Media Audience: Prospective Consumer

Media audience: the prospective consumer *Dr Amit k Singh **Mili Singh

Media industry – Media industry produces goods to be sold in the market as other industries do. Even after getting the status of industry it always considered to have moral responsibilities more than any other industry. The industry is the torchbearer to the interest of common man. The media industry also provides a forum to common man when their rights and interest are confiscated. Bearing the dual responsibility of sustaining them in the market and campaigning for the peoples cause is not easy task. If media divert from their later cause they are criticized more than any other industry. Even after facing lots of criticism media has changed from their early version. They had changed their vision and become profit driven industry. Though a highly consumer oriented good (the media) is very different from most other goods like cars, toasters, washing machines, whereas the latter provides the means, the former trades in the meaning of life. J. Blumer, Television and Public Interest, 1992 Media Product

The media have been called the ‘consciousness industries’. Over and above the product they sell it different in form and appearance .The media products are highly abstract and perishable, mostly consumed as soon as they reached their consumer. Media product in the language of media is called Genre .The word itself derived from French word meaning ‘type’ or kind. Genre is a straight ward means of classifying product according to elements they have in common mostly narrative firms, setting characters, subjects and themes .Genre is a category, type or style of media products. Genre is repeated set of codes and conventions or system of signs. Genre has predictable patterns. Different form of media produces different genre/media products. These genre are loosely classified as followsFilm Products- Many genres appears in films and they may share some common features also. These film products firm categories having same type of themes and way of characterization and presentations 1) Comedy- e.g. Golmal, Hera-Feri, Mala Mal Weekly etc. 2) Horror- e.g. Band Darwaja, Raat, Purani Haweli, Jani Dusman etc. 3) Science fiction- Koi Mil Gaya, Jurasic Park, Mr.India etc. 4) Documentary- Shyam Benegals’ close to nature, Satyajit Rays’-Rabindranath Tagore etc.

5) Romance- Heer Ranjha, Kayamat se kayamat Tak etc.

Soni

Mahiwal,

Bobby,

6) Action- Sholay, Krish, Shanshah etc. 7) New Wave-Buvan shoom, Garam Hawa, Paar etc. These genres in Indian context are not easy to classify because themes and presentations are generally intermingled with each other. We find sense of comedy in horror films and act of action in Romantic films TV Products/TV Genre- Genre of Television are quit distinguished and can be easily indentified. Some of TV Genre is as follows1) News Breakfast news (24×7), Breakfast with India (IBN7) 2) Documentary/Docudrama- Bharat Ek Kho, Seven wonders (NDTV India) etc. 3) Soap opera- Santi, Sas bhi kabhi bahu thi, Chooti Bahu etc. 4) Comedy- Office-Office, Mungeri Lal Ke Haseen sapne etc. 5) Crime drama- CID, Vardaat etc 6) Talk Show- Shidhi Baat, Coffee with Karan, 7) Quiz/Game Show- Hole in the Wall, Kaun Banega Karorpati 8) TV Advertisement

Radio Genre - Radio is considered as blind media as it appeals to only one sense but wide variety of genre is found in this media also. They are1) Radio News- BBC News, Pradeshic Samachar, Khabre etc. 2) Documentary- The Men Inside : a look at the life in prison 3) Radio drama-Hawa Chocolate etc.

Mahal,

in

Cigarettes

and

4) Radio Advertisements 5) Radio Talk show- Yov Vani, Krishi Charcha. Etc. 6) Musical Program - Binaca Geet Mala, Sugam Sangeet etc. Newspaper-One of the first media form, presents the following genre to its consumer 1.News story 2.Feature story 3.

Editorials

4.Advertisement The above are the list of the major media products to be consumed by the audience or media consumer. The above list is not comprehensive as many other media forms and products are also available in the market. With the advent of new technology and innovation, new media

forms are developing leading to invention of new media products. Understanding Media Audience If we go to the very basics of communication studies we find a term ‘Receiver’. Receiver is a vast term which includes all form of media consumer. Receiver of the media product includes the media consumer as well as the target population of the advertisers who could become the prospective buyer of their products. It is in practice to use media audience in place of receiver when we talk about media industry. The receiver of the message can be classified according to the type of media they are using. Table1 Types of Media

Books/Newspaper/Mag azine Radio TV Cinema Internet

Correspon ding receiver Reader Listener Viewer Audience End user

A ‘media audience’ is unlike say an audience for a political meeting, a theatre performance, a street performance, a mela or a lecture. Sociologist like to define an audience as ‘conventionalized crowed’

assembled together A media audience, however, is more than a conventionalized crowed, but rather a collectivity, an aggregate of persons who are readers, viewers and listeners of different media or of their various components. The media audience has came together (not in time and space) but in the common act of reading, listening or viewing. The definition of ‘media audience’ depends on ones perspective of the role of communication in society if communication is done as commodity or as merchandise or media as a tool for selling that commodity, a media audience is no better than potential market for product & services Noam Chomsky the American professor of linguistics who has studied many faces of media manipulation contends that the real product in the media enterprise of today is in fact the audience itself. Media is engaged in delivering particular audiences to the real drivers of all media activities- the advertising. Prof. Chomsky proposed an alternative view that particular program are made so that particular audience can be delivered to the advertisers. McQuil defines audience as “An aggregate of potential customers with a known social-economic profile at which medium or message is direct.” Thus media audience not only acts as media consumer but prospective consumer for the goods advertised by advertisers. The role of the audience depends on how media is treating its audience. The role of media audience changes with the intention of media. How they are targeting their audience. It is media

to decide who is their main client the audience or the advertiser. The various roll played by the media audience can be categorize as follows.

Audience as market-when media use its audience to sell their products by encouraging them to watch, read or listen to their content, they are seeing the audience as their consumer. Media also serve their other client i.e. the advertiser; by delivering their audience to the advertiser thus making them (audience) the prospective consumer of advertiser’s products. More over the revenue generated by advertising in television, newspapers and other media gives advertisers an extra ordinary amount

of power. This power becomes controversial when it is used to influence the content of news and information that the media carries.

Table2 Date

Program/ch annel

Time for progra m

20/03/0 Breakfast 9 news (24×7)

8.309.00am

20/03/0 Breakfast 8.309 with India 9.00am (IBN7)

20/03/0 Choti bhahu 9 (zee TV)

7.308.00pm

20/03/0 Pakistan ki 8.009 saap 8.30pm shidhi(special report) Aaj Tak

Time for Net advertise time ment for progr am 8.4420 min 8.48am 8.549.00am 8.4020min 8.42am 8.488.50am 8.538.56am 8.579.00am 7.3621min 7.40pm 7.477.52pm 8.0817min 8.12pm 8.178.22pm 8.25-

Net time for advertise ment 10 min

10min

9 min

13min

8.29pm

The above table shows how TV channels are using their time slots for commercial purposes. At the time when audience switch on their TV sets to entertain them or get informed is partially used by media for their purposes. Radio stations and the newspaper industries are not far from this practice. Though advertisement is necessary for the sustenance of media but priority of audience should not be lost. After knowing the media give importance of advertisement we can summaries that media industry is standing on three poles. Equilibrium is required to establish for survival of the whole industry

Subscription fee

ad revenue

Media Space and time Media house product Prospective customer

Audien ce

Produ ct

Adverti ser

The above diagram shows the media industry is standing on three poles –Media house, audience and advertiser. All three play their roles and exchange substances of their needs. Underestimating the role of audience could put the media in a chaotic condition. An unbalance can occur

if media become oriented towards advertiser keeping aside the interest of their audience. Audience as Clint- In many communication process audiences are considered as the client meaning beneficiaries of communication. Client means according to Occupational Sociology ‘the person/organization that gets the precedence over the interest of both the employer and the professional.’ For example a client, the patient gets precedence over the professional, the doctor and the employer, the hospital authority. Similarly in the public relation communication the publics get precedence over the PR personnel and the parent organization. Audience as Communicator – Here part of audience work as opinion leaders who pass the communicated contents to their followers. The effectiveness of this communicator is not known and changes with case to case. This type of flow of communication is in accordance to the two step flow of information hypothesis. Another approach where part of audience attends the mass media contents to get the topic to talk about. This is use and gratification approach where part of audience act as communicator. Conclusion – Audience i.e. the consumer of media product have more potential than any other product’s consumer so media should treat them with sincerity. Media been a conscious industry should play the role of watch dog of society. Instead of becoming the part of same game where the consumers interest is exploited media should aware the consumer about their rights and

the possible way their interest could be harmed. They only can do this by first changing themselves, by keeping their monetary interest aside and regaining their missionary role from where they started their journey in India. References Rodman George, Making Sense of Media: An Introduction to Mass Communication, Allyn & Bacon, Needham Heights, MA, 2001 Gupta Baldev Raj, Modern Journalism and Mass Communication, Vishwavidyalaya Prakashan, Varansi, 1997 Windahl Sven, Signitzer Benno H and Olson T, Using Communication Theory: An Introduction to Planned Communication, SAGE Publications, London, 1997. Kumar Kevel J., Mass Communication in India, Jaico Publishing House, Mumbai, 2000 Bhatt S.C, Indian Press since 1955, Publication Division, New Delhi, 1997 Mehta Alok, Bharat mein Patrakarita, National Book Trust, New Delhi, 2007 Fissk,J., Indroduction to communication Studies, London: Methuen, 1982

*lecturer in Department of Management Mizoram University **Research Scholar in Mahamana Malaviya Institute of Hindi Journalism, Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth, varansi.