Audience Profile

 Denis McQuail (1972) identified four categories under the broader heading ‘audience pleasures’ that offer an insight into why audiences use and interact with certain media products.  These are:

•Entertainment/Escapism: People use media products to get away from reality – for straightforward enjoyment.

•Information/Surveillance: People use media products to find out information, to learn things. This might be through factual media products, but it can also include insights gained through fiction entertainment.

•Personal relationships: People use media products as talking points

•Personal identity: People use media products as a means of shaping their own ‘subcultural identities’.