Audience Profile-results of my focus group

Uses and Gratification- Why do people watch TV Soap Operas?A study shows that audiences watch soaps for three main reasons; Uses and Gratifications (U&G), parasocialinteraction (PSI) and identification (ID). These are all reasons as to why an audience watches a particular soap and is not solely based on content. The study shows that there are four different areas which could contribute to the decision of which soap someone wants to watch, including:

Integration and Social Interaction• gaining insight into circumstances of others;

social empathy• identifying with others and gaining a sense

of belonging• finding a basis for conversation and social

interaction• having a substitute for real-life

companionship• helping to carry out social roles• enabling one to connect with family, friends

and society

Entertainment• escaping, or being diverted, from

problems• relaxing• getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic

enjoyment• filling time• emotional release

http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/short/usegrat.html

Uses and Gratification- Why do people watch TV Soap Operas?Richard Kilborn came up with many different reasons as to why people watch soaps:

Regular part of domestic routine and entertaining reward for work

Used for social and personal

interaction

Fulfilling individuals needs, a way of choosing

to be alone

Identification and involvement with

charactersEscapist fantasy

Critical game involving previous

knowledge

Focus of debate on topical issue

http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/short/usegrat.html

Question 1

What do you do in your free time?

During my focus group, I asked my audience what they did in their free time to try and understand what their lifestyle is like and what they enjoy. This will help me to understand the type of people they are like which I can use to base my characters on. My results showed me that my audience like to play sports such as football and athletics. One audience member also said that they have a lot of homework, which gives me the idea that they are hardworking. I can use this information to decide what type of characters I want to include in my trailer, and by making them similar to my target audience will make them more realistic and relatable as they have similar interests.

Question 2

What soaps do you enjoy the most and why?

I asked this question to my focus group to help get an idea of the types of television programmes they like to watch. One audience member replied with The Big Bang Theory and Scrubs, which gives me the idea that they enjoy comical shows that make them laugh. The other audience member said that they enjoyed Hollyoaks because it included attractive females. This gives me the idea that by including a female character that is pretty will help to make the soap more appealing to a male audience, and adding humour will ensure it is still appealing to females as well.

Question 3

What types of storylines do you like the most? Why?

By asking them what type of storyline my audience like I can understand what I can include in my soap to make it entertaining for the audience, as well as understanding why they like them. When asked this question, my audience member stated that they enjoy storylines based around crime, as they are not too far fetched. This gives me the idea that one of the storylines used in my trailer could be about a crime, which will appeal to audience members who already enjoy this type of storyline. This storyline will also help to make my soap appear realistic, which is one of the conventions of the soap genre.

Question 4

Do you prefer programmes set in the present or the past?

I decided to ask my audience whether or not they preferred programmes set in the past or the present as I wanted to understand the type of programme they wanted to see. Some shows like How I Met Your Mother act as though there is a character telling the show back to the audience, whereas many soaps are set in the present day. In an attempt to make my soap more unique I suggested a soap set in the past, but my results show me that without even thinking about it my audience prefer shows in the present, meaning that it would make sense for me to set my soap in the present day to make it more realistic.

Question 5

Why do you watch soaps?

I also wanted to find out a more in depth reason as to why my audience watch the soaps that they do. If I am able to understand this then I can try and incorporate these factors into my soap trailer to ensure that my audience will enjoy it. When I asked my audience this question they replied that their partner makes them watch, suggesting that couples watch Hollyoaks. When planning my soap trailer I can take this into account as I could include narrative that can be relatable for couples watching the soap. My audience also said that they watch soaps because they are easy to relate to, which shows that when planning my soap I need to concentrate on making my soap as relatable as possible as this is why my audience will tune in to watch the soap trailer.

Question 6

Would you like a soap based entirely on your age group? Why?

I asked this question to my focus group as this is the main idea that I have for my soap. I can use my focus group to see if my audience would be interested in watching a soap that illustrates this idea. My audience members said that they would be interested in a soap based entirely on their age group as it is unique and unlike other soaps. Another audience member said that they would like a show that focuses on their profession as a teacher, and although I think this is a good idea, it would be aimed at a niche audience instead of the 16-25 age group I intended. As most of this audience will not yet have a job in teaching or may dislike school, a soap based around teachers would not appeal to them. Instead, I will take this idea and ensure that there is a larger range of characters that will appeal to more people. For example, the characters could have jobs in a different socioeconomic category, such as skilled manual labour, teacher or a student that is unemployed. This means that even people who are teachers could find the soap appealing as there is at least one character that they can relate to.

Question 7

What shops do you like?

This question will give me an idea of the type of money my audience have and what they are willing to spend. This information is important as I can understand the earnings and lifestyle of my audience and base my characters around them. When asked this question, my audience members replied that they shopped at places like H&M, New Look and Topshop. These are high street stores which show me that my audience will usually shop in a local town or large shopping centre, wearing main stream clothes that cost no more than £50. This gives me an idea of what locations my audience would spend time in, and where I could base my soap to make it appear as though my characters live in a realistic world similar to my audiences.

Question 8

What do you deem inappropriate within society?

I wanted to ask my audience what they deem as inappropriate as the basis for the drama of my soap narrative will be focusing on these subjects. If I was to present storlyines in a negative way and my audience were to think that these subjects weren’t actually that bad, then the soap will not appeal to them as they do not share the same thoughts. This links to the audience reception theory by Stuart Hall, which states that different audience members ‘read’ media products in different ways. I want my audience to have a dominant reading which means that they agree with the way I portray storylines as this will make the soap more appealing to them.

Question 9

What things are most important to you?

It is important to understand this type of attribute as I can use this information as a basis for narrative. If I can understand what is important to my target audience then I know what type of narrative will create an emotional response for my audience. For example, if family is important to my audience then I know that a storyline based on one like Lucy Beales in Eastenders where a family member was murdered, will cause an emotional response from the audience as it is important to them so they will be able to empathise with the characters. My interviews told me that family, friends, relationships and money are all important factors to my audience, so I can include these in my soap to make it more appealing to the audience, as they can relate to the storylines.

Question 10

What would you change about already existing soaps? Why?

This question will help me to understand what my audience members dislike about soaps, and this will tell me what I can avoid adding so that my trailer will be appealing to my audience. My audience feedback told me that they do not like narrative that is too far fetched so would make the soap more realistic and therefore more relatable. They also said that they would want to see storylines that are more relevant to them sop that they could relate to them. In conclusion, I now know that my audience want to see a soap that is more relatable to them, so I will try to include narrative that is very similar to the lives of the target audience to ensure that they will be able to relate to the storylines. In my focus group, my audience replied that they felt underage and binge drinking was unacceptable, as well as animal testing. I will try to incorporate these themes into my narrative to make my trailer more appealing to my target audience as the soap will portray them in a negative way to influence the thoughts of the audience.