Target Audience

What is a target audience?

A specific group of people with a target market at which a product is aimed at. Newspapers attempt to appeal to a certain target audience by fulfilling the specific needs and interests of a target audience within its stories.


Who are the target audience of a newspaper?

The target audience of a newspaper are based on numerous factors. The best way to identify the target audience of a newspaper is to use the technique 'RIVALING' which stands for,
Representation, Institution, Values, Audience, Language, Ideology, Narrative and Genre.

Represenation - Is the denoatation of people, places and events to convey hidden connotations in newspapers. It is how the audience is represented within the newspaper and with them expressing their interests.

Institution - A media institution is an established, often-profit based organization, that deal in the creation and distribution of advertising, entertainment and information services.

Values -  The values of a newspaper are constructed by the interests of its target audience. The quality, structure and contents of a newspaper are adapted as the needs of the target audience.

Audience - These aere the people who a newspaper target their newspaper to, and without them a newspaper would not have a market to appeal to.

Language - The language of a newspaper is designed according to the demograophics of its target audience.

Ideology - These are a set of aims, beliefs or morals a newspaper and audience share. Current newspaper ideologies focus on politics, due to the fact that politics have become more and more popular amongst a wider audience.

Narrative - This relates to how a newspaper can be read.

Genre - Genre describes the classification of a newspaper/story. For example my newspaper can be classified as a local tabloid newspaper.


Who are the target audience for my researched newspapers?

News of the World - This is a tabloid this means that its target audience will be targeted at working class people who are deemed  to low socioeconomic groups that  are less well educated.

The Guardian - This is a broadsheet which means that their target audience is likely to be people of high proffessions who are well educated and have a strong interest in world affairs and politics.

Greenwich Times - Local newspapers are targeted in that particular area. The stories within are directly related to the small area they are produced for.

The Bath Chronicle -The main target audience would be for people who are located in the Bath region. However this can change depending on subject matter and the content of the newspaper.

The Daily Telegraph - This newspaper is more associated with being a broadsheet but tends to have very few characteristics of a tabloid. Despite this the target audience would be aimed at middle class people who share an interest in world affairs and politics but also enjoy the occasional gossip antics.

Who are the target audience for my newspaper?

The target audience for my newspaper will be for well educated, upper class 16-19 year old teenagers living in Blackheath. The reason for targeting my newspaper at well educated, upper class teenagers is because my newspaper will be distributed in Blackheath. Blackheath is mostly populated with an upper working class community who are well educated. Also I felt I could relate to teenagers and be able to provide a newspaper that would appeal to them which is why I'm aiming it at 16-19 year olds. The final reason for aiming my newspaper at teenagers is because there is currently no local -tabloid newspapers for teenagers being distributed in Blackheath, so therefore I will be targeting a market that is not being targeted at.