In this post, I will discuss audience considerations in detail, building on some earlier analysis done in the context of the social media minor task.
From the social media minor task posts relating to audience:
From this data, I can build an audience profile: at the moment, we are mostly reaching male young adults who live in the USA / english-speaking countries and cities.
But, which audience do we want to reach? As a goal, we want to captivate a larger local audience, to get a larger audience at our shows. People with a taste for unique music and dark visuals, who value authenticity.
I have personally observed that lots of people that fit into the goth subculture attend our shows. In order to appeal to this audience, the aesthetics of the marketing campaign for our next show should be dark and mysterious, with a fitting title to cast a dark spooky shadow (in a good way) on our show. We are an alternative band, so it fits our vibe perfectly.
The top source of views was from our profile, as well as Flying Circus’s profile, who reposted our poster. Most of our viewers do not follow us.
Our audience on Instagram seems to be split between men and women almost equally. 8 people followed us from this post, which is actually the most from any post in this particular “campaign”
Interestingly, 23% of this post’s views came from stories, which is way more than usual. This shows a potential benefit to reposting the band photos on stories.
Previously, I looked at various social media analytics and created a basic target audience profile. Now, I would like to consider the following question: what does our target audience want from our content?
I think people attend our shows because we stand out from the other local bands, in our unique weird-ness. I think people attend our shows because we don’t show any fear in being weird, or making mistakes. So, I think what our target audience is after is a space where being weird is okay, and where music does not have to be perfect, or try to fit into a specific box. Looking back, I believe ignoring “the box” is what got us to the point we are now, from having exactly 4 people (one of them being my mom) attending the show to having sold over 100 tickets. I think the fans we are looking for are also looking for us, looking for a new, unique sound and performance. This is what the target audience wants.
Audience Engagement With Evolving Media Audiences – Issues and Debates
1. The Death Of The Audience
Clay Shirky (End of Audience): We have moved from a “read-only” culture to a “read-write” culture. The passive audience that sits and watches TV is dead; modern media requires interaction (likes, shares, remixes) to exist.
Example: TikTok trends where users don’t just watch a dance challenge but replicate it, becoming part of the content distribution mechanism itself.
Henry Jenkins (Participatory Culture): Fans are no longer just consumers; they are integral to the production process. They create fan fiction, campaign for plot changes, and build “textual poachers” communities that rewrite media texts.
Example: The “Snyder Cut” campaign for Justice League, where fan pressure forced a studio to release a new version of a film.
Don Tapscott (Wikinomics/Prosumer): The “prosumer” (producer-consumer) drives the new economy. Value is created by the users, not just the platform owners.
Example: YouTube or Wikipedia, where 100% of the value is generated by the “audience,” not the site owners.
The 90-9-1 Rule (Digital Divide): In reality, participation is a myth for the majority. 90% of users lurk (passive), 9% edit/contribute occasionally, and only 1% create heavy content. Most people are still just an “audience.”
Example: Most Netflix subscribers simply binge-watch content without ever tweeting about it or creating fan art.
Algorithmic Control (Passive Consumption): Platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels are designed to make us more passive, not less. We doom-scroll through an algorithmically curated feed rather than actively searching or creating.
Example: The “For You” page on TikTok feeds you content without you lifting a finger—Television 2.0.
Capitalist Exploitation (Digital Labour): What we call “prosumption” is actually unpaid labor. By posting and engaging, we are working for the platform owners (Zuboff’s Surveillance Capitalism) rather than being empowered creators.
Example: Instagram influencers creating content for free to build an audience that Meta then monetizes with ads.
2. Determinism vs Agency
Marshall McLuhan (Technological Determinism): “The medium is the message.” The smartphone itself (the medium) changes our behavior and society more than the content we watch on it. It changes the scale and pace of human affairs.
Example: The shift from sitting in a living room (TV) to carrying a screen everywhere (Smartphone) has destroyed the barrier between public and private life.
Neil Postman (Amusing Ourselves to Death): The format of visual media (TV/Social Media) makes rational debate impossible. We are shaped to prefer entertainment over truth because complex ideas can’t be expressed in 15-second clips.
Example: Political discourse on X (Twitter) reducing complex policy to memes and soundbites.
Sherry Turkle (Alone Together): Our devices offer the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. The technology shapes us to be less empathetic and more isolated, preferring texts to face-to-face talk.
Example: Students sitting in the same room messaging each other rather than talking.
Clay Shirky (Cognitive Surplus): We have agency. We use the “surplus” of our free time and intellect to build things like Wikipedia or organize protests. We shape the tools to serve our human need for connection.
Example: Using Twitter to organize the Arab Spring or Black Lives Matter protests.
Social Shaping of Technology: Technology is not destiny; society determines how it is used. The same tool (the internet) is used for democracy in one country and censorship in another (e.g., China’s Great Firewall).
Example: WeChat in China is used for everything (banking, chat, government ID), shaping a different society than WhatsApp in the UK.
Active Audience Theory: Users “negotiate” or “oppose” the intended use of technology. We are not helpless victims of the screen; we invent new ways to use it that designers didn’t intend (e.g., “life hacks” or jailbreaking).
Example: Users developing ad-blockers or using VPNs to bypass regional restrictions.
3. The “Democratisation” Myth
New Gatekeepers (The Algorithm): We thought the internet would remove gatekeepers (editors, studio heads), but they have been replaced by opaque algorithms (Google, Meta, TikTok) that decide what is seen and what remains invisible.
Example: A YouTube video being demonetized or buried because it doesn’t fit the “advertiser-friendly” algorithm.
Media Concentration (Oligopoly): The web is dominated by a handful of giant companies (The “Big Tech” giants). Independent voices are drowned out by the noise of well-funded corporate content.
Example: Disney+ and Netflix dominating streaming, making it hard for independent films to find an audience.
The Filter Bubble (Pariser): Instead of a democratic “marketplace of ideas,” algorithms trap us in echo chambers where we only see views that confirm our bias, leading to polarization rather than democracy.
Example: Political polarization on Facebook where users are shown only news that aligns with their voting history.
Long Tail Theory (Chris Anderson): The internet allows niche products and voices to find an audience, which was impossible in the mass-media age. You don’t need a million viewers to survive; you just need a thousand “true fans.”
Example: Patreon allows niche creators (e.g., a channel dedicated to restoring old tools) to make a living directly from fans.
Citizen Journalism: Ordinary people can now break news faster than corporations, holding power to account. The smartphone is a tool of democratic oversight.
Example: Bystander video of George Floyd changing the global conversation on policing, bypassing traditional news filters.
Lower Barriers to Entry: Anyone with a phone can broadcast to the world. The barrier to entry (cost of a camera/distribution) has collapsed to near zero.
Example: MrBeast starting in his bedroom and building a media empire larger than many cable networks.
4. Privacy VS Participation
Convenience & Customization: We willingly trade data for a better experience. Targeted ads are better than random ones, and features like Google Maps require location data to function. The utility outweighs the privacy cost.
Example: Allowing Spotify to track your listening history to generate “Discover Weekly” playlists.
“Nothing to Hide” Argument: For the average user, data collection is harmless. It is used to sell shoes, not to oppress. The fear of surveillance is overstated compared to the benefits of connection.
Example: Using “Sign in with Google” for convenience across the web.
Public Life is the New Norm: Gen Z norms have shifted; “privacy” is an outdated 20th-century concept. Living publicly (influencer culture) is now a path to social capital and career success.
Example: Influencers monetizing their weddings or childbirths—privacy is actually a lost economic opportunity.
Shoshana Zuboff (Surveillance Capitalism): Our human experience is being scraped for free raw material to be sold as “prediction products.” We are not the customer; we are the product being sold to advertisers.
Example: Cambridge Analytica using Facebook data to manipulate voter behavior without their consent.
Jaron Lanier (Data Dignity): We are being robbed of our data dignity. We should be paid for the data we provide, which fuels the AI and algorithms of billionaires. The current model is exploitative.
Example: AI art generators training on artists’ work without payment or permission.
The Panopticon Effect: Knowing we are watched changes our behavior. It kills creativity and dissent because we self-censor, fearing that a joke or opinion from 10 years ago will be dug up to “cancel” us.
Example: People deleting old tweets or being afraid to search for sensitive topics (like health issues) for fear of it being tracked.
Examiners look for students who can evaluate these arguments rather than just listing them.
Strategy: Choose one “Pro” and one “Against” point for a topic and write a paragraph explaining why one is more convincing than the other, using a specific theorist (e.g., “While Shirky argues we are active, Zuboff’s evidence of data mining suggests our ‘activity’ is actually just a form of labour for the platform…”).
