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Media Studies · Media Studies: Reading, Questioning and Creating Media

Purpose and Audience: How Media Texts Are Built to Fit

1.1About 65 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can identify the main and secondary purposes of a media text.
  • I can describe a target audience using demographics and psychographics, with evidence.
  • I can explain how media texts, including complex texts like trailers, are created to suit particular purposes and audiences.

Words to know

purpose
The reason a text was made: to inform, persuade, entertain, sell, build community or express.
target audience
The specific group a media text is designed to reach.
demographics
Facts about an audience, such as age, location, language, income and family situation.
psychographics
An audience's values, interests, attitudes and lifestyle.
primary and secondary audience
The main target group, and other groups the creator also hopes to reach.
platform
Where a media text appears, such as a social app, TV channel, website, newspaper or radio station.

Hook: one program, three messages

An invented city recreation department launches a free winter skating program for teens. It makes three media texts:

  • a 15-second vertical video with fast cuts of teens laughing on the ice, popular music and big captions: Free skates. Free lessons. Saturdays.
  • a post on a parents' community page with a photo of helmets and a coach, and the words Supervised, safe and free. Register by Jan. 15.
  • an announcement in the seniors' centre newsletter asking for volunteers to help lace skates.

Same program. Three audiences. Three different texts. This lesson is about why.

Purpose: why was it made?

Common purposes of media texts are to inform, persuade, entertain, sell, build a community and express an idea or identity. Most real texts mix purposes. A late-night comedy show entertains, but it can also persuade you about politics. A music video entertains, but it also sells the song.

When you explain purpose, name the main purpose and any hidden or secondary purpose. A free game's purpose might seem to be entertainment, but its business purpose may be to sell items inside the game.

INFORMnews reportENTERTAINsitcomPERSUADEaddocumentaryPSAfunny adsponsored video(all three)Many texts mix purposes
Purposes overlap. A documentary informs and entertains; a PSA informs and persuades; a funny ad entertains and persuades. A sponsored video can do all three.

Audience: who is it for?

Creators describe their target audience in two ways:

  • Demographics: facts such as age, location, language, income, education and family situation.
  • Psychographics: values, interests, attitudes and lifestyle. Two 16-year-olds in the same city might share demographics but have completely different psychographics: one loves hockey and video games, the other loves theatre and thrifting.

Texts often have a primary audience (the main target), a secondary audience (others the creator also hopes to reach) and, especially online, unintended audiences.

PRIMARYtargetSECONDARYUNINTENDEDPrimary: teens 13-17 who likeskating and video (the main target)Secondary: parents who sign formsand pay fees (also reached)Unintended: anyone who sees ashared clip later (not planned for)Invented example: a winter skatingprogram's 15-second video
A target-audience bullseye. Creators aim at a primary audience, also plan for a secondary audience, and should think about unintended audiences who might see the text later.

How a text is built to suit its audience

Look for evidence in these choices:

  • Platform and placement: where and when the audience meets it (a teen's phone feed, a parents' page, a newsletter, a TV time slot).
  • Length and pace: short and fast for scrolling; longer and slower for people who have time to read.
  • Language: slang, formal words, technical terms, or another language.
  • People shown: audiences pay more attention to people who look and live like them, or like who they want to be.
  • Music, colour and style: these signal age group and mood.
  • What it asks people to do: the call to action fits what the audience can actually do (teens can show up; parents can register; seniors can volunteer).

With increasingly complex texts, like a movie trailer, the creator may aim at several audiences at once. A family animated film's trailer often includes jokes for children and different jokes that only adults will catch.

Worked example

Let's explain how three texts suit their purposes and audiences

Explain how each of the three skating-program texts from the hook is built for its purpose and audience.

  1. Teen video. Purpose: persuade teens to come. Audience: teens 13 to 17. Evidence: vertical format for phones, fast cuts and popular music for energy, teens (not adults) on screen so viewers picture themselves, big captions because many people watch with the sound off. The word Free is repeated because cost matters to teens.
  2. Parents' page post. Purpose: inform and persuade parents to register. Audience: parents. Evidence: the photo shows helmets and a coach, which answers a parent's first question (Is it safe?). Words like supervised and a clear deadline suit adults who sign forms.
  3. Seniors' newsletter. Purpose: recruit volunteers (build community). Audience: older adults. Evidence: printed form fits readers who like newsletters, the request is for helping rather than skating, and it offers a way to connect with young people.
  4. Pattern: the message stays the same (the program exists and is free), but form, platform, images, words and call to action change for each audience.

Each text changes its form, images, language and call to action to suit a specific audience and purpose, while keeping the same core message. This is what expectation 1.1 asks you to explain.

Just for fun

Riddle: What do you call a commercial aimed at hockey fans that airs during a figure skating final?

A mis-targeted ad: it's on the right ice, but the wrong audience.

Hands-on activity

Audience profiler

You need: a TV schedule, a streaming service or a magazine; paper and a pen.

  1. Watch three ad breaks (or flip through a magazine's ads) at two different times of day if you can, for example a weekend morning and a weekday evening.
  2. For each of five ads, record the product, the people shown, the music or style, and the call to action.
  3. Write a short audience profile for each ad: demographics (age, family situation) and psychographics (values, interests). Give evidence for each point.
  4. Compare the times of day. What do the ads tell you about who the broadcaster expects to be watching?

What to look for: profiles backed by evidence (Evidence: the ad shows a toddler and talks about saving money, so it targets parents of young children who care about budgets), and a comparison that notices patterns, such as toy ads on weekend mornings.

Your turn

1

Name four common purposes of media texts.

2

What is the difference between demographics and psychographics?

3

Why does the teen video use big captions?

4

Why does the parents' post show helmets and a coach?

5

What is the secondary audience of the teen video?

6

Give an example of a text with a hidden or secondary purpose.

More practice: warm-up

1

Is age 15 a demographic or a psychographic detail?

2

Is loves the outdoors a demographic or a psychographic detail?

3

What is the main purpose of a weather report?

4

Name the form of the seniors' text.

5

What does a call to action do?

More practice: on your own

1

A movie trailer for an animated film includes jokes about paying taxes. Why?

2

Explain how time slot can show a TV ad's target audience.

3

The skating program wants to reach newcomer teens who are still learning English. Suggest two changes to the video.

4

Why might two teens of the same age react differently to the same ad?

5

Explain how a cereal box is built for two audiences.

Challenge

1

Choose a real media text you know (a show, game, channel or ad). Explain, with three pieces of evidence, how it is built for its target audience.

2

Some creators say, "My video is for everyone." Evaluate this claim.

3

Rewrite the parents' post for a grandparent who looks after teens on Saturdays. Explain each change.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which detail is psychographic?

2.

A music video mainly entertains. What is a likely secondary purpose?

3.

Why did the teen skating video show teens instead of adults?

4.

A text's primary audience is...

5.

Which change would best suit a text for busy drivers hearing it on the radio?

6.

What stayed the same across the three skating texts?

For parents and teachers

What this lesson teaches: expectation 1.1: explaining how media texts, including increasingly complex texts, are created to suit particular purposes and audiences. Students learn demographics and psychographics, primary and secondary audiences, and look for evidence in platform, language, images, music and call to action.

How to help at home:

  • Ask: "Who is this ad for? How can you tell?" during a show or while scrolling together.
  • Compare the ads in a magazine or flyer aimed at different family members.
  • Talk about how your teen would advertise the same event to friends versus to grandparents.

Common difficulties:

  • Naming an audience without evidence. Always ask "What in the text shows that?"
  • Seeing only one purpose. Encourage them to find the business purpose behind entertainment.
  • Vague audiences like "everyone" or "people." Push for age, interests and values.

Facts used: the skating program and its three texts are invented examples.