"Reading" Television Through Audience Analysis

What is Audience Analysis? Audience analysis is the study of the viewers. Who is watching and why? What motivates and influences them to choose to watch one show over another, to like one show more than another? Audience analysis will assist in our understanding and knowledge of how television is "read" and why. In getting to know who is watching, why they are watching and what they take away from watching a particular show, we will then be able to analyze and interpret this in relation to Hermann's article.

Who is the Audience? Anyone who has ever watched the show. In essence, you are the audience.

What are the methods for Audience Analysis? Audience Analysis takes into consideration the opinions and views of the viewers. Through the use of surveys, questionnaires and conversations which ask specific questions about specific television shows, data was recorded and then analyzed with reference to Stefan Hermann's article. The most common repsonses were then tallied, which were then able to provide a basis for which analysis could be done.

Conclusions? Although analysis and, therefore, conclusions varied from group to group depending on the show, it can be said that in some form or another, the audience/viewer plays a large part in the determining the ways in which certain television shows are "read."

Audience Analyzers: Melissa (Friends 1), Paul (The Sopranos), George (Fraiser), Daniel & Rina (Friends 2), Nabil (The Simpsons), Ozi (That '70s Show)

Link to Stefan Hermann's article, "Do we learn to 'read' television like a kind of language?"