Audience/Target Audience

'Audience' is a very important concept throughout media studies. All media texts are made with an audience in mind, ie a group of people who will receive it and make some sort of sense out of it. And generally, but not always, the producers make some money out of that audience. Therefore it is important to understand what happens when an audience "meets" a media text.

Audience Engagement : This describes how an audience interacts with media texts.

- So how will my target audience interact with my music video?

My music video is for a song that will be able to be played on a wide array of media. You'd be able to wake up to the song being played on the radio. The video will be played on many different music channels such as MTV Base, MTV, Massive R&B etc. This will be very convenient for my target audience because many teenagers and young adults spend a lot of their time watching music video channels, especially MTV Base because it focuses primarily on music from the world of R'n'B, hiphop, reggae, soul and urban. To add to its marketing and wide availability, the music video will be posted on the Rihanna's (the artist) website which is viewed by millions of viewers every day. The video will also be posted on YouTube and blogs. Furthermore, this is quite a sentimental song. It would be suitable to be used as a soundtrack for films that present the theme of love and relationships.

Audience Expectations : there are what the audience thinks about an artist and their music.

- So what are the things my target audience assumes/thinks about Rihanna and her music?

Rihanna's music is very passionate, regardless of what topic a particular song is about. Taking into consideration all her music since 2009, her music videos have been very diverse but meaningful, as well as her growing comfortably to be known for her sex appeal. However, with Rihanna it is assumed to expect the unexpected because she is so diverse and varied with her music videos, the themes they portray and her tone of voice in the different songs. With Rihanna it isn't safe to say that the video will conform to all of Goodwin's theory, nevertheless, the music video most often an active illustration of the lyrics.

Audience Foreknowledge : this is what my target audience knows about Rihanna as an artist already and what her songs have been like.

- So what do the audience already know about Rihanna?

Rihanna's personal feelings and attitude has been incorporated into her music since she was abused by her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown in 2009. I refer back to this event a lot in my blog because this was a significant change in Rihanna's life, and therefore it affected her as a musician and we were presented with something new.