Defining
the audience is an essential step in developing a media strategy. This step lays down much-needed groundwork
for the entire media strategy. An EMB
must know whom they want to target in
order to be effective in their outreach.
This might seem too obvious to need doing: the audience is the
electorate, of course. However, there are three reasons in particular why
defining the audience is indispensable:
- In practice many EMBs do not follow the logic of
tailoring their media strategy to their audience. Instead they take the
easiest or familiar opportunities to communicate their message through the
media, without considering whether they are really reaching the people
they want to speak to, or whether the intended audience understands the
message;
- Equally, many EMBs tend to talk not to their primary
audience but to many secondary audiences – political parties, the media
themselves – who are more demanding and often easier to reach;
- The audience is not a single undifferentiated mass.
Breaking it down into its component parts will help EMBs to devise the
different messages that are required by these different sections and
identify the different media that should be used. It is easy to make
assumptions about which media are the most ‘important’ in a given context.
But audiences have markedly different levels of access to media, and taste
for media, depending on their geographical location, gender, age, and
other factors. For example in the Solomon Islands, one study found that
most people in the capital have access to some form of regular news media,
however outside the capital access varies enormously. Furthermore, the
study found that economic and cultural factors – such as less mobility to
go into town to watch television in a public place – mean that women tend
to have less access to all forms of mass media than men.[i]
In
general terms, then, defining the audience is not difficult. An EMB will wish
to communicate information to the entire electorate at different points during
the electoral process. The messages will vary, as will the means of
communicating these, but this something to consider later in the planning
cycle. However, it is useful to have a clear understanding of primary and
secondary audiences as well as the sub-categories within each. The primary audiences are voters, while the
secondary audiences are those who will relay messaging to voters. Sub-categories are defined by the fact that
they either require different messages or can only be reached by different
media than the main electoral audience as a whole.
Examples
of important primary audience sub-categories:
- Voters outside the country;
- Voters with disabilities;
- Minority voters;
- Female voters;
- Illiterate voters;
- First-time or potential new voters;
In
each of these examples it is clear that there is likely to be a distinct
message, as well as a different medium to be used. Hence, for example, voters
overseas will need information about casting a postal or proxy ballot. They may
not be able to be reached through the national media of their home country, so
other channels of communication will need to be found. First-time voters may require
detailed information about registering to vote, as well as the mechanics of
voting. They are likely to be reached more effectively through those media
targeted at young people. And so on.
Examples
of secondary audience sub-categories include:
- Political parties
- Media
- NGOs
- Donors
- Observer groups
- Government bodies
Each
of these groups is classified as secondary, not because they are of lesser
importance, but because they are a means of getting the message across to the
primary audience and
because there are specific messages that an EMB may wish to communicate to
them.
What
is most important is that an EMB Media Relations Department is aware of
profiles of the various audiences at hand, where they are, their individual
needs or circumstances, and understands how this factors into the overall
outreach programme. A clear
understanding of this landscape will allow an EMB to craft effective and
accurately targeted messages.
[i] “Audience
Market Research in Solomon Islands: Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Report,” (report for Solomon Islands Media Assistance Scheme, 2010),
http://www.dfat.gov.au/about-us/corporate/freedom-of-information/Documents/solmas-report.pdf
