CHAPTER III

AUDIENCES
At the end of this chapter, the learners are expected to:
1. Elaborate on the concept of an audience;
2. Identify, explain, and evaluate the various theories of audience
reception;
3. Map the various theories of audience reception in a spectrum and
use passivity or activity in terms of their relation to media as
category;
4. Cite concrete and everyday examples that show both the strength
and the weakness of the audience theories; and
5. Identify several methods of audience research.
KEY TERMS

• Audiences - a group of people exposed and experiecing media. They can be physically
present at the event (e.g., screening of a film) while other audiences are not (e.g.,
television, book, etc.). Audiences are not always plural for there are instances when it is
an individual solely exposed to the media.
• Mass Audiences - convenient term applied to huge numbers of people who constitute
the audiences of people who constitute the audiences of popular and/or mass culture.
• Audience Fragmentation – a term used to describe the creation of smaller and less
heterogeneous. Basically, media products become specialized to meet the demands of
target audiences.
 They call it he living room wars. It can either unite or divide family members. Such is
the power of the television that can be found in the living room.

It always happens----your father coming home from work hoping to watch the final
game of the PBA season. Your mother has turned into the latest teleserye aching to see how
the conflict from last Friday’s episode would resolve itself. It is Monday and you want to
check out the other teleserye in the rival channel.

How would you resolve the differences in your program preferences?

A couple of months later, your mother installed another television set in the master’s
bedroom. Before dinner, she retreats to the bedroom to watch her favorite teleserye. This
set-up has proven to be very convienient especially now that the new season of the
national basketball games has just started. Having two television sets has become a
convienient set-up to abate potential conflict between two family members.
 In the previous chapter, we learned that genres are central to
the idea of representation. In this chapter, we will connect the idea
that specific genres and specific modes of representation connect to
the idea of audiences. Genre considerations are invoked to
determine what audiences would like to seevor read. Their
classification properties can dictate what group so sectors of society
can be tapped as their readers or viewers.
 KANTAR HAILS ABS-CBN, NEILSEN RECOGNIZE
GMA FOR RATINGS BATTLES
The top two networks in the Philippines, ABS-CBN and GMA, are claiming
the top spot in nationwide viewership ratings in May, citing two separate sets of
data that tell different stories.
In separate statements released on Tuesday, ABS-CBN said it has
dominated viewership ratings in May according to Kantar Media ratings
evaluation, which is different from GMA’s claims of top spot in the same month,
citing a ratings survey from Neilsen TV Audience Measurement.
According to Kantar Media ratings evaluation, ABS-CBN has cornered 43
percent average audience share across urban and rural viewers in the country,
which is 7 percentage points higher than rival network GMA’s 36 percent share
for the month of May.
 The Lopez-led ABS-CBN (sic) also recorded a 49-percent audience chunk
for the primetime slot, which isb17 percentage points higher than the 32
percent viewers share of Gozon-led GMA.
The primetime slot runs from 6 p.m. to 12 midnight, the most profitable
airtime for these networks as advertisements mostly pay for these slot to reach
more consumers effectively given that more filipinos watch TV during the six-
hour timeframe.
“Led by the inspirational drama series ‘Nathaniel’ that recorded an
average national TV rating of 33.5 percent, Kapamilya Network’s Primetime Bida
maintained its supremacy with top-caliber drama series including the recently
concluded teleseryes ‘Forevermore’ and ‘Inday Bote; and the newly launched’
Pangako Sayo’’’, ABS-CBN said in a statement
 ABS-CBN’s forevermore capped its run in May 22, recording an all-time high national TV rating at 39.3 percent, which is a boost
to its average May rating of 32.3 percent from GMA’s Let the love Begin that only registered 16 percent ratings during the month.
Inday Bote also ended its run with an average rating of 17.8 percent in May, compared to the viral program My Love From the Star
that registered 10.3 percent.
Kantar also cited that successes of other primetime novelties of ABS-CBN including news program TV Patrol as well as its
weekend shows with high ratings such as Maalaala Mo Kaya (31.2 percent), Your Face Sounds Familiar (30.6 percent), Rated K (27.6
percent), Wansapanataym (25.4 percent), Home Sweetie Home (21.5 percent), and Kapamilya Mega Blockbusters (15.1 percent).
Meanwhile, AGB Nielsen’s TV Audience Measurement cited GMA for being the leading network in Urban Luzon and Mega
Manila, according to its May rating evaluation.
AGB Nielsen data showed GMA topped ratings in Urban Luzon and Mega Manila with 37.6 percent and 39.4 percent average
audience share compared to ABS-CBN’s 6.3 percent and 27.6 percent, respectively.
GMA said it was leading in daytime and afternoon slots nationwide. It held 34 percent share of the average national viewership
in the morning block, which is 4 percentage points higher than the 29.9 percent of ABS-CBN, while its average national rating in the
afternoon was registered at 36.7 percent, which is 3.3 percentage points higher than ABS-CBN’s 33.4 percent.
“Majority of the programs that entered the list of top-rating shows in Nutam (National Urban Televesion Audience
Measurement), Urban Luzon and Mega Manila came from GMA, “ the Gozon-led network said in its statement.
GMA’s telecast of Pacquiao-MayWeather fightvrated highest nationwidebat 47.4 percent versus ABS-CBN’s 31.5 percent and
TV5’s 7 percent. The fight—dubbed “Battle of Greatness: Pacqiuao vs Mayweather” - - - -was also the highest-rating GMA program
nationwide and in Urban Luzon.
 KANTAR VS AGB NIELSEN
KantarbMedia Claims that uses a nationwide panel size of 2,609 urban and rural homes that perpresent
100 percent of the total Philippine TV viewing population, Compared to the 1,980 homes covered by ratings
data supplier. AGB Nielsen that only stands for 57 percent of te total viewing population in the country.
Referring to Kantar’s claims, ABS-CBN has the leading ratings in May given Kantar’s broader reach
resulting in a more credible survey.
Kantar Media is a multinational market research group that gathers TV viewing data in both digitalvand
analog platforms. It specializesvin audience measurements in more than 80 countries, has 26TV networks, ad
agencies, and oan regional networks subscribing to its ratings services.

ACTIVITY 1
Read the article very closely. Sort out the data it presents and tease out its possible implications to our
topic. Two different sets of data, a claim to the top spot in terms of audience share. What does it say about the
companies involved, both the broadcast companies and the msrket research groups? What does it also say
about the nature of the competition between the two major broadcast companies? Why do they both claim to
be on top? What does it say about the significance of the audience to broadcast companies?
 Since the invention of the radio., broadcasters have already been curious about their listeners----who are they, how do
they react to what they have heard, how many are they, and what were they doing while listening to the radio.
In 1938, the Rockefeller Institute sponsored what is now known as the Tadio Research Project led by Frank Stanton, Paul
Lazarsfeld, and Theodor Adorno. The purpose of the undertaking was to get to know the listener of radio. Some of the
research questions the project wanted answered were the following:
• Who listens?
• When and to what do they listen?
• Why do they listen?
• How are they affected by what they?
John Marshall of the Rockefeller Institute and an advocate of audience research from its inception underscored that “the
project will study that audience not in terms of what it buys, but rather in terms of its needs, interest, and capacities.
“The Radio Research Project was a pioneering project and was considered to have” invented the field of mass
communications research and honed the tools for such research, including the use of audience surveys and focus groups.
The technology for broadcasting has tremendously changed since 1935. However, the same questions are beingask now
by network executives. The desire to know the audience has endured through time but the methods and tools have
remarkably improved to respond to the changing technologies. In this chapter, we will try to understand the nature of
the audience, howit recieves or consumes media and information construct their audiences.
 This chapter hopes to tackle the significance of the concept of audiences to media
and information literacy education. We are steadfast to this universal truth---all of us are
audiences, consumers, or users of media and information texts.
Even the producers and creators of media and information---the creative people, the
producers and media executives, or those who decide on what should be shown and
distributed and what should not be---are audiences too their own work and of the work of
others.
Audience is a highly valued concept in media and information production. From the
side of the creators and procedures, they are the percieved reciever, the viewer, and the
end-sure of the media and information texts that will come out of the production cycle. As
we can glean from the news article, the two major broadcast networks spend a huge
amount of money to the extent of hiring multinational firms on an exclusive basis just to
study audiences and get a numerical figures of the extent of their reach vis-à-vis its
competitors.
 We also need to know that media executives prioritize audience
research as a prerequisite before embarking on any media project.
Politicians on the campaign trail conduct poll studies to design and
reconfigure their campaign messages to amass a bigger share of the voting
population.
Even advertising companies are ahead in the use of state-of-the-art
technology to render their media campaigns more attractive to the target
audiences of the products they sell.
Social institutions keep warning parents about the dangers of
extended television viewing carrying the though that too much sex and
violence will bear on their consciousness.
These examples only illustrate how important the audience or the
consumer in the cycle of creation, production, and dissemination of media
and information text.
 This chapter hopes to tackle the following topics.
a. The nation of the audience or various definitions attached to the word audience.
b. Mass audiences and specific audiences as basic typology.
c. Audience theories of reception from passive reception to active reception.

Lesson 1: THE NATION OF THE AUDIENCE

We will start this chapter by talking about notion of similarity and difference. Toward the end of the chapter, it is hoped
they you will realize how similarity and difference underpin our understanding of the word audience.

Activity 2
Take a classmate with you as a partner. Agree to watch a television show in primetime television. Write down a short
feedback about what you viewed by simply zeroing in to the things you like and the things that you disliked about that
television show.
On the following day, compare notes with your partner. What are your common areas? Do you like and dislike the
same elements? What did you notice that your partner did not? What did your partner notice that you did not notice?
Build a Venn diagram so you can illustrate your common areas of likes and dislikes. Share Venn diagram with the rest
of the class.
 When you think about it, no tow people will read or hear the same
message from the media and information texts that they receive. Your classmate
may share the same hobbies and lifestyle with you, but you will still look at
things differently. Why do you thinks so?
It could be because your bring own lived experiences as a person which
makes your character as unique as your thumbprint. Included in these are your
childhood, upbringing, education, experiences with friends, and even your own
habits and hobbies that have come to define you as a person.
These differences may possibly be more stark with people outside of your
age range, your immediate environment, or with people outside of your social
class. Reflect: How is media text received by someone whose social class is
different from yours? Or someone who is much older than you?
 Indeed, difference makes for a central notion when defining
audiences. Hearing multiple interpretation can built respect and
tolerance for differences rather than similarities.
However, it will also be good to focus on our similarities.
Using your Venn diagram, examine those similarities. What do you
share with your partner?
Our similarities are important to fully understand how media
and information creators construct the category of target audiences.
They target a specific segments of the population with shared life
characteristics to sell a product on influence their opinion. We will
also be tackling the concept of target audience in this chapter.
How can we define the word audience? Lets us look at this attempt to a definition:
“… an audience may be any group of people exposed to media. Some audiences (such as those for sports
events or concert) are physically present at the media event. Other audiences (such as those for novels,
television, radio) are not. Additionally audience members need not to undergo the experience at the same
time (for example, not everyone reads the book or sees the movie at the same time. ( Danesi 2009, 30)
Several questions may come to mind as we think about the word “audience”. Is the audience more than
one person or is it always a crowd? What makes a television audience different interact with what they are
watching? What level of engagement can they do should they disagree with what they reading, seeing, or
watching.

Different Media, Different Audiences

Considered the differences between audiences of different media. We may cite the following items
as areas of differences:
• Level of activity and engagement with the media and information text
• Level of Interaction with fellow audiences
• Location and space occupied
• Amount of time devoted to watching or viewing
• Accessibility and proximity
 Audiences of noontime shows come together to vicariously engage with a
specific form of entertainment. They clap, they sing, they wave their hands, and they
are sometimes enjoined to be part of a contest. While in the mindset of watching,
they interact with each other----exchange pleasantries, engage in games, and,
possibly, jostle for viewing space. Television audiences in the domestic setting area
also able to engage but perhaps in a limited way. There are phone-in features
embedded in the format of s television show so audiences at home can join in the
contests. Telecommunications companies have introduced text messaging where the
viewer can participate but will be charged a certain amount in responding to a
question or perhaps voting for a particular contestant in a television
Space location bear on the behavior of audiences. In a domestic setting,
audiences feel relaxed and may even get interrupted by house chores, a telephone
call, or a visitor. Together they share opinions and insights once they sit before the
television screen. Audiences in cinema behave differently as they remain seated and
couched in the darkness of the theater.
 The notion of a public in conveniently attached to the idea of
audience. How do we imagine audiences? They are often imagined
as a mass of people congregating in a space (as in the case of live
shows or sports events), a smaller group of people in a cinema, or
even the smaller family unit in the house. This gathering of people to
form a congregation is one of the visualization that enter the minds
of media creators and procedures as they build a target audience.
They are also aware that audiences can be disaggregated to the
direction of very specific characteristics. A print advertisement of a
hair product prominently displayed along a major avenue takes the
individual passerby or pedestrian as its target audience.
 Thus we see the problem of a single word audience can be repsented in so many
ways. Nightngale (qouted by McQuail 2000, 233) proposes a typology of audiences:
a. Audience as “the people assembled” and paying attention to a media performing
before them;
b. Audience as “the people addressed,” referring to a group of people who were
imagined by the communicator in the creation and dissemination of the text, such as
the women who the advertisers think should be patronizing their product;
c. Audience as “happening,” which could be the experience of reception alone or
with others as an interactive event like a live streaming in the Internet of a global
event, such as the Miss Universe or the address of the President of the United
States;and
d. Audience as “hearing” or “audition” which refers to participatory audience
experience, a high degree of engagement like in a noontime show broadcasted live,
and the audience participation is embedded in the show.
 It also depends on what interests a person or entity holds. Media
conglomerates see audiences as consumers of commodities they peddle.
Other technogical innovations, such as the television remote control, take us
away from the idea that the audience is passive, as the viewer can hop from
one channel to another channel if the Internet level is not sustained.
Sometimes it makes is possible for the viewer to actually follow through two
to three programs that are simultaneously airing. Emerging platforms also
allow viewers to follow through their programs even after it has been aired
(e.g., iwanttv.com.ph or a dedicated YouTube channel), enabling them to
choose what time and where could they enjoy their favorite programs.
ACTIVITY 3
Classifying is a way of categorizing a group or something using common
characteristics. Beyond what we have discussed, there are other ways to
classifying audiences. Think of a way you can classify audiences.
MASS AUDIENCES
In chapter I, we have learned about the nature of mass communication, specifically its ability to reach large audiences. The word
“audience” has still its roots in the idea of a spector, or the captive set of listeners ov viewers assembled in a more or less public and
common space.
But one dramatic change has happened because of the advent of technology likely the printing press, the film projector, and the
broadcast cable. The media can be experienced by people even if they are alone. We can put it his way: we can be in various parts of
the globe, separated by seas and contents, but still be receiving exactly the same thing. Think of a CNN live coverage of a spectacular
event, or a local bows channel but broadcasting through satellite to reach out to OFWs in different parts of the world.
Scholars agree that when we listen to a song in spotify or watch a video clip in YouTube, we become part of the mass audience
in many ways like the thousands gathered for the Wimbledon Finals in England or a concert of Madonna in the Mall of Asia Arena. You
are part of the mass audience even though you are separated from all the other members of this mass by both time and space.
This notion has its historical context. Modernity introduced the printing press., photography, film radio, and television. All of
these media allowed the broad distribution of media and information texts to an enormous number which otherwise could have been
retricted to a few people who had access.
If you go back to Chapter I, it is evident where the idea of a mass audience came from the invention of photography, film, radio,
and television. These phenomena allowed works of entertainment and information that might have been retricted for just a few
people to be experienced in a setting like a gallery or a public theater and allowed that it be transmitted to huge numbers of people in
different parts of the world. Affordability comes to be an important factor, as economies of scale allowed the production of these
technological gadgets in huge numbers, thereby redusing the cost.
ACTIVITY 4
Reflect on the following questions:
1. Are there media and information texts that you think can cater to all?
2. Reflect on the words “baduy”, “jologs”, or “cheap” as word to describe
audience preferences in this time and age. How have you engaged with
these words? What counts as “baduy”, “jologs”, or “cheap” when it comes
to consuming media texts? At any one point in time, did you consider
yourselves predisposed to consuming media that may be referred to as
“baduy”, “jologs”, or “cheap”? Do you take these words seriously? Why or
why not?
3. What are the ways by which you are able to share your experiences as you
engage with media and information texts with other people? What are the
ways by which they receive your experiences?
 FROM MASS AUDIENCE TO AUDIENCE
SEGMENT
By the early decades of the twentieth-century, the newspaper industry and the cinema have both
gained foothold in Europe the United States. By 1920s, broadcasting emerged. Suddenly a new “market”
was created both for the television and radio as appliances, and television and radio programs as formats.
It was during this time that the word “market” offered a more attractive concept. McQuail (2010) notes
that:
“As the media have become bigger business, the term ‘market’ has gained in currency. It can
designate regions served bu media, social-demographic categories, or the actual or potential consumers or
particular media services or products. It may be defined as an aggregate of actual or potential consumers
of media. “
Thus, McQuail (2010, 366) sees thisbas a pragmatic snd necesarry one for media industries----to treat
audiences as sets of consumers aggregated according to characteristics rather than treating them as an
undifferentiated public. Thus, continues McQuail, the relationship between media creator and producers
and the audience became “calculative” rather than a normative or social relationship, as a cash transaction
between producer and consumer rather than a communication relationship.
For instance, take the case of the glossy magazine industry in the Philippines. Most of these
“glossies”, as they are now referred to, are franchised from multinational corporations abroad. Summit
Publishing, considered by many as the leading magazine publishers, combines foreign licensed and locally
conceived magazines in its products line-up.
 If you examine its product line-up in their website (
http://www.summitmedia.com.ph/magazines/) , you will realize that it targets
segmented audiences. Some Magazines are meant for the male population with a very
specific age bracket. Beyond gender, it targets very specific segments of society---outdoor
enthusiasts amd athletes, homemakers of the upper brackets of society, and fans
followers of showbiz personalities.
Segmenting audiences tailor the content to a specific segment of society, thus
improving the quality of the content that will most likely be relevant and appropriate to
the needs and desires of the likely to patronize the product.
A number of factors make audience segmentation more possible in the age of
digital technology that made publishing and production much faster and accessible.
Second, the advertising industry privileges audience segments because it makes
messaging and content creation more specific. Lastly, sophisticated mechanism for
audience research and building databases of audience segments have enabled more
targeted content creation that is solidly backed up by scientific research.
LESSON 2: AUDIENCE THEORIES
Audience is a highly valued concept in media and information production. From the side of the creators and
procedures, they are the percieved reciever, and the end-sure of the Media and information texts that will come out
of the production cycle. Media corporations spend a huge amount of corporate funds trying to learn about their
target audiences. Topnotch executives prioritize audience research as a prerequisite before embarking on any
media project. Politicians on the campaign trail conduct poll studies to fine-tune their campaign messages to amass
a bigger share of the voting population. Advertising companies are way ahead in the use of state-of-the-art
technology to render their media campaigns more attractive to the target audiences of the products they sell. Social
Institutions keep warning parents about the dangers of extended television viewing carrying the thought that too
much sex and violence will bear on their consciousness.
We need to tackle audience theories to better understand ourselves and our communities as media audiences.
Understanding audience behaviour is a crucial step in appreciating the behaviour of the popular consciousness.
There are two main school of thought about audiences. On one send stands the assertion that media and
information messages emanate from powerful structures and the audience are passive recipients. On the other end
stands the belief that audiences access power because they create or generate their own meanings from the media
and information texts. In between the two ends of this spectrum is a give-and-take situation, where audiences
exercise their ability to interpret meanings enabled or constrained by their personal circumstances and the context
surrounding their communities.
PASSIVE AUDIENCE THEORIES
The hypodermic needle theory emerged in the late 1920s and gained prominence until after World War II. It asserts that
media and information messages, like a hypodermic needle, inject their messages directly to their audiences. Media is described
as powerful conduits of messages and audiences as passive recipients of the messages. It also suggests that audiences will
believe anything told to them by the media. It views audiences as largely homogeneous and undifferentiated; thus a media text
will generate the same reaction from all kinds of audiences.
To better appreciate the emergence of this theory, we take in the historical context from where it emerged. It must be
noted that this was developed in the 1920s and the 1930s when communication researchers observed how propaganda
messages were utilized to serve the ends of war in the recently concluded World War I and in the following years leading up to
the World War II. Its origins are unknown but Harold Lasswell introduced Hypodermic Needle Theory in 1927 in his book entitled
Propaganda Techniques in the World War I. The emergence of his theory should also be appreciated along with the very
pioneering invention of the era surrounding the two world wars---the television.
Between the late part of the 1920s and the early part of the 1930s, a private institution called The Payne Fund
conducted a research to assess the effect of media on children. The research concluded the films indeed had strong influence on
children. The results caused panic among the public and enable the formulation of a governing code for the movie industry.
The two-step flow of communication emerged from the studies of Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet
when they analyzed how voters make their electoral decision in the 1940 United States presidential campaign. The findings
revealed that voters do not access information directly from the media but through what is referred to as opinion leaders, a
group of people who exert particular influence on the voters. They could be national opinions leaders, or they could be people in
their immediate circles who can influence their opinions and decisions.
These opinion leaders actively access information from the media and transmit it to less activite sectors of the population. Thus,
the theory has been called a two-step flow with the media as the first step and the opinion leaders as the mediating role of the
opinion leaders.
Further efforts in coming to terms with how audiences respond to media and information texts enabled research to move the
focus out of the opinion leaders but on the audiences themselves. The uses and gratification approach argued that the audience
access media and information bringing with them their own needs and desires, which in turn structures the way how the media is
received.
In othe words, when we encounter a media text, it is not just some kind of mindless entertainment. We are expecting to get
something from it, somekind of gratification. In this model, the individual has the power and selects the media texts that best suit
his/her needs and his/her attempts to satisfy those needs.
But what does it actually mean? What kinds of gratification can we be getting? Researchers have identified at least four:
• Information : We want to know about the society we live in. We want to sense the world. Human beings are naturally curious
and we want to satisfy our curiousness. The news genre is an example of how we gather information about our country and
society. Public affairs program broaden kur knowledge beyond what the newspaper, books, and magazines can provide us. The
Internet is veritable soueof information for anythingbwe want to learn, from the mundane to the profound.
• Personal Identity : We watch to know the television to validate our understanding and appreciation of our identities. Women
may identify with characters they see in a romantic comedy. Men may identify with characters in an action flick. We laud the
values extolled by media celebrities and find waysbof emulating them. We may watch the television in order to look for models
for our behaviour. Some programs even provide us a glimpse us a into our strengths and weaknesses as citizens thereby
intensifying our identities as members of this nation-state.
• Integration and Social Interaction : Because we turn to the media for information, it
became a means of providing us with the information we need so we can integrate and
interact with social groups. For instance, from the media we learn about the lives of the
marginalized and excluded sectors of society, like the Moslems in the South or the
indigenous peoples form allover the archipelago. The scaling up of information
dissemination regarding their plight has allowed many progressive sectors to seek proactive
steps so they can be fully integrated into the mainstream of society.
• Entertainment : Sometimes we simply use the media for enjoyment, relaxation, or just to
fill time. This explains our attraction for television programs that provide us with the simple
pleasures of song and music or stories that engage us with plot twist and dramatic conflicts.

Activity 5
Try to get back to a regular television viewing habit reflect on the uses and gratification
approach and determine how it coincides with your own viewing experience. Build a short
essay on this and share it with your classmate.
 However, there have also been criticisms levied against the uses and gratifications approach, First, it clearly assumes that we
complete choices as to what we receive or consume from the media. However, we have already clarified that there arebcases
when we are unconscious audiences as our everyday life is saturated by media messages, and we do not always consciously
installed near the driver’s seat and you have no choice but to view the movie that is being played. It can be the radio program that
is blaring from the speakers, however objectionable their content might be.
Another criticism is that the individual becomes the unit of analysis and thus the social dimension of viewship it totally
absent from the theory. Consuming the media, as it is most often, is a social activity that is enjoyed with family, friends,
colleagues, and peers. The uses and gratifications that an individual might claim for every media and information messages that
comes an individuals way is influenced by the social group which joins in the viewing process. It is also said tjat individuals acting
bas audiencesbare purposively ferreting out uses and forms of gratification from the media and information texts and discount the
unconscious of experience of watching, as well as the casual, the king of viewing that only looks for Sheer pleasure, or
entertainment, as the case may be.

Cultural Effects Theory

In 1976, George Gerbner introduced the cultural Effects Theory. He argued that television cultivates in its viewers a way
sensing and seeing the world. Without judging television viewing as good or bad, Gerbner intuited that regular usage of television
over extended periods of time can shape people’s opinions, views, snd behaviour. It is also sufficient to say that television viewing
engenders a common denominator between groups of people, and groups of people begun to share a common perspective
regarding the themes and motifs presented in television programs that are psrt of their common viewing habits.
 Gerbner’s book, co-authored with Larry Grossman, entitled Living with television: The violence Profile (1976), went further
to state that higj frequency viewers of television are more vulnerable to the violence expressed in its messages and images. He
went on to classify viewers from heavy to light and asserted that heavy viewers are more susceptible to the predominant theme
of violence. Such unabated viewingbof violent images is creating a population that is fearful of life.
Some media scholars used the cultivation theory of Gerbner which drew much from the phenomenon of violence in
television of the arena of political opinion making, using the American electorate as an example. Postman (1985, 144) arhued
that television alienated the American voter from the body politic because it presented information in a form that renders it
simplistic, non-substantive,non-historical and non-contextual. For Postman (1985, 155) “television viewing does not significantly
increase learning” and “is inferior to and less likely than print to cultivate higher-order inferential thinking.” For Morgan (1989, 2),
the increased time given to advertisers have made television viewers subordinate to corporate interests.
The strength of the cultivation analysis is in the fucos it gives to prolonged television viewing and how it sought to develop
empirical means to access the relationship between amount of viewing time vis-à-vis behaviour, the attitudes and opinions of the
viewers. However, critics thought the theory present a very mechanical model, very much similar to the direct effects paradigm,
that overvalues television as opinion and attitude shaper and indirectly dismisses other factors in the social environment.

Active Audience Theories

From the linear transmission models, we will now proceed to a more complex theorizing on audience reception. We need
to invoke our basic understanding of Stuart Hall’s framework for encoding and decoding messages. If we tighten our
understanding of this process, then wr can truly understand that audiences are not the passive reciever they appear to be as
illustrated by the previous theories. We will truly appreciate the complexity of the content tjatbis encoded in media and
information texts.
 Encoded in the construction of media texts are the organisation and contextual factors surrounding the
production of a media and information text. For instance, this theory tends to suggest that the latest music
videoof the #1 song in the Top 40 chart is largely ideological, and that the meaning of the song is largely an
interaction between what the creators intend and the meanings that the listeners bestow upon the text.
Encoded in the Media and information texts are also dominant perspectives that emanate form the main
institutions of society, including even the established codes and practices that main institutions of society,
including even the established codes and practices that create preferred meanings. A fine example of this
would be how media texts inscribe the dominant reading of how women should play out their role in society.
What do we mean by this? There is at least one dominant message coming from media’s tendency,
consciously, to reproduce the meaning preferred by the most powerful groups in society.
On the decoding side, which is on the part of the audience, the media and information texts are always
open to a range of meaning in terms of interpretation.
He brings up the notion of a polysemic text. The prefix “poly” implies multiplicity, while “semic” is
derived from the Greek word sema, meaning audiences see various meanings in the signs that are in the media
and information texts. It must be stressed, however, that an individual’s interpretation of a media text is
shaped by the social circumstances surrounding him or her and by the contexts that govern his/her existence.
Usually., the social factors are summed up as the triumvirate of class, gender, and ethnicity.
 Lets us illustrate the theory using an example daily life.

Activity 6
Let us do a closer reading of a television commercial that was a YouTube.com hit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_9fQEqZCWs.
Tags: Coca-Cola Where Will Happiness Strike Next: The OFW Project(w/English subtitles)

In 2012, Coca-Cola launched am extended advertisement featuring the plight of overseas Filipino
workers who did not have the means to come home Christmas.
The documentary featured three OFWs: one left his wife at home to work as a babysitter of their;
the other seemed like a solo mother whose children and grandchildren depended on her remittances;
and the third was a son striving hard to work for his parents, including a father who was slowly turning
blind. In a process that was not discussed in the documentary, they all received an email that Coca-Cola
will spend for their trip to the Philippines during the Yuletide season. Each carried in his/her heart the
excitement to see their loved ones while in their luggage stood a simple pasalubong. Their arrivals are
captured by the camera, timed ostensibly while the families they left behind were gathering for the
Yuletide celebration. Surprised, almost unbelieving, the teary-eyed families enfolded in their arms the
family hero.,
Write a brief reflection on his advertisement using the followingvas guide question.
1. How do you classify the genre of his media text? Some would say it is an advertisement, some would
saybit is a documentary.
2. What are the implications of this media text to the issuepf overseas Filipino workers., to corporate
social responsibility, and to having to see Coca-Cola products generously displayed in several scenes
in this media text.?
3. What did you feel after watching the media text?
It would be good to read your reflection papers and find out your similarities and different in your
reactions.
Beyond this, let us look at the implications of Stuart Hill’s assertions regrading the context that is encoded in
the media text.
Let us be reminded of our definition of context. We defined it as the set of conditions that locate a media and
information text in a particular historical period. It includes social Institutions like church, government, social
structures like business and economic institutions, the mass media, art, and culture. It also includes current issues,
even political movements, and the social forces competing to gain access to power.
ACTIVITY 7
Build a graphic representation of the context using diagrams and illustration, even if sketchy, using figures. The more
important aspect of this exercise is the mapping and visualizing of the context that we are talking about.
Illustrate how context impinges, shapes, or even constraints the production of the media text under study and
scrutiny.

Reception and Resistance

Our reception of media texts is not only one of acquiescence or passive acceptance. Nor it also just a matter of
interpreting the multiple meanings of the complex web signs. In 1980, David Morley, deriving much from Stuart Hall,
articulated three modes of reading media texts on television. Morley argues that audiences can in fact resist the
messages of media and information texts in very creative ways and this is done through the social positioning of the
audience.
First, there is the dominant reading where the reader fully shares the text’s code and accepts and reproduces the
preferred reading. For instance, a shampoo commercial features the luscious hair of a woman. For women viewers, this
ignites the desire to have the same hair as the product endorser so they head to the supermarket and purchase the
product.
Second, there is the negotiated reading where the audince partly shares the text’s code and broadly accepts the
preferred reading, but sometimes resists and modifies it in a way which reflects one’s own position, lived experiences,
and even opinions. A woman who sees the commercial about luscious hair also sees that itvis possible that the woman is
naturally endowed with luscious hair or some production technique must have given her the crown. Still she buys the
product and uses it sparingly because into her mind there are other factors that can give one’s hair that shine and glow.
 Third, there is the oppositional reading where the audince takes a directly oppositional stance to the dominant
code of the media and information texts and resists it completely. Using our own example, the viewer might totally see
the advertisement as a sham, blatant attempt to turn women into passive consumers aspiring for something they can
never have.
Activity 8
Let us provide some examples to illustrate the three types of reading. We will draw from your experience when
watching television.
Most of the time, we watch soap operas or otherwise known as teleseryes. These formats are known to have very
resilient formulae that define its storytelling mechanisms. You can actually name some of its most common characters
that are almost a staple to the narrative: there is the aggrieved woman, the martyr wife, the shrewd villainess, the
womanizing executive, the homosexual best friend, or the subservient maid eith a visayan accent. Plot directions usually
emanate from the central character in search for something, an object of endearment, but most likely his or her
biological origins because, most likely, unfortunate circumstances have severed them from each other. The endings are
invariably happy, as the characters are liberated from the warp and weft of unfortunate circumstances and provided that
chance to reconcile all contentious relationships.
We will now go to a teleserye archive in www.youtube.com. Subscribe to ABSCBN Teleserye or TFC Entertainment.
Both channels are administered by ABS-CBN Broadcasting.
 Watch “Honesto” Episodes 1,2, and 3. Write down your viewing experience in a
short essay of not more 1000 words. Use the following guide quiestions to help you
structure your essay.
1. Do you watch teleserye?
2. If yes, why do you watch teleserye? If no, why not?
3. How did you feel after watching the first three episodes of “Honesto?” What emotions
are generated? Or would you say it is a single emotions all throughout? Are there
alternating emotions? Or would you say it is a a range of emotions?
4. Do you think these are the same emotions generated in other people?
5. Push yourself to reflect: What is it about you and your identity that generated these
emotions?
6. Are there characters you identify with? Who are they and why do you think you can
identify with them?
7. Push yourself further: What is it about you and Identify that generated an
identification with these characters?.
LESSON 3: THE NOTION OF CONSTRUCTED
AUDIENCES
We say that something is constructed when there is a deliberate attempt and effort to turn an idea into a material reality. The
audience for a teleserye does not exist per se but the creators and procedures build in their minds what kind of people will the teleserye
most certainly attacks. It is to say that the group of People defined as the audience of a particular television program could not have
existed had it not been imagine and realized by a set of people.
Most media outfits operate this way, starting off with the question who is the target audience. The construction of a target audience
is a way of making the audience specific. By actually identifying why this product is relevant to a particular group of people and by
bringing in that imagined group of people, the media text actually constructs the audience for whom it is intended. A whitening soap
released by the pharmaceutical company is in need of consumers who will patronize the product. Intrinsic to the product are some value
proposition that give it an edge over other competitors in the market. It could be the articulation of what the product can offer to its
potential consumers, a way of saying “this is the answer to your need” or “the solutions to your problem.” A marketing plan is conceived
and certainly a central part of it will be an advertisement. The potential consumers are now transmuted to be the target audience of the
advertisements.
Remember too that media executives do not think of target audiences in the same way that the target audiences think of
themselves. Let us take the case of Maribel, an 18-year old college student who is as hardworking as anyone who wants to graduate with
honors and land a successful and high-paying job. She is a daughter, sister, friend, and president of an academic organization in her
campus. She defines herself as a good student, a responsible campus leader a loving sister, and an obedient daughter. However, the
media executives in the advertising company think of her in a different light. The characteristics that should properly display describe
Maribel are something that the advertising executive can use when they map out potential users of a whitening soap. They gathered the
data about Maribel from a survey questionnaire that she answered when she was in a mall. This survey questionnaire was secured by the
advertising company now bent on making a successful marketing campaign for a whitening soap.
 Now for the advertising company, Maribel belongs to the age bracket of 16-20 years old, a female, a student or a young
professional, unmarried, with limited money. She is somebody who watches three to four Filipino films a year, buys local celebrity
magazines, Maribel have which appeal to the advertising company is her desire to have white and glowing skin because that
seems to be the norm and the defining characteristics to the local stars she follow on Instagram.
To both the pharmaceutical company and the advertising agency, Maribel and females like her are their target audience.
Media institutions are run by executives who chart the strategies and tactics of attracting potential audiences. You must
atleast have a general idea of how they think of you and hoe they mobilize their imagination to produce a media product that has
you as target audience.
Think of yourself in a number of ways--- as a student who devotes 35 hours a week in school, as a daughter who assumes
responsibilities in the house once you get home, as an older sister who tends to younger siblings, as a regular churchgoer, or even
as a reliable friend to your kabarkada. Your best friend might see herself both in a similar and different light. She may be a doting
daughter, less of a church goer, may be more studious in her studies, and devotes a great deal of time more than socializing with
friends or even family members.
Consider now fictional scenario: both of you were surfing on Internet, particularly the website of a teen magazine called
Tweens, a lifestyle magazine for young adult. A pop-up window emerges onscreen. It is a survey form designed to know more
about you---your television viewing preferences, the amount of time you spend in the malls, your cinema habits, the amount of
free time you have, the number of cars your family owns, your family’s monthly income, etc.
 Tweens magazincome, you and your best friend could just be part of the 13-18 years old age group, a female, a student, a
member of a family that owns cars, owns a townhouse in the metropolis, with parents earning 750,000 combined annual income,
and someone who travels outside of your city at least thrice a month. Tweens magazine’s characterization of you is starkly
different from how you see yourself, or how you convey your identity to your peers and mentors. Magazine publishers like tweens
are not interested in your other hobbies, your spiritual life, or the depth of your relationships with your friends and family
member. But they certainly care about how much do your parents earn, how many cars you have, and how many out-of-town
vacation you can afford as a family. They are interested in your mall-goinh habits and your preference for other media forms, such
as television anf cinema. Your status as a middle class teenager is appealing to them for it illustrates how much purchasing power
you have, even if you are not yet earning your own income.
Tweens earn its revenue from both sales and advertising. Its publishers want to keep tab of their readers who are attractive
to their advertisers. The information generayed from the online surveys that pop out in your computer screen are processed and
consolidated and given to advertisers to attract to buy advertising space in their magazine.
A target audience is best defined as a specific group of people identified and aggregated from selected population segments
who are the intended users. The information generated form them helps publishers and procedures develop media messages
that will attract this group or, in the case of advertisers, help them recommend products that will be potentially attractive and
useful to this tarhet audience. They speak to your interests, work around what will attract you, and avoid what might drive that
away. In the case of most media, what is important is to keep a growing base of subscribers or viewers.
To keep that steady base, audiences must br constructed. Creators and procedures do not simply assume that the target
audience is there. It is constructed in the mind of thr media producers. The imaged audience is translated in the actual creation
of the media product.
HOW AUDIENCES ARE CONSTRUCTED
Shaun Moores(1993) assert that the audience is not a homogeneous category and that it is best to see it in its
plurality—as audiences, in fact. They are disparate group categorized by how they receive media (in the privacy of their
homes or out in the shopping malls) and other identity markers suchbas gender, race, ethnolinguistic group, class status,
and other positions in society.
To the creators and procedures of media and information texts, thry are largely invisible. Railway (1988) thinks the
wlrd “audience” has indeed evolved from face-to-face interaction in one shared physical space to include now
consumers of electronic media and information. Shr asserts that audiences have now become difficult to pin downbtheir
specific characteristics as audiences because they are widely dispersed in different settings and context.
Yet it is worth noting thatvthr eord “audience” holds a firm place in media and information studies. This is because
creators and procedures of media and information texts can actively construct audiences. What do we mean by this?
As media organization hold an inception meeting on a new media project, a brainstorming group is huddled, and
the first question pops out: “Who is our audience?” If the answer is “we do not have an audience,” vthere is absolutely
no point proceeding. But if there are answers that my seem disparate but can be pullrd in together to create an
identifiable set of target audience, then there is work to be done.
 Usually the attributes of the audience can be summed up by GEARS:
• G – ender
• E – thnicity
• A – ge range
• R – egion or Nationally
• S – ocio-economic group
Since advertising peddles products lr services, and he S or the socio-
economic group is a priority concern. For instance, the National Readership
Survey in the United Kingdom adopts this traditional segmentation of
audiences and it has been useful in terms of calibrating buying potential.
Traditional Segmentation Model

Social Social Status Occupation

A Upper middle class Highly managerial, allied with huge
firms, professional with a steady base
of income
B Middle class Middle management, administrative
or professional
C-1 Lower middle class Supervisor or clerical, junior
managerial, administrative or
professional
C-2 Skilled working class Skilled manual workers
D Working class Semi and unskilled workers
E Poorest of the poor Lpwest grade workers unemployed
 An advertising agency in the West, the Young and Rubicam LTD, has conceptualized what is now commonly reffered to as
the 4 s-The Cross Cultural Consumer Characterization Model. It sees the audiences as a group of people who will be the
receiving end of media products and what they should be getting should appeal to a complex set of traits which they possess.
There are seven types of core motivation are what define each type.
THE REFORMER – “Don’t tell me what to do or ehat to think”
syas the Reformer, valuing their own independent judgement.
THE ASPIRER – Materialistic, acquistive people, who are driven Reformers are the most anti-materialistic of seven groups, and
by others ‘ perceptions of them rather than by their own are often percieved as intellectual. They are sociakky aware, and
values, as a result, they respond to what others perceive as pride themselves on tolerance. Reformers seek out the authentic
being superficial” image, appearance, persona, charisma and and the harmonious, and are often at the leading edge of society.
fahion. An attractive pack is a important to them as its contents. CROSS CULTURAL
However, unlike Explorers, they will not buy things just because
Their core need in lifr is for status. CONSUMER they are new. Their core need in life is for enlightenment.
The Mainstream – These are the people who livr in the CHARACTERIZATIO The Explorer - These people are driven by a need for discovery,
world of the domestic and the everyday. A daily routine is N (4C’s) challenge and new frontiers. Young in nature, if not in reality.
fundamental to the way live their lives. Their life choices Explorer are often the first to try out idea and experiences. They
are “we” rather than “me”. As their name implies, they respond to brands that offer new sensation, indulgence and
are the mainstream of the society. They‘re the largest instant effects. In short, difference is what they seek out.
group of people within 4C’s across the wolrd. They Theircores need in life is for discovery.
respond to bug established brands, to “family” brands The Resigned – these are The Succeeder – Succeeder posseses self-confidence, have a
and to offer of value formoney. Their cor need in life is for predominantly older peole woth strong goal orientation and tend to be very organised. As a result,
security. constant, unchaging values built up they temd occupy positions of responsibilities in society. Their
over time. For them, the past is investment in the status quo means they tend to support it. When
The Struggler – Struggle live for today, and make few plans for
bathered in a warm nostalgic glow. it comes to brands, they seek reward and prestuge, and eill often
tommorow. Others often see them as victims, losers and
They respect institutions and enjoy seek out the best, because that is what they deserve. On the
wasters – aimless, disorganised people with few resources
acting in traditional role. Their brand other band, they also seek caring and protective brands – their
apart from their own physical skills. If they get on in life, it will
choices is are driven by a need for aggressive attitudes to life means lthey need to relax occasionally.
depend more on a winning lottery ticket than anything they do
safety and for economy. They choose Their core need in life is for control.
themselves. They are heavy consumers of alcohol and junk
aboove all ehatvis fsmillisr to them. In
foods. Visual impact and physical sensation are an important
life, their aim basic: it is to survive
element of their brand choices. In essence, they seek escape.
The Cross Cultural Consumer Characteristic Model as Developed by Young and Rubicam LTD.

Audiences as Defined by Differences

By now, we should have realized that differences creat the audience demographics. It is created by zeroing in to a particular
sector of a population that is yge intendend audience of a media or information text. The term “demographic” also implies that a
segment of the population share some common characteristics that will make the gravitate toward or patronize a media or
information text that has now been marketed as a product. While there is the idea of common Characteristics, in the end it is still
the segmentation of audiences based on differences--- on what sets them apart from each other---that is the defining feature of
the process.
The identification of those characteristics is critical importance since media executives will exploit those to make their media
products attractive to target audiences.
Psychographics is largely derived from the concept pf demographics, but is focused on the psychological traits. This
category if often utilized to provide more substance to the profile of potential media audiences. It cobers attitudes, personality
types, opinions, and motivations. These are elements that are usually tied to income and age brackets.
Consider the procedures of a Saturday afternoon teen show who would like to illustrate the current lifestyle habits of their
viewing public. They build a research design to probe into the psychological habits of their target market. The researchers find
out certain elements about the target viewers that provide more information. For instance, the 13-16 age groupvis mostly
apolitical whilevthe 17-19 age group find delightvin discussing social issues; 92% of the entire age rangr of 13-19 maintain at least
two social media accounts; and most of them belong to at least one organization in the school, church, or community.
 Furthermore, the research company, after the first season of the telecast, declared that their findings indicate three types of
viewers who are drawn into the television show: a) those who follow their favorite teen star; b) those who are drawn to the
narrative; and 3) those who seek lifestyle representation.
It is very important to understand that television procedures learn about their target audiences through research. As an
area of work, research here is viewed as part of the total investment of media industries to boost the capacity of a media product
in generating profits through constructing a solid base of audiences. Thus, research is a tool for getting advertisers as well as
determining content that will keep an audience base loyal to the media product.
The categories for demographics and psychographics are also useful for getting advertiser as well as for determining the
content of the media text. Discernment, mindful thought, and a very systematic way of calibrating risks are what make up the
skills of media Executives as they set out to lead the creation, production, and dissemination of media product. Sometimes they
refer to the success stories of the past to determine the winning formula that would click with target audience. Sometimes a
national, or even global, trend can reproduce itself. Take fir instance the current hype concerning the horror genre which has
translated to the box office success of many Western movie shown over the local theaters. Local cinema executives were quick to
appropriate horror as a genre in mainstream cinema and were successful in generating huge ticket sales at the box office.

Creating Content for Target Audiences

Fiske (1987, 18) remarked that “television tries to construct an ideal subject position which it invites us to occupy, and, if
we do, rewards us with the pleasure of recognition.”
Creating content for target audiences may be a tricky business for media executives. It involves a lot , wide a range of
options, and management of risks should the initial formats would not work quite well. Imagine television stations setting up a
program schedule for a specific period of time, let us say half a year.
 Most of the times, they avoid risks and do not gamble. They hire creative
people who have a proven track record in keeping up with what the target
audiences prefer. They refer to past researches to validate current
assumptions . The whole climate of media at a given point in the guides them
to actually fine-tune their choices.
Risk Management is an exceptionally significant part of audience
creation. The drive is to sustain the production and dissemination of a media
text. Therefore, it has to be successful to generate audience share, revenues,
and a steady, if not, exponentially increasing rate of profit. Content creators
are to produce material that already has track record of success. This could
explain the resilience of some genres like romantic comedy or even the action
movie in film.
 The research and development arm trains its sight on how innovation can
be best handled with minimum risk using the tools of audience research. These
tools may include surveys, focus group discussions, participant observation, and
rarely, audience ethnographies.
However, that seemingly simplistic model subsumes under is general
processes certain assumptions that place an active role on their intended
audience. The purposive sender builds rapport, establishes trust, and manage
risks so that the intended audiences with internalize its development messages
particularly aimed at improving lives and live hoods and other development
goals associated with eracadating poverty, injustice, and vulnerability.
LESSON 4 : AUDIENCE RESEARCH
Who is watching? Who is reading? Who is patronizing the media product? These seem like basic
questions but have profound consequences to the process of creation, production, and dissemination
of media and information. Certainly the creators and procedures of media and information would
want a systematic and, more significantly, an accurate way of finding out about their audiences.
Audience research is traditionally about 1) gaining an insight on audience preferences, however
fluid and ever-changing these could be in the present period; and 2) calibrating audiences sizes and
reach. However, there can be other directions for audience research that may be relevant to cite. For
instance, research can be conducted so technological advances that the media industry will undertake
can be based on sound empirical data. The web-based platforms like iwantv.com.ph for delayed
television viewing is an example of a technological innovation that is based on a study of viewing
preferences in a time of shifting contexts—more time is spent traveling on the road due to intensifying
traffic or work hours attuned to global clocks, like those in the BPO industries, that prevent audiences
from tuning in to their favorite television programs. Formulation of social policy can also be trigger for
a research undertaking. In the news article below, the research findings of how children are affected by
the violence of teleserye are credible tackled using very specific research tools that were aligned to the
research objectives. As stated in the article, the research findings will yield recommendations for new
television standards that will favor Filipino children.
 GOOD OR BAD? MOST FILIPINO CHILDREN GLUED TO TELESERYES
MANILA, Philippines – A recent study shows most Filipino children still prefer
watching television when they get home after a long day of school, and they like
watching teleserye (television series) or adult-oriented shows.
Most Filipino children watch television for close to 3 hours during weekdays, and 6
hours during weekend, the same study showed. Both are beyond the internationally-
prescribed daily exposure to television which is only 1 to 2 hours.
The study, conducted by the National Council for Children’s Television (NCCT) late
February to March 2015, surveyed 4,395 children below 18 years old from Grades 3
to 10 enrolled in 2019 public and private elementary and high schools all over the
country.
It revealed that during weekdays, man children watch television from 5 pm to 10
pm – considered the prime time of Philippine television replete with teleserye
programming.
 Time Slots Weekday Weekend
6 am to 9 am 13.7% 29.5%
9 am to 12 nn 6.3% 43.2%
12 nn to 1 pm 12.50% 31.5%
1 pm to 5 pm 8% 36.6%
5 pm to 7 pm 51.8% 37%
7 pm to 10 pm 48.4% 49.6%

“Several studies pointed out how television programs, which are not specifically
created for children, may not be beneficial toward their growth, even without the
existence of vulgarity and violence in its content,” the study read.
“Any concept that is improperly interpreted by children could mean a shift in
their perspective, and any incorrect inferences to what is ‘real’ and socially
acceptable or correct’ could lead to possible conflicts in a child’s development.
When it comes to genre, more children watch shows categorized as comedy
and children’s television, followed by news, education, drama, and music.
 “Majority of children prefer watching teleseryes or adult-oriented television
show likely comedy, drama, news, and foreign television, series dubbed in Filipino,”
the report read.
But the study could not determine whether this trend is because of “the lack
of child-oriented shows, marred by the inability of television networks to follow the
15% child-friendly programs policy under the provision of the Republic Act 8370.”
RA 8370 or the Children’s Television Act of 1997 requires every broadcast
network to allot 15% of their daily total airtime for education and child-friendly
shows.
Favorite teleserye
Since the study was conducted early 2015, the ABS-CBN teleserye
Forevermore, staring the popular love team of Enrique Gil and Liza Soberano ,
topped the list of Filipino children’s most favorite local television show. The show
was still airing then.
For the most favorite foreign television program, the top choice was the
Korean drama My Love From The Star which aired in GMA Network.
Top 15 most favorite local show Top 15 most favorite foreign shows

1. Forevermore My Love From The Star

2. It’s Showtime Fated to Love You

3. Dream Dad NBA

4. Once Upon A Kiss The Heirs

 5. TV Patrol Empress Ki
6. Matanglawin Meteor Garden
7. Eat Bulaga Discovery Channel Shows
8. Wansapanataym SpongeBob
9. Inday Bote Star Movies shows
10. Bagito Phineas and Ferb
11. Got to Believe The Voice
12. ABS-CBN shows Sofia the First
13. Gandang Gabi Vice Hunger Games
14. Oh My G! Cartoon Networks shows
15. PBA Masterchef
 Most of the respondents (48.7%) have access t only one television in their in
their household, but a significant number has access to more than one unit:
• 2 television units 30.9%
• 3 television units 11.2%
• 4 television units 3.9%
• 5 or more television units – 2.6%
On why they like watching television, many children cited the following
reasons:
• to gather information for their homework/academic requirement or just to learn
new and interesting things
• to tune in to the programs that they like
• to serve as a pass-time activity
• to do school or academic requirements.
Role of parents
They study also stressed the role of parents in curbing the negative effects of
television on children.
While most of the children watch television with their parents most of the
time, a significant number still watch without guidance from adults.

Parents/guardian’s guidance Percentage

while watching television

Always 26.80%
Often 37.60%
Seldom 28.00%
Never 7.70%
 “The intervention of adults in televison-viewing habits creates
the difference between learning something valuable or picking up
a negative attitude from the programs that a child is exposed to,”
the study read.
The study also advised television networks to “create a more
child-friendly viewing experience” during the 5 pm to 10 pm time
slot, since many children are tuned in. (READ: Childhood TV
addicts more likely to commit crime: study)
Results of this study will be used by the council in drafting a
new children’s television standards. –Rappler.com
 Historically, it is the radio at the television that have relied much on audience
research because they are mass media platforms that cannot accurately count their
audiences. The manner of dissemination---transmission via the airwaves –is like it is
given free to audiences and there is no way of measuring how many are actually
patronizing the program, Audience research is the only way to get an estimate of
audience size.
Today, beyond television and radio, even market research and social research.
Market research in convenient to know about how markets thrive, consumer
habits, and how