AQA GCSE Media Studies Student Book

90 All this means that media industries have developed a sophisticated set of tools for analysing and categorising audiences. A key idea is segmentation . A mass audience can be broken down into different slices or segments, for example by age or gender. As more media choices become available, the process of segmentation gathers pace. For example, if only two radio stations are available to a population, there will only be limited segmentation. If there are hundreds of radio stations available to the same population there will be much greater segmentation, with each station aiming at a small segment. But what are these different audience segments? Let’s look first at the demographic variables: the ways in which the population as a whole can be broken down into categories. Demographics Main categories are: • gender • social class • ethnicity • education • place of residence • religion • family size • family lifecycle (full nest, empty nest, double income no kids) • age • generation (baby boomers, Generation X, millennials , Generation Z). Generations The following categories are often used to describe changing attitudes and preferences, especially by advertisers. The characteristics assigned to each generation are stereotypes based on very broad brush generalisations. Baby boomers This is the generation born in the post-war period (1945–early 1960s) when there was a bulge in the birth rate in the UK and USA. Stereotypically, this was the generation that rejected the values of their parents, discovered drugs and rock music in their teens, before becoming big spenders of the ‘grey pound’ in their 50s and 60s. Generation X These are people born between the early 1960s and the early 1980s. Stereotypically, Generation X are independent, cynical, self-absorbed and like to model themselves on characters from the sitcom Friends . Other likes include grunge and Dr Marten boots. Millennials (or Generation Y) This refers to people born between 1980 and 2000, the first to grow up with the mass availability of digital technology. Stereotypically, the ‘me, me, me’ generation are reluctant to grow up. They are confident, high achievers who expect big rewards from work. Segmentation The breaking down or subdivision of a large group into identifiable slices or segments. Each segment is defined by something all members have in common, such as the same age group. Demographics Demography is the statistical study of populations, so a demographic variable is one of the sections or categories into which a population can be divided. These include age, ethnicity, gender and social class. Millennials People who reached young adulthood at the start of the 21st century – the turn of the millennium. Key terms Use these categories to create a demographic profile of yourself. Activity 3.1 AQA GCSE Media Studies