Presentation Topic

Illustrate the importance and

weaknesses of
the Audience Factors
under the Exposure Model
Exposure Model
 1. Introduction
Q: So Why Should We Care About the Audience?
A: In Singapore, there are 3.4million viewers* for terrestrial TV alone. This figure
underestimates the degree of our media exposure when you add in time spent on
watching cable channels, listening to the radio, CDs, reading books, newspapers,
magazines, and even glancing at print advertisements on the way to work, and of
course surfing the Internet.
*Source: TodayOnline Oct 2008

It is therefore evident that

we are all media audiences almost
all of the time.
 Why is exposure important?

• Leads to information on audience

behaviour, as well as provide insight
for marketers and media owners
in a better understanding of
advertisement placements and
television programming.
 3. Importance and Weaknesses of Audience Factors
in relation to media exposure

The term “exposure” refers to

“being in physical proximity to a media
message such
that a person is in contact with that message.

Also, exposure requires that the

message is within the boundaries of a
person’s sense organ limitation.”
2. Correlations among Audience Factors

AUDIENCE FACTORS
Structural
Potential Audiences
Patterns of Availability

Individual
Needs/Tastes/Preferences
Awareness
Group Configurations
 3. Importance

Structural
Potential Audiences highlight the media audience as a collective, allowing for
an all-encompassing method of quantifying if a group of audience has the
potential to be exposed to the media in question. The benefits of this
method is the ability to extract a statistical figure to indicate the potential
size of the audience.
 3. Importance

Structural
Patterns of Availability is essential in providing information about when the media
audience is available for a particular time.
 3. Importance

Individual
• Needs/Tastes/Preferences on an individual level marks a strong importance in
affecting media exposure.

• Awareness is also vital in its relationship with media exposure. If a user is

unaware of the existence of the media, there will be no exposure.

• Group Configurations refers to group viewing media together at a point of time

as compared to an individual watching media by him or herself
 4. Weaknesses
3. Inaccuracy/ No definitive perimeterin measuring the
exact size of media audience as tracking is tedious,
insufficient on most media, with technological constraints.

5. Results are usually measured by a single media channel, but in actual fact,
consumers are exposed to multiple media at one time therefore it is important to
generate results on cross-platforms.

7. Consciousness [Effectiveness] in audience creates an inaccurate

measurement of media exposure.
 4. Weaknesses

5. Media Literacyvaries in different individuals. Some who have higher

understanding on how media works would be indifferent about what they
are exposed to.

7. Intended Audience – whether the audience exposed was the intended

audience

9. Motivational Factors – we do not know the underlying motivations that

affect the audience’s behaviour leading to exposure
 6. Conclusion
1. Audience behaviour can mean very different things, ranging from
chance exposure to planned and engaged consumptions.
Fundamentally, there are different ways to study / perceive
audience and how it will affect exposure

3. A more accurate form of measuring audience factors leading

exposure is necessary.

5. There should also be measurements to determine the effectiveness

of the exposure

6. Contemporary scholars agree that relations between media and

audiences are so complex that they require multiple methods for
study. [combining both structural and individual methods]