Audience Research: Defining the audience

Target Audience: A primarily 16-25 year old middle and upmarket media literate audience 

 

Age:

Social media and technology play a huge role in 16-25 year old’s lives. They are labelled as ‘digital natives’ as they have grown up with and around technology since they were born. This influences their engagement with social media platforms:

-        59% of 18-25 year old internet users use Instagram

-        18-24 year olds make up 37% of snapchat users

-        24% of TikTok users are 15-25 year olds 

Since the majority of the target demographic uses social media, they are more susceptible to it’s negative effects, such as anxiety and depression, meaning they have a greater understanding of mental health issues and how important it is to be open and able to share feelings. 

This results in 16-25 year olds becoming much more emotionally aware and conscious, so will engage with media that pushes the boundaries that older generations have set in terms of stereotypes and opposing conventions.

 

This demographic are also much more likely to engage in social activism over global issues like climate change, due to communities and sharing of information online and through social media platforms.

 

Attitudes towards settling down and having a family have changed within this generation, with only 37% of 16-25 year old planning on having children. This is arguably influenced by huge economic increases within the housing market and the sheer cost of living young people are expected to deal with if they have a family of their own. This suggests that 16-25 year olds are more likely to be succeeders and explorers looking to further their own ambitions and opinions, away from mainstream and conventional thinking.

 

Middle Class:

Defined as a social group consisting of well-educated people, such as doctors, lawyers and teacher, who have good jobs and are not poor, but are not very rich. This group are within the BC1 demographic that make up 51% of the uk population. 

 

Media Literate:

To be media literate is to have the ability to understand information presented to you, and respond appropriately. A media literate audience will understand greater intertextual references due to their wider cultural competency, and understand media texts on a deeper level. This means that they can be faced with more challenging texts to decode, with hidden messages and references, and still have a personal and appropriate response to the text.