Target Audience - Media Research

Target Audience- Research

It has been said that humans are not capable of acquiring the skill of reading until they are beyond the age of four or five because their minds have not matured to a point where such learning is possible. This might be a reason for which most of the children between the ages of 2 to 6 yrs prefer to watch and listen to easy to understand cartoons such as fairies, princesses and heroes. This sort of cartoons/series concentrates more on the movement on the image instead of the language. One good example for this sort of cartoons/series would be ‘In the Night Garden’, where the characters don’t necessarily talk but there is a voice over which probably attracts the children more because it is told in a story-like way.

My product will be probably targeted at an audience of small children between ranges of age like 2-4 yrs and 4 to 6 yrs olds, more likely to be girls. I will be using fairies as my character and I will name them after the colour of their dresses (but this will be evident only in the promotion of the series – magazine covers etc), pictures of nature and on the background there will be a poem by William Shakespeare read by me.

Common to both groups of children, girls and boys are the series/cartoons Scooby-Doo and Tom&Jerry. Also, the children are interested in the mystery of the cartoons which is very similar to what my opening sequence is going to be like.

Overall, from my interviews as well as the questionnaires most of the children will rather watch TV in the morning and less in the afternoon. 8 children out of 10 watch TV always in the morning and only 2 sometimes. This is a very high percentage of children who watch TV in the morning compared to only 6 children out of ten watching TV after school and only 2 sometimes and 2 children never. The fact that Cbeebies for example present the same programme in the afternoon as the one in the morning parents have said in the interviews that this makes the children get bored, some of them preferring to watch DVDs or play by themselves.

 There are also some statistics which affirm that the firm favourite channels for children are Nicheoldon, Cartoon Network and the Disney Channel but as I have observed from my research there are very small chances that actually children like these ones most. The outcome from the questionnaires as well as the interviews was that most of the children, without taking into consideration their sex choose as their favourite programme to be Charlie and Lola and also the CBBC documentaries. This shows that CBBC is one of children’s favourites.

What children choose to watch every day or usually as their favourite depends also upon their sex, either boy or girl. My research has shown that the majority of the boys watch series such as ‘Fireman Sam’  ‘Toy Story’ or ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’. It might also be a chance whereas small children will watch more cartoons or less, if there are older or younger brothers and sisters and also if there is a childminder for children with mental or physical disabilities. We can say that these children are an exception because they don’t develop as normal as others and therefore they might be watching less TV in the morning and less TV in the afternoon than a normal child which impacts directly on  my overall research results. On the other hand, girls would rather go for princesses and fairies but in the same time they could also share boys’ series and cartoons as for example, Scooby Doo and Bob the Builder.

‘Hollenbeck & Slaby, 1979’ – ‘children begin paying attention to the TV Screen as early as 6 months of age, by age 3, many children have developed regular patterns of viewing of about an hour or two per day (Huston et al…,1983)’. This has been proven by my interviews whereas the majority of the parents have recognised that their children watch approximately an hour of cartoons/series before they go to school and in average and hour to an hour and a half after school. Another source also confirms my results which is ‘Childewise 08/09; Barb 2008’ who says that children watch 2.7 hours per day in general. The majority of the children watch more TV in the morning, for example the average time in the morning that the children watch cartoons is between 7.30 and 9.30 which decreases dramatically in the afternoon, because of the repetition of the programmes. However, the children who have favourite series such as Peppa Pig, which has been predominant in the questionnaires as being preferred by both girls and boys, will chose also to see DVDS or Videos with either the same series or other series such as Ben 10 for boys or Princesses & Fairy Tales for girls.  Even though Peppa Pig is on top of all other series, there is a variation of programmes/series that children tend to watch as well. For example, Charlie and Lola, Bob the Builder, Dora the Explorer, Postman Pat and Fireman Sam are between children’s favourite but not watched as intensely as the Cbeebies programmes in the morning. Therefore, I would definitely put my cartoons on in the morning because the ratings would be much higher than in the afternoon.

From my research I found out that CBBC is the most watched channel (amongst 6-12 yr old children). However, through my questionnaires I have noticed that a range of 2-5 yr olds also prefer the CBeebies.

At the question ‘would they rather watch princesses, fairies or heroes’ the majority of the parents have answered princesses but this can be justified by the fact that 7 out of ten parents have daughters and only 4 have sons (one parent has answered for both children). Unfortunately, when choosing between these three categories it has been only one answer for fairies which could be interpreted as a prediction that my product will not be so well received by the public, however at the question ‘which is the favourite cartoon/series’ one parent has answered ‘Tinkerbelle DVD series’ (one for each season), which is good because my product will be promoted as well and launched on DVD and advertised in children’s magazines. The Disney programmes have the same percentage as the ‘Thinkerbelle series’, equally followed by series such as ‘Tom&Jerry’ , ‘Thomas the tank engine’ and ‘Ben 10’.

Questionnaire

·         Does your child watch TV in the morning?

Yes, always /No, never/Only sometimes

·         If you answered yes: About what time?

..................................................

·         What do they prefer to watch?

......................................................

·         Do they have a favourite children’s programme or series?

Yes/No

·         If chosen yes: Which one?

..........................................................

·         Would they prefer to watch fairies, princesses or heroes?

........................................................

·         Which one would they rather watch from these three most of the times?

.........................................................

·         Do they watch TV programmes/series after school?

.........................................................

·         If answered yes: which one?

.........................................................

·         Does the child have a favourite cartoon that he/she prefers to watch on video/DVD player?

Yes / No

If yes which one? ........................

·         What age is your child?

...........

·         What sex is your child?

M / F


Results of 11 questionnaires:

1st question:
Yes, always                                                               8
No, never                                                                  0
Only sometimes                                                       3


2nd question
between     7-8                                                        6
between     8-9                                                        2
between     9-10                                                      2
left blank                                                                   1


3rd question


Kids Channel                                                            1
Peppa Pig                                                                  3
Postman Pat                                                             1
Noddy                                                                         1
Cbeebies Documentarries                                   3
Charlie and Lola                                                      1
Fireman Sam/Tiny Pop                                           1


4th question
Yes                                                                              11
No                                                                                0


5th question                                                            2
Peppa Pig                                                                1
Postman Pat                                                           1
Little Princess                                                           1
Ben 10                                                                       1
Bottle Top Bill                                                           1
Chuggington/Charlie and Lola                        1
The Twinnies                                                            1
Fireman Sam                                                           1
Dora the Explora                                                    1
Octonauts                                                               1


6th question
Fairies                                                                         1
Princesses                                                                  4
Heroes                                                                        5
None                                                                           1


7th question
Fairies                                                                          2
Princesses                                                                   3
Heroes                                                                         6
None                                                                            0


8th question
Yes                                                                               5
No                                                                                 3
Sometimes                                                                 3



9th question
Cbbc/Cbeebies                                                     2
Tom and Jerry                                                          1
Peppa Pig                                                                  1
Fifi and the Flower Tots                                          1
Tiny Pop                                                                     1
I can cook/Nina and the Neurons                    2


10th question                            
Yes                                                                             8
No                                                                               3



which one
Postman Pat                                                         1
Ben 10                                                                      1
Meg and Mog                                                       1
Thomas the Tank Engine                                   1
Tom and Jerry                                                        1
New Tinkerbell Series                                            2
Disney film                                                                1


11th question
one year old
2 yrs old                                                                
3 yrs old                                                                    3
4 yrs old                                                                    3
5 yrs old                                                                    4
6 yrs old                                                                    1


12th question
F                                                                                 8
M                                                                                3

Media Studies-Advanced Production

My media research is based on analyzing 3 magazine covers and 3 DVD/Video covers of a children’s TV Series. The 3 series that I have used are ‘The Simpsons’, ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Bob the Builder’. The three series are not only different in appearance and content but also the mode of address to the audience, as in language and also the range of ages they’re addressed to.
These are the 3 DvD covers:

These are the 3 magazine covers:

For example, ‘The Simpsons’ represent not only a cartoon; they also represent a collective identity as it is relevant in the title of the series. The magazine cover that I have looked at shows all the characters altogether, in order to impact on the audience and give a sense of unity but also different. Even though the series are addressed to a general audience, even a more adult audience, the picture denotes a decent image of ‘The Simpsons’ cartoons. Because the characters illustrated seem to have different ages, from the child to the grandfather, this fact makes the magazine even more accessible and even more comic than it actually is. 

It creates a sense of mystery, having Homar as main character in the picture that seems to be puzzled. Similarly the Doctor Who cover creates a sense of enigma and makes the audience feel that something has happened or it is about to happen, by illustrating the Doctor with one of his companions starring harshly at the audience.

However, the genres of the two series differ in terms of conventions and impact on the audience. Whereas, The Simpsons create and atmosphere of amusement and good time, Doctor Who creates and atmosphere of excitement and confusion. For example, The Simpsons are perceived as a comedy whereas Doctor Who is considered to be a science-fiction/thriller series.

In The Simpsons picture, the characters are represented through cartoons in order to show that the people represented do not resemble exactly with the ones in real life. Even though the appearance seems to be alike the actual cartoons are more of an imitation to show that all of us are different on the inside. Diversely, the camera focuses on Homar but actually the purpose is that the audience should think he is analyzing us.

The different facial expressions of the rest of the characters show that all of they are individual and this relates to the genre conventions of a comedy where amusement and laughter have to be predominant.

The audience for these DVDs can be considered to be a very keen one, especially for the fact that the author has added ‘Collector’s Edition’, showing that the fans of the series get a bonus within this buy.

Another series of cartoons are Bob the builder that has been created especially to entertain children, by representing Bob the Builder and his team of machines. The picture on the DVD cover seems to inspire a lot of joy and happiness. The smiling faces create an impact on the audience because it shows how everyone is happy to do any job and help each other. This effect might be very helpful not only for children but also for parents because it encourages the little ones to be more willing to give a hand and be always nice and friendly to each other. The Bob the Builder series can be considered very educative because of the representation of the team as hardworking and ready any time for new adventures.

The sense of mystery is very relevant in the Doctor Who picture where the background relates to a special, science-fiction theme connecting to the characters and the title of the series. As much as the features of the picture relating to the genre also the audience to whom it is addressed differs. The general audience for the Doctor Who series is mainly teenagers because of the chance of escapism that the series offer.

In a similar way, the notion of adventure but at different ages is represented in both Bob the Builder and Doctor Who.

The title of the Doctor Who series is included in a weird shape, a picture of a sharp bulb which has become over the years the logo of the series. The Bob the Builder cover also includes a logo.

The contents of the DVD are listed at the bottom of the DVD cover which shows that they aren’t that significant. However, the titles have been carefully chosen as to imply one word referring to the supernatural.

Conversely, on the Bob the Builder DVD cover the title of the episode has been posted at the top of the picture, represented as sunshine, replacing the sun.

On the front cover of the magazine TV Guide 2004 edition are the Simpsons. Differently to the DVD cover, on the magazine cover are illustrated the majority of the characters of the series. 

The Bob the Builder magazine is similar to the DVD cover as much in content as well as the title. However, the picture differs this time to the DVD cover, because it only presents Bob with one of the machines. Also, the magazine cover is divided in parts, to create more interest and offer more choice.

The language is also very simple and addresses to children in the same way and meeting the same conventions as in the DVD cover.

However, the ‘Doctor Who’ magazine challenges not only the conventions of the other two magazines but also the content. For example, it’s completely opposite to the presentation of the Bob the Builder magazine. Instead of the nice, enthusiastic and colourful presentation that the Bob the Builder magazine has got the ‘Doctor Who’ one has dark and gloomy colours, made to stand out by the touch of white.

Also, the magazine cover of Doctor Who is fuller and gives more subjects and choices to read for the audience whereas the DVD cover appears to be simple and empty. The background doesn’t change, compared to the DVD one, the sense of mysterious and enigma remains the same.

Because of the fuller content, the language can be considered more mature than on the DVD cover.

Equally, the Simpsons DVD cover is presented through a humoristic theme, addressing and making contact with the audience through the loop.

Other Dvds and Magazine covers that I have taken ideas from: