THE MASS MEDIA

AUDIENCE
Script Writing for Broadcast Media
(BRO454)

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 INTRODUCTION: THE MASS MEDIA

• Writing for a mass medium – mass audience.

• The nature of that audience – key to what you create.
• You are simultaneously writing for:
• individual
• small group - have a lot in common
• large no. of people – little in common
• Reaching them effectively is difficult as it is not
“captive” audience

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 INTRODUCTION

• Although some TV viewers carefully select shows, but

most viewers tune in to particular formats by force or
habit.
• People will switch to another if it doesn’t interest them
or watch half-heartedly. Same goes for radio.
• Internet users have even wider choice.
• So, writer must capture the attention of the audience as
soon as possible and hold it.
• Every words and picture must be purposeful and keep
interests of the audience.
• WRITE DIRECTLY, SHARPLY, AND SIMPLY! 3
 INTRODUCTION

• Radio has changed drastically over the years when large

conglomerates bought up many stations and local
independent ones disappeared.
• Consequently, many programs run with the exact same
programming to areas that may have little in common.
• There is no longer special interests in music being
served, thus subscribers to satellite radio have
increased.
• Internet radio has boomed – many choice of music
genres and greater opportunity to find what suits the
listeners
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 INTRODUCTION

• Financial - control programming decisions and content –

try to reach as large segment of viewing/listening as
possible.
• The primary aim of video producers too often still seems
to be to present materials that is not offensive despite of
narrowcasting programming.
• Programs that deal in depth with controversial material
are in the minority.
• Some still challenge the status quo but government
pressure has resulted in timid programming.
• Internet offers great variety of information and opinion
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than traditional media.
 INTRODUCTION

• Although traditionally and consistently politically

conservative, media have become less and less
conservative in terms of social behavior.
• Partial nudity, profane language, undisguised sexual
situation etc.
• So, writer for media always have to check with
appropriate legal representative and exercise integrity
with what is being written.

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 DEMOGRAPHICS

• Ideally, the writer should attempt to prepare material

that appeals to and is needed by a specific audience.
• Demographics or demos is the makeup of the potential
audience for a given program or station
• Principal demographics are age within
the given market’s locale.
gender

• Some demographic studies goes deeper into

• job and professions,
• income, and
• education
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 DEMOGRAPHICS

• Psychographics are more related to audience’s beliefs,

attitudes, and behavior.
• E.g : political affiliation, religion, where audience
shops, and what brands they buy.
• These determine the kinds of writing that appeal to the
given audience and determine the product and service
they would purchase.
• Demographics of radio audiences sometimes are even
more precise– each station focuses more on specified
group of loyal listeners preference.

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 ..CONT DEMOGRAPHICS

• Interest groups of radio listeners

• listen in a particular place (home, work, car)
• listen at particular time (day, night)
• Cable audiences are fairly easy to target because the
channels are quite narrow in scope.
• Internet audiences (with exception of some browsers)
are usually interested in a given site’s subject matter
• Racial and ethnic makeup of specific market is an
important part in demographics.
• For example, we have Ai FM and Minnal FM in Malaysia which is
brought up for Chinese and Indian people, respectively.
• Station formats reflect the interests of the audience
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 ..CONT DEMOGRAPHICS

• Psychographics attempts to tell the advertiser how

they feel about the product/service.
• Geodemographics – combines geography with
demographics
• Cohort analysis – find common bonds that prompt a
group of people to think and feel the same way about a
given item or issue, based on similar experiences in
the same time frame.

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 ..CONT DEMOGRAPHICS

• Advertisers want to know not only how many people

tune in, but whether audiences are likely purchase and
engage themselves with the product/service by
continuing to watch during the commercial, record the
show and posting about it.
• Internet – interactive thus audience research goes in
greater depth and on broader basis.
• Cookies – track every site you log onto and collect info
– taste in content and product/service interests.

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 ELECTRONIC MEDIA

• Technique of writing programs for a type of format

(broadcast or cable), are essentially the same although:
• Demographics may differ among people watching
• The material permissible on an over-the-air station
can differ
• However, writing for internet’s full potentials requires
different approaches and techniques
• The Internet has been moving steadily from using little-
changed adaptations of television and radio writing to
using its interactivity as creative base for entertainment
programming.
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 ELECTRONIC MEDIA

• Understanding key production elements and production

techniques can help to write better
• Different equipment and technical devices – require
different aesthetics and physical approaches
• In addition to mastering the use or words, the writer
must be able to write for
• the eye (visual)
• the ear (sound)

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 ..CONT ELECTRONIC MEDIA

• Although cable and satellite are often referred to as “new

media”, they are essentially distribution systems.
• Given multiple channels and fragmented video audiences,
their aesthetics are essentially the same as older media.
• That is, they rarely require special or different writing
techniques for their programs.
• They merely distribute through an additional service the
programs that otherwise would be aired over traditional
television or radio.

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 ..CONT ELECTRONIC MEDIA

• BUT! Cyberspace is different!

• The Internet sets up a number of special technical,
aesthetic, and psychological parameters that writer must
understand and use if he or she is to prepare a script
that has optimum impact in the new medium used.
“Internet is what a television was to writers before.”
• Explanation : The approaches used for writing a
drama/docu/film/play/radio had to be adapted to the
needs and potentials of television. The same principle
applies to writing for Internet today.

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 TELEVISION & MASS AUDIENCE

• TV can use the best of all previous comm. media (theatre,

mechanical abilities, sound, audience orientation)
• TV combines both subjectivity and objectivity in relation
to the audience, fusing two areas frequently thought as
exclusive.
• With camera and various electronic devices, the writer
and director can subjectively orient the TV audience’s
attentions and emotions by directing them to specific
stimuli.
• TV audience can’t choose its focus

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 TELEVISION & MASS AUDIENCE

• They can be directed to focus on object or occurrence

through:
• Close up, Zoom, Split screen, Control board/ switcher
movement
• Attention can be directed to subtle and obvious reaction.

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 TELEVISION & MASS AUDIENCE

• Objectivity is crucial to lending credibility to non-

dramatic programming like newscasts and
documentaries.
• Creating objective orientation – bring the performer
more openly and directly to viewer e.g. using CU and
zoom – achieve non-illusionary relationship with the
audience
• These elements create effect and requires different
techniques from film in movie theatre
• the small screen
• limited length of most programs
• the intimacy of the living or bedroom when watching
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at home
 TELEVISION & MASS AUDIENCE

• The numbers of characters and the size of setting are

restricted by:
• small screen size
• limited time available
• Writer must always remember that television is
visual
• Where a visual element can achieve the desired
effect, it should take precedence over dialogue.
• SIMPLE TEST:
• Turn on your TV and turn the brightness down until the picture is
gone, leaving only the audio. Note in how many programs, from
commercials to dramas, you will “see” just as much as you would
with the video on. (Is it still just like radio with pictures?) 19
 RADIO & MASS AUDIENCE

• Radio is NOT limited by what can be presented visually

• It is limited ONLY by the listener’s imagination
• Radio permits the writer complete freedom of time
and place.
• Setting and movement – NO limit
• Radio audience hears only what writer-director wants
it to hear.
• Audience “see” pictures in their imaginations.
• The writer can creates the mind picture more
effectively because in radio, imagination is not limited
to what the eye sees 20
 RADIO & MASS AUDIENCE

• It’s subjectivity enables writers to create unique elements

that might not be produced visually because of high
cost/difficulty.
• The writer can position the audience right alongside of or
at any chosen distance from a character/performer.
• Voice distances and relationship to the mic determine
audience view of the characters and setting.
• Different listeners may imagine differently about the same
sound – psychological and experiential background
differences
• Good writer finds enough common elements to stimulate
common emotions and reactions.
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 RADIO & MASS AUDIENCE

• A scene must be set in dialogue and sound rather than

sight
• Must NOT be done too obviously
• Radio often uses narrator or announcer to :
• Set the mood
• Establish character relationship
• Describe the scene
• Summarize action
• Background material – through dialogue, music, sound
and silence.
• Technologies such as multitrack and digital recording
further enhance this aural medium’s potential.
• Example on page 11 22
 THE INTERNET AUDIENCE

• Consists of single individual in a one-on-one

communication exchange
• Interactive – audience may be a participant in
communication process, rather than passive viewer
• Flexibility and control over material being presented
• Internet users have wider choice of selection.
• Few gatekeepers of the Internet
• A medium interprets what we have written for an
audience.
• We write to fit the aesthetic and technical
requirement of the given medium.
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 THE INTERNET AUDIENCE

• Many are simply using the internet as a distribution

medium without understanding it is an entirely
different creative environment
• “Interactive” is the key for writing for this medium.
• Internet news audience can have instant access to a
wider variety of opinions and interpretations of news
and able to bypass biased news.
• Audience is given unlimited interactive opportunities,
• BUT the writers (as a creator/the guide/the
influencer) must remember NOT to lose control of the
material . 24
 THE INTERNET AUDIENCE

• Writer can help ORIENT the audience to sites that

offset (counter balance) restricted attitudes and
information
• Writer need to be aware that literally the whole
multicultural, multi-opinion world is watching and
listening– different requirement for content and
technique
• Some are striving to eliminate net neutrality or
internet freedom
• “techie”-culture types who continue to control the
internet.
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 THE INTERNET AUDIENCE

• Thus far, the techie has dominated, with the tools and
process of the internet communication by the new
media operators as more importance than material.
• Broadcasters are trying to maximize their proficiency
and access.
• The internet can have valuable as well as competitive
effect on the more traditional media.
• the Web have made possible for some otherwise
dormant radio formats to revive.

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 SUBJECT MATTER

• The writer not only has to exercise talent in producing

quality material, but also has to exercise judgment in the
specific material used.
• Greatly affected by censorship from many sources. E.g.
AJL34, performance by Aina Abdul claimed to promote
suicide
https://www.bharian.com.my/hiburan/selebriti/2020/02/654
253/aina-mohon-maaf-tv3-semak-cmcf
• Usually has guidelines about what materials are accepted.
• Advertisers exercise significant role in determining content.
• Owners want their media properties to reflect their
personal and social views whenever possible, or at least
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not present views that disagree with their.
 Censorable Material

• The FCC is authorized to levy fines or suspend a

station’s license for “communications containing
profane or obscene words, language or meaning.
• “Indecency” clause implementation depends on the FCC
commissioner’s orientation at any given time.
• 3 criteria in judging whether a work was indecent or
obscene:
a)that, applying contemporary community standard, the
work appeals to the average person’s indecent interests
b) That the work describes sexual conduct in a patently
offensive way, as defined by state law
c) That the work as a whole lacks literary, artistic,
political, or scientific value 28
 Controversial Material

• Many company refuse to sponsor a program with

controversial material if they feel it might in any way
alienate any potential customers.
• The history of censorship of controversial material in
broadcasting is long one,
• And unfortunately, one in which both broadcasters and
the public never seem to learn the lessons of integrity
and democracy.
• Several classic situations have resulted from censoring
material that might put the sponsor’s product or service
in a poor light or that might suggest a competing.
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 Controversial Material

• Censorship is sometimes the result of an owner’s

attitudes toward conflict or with the content program.
• Some censorship takes place not because of feared
public reaction or even sponsor’s vested interest, but
because of direct prejudice.
• The media’s great impact and television’s and radio
ability to affect people’s mind and emotions so strongly
are clearly recognized by the media controllers or
gatekeeper,
• These controllers represent the status quo of
established business, industry, social and political
though of power. 30
 Controversial Material

• Media program shows have had remarkable impact in

changing many our political and social belief, policies,
and practices.
• Media have been responsible, through similar control,
for great progress in human endeavors.

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THE END
Thank you for time and attention 

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