Audience Profile

Uses and Gratification- Why do people watch TV Soap Operas?A study shows that audiences watch soaps for three main reasons; Uses and Gratifications (U&G), parasocial interaction (PSI) and identification (ID). These are all reasons as to why an audience watches a particular soap and is not solely based on content. The study shows that there are four different areas which could contribute to the decision of which soap someone wants to watch, including:

Information • finding out about relevant events and

conditions in immediate surroundings,

society and the world

• seeking advice on practical matters or

opinion and decision choices

• satisfying curiosity and general interest

• learning; self-education

• gaining a sense of security through

knowledge

Personal Identity • finding reinforcement for

personal values• finding models of behaviour• identifying with valued other (in the media) • gaining insight into one's self

Integration and Social Interaction • gaining insight into circumstances of others;

social empathy• identifying with others and gaining a sense

of belonging• finding a basis for conversation and social

interaction• having a substitute for real-life

companionship• helping to carry out social roles• enabling one to connect with family, friends

and society

Entertainment • escaping, or being diverted, from

problems• relaxing• getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic

enjoyment• filling time• emotional release

http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/short/usegrat.html

Uses and Gratification- Why do people watch TV Soap Operas?Richard Kilborn came up with many different reasons as to why people watch soaps:

Regular part of domestic routine and entertaining reward for work

Used for social and personal

interaction

Fulfilling individuals needs, a way of choosing

to be alone

Identification and involvement with

charactersEscapist fantasy

Critical game involving previous

knowledge

Focus of debate on topical issue

http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/short/usegrat.html

Age: 16-25, due to the content e.g. teenage pregnancy, education etc. This would only relate to younger people as they would be the ones experiencing similar issues so could relate to the characters within the soap easily. It could also act as guidance for them as the storyline could help to advise them on what to do

Gender:Female and male, the issues involved in my soap will apply to both genders, and both gender characters will be featured

Lifestyle:General manual skilled jobs, unemployed, students in full time education, first full time job, first relationships etc.

Likes/interests:Socialising, humour, that’s what the audience are going to be doing so they can relate, subjects to do with relationships etc.

Dislikes: snobby high class jobs/people, religion, patriotic people, the audience aren’t really concerned with their country or religion, they have a negative view on adults in high class jobs due to school etc.

Socio-economic group: B,C1,C2,D,E, includes people of a similar group/lifestyle, the characters featured in my trailer will also have similar jobs

Psychographic group:Struggler- the audience are comfortable with where they are in lives and may not aspire to be moreMainstreamer- the soap features mainstream issues, and the genre is also mainstream

I also carried out an online survey using surveymonkey.com which enabled me to collect some qualitative data to give me more information about why people watch soaps and what they like a dislike. The survey will be based on the audience preferences with soaps to let me know what they would like to see in our soap, but I will also carry out a focus group to help me get to know my target audiences lifestyle and hobbies etc. to give me more of an insight into what they like and dislike and their attitudes.

I asked the following questions on survey monkey and these are my results:

1. Do you watch soap operas? Why? Why not?

The majority of people we asked said that they do infact enjoy watching soaps because they have lots of free time and find them entertaining.

EastendersHollyoaksNone

2. What is your favourite soap and why?My result showed me that the most popular soap that my audience like is Eastenders, due to the fact it is exciting and entertaining. Most people chose Eastenders, with one choosing Hollyoaks and two saying that they did not have a favourite.

3. What storylines interest you the most? Why? Examples.The surveymonkey answers showed me that my audience enjoy drama storylines such as narrative involving drugs and pregnancy using the feature of dramatic irony. They also like humorous storylines as well as love stories, but dramatic storylines appear to be the most popular.

4. How often do you watch soaps?Most of the people I asked said that they watch soaps every other day. 22.27% of the people I asked said that they don’t watch soaps very often compared to the 33.33% of people who said they watched it everyday.

5. What do you want to see in a trailer?My results showed me that most of the audience want to see drama included in my trailer, as well as cliff-hangers and fast paced action.

6. Do you like fast paced, action packed trailers or slow, suspense building trailers?The majority of the audience said that they would prefer to see fast paced action trailers instead of slow, suspense building trailers. I can use these results when making my trailer as I understand what most of my audience want to see, which will help me appeal to the widest audience possible.

7. What do you dislike about trailers?My survey answers showed me that most of the audience dislike boring trailers that are too slow or repeat the same things.

8. What would you like to see in a new soap?The results from this question gave me a range of answers. The audience replied saying that they would like to see a balance between good and bad storylines, narrative relating to sexuality and soaps that are aimed at younger people. Some also said that they would prefer more suspicious murders, scary scenes and more drama.

9. When would be the best time of day and day of the week to broadcast our soap?Most of the audience said that they think it would be a good idea to show our soap

between 7 and 9 because it is in the evening and they will be at home.

10. Do you like soaps that concentrate on negative drama or resolution?Six of the audience members said that they would want to see negative drama instead of resolution. One person said they would like to see some resolution and another person said that they would like to see both combined, or a negative drama with a happy ending. I think combining both of these themes would help to appeal to a wider audience, and help us to cover different types of storylines such as pregnancy, death, relationships etc.

Audience

NegativeResolutionBothNot Sure