Media Professionals

There are two main strands of production research about how media professionals “know” their audience.

1.) Constraints

Professional Ideologies

Work practices


They are 
interested in learning and understanding more about how the creativity or 
agency of the media professional is constrained by both organizational as well 
as external forces.

2.) More textual orientation in that it attempts to combine an understanding of 
the former concerns with an in depth analysis of a specific media text or texts. Researches, in many cases, have worked backwards from the finished media 
product or text to better understand the internal and external forces on the 
media professional that have potentially shaped its content.

Negative audience responses might be categorized as a possible constraint. Since many media professionals learn about their audiences through product research, a negative response only lets them know about their dislikes, not likes. The idea of “author-text” tradition in literary criticism coupled with the attempt to understand the relationship between a media professional and her/his text should raise a question about whether their understanding of us is really an understanding or if we are being shaped by them to think what they want us to think.
This question should be supplemented by thinking about why media professionals and given the information that they are by media conglomerates. The concept of “dumbing down” content or picking a program for its entertainment content rather than educational function This is all in the greater attempt to satisfy the audience, but is it really beneficial? It is hard to say what is idea for such a diverse audience when all of the information is owed by these large corporations which allows them to shape it in whatever way enables them to earn revenue.