for audiences that
will fulfill those needs and meet those interests.
i. Media companies can identify the needs by observing what messages are
already being consumed.
ii. Programmers can look for what triggered our attention in the past and
construct messages in a similar manner.
iii. Even with more choices through interactive media, we still have a narrow
focus on the types of messages we prefer.
B. Cross-media and cross-vehicle promotion
III. Conditioning audiences is an essential strategy for all mass media.
A. Since the costs to attract an initial audience are high, media companies need to
rely on repeated exposure.
B. YouTube recommends videos to you based on what you have already viewed.
i. They are conditioning you to repeatedly watch similar content.