Audience

=Audience=

Imagining the **Audience** in a [|Wired World], our course title refers to the group of people/audience within the context of the wired world. In general, the term **audience** may be used to describe a group of people who gather together. When people are present in the form of an audience they run the possablity of being exposed to information. This information may, or may always apply to all those present for its transimission. Audience could possibly be gathered because they share similarity in some way or other. When creating a media based product or any other product, one should keep the audience in mind. Target groups vary according to demographic factors, taste and interests, cultures, etc. Using **narrowcasting** one can target specific niche audiences in order to gain popularity from minorities or groups which are not mainstream or contribute to mass culture. Hence, the role of an audience has changed drastically over the years. While mass and popular culture used to be evident with images from Andy Warhol and other forms of popular media, increasingly more companies are targetting smaller more narrowly categorized audiences. Thanks to globalization, smaller cultural groups and media (for example the Telenovelas, which are soaps and drama for Latin Americans) can gain popularity.

The emergence of innovative [|technologies] has provided the opportunity for the passive audience to transform into an active/interactive one. Not only have they permitted an interactive audience but one that is not limited to time or geography. An audience can be half way across the world participating in a synchronous discussion with another audience on a laptop. This form of immediate feedback has proven efficient in many areas of study.

Audience response systems are being made available by many companies to further efficient communication to audiences in the contemporary wired world. [These innovative technologies are changing to create a collaborative environment that works to benefit not only the sender but the audience itself as a whole. The resulting factor that this interaction between the audience and these innovative technologies is one that takes effect on each another. It's not that the audience is just being the passive receiver of these interacting technologies, but are in turn, the ones who effect what improvements are always being made to these products or environments. For instance, cellphones were not as multi-functional as they are now because of the consistent repetitive use of certain products such as the camera and the Internet. These features are integrated into one device to please a wider audience.] - by Caroline Khewro

=Other Links to Consider:= [|Dictionary.com] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audience Audience Image - http://www.wpclipart.com/people/audience.png