Describe Niche and Mainstream audiences with specific text examples.
Mainstream Texts
Mainstream texts are texts that have a large audience and are popular, they are often termed as 'broadcast'. Popular mainstream texts that have large viewing audiences are normally sit coms and soap operas etc. An example of a mainstream text is the News. This is broadcasted on channels such as ITV and BBC at peak times of the day, e.g. in the morning- 8pm before most viewers go to work, in the afternoon and at night,which most people have access too, therefore are able to watch. BBC can be classified as a mainstream channel because its not a specific channel you have to subscribe to in order to watch so is more likely to be popular with the audience.The News can be identified as a mainstream text because of the information that is being portrayed about events that are happening in the world, which a lot of people are curious about, therefore watch this programme to gratify their curiosity. The mode of address for the News is formal as its giving out information to the public about serious events that are happening, therefore has to have a formal register in order to satisfy the audience.
Niche Texts
Niche texts are texts that have limited/small audiences. The audiences that view niche texts can be influenced, dedicated and loyal. An example of a niche text is 'Science Britannica' which is shown on BBC Two. This programme is shown at 23:20-00:20, at which time most people are asleep.This text would gratify an audience that has an interest in science or could be students studying science at school/college etc. The people that would have an interest in this type of programme would either stay up to watch it as they have a personal interest in it or would record it. BBC Two choose to broadcast this programme late at night as they know this programme has a small/niche viewing audience, therefore would loose money if they were to show this at the prime of TV shows e.g. 7-8pm when most mainstream audiences would be watching TV.
Kirby make sure you always justify your points. You state the news is mainstream because its on ITV/BBC, yes your right but why does that make it mainstream? You make good points about the mode of address. Also in terms of niche, you could have discussed how certain gratifications are common and in this case uncommon. Overall a good attempt though.
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