COURSEWORK PRIMARY TEXT: Audience Expectations

In this document I will analyse the audience of my primary text which is “Made in Chelsea” (MIC). MIC is a reality television show which is aired on E4, both of which will be important factors in my analysis of the audience. It is described as being about a group of “socially elite twenty-something year olds” and follows them through their relationships, friendships and goings on in Chelsea. It came after “The Only Way is Essex”, which was the first reality show of this kind to be aired on our TV screens, and this fact may also prove to be important when looking at who the show appeals to.

First, when analysing the audience in it’s most basic terms, we can use the Uses and Gratifications theory, and look at lifestyles and values. According to the Uses and Gratifications theory, people are most likely to watch MIC for diversion from their daily lives, entertainment, and social interaction. With social media, social interaction has become a massive part of the reality TV genre. Hash tags are presented to the viewer at the start of the programme, to form a community online who will discuss the show and indirectly promote it. Regarding values and lifestyles, I believe that MIC would attract those from two life styles backgrounds/socio-economic classes. It could either attract those from a high class similar to that of the “Chelsea bunch” as they can closely relate, or it would attract people from lower classes who watch the show simply because they are able to get an insight into a life they would love to have. This is narcissism.

The audience’s prior knowledge of the genre played an important part in who it appealed to, and the expectations that audiences had of the show. They use their prior knowledge to anticipate whether or not they are likely to enjoy a text, and this helps audiences when they are selecting any media text, whether it be magazines, television shows, or films. This is why the fact that MIC came after TOWIE is so important. TOWIE started on the 10^th October 2010, and has been running ever since. MIC started in May 2011- it came just over half a year after TOWIE did. Audiences would already have had a significant taste of the genre, and so they would expect to see fights, drama and love stories; they would expect to watch the characters going to parties and hanging out in their glamorous houses. This is what was handed to the audiences when Made in Chelsea came along. It was exactly what was expected of the genre. The only things that changed were not to do with the genre at all- they were the class that was represented, the location in which is was set, and the time that the show ran for. Audiences who enjoyed TOWIE were likely to enjoy MIC when it first started, because they had already formed the opinion on whether or not they liked the genre. The changes in audience would only come after a few episodes, when audiences decided which class they would rather watch, and which they could relate to more closely.
This links to my next point.

Genre is used by audiences when they can compare a text through its shared characteristics with another. If you try to describe a TV show to someone who has not seen it, you are likely to define its genre and clarify what other text it is similar too. This would have been the situation with the TOWIE/MIC craze. Those who hadn’t seen MIC would be told that it is similar to The Only Way is Essex, just with a different class of people- “people who are much more posh”. This would attract a whole new audience. I believe that TOWIE played a massive part in the success of MIC, because Made in Chelsea was being created into an established genre.

By the same token, audiences also use their knowledge of a genre to reject a text. For many of us there will be genres we actively dislike and therefore will avoid accessing texts we assume to hold these characteristics.