Introduction
Once you have profiled your audience it is important to create and tailor your products for the audience in which the product is aimed at. Newspapers are a prime example of a media product which is created and aimed at one specific audience. In this report I am going to comparing two different forms newspapers (Tabloid and Broadsheet.) From this, I can explain how each newspaper is aimed at different types of audiences and how they attract that sort of audience to the product. Rather than looking at the psychical newspapers, I will be looking at their online services. The two online newspapers I will be comparing are "The Guardian Online" (Broadsheet) and "The Sun+" (Tabloid.)
Audience Profile
Demographics - The Guardian
Above is the demographics for the first onlin newspaper which I will be analyzing 'The Guardian.' "Guardian select" refers to sites and blog from around the net which are run by the guardian. Therefore, the target audience remains the same as it is for the newspaper and attracts the same sort of people. As you can see the Guardians main audience in terms of gender is women. This can sometime be seen through the advertisements and content in the newspapers and online. For example many of the advertisements are mainly aimed at females such as cooking books or women's clothing stores. In the newspaper which I am analyzing there are also some articles on childcare which also give the impression that the content is aimed at women.
The Guardian website also has a section dedicated solely for women. There is however, not one for men which suggest a primarily female target audience.
In terms of social grade, the majority of guardian readers are A, B and C1 (Upper Middle class, Middle Class and lower middle class.) People within this group are normally associated with have well-paid respectable jobs. Therefore, much of the content is tailored for these social groups.
Going back to the previous advertisement, you can see that it is sponsored by "John Lewis" and gives readers the opportunity to win some "Waitrose Products." This whole advertisement is very effective as it appeals to near enough the majority of the guardians audience profile. John Lewis is a retail shop who's core audience is 34-44 year old females. This reinforces the idea that this advertisement is aimed at older females. The prize for he competition is some products from Waitrose. Waitrose is often perceived as a shop for middle and upper class individuals therefore this advertisement also appeals to them. However, it does not appeal to the lower middle class on smaller incomes. That is until you notice that you can "Win" this prize. This attracts readers on lower incomes due to the fact they can get this high quality merchandise for free. Overall this is a very clever advertisement as it brings together the majority of The Newspapers demographics.
As you can see from the demographics above Guardian readers generally engage in social networking more than the average UK internet user. This suggests that readers of this newspaper are generally more "Tech-savvy" than most people. This is backed up with the audience profile which can be found on their website.
From the information above it is clear that overall guardian readers are tech-savvy and accept the modern age. This differs from the other newspaper "The sun" which generally promotes more old-fashioned values and focuses heavily on topics such as sports and celebrity gossip.
The demographics above reinforce this idea of Guardian readers having a high and expendable income.
Above is an advertisement from the sun which as you can see is very different compared to the ones we have seen in the Guardian. First of all the text is very large and obnoxious suggesting that The Sun readers generally have a shorter attention span than Guardian readers. The fonts used are also very simplistic as well as the information being told to the audience is straight to the point. This differs form The Guardian advertisements which we have seen that are more text based and require more attention to understand.
Demographics - The Sun
Above are the gender demographics for the tabloid which I analysed "The Sun". As you can see there readers are primarily male, with nearly 12% of the readers being male a opposed to female. A brief look through a copy of The Sun and it is clear that it caters heavily to a male audience due to content.
Articles and images of a sexual nature are often seen in the sun which backs up the demographics suggesting that the newspapers readership is primarily men.
Football and sports is also a dominant topic in the sun. Football is a sport normally associated with working-class men which backs up the male demographics. If you compare this to the guardian who's sports section focuses on other sports such as cricket which is generally associated with middle or upper class men.
If you look at the image above you can see that the vast majority of The Sun readers are in the C2DE section of the socio-economic scale. This is made up of the skilled working class, working class and unemployed. Therefore, it is fair to assume that individuals who read this newspaper are on low incomes. This is why football (a working man's sport) is a huge part of the sun whereas Cricket is (upper class ) is in The Guardian.
The price of each newspaper is also a huge factor which affects their target audience. The Sun+ costs £2 a week whereas the guardian online costs £4 a week. This ties in with the idea of the Sun being aimed at people with lower incomes and the guardian being the opposite.
Although you are charged to read all of the content online, The newspaper has a compromise for their readers by giving away free vouchers if you sign up. This appeals to the lower class audience as they are on low-incomes and possibly struggling. Therefore, saving money is high priority for them. As you can also see the advertisements for this newspaper a far more "in your face." This may be due to the fact that people in this lower social spectrum will generally have lower education. Therefore, it will lead designer to think that they are more susceptible to manipulation through marketing.
In terms of the Young and Rubicams 4 c's theory I believe the Sun is aimed primarily at "Strugglers." I feel this due to the content and the themes and values in which the newspaper portrays. Strugglers are looking for an escape and this can be found in the Sun with there use of pornography, gossip and entertainment news. This is also why I believe many of the advertisements are for freebies as strugglers are generally looking for an easy way out of the negative situation they are in whether it be financially or socially.
The emphasis on pop culture and celebrity gossip ties into this idea of The Sun readers being strugglers. This is as they can find escape by immersing themselves in successful celebrities lives and aspire to be like them.
Psychographics
As I have stated it is clear that the majority of guardian readers are upmarket and highly-educated individuals. The "progressive" category which guardian readers come into suggests that readers of this newspaper are acceptant to change and embrace new technology.
The info-graphics above show that "Progressives" (The main group who read the guardian) are more interested in social networking and voicing there ideas. This suggests that they are more outspoken and self-righteous than the average person. Due to this, they may have strong views on certain subjects which I believe to sway more towards Left-wing politics. This can be proven through the content and the way in which articles in the newspaper are written.
Above is the headline and front page of the Guardian newspaper I was analysing. As you can see it is orientated around the NSA surveillance scandal. Being the front page, this is generally what the newspaper deems as the most important article. Therefore, it is easy too assume that The guardian feels that this topic is very important and people need too know. This is what lead me to believe that The Guardian sways more towards left-wing politics. This is because generally people on the left disagree with the government being a unanimous authority and promote their civil liberties. This idea of Guardian readers being more on the left and for freedom of information and civil liberties is reinforced by the way in which this article is written.
Above is the opening paragraph of this article. I have underlined the relevant points which back up my claims of The guardian being tailored for The Left.
If you compare this to the opening paragraph above from "The Sun" you can see that both newspapers have very different political agendas and views. "THIS" is the "whistleblower" tells us straight away how The sun feel about the NSA scandal. Rather than focusing on the problems it causes they focus on the person who revealed it. "THIS" is capitalized and straight away points the finger at the person who did it. The word "whistle-blower" is used to describe him which in a way belittles Edward Snowden. This is because the word whistle-blower is normally associated with somebody being a snitch. They also belittle the scale of the surveillance by using the phrase "internet snooping." This differs from the Guardian who referred to it as "mass surveillance" and makes it seem less serious. Overall, this article suggests that The sun is against Edward Snowden and view him more negatively than the Guardian. From this we can assume that the Sun is much more Right wing as they don't see this scandal as important.
In The Guardian newspaper which I analysed there is an article about the royal baby but it is very small and formal. This differs from the Sun which is much more sensationalist and makes a huge deal out of it.
So far it is clear that both newspaper have very strong and opposing opinions. However "Guardian readers" are known to voice there opinions. this is seen through the demographics which show us that they engage in social networking and blogging more often. Due to being Left wing The Guardians target audience generally believe in freedom of information. This can be seen through the fact that The Guardian is free too read online. However, the sun costs money which ties into there right-wing. Being that people should be self-sufficient and not rely on welfare as an income. However, as the demographics show readers of The Sun are generally working-class and on lower incomes. This can be seen through a range of elements in their newspapers such as the advertisement I presented earlier.
Overall, for The guardian I feel that it is aimed at highly-educated middle class individuals. These individuals hold strong opinions mainly residing in the left-wing and enjoy being outspoken and voicing there opinions. They do this through the means of technology which they embrace due to being curious about the ever-changing world.
In terms of The Sun it is generally the opposite. The newspaper is aimed at less-educated working class individuals who have old fashioned values. These individuals do not like change and therefore the newspaper remains quite straight forward. It resides mainly in the right wing and uses sensationalism in order to draw in there less-educated readers and persuades them to engage in the newspaper more by offering freebies and money of items.
Young and Rubicam 4c's
The Young and Rubicams 4c's is an audience theory in which various types of consumers are split into various categories. It was based of maslows hierachry of needs, which is a hierachy designed that shows what the average human needs to be happy. This hierachy was used as a tool to develop the 4c's.
"A graph depicting what maslow believed to be a humans basic needs"
The 4c's stand for Cross Culture Consumer Characterisation as it is a way of classifying people from various culture in terms of what sort of consumer they are. These are the 7 categories that make up the theory.
The Mainstreamers (Average demographics) - These are the sort of people which follow the current trends and generally like whatever is popular to the masses. Examples of product this segment may like would be popular television shows such as "Britains got talent" or "The X factor." These sort of shows attract millions of viewers and are aimed at the mainstreamer category.
The 4c's tells us that peopled grouped into the segment are looking for SECURITY. This is because they look for products which they are familiar with and don't have to challenge. They respond well to big or "family" brands that offer what the majority know and trust. This is to fulfill their needs of security by not throwing them out of there comfort zones with a different un-familiar product which could seem new and unsettling to them. This is why many mainstream products are very similar in format and execution. This include countless reality T.V shows with the same premise but in a different context such as "Geordie Shore" or "The Only Way Is Essex."
I believe that sun readers may come into this category due to the articles in which they publish following popular celebrities and showbiz news.
As you can see, as soon as you go to the homepage of The Sun you are already flooded with images and articles of celebrities and football. These are all very trending, conventional and mainstream subject which fit into the mainstreamer categories media product interests.
The Explorer (Younger student) - These type of consumers are generally the polar opposite to The Mainstreamer. Were the mainstreamers look for security, the explorer seeks out DISCOVERY to fulfill their needs.
Due to their need for discovery they activity seek out new and interesting products , sometimes ones that are trending but not necessarily hugely popular and familiar like mainstream trends. Products that people in this category may buy into could new innovative apps such as "Google Drive" or high tech revolutionary products such as "Google Glass" This is because they are always trying to find something new and interesting.
I believe that these are one of the types of people that read The Guardian as the online newspaper often publishes articles about new and interesting things such as technology.
Here is an example from the websites vast science and technology section which shows new ideas and tech. You wouldn't see something like this in The Sun as it is aimed more at older mainstream people. New discoveries and technology generally wouldn't seem important to these sort of people as they are looking for security rather than discovery. Also, due to their age group this fits in with The Guardian demographics.
If we go back to the advertisement from earlier, it links back to the theory of Guardian readers being explorers. This is because it is trying to incite people to book a holiday in Western Australia. Generally speaking, this isn't a conventional holiday that a Sun reader looking for security would look for. The slogan is "Experience Extraordinary" which is trying to attract the explorer type. This is because explorers like to experience new things. A Sun reader may want to go somewhere less adventurous and more conventional like Spain for example. This is in order to fulfil their need for security and feel safe in what they do.
The Aspirer (Younger clerical/sales occupation) - This category generally applies to people who are materialistic and are concerned about their social status and how people perceive them. According to the 4c's these people are looking for status.
These sort of people may consume products such as new mobile phones and trends. not for the use of the product but simply for the image which it gives them. People within this category also often have lower level jobs such as sales assistant or retail jobs. Therefore, they are aspiring to progress in their work from the level which they are at.
I believe that in some ways the Sun could attract these sort of people. Although, I do not think this is the main group in which they are targeting. This is because they generally promote value for money and old fashioned values through their advertising and values. This goes against aspirers as they are materialistic. However, the Sun often shows rich and important people as we saw earlier with the royal baby. This can appeal to aspirers as they might look up to them as a successful person they would aspire to be.
The Succeeder (Top management) - Succeeders are heavily goal orientated, organised and generally have a lot of self confidence. They are primarily looking for control in their life therefore they are usually in a position of power such as top management. In terms of products, they seek out the best of the best as they feel that is what they deserve.
Due to being organised and self confident, they may buy into media products which progress their life or career. This is because they seek control over their life and want to reach the top. Therefore, they may be big consumers of business magazines such as "The Financial Times" or maybe health magazines such as "mens health magazine."
I don't feel that the sun would appeal to this category. neither would the guardian. This is because the Sun is generally aimed at the working class and The Guardian is pretty left-wing and often biased against the wealthy.
The advertisement from earlier is above which reinforces the fact that The Sun couldn't possibly be aimed at succeeders. This is because succeeders want the best and discount advertisements like this on the suns website go against this.
The Struggler (D and E demographic) - As the name suggests this group are people who struggle within their life. They fit into the D and E social class which is made up of the working class and unemployed. These sort of people are looking for escape and consequently they are large consumers of junk food and intoxicating substances such as alcohol or cigarettes.
An example of a media product these sort of people may consume could be reality t.v shows such as "Jeremy Kyle." This is due to the fact that they feel their own life is miserable so seeing other peoples misery might make them feel better about their own.
I believe this is one of the categories that sun readers could fit into.
Again, this can be proved by the advertisements on the online newspaper. They are almost always offers or discounts which to strugglers, can be helpful due to their low income. Also if you look at the language used in the advertisement. "Hard-up Brits" is used to make it appear the the Sun is emphasizing with their lower class and unemployed audience. This is because it is said in a quite actual and personal tone. This is the same as "save yourself a few quid" which also makes an attempt to relate to the lower class. This is due to the fact that they use slang such as "quid." Lower class and less-educated individual will be more likely to use slang therefore, it is an attempt to relate to this demographic.
The other example I have provided above also reinforces the fact that this publication is aimed at strugglers and D and E social classes. Due to strugglers generally not being happy with their life they try and find the easiest and quickest way out of their problems. Keep in mind they are huge consumers of alcohol which is often used to escape problems. The article above is explaining a diet where you can still eat junk food but still lose weight. This appeals to the struggler as they don't need to put in any work to get out of the problems which they face. Also note the image of the women which reinforces the idea of the Sun being aimed at men.
The Resigned (Typically older people) - The resigned are made up of traditional and compliant people with authoritarian values. They are typically made up of the older demographic. This category are seeking survival, they accept things for the way they are and endeavor to survive in this ever changing world as best they can.
I feel that again The Sun comes into this category as like I have stated earlier The Sun promotes old fashioned values and isn't interested in trying to solve the worlds problems. This is why their is a science section on the Guardian and none on The Sun.
The Reformers (Higher education) - The reformers seek enlightenment. They are anti-materialistic and like to focus on personal growth. Some examples of media products these sort of people may consume could be application which further them as a human being such as e-books on "Kindle" to give them more knowledge.
I believe that the Guardian is partly aimed at this group but it is still heavily aimed at explores. The guardian can still be quite materialistic with it showing new technology and trends.
However, rather than The Sun they often show the horrors and wrongs in society which can be seen above. A reformer would find this article important as they feel the need to change the world. Therefore, it would be important for them to hear the atrocities and bad things which happen within it so they can work towards solving social issues.
Newspapers need to alter the way in which they approach communicating with their audience depending on who the product is aimed at. This is done through how they present and address certain elements of the product such as layout, images and content. In this section I will explain the codes and conventions and how they are tailored to the target audience.
Linguistic
Linguistics refers to how the content is written and the language used in order to get the information across to the reader. Tabloids (The Sun) are generally much less formal than broadsheets (The Guardian) and don't go into much depth.
"The Guardian"
"The Sun"
If we refer back to the two excerpts from earlier you can see that The Guardian go into more depth than the Sun when explaining the same aspect of the story. Descriptive and more complex vocabulary is used in the Guardian such as "incendiary new level." This differs from the Guardian with more slang words used such as "snooping." All of this ties into the audience profile for each newspaper. The Sun readers are generally less educated and working class therefore it is simple and straight to the point to cater to there intellect. Guardian readers or more highly educated and middles-class therefore a more vast vocabulary is used in order to stimulate there minds. After all, the majority of Guardian readers are progressive meaning they are more likely to write blogs and voice there opinions.
The Sun is also prone to swearing and slang words which may appeal to the working class male. This is because it is eye-catching and straightforward humour which appeals to there old-fashioned and fixed opinions and values.
Visual
If you look at the front page of The Guardian you can see, straight away, that it is not designed to be eye-catching. Rather, it is dominated by text and few images. This attracts their highly-educated target audience as it shows that it is full of information. The progressives are curious about the world around them and therefore enjoy in depth information about the world. This front page will attract them due to the large amount of text and information it consists of. The few colors which are used are also very dull and un-interesting. This portrays a much more formal feel to the newspaper.
The Sun on the other hand, is a different story all together and portrays much different messages due to it's aesthetic properties. This front page is very eye-catching and is heavily dominated by large images. The huge text, fonts and graphics used make the newspaper look exciting. This is effective as it appeals to there audience who are generally looking for an escape or entertainment. The color red is mainly used which portrays a feeling of intensity surround the newspaper and it's topics.
Audience Feedback
Audience feedback plays a very important role in how media producers create and change there product overtime to suit the target market. This is done through a range of methods such as polls, surveys, interviews or even complaints and how the public responds to general content. A perfect example of this would be when The Sun wrote an article about the Hillsborough disaster.
On the left is the article originally written by Sun journalist when the disaster first happened. They blamed the people from Liverpool and said insulting lies about them (libel) to project a negative perception of Liverpudlians to the public. This did not go down well with the North West and even today many people within that region refuse to buy the sun. it is not even not stocked in many newsagents due to this incident. This cut out a huge percentage of there readers base as the north-west has many economically deprived areas which hold many people within there target audience. This general response from the public in a way gave them feedback and eventually caused them to make emends. Many years later they were forced to apologize and ensure the public that there would be no more false reports.
