Audiences are pretty important, but why? Who actually cares? Advertisers, commercial broadcasters, Cable networks, production houses, individual program makers, government policy makers, social scientists/psychologists and cultural theorists – that’s who!

Essentially, if we didn’t have audiences, we wouldn’t have media to begin with. Because what’s pushing creators to produce media that people aren’t going to view/watch/consume? Audiences help generate income and product value – fans of bands increase their net worth, ratings of TV shows decide whether they get a second season, and so on. Like a sort of domino affect – audiences exist to consume media, and media exists to be consumed by audiences.