Impact of print media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Impact of print media - Essay Example Media can promote democracy. In fact, media can be an important incubator of dissent and principled opposition to the military regime (Tironi and Sunkel 2000). How audience is targeted. A clearly defined target audience is important in any media such as print. Targeting an audience as a concept is best explained by examples. Consider the Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA), a social justice organization achieving equality and acceptance for gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual (GLTB) people ("We are" 2007). For their primary target audience, they have the "moveable middle," or heterosexuals whose opinions can be "moved" toward the positive through education. This group had conducted research beforehand and knew too well that a greater percentage of well educated people, females and higher income people, will be less prejudiced against homosexual people. They also learned that the general heterosexual population is extremely under-educated as regards GLBT people. Finally, they also came to know that heterosexuals are largely unaware of the lack of civil rights GLBT people experience, and are exposed largely to stereotypes and myths about them. Heterosexuals then became their primary target audience. ... Their energy, they decided, is to be saved for those who will listen ("We are" 2007). In targeting audience, therefore, research is needed where time, money, and effort could be used most efficiently. AFFA had to consider if the people who will be exposed to the message are above average in terms of education and income when placing media. If positive, they can become the best target market for change in attitudes about GLBT issues. They had to conduct a survey toward this objective to be able to get reliable data. In some media campaigns, a secondary target audience may also be obtained. The AFFA, for example, has the GLBT community being exposed to their message as secondary target audience, the purpose of which is to instill confidence and self-esteem. The objective of media campaign at times dictates choice of the primary target group. For example, to change sex selective behaviour, the target group should be those who seek the services to determine the sex of the fetus and later to abort it ("Sex Selection" 2007). It was found out that it is not effective to target medical practitioners who supply their services exclusively through mass media. Instead, the young unmarried women are best the target audience as they are the most open to questioning inherited values and behaviors, display the greatest conflict with choices forced upon them, and express discomfort with practices of sex selection. Mostly, they appear to be the most amenable to behaviour change ("Sex Selection 2007). In both instances mentioned here, the common denominator for target audience appears to be those most responsive to behavior change. What research literature says is first considered, then, time, money and effort are spent in planning the most efficient way how