MEDA1302 Chap.5 Publics and Audience Analysis
Publics and Audience Analysis
This chapter selects communication groups by relationship and consequence rather than reach alone. Publics affect or are affected by an organisation or issue; audiences are gathered by attention to a medium; markets are organised around exchange. Mapping enablers, producers, consumers, limiters, allies and intercessors reveals different roles.
Prioritisation then examines involvement, knowledge, barriers, trusted sources and communication benefit so that the profile changes the objective, message and tactic instead of remaining a demographic description.
Roles belong to the situation rather than permanently to a person or organisation. A venue can enable access, produce part of a service and act as an intercessor that carries information to a key public.
The plan should specify which relationship matters and distinguish the response sought from the messenger from the response sought from the final public. Demographics may help locate people, but consequence, influence, vulnerability, current knowledge, trust and access explain communication need.
A useful profile includes the barrier, credible benefit, relevant sources and conditions such as timing, language, disability or digital access. Prioritisation involves trade-offs: a small group with authority or direct exposure may matter more than a large audience. The selected public must remain consistent through the objective, message, tactic and evaluation sample.
If later decisions refer to a different population, the chain needs repair.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Publics, markets and audiences
- 02
Consequences and organisational relationships
- 03
Enablers, producers, consumers and limiters
- 04
Intercessory publics and opinion leaders
- 05
Key-public prioritisation
- 06
Barriers, benefits, trust and media behaviour
Worked example · free
Prioritise a night-bus public
- +1Identify shift workers as a group directly affected by the transport gap.
- +1Identify venue operators as an intercessory public with access and credibility.
- +1Profile the need for timetable certainty and safety information.
- +1Use workplaces and venues to deliver verified route information and a clear action path.
Key terms
- Public
- A group connected to an organisation or issue through consequences, influence or shared concern.
- Audience
- People who attend to a medium or message, regardless of strategic relationship.
- Market
- A group organised around potential exchange of products, services or support.
- Key public
- A public selected for priority attention in a particular situation.
- Intercessory public
- A group or person that already has attention and influence with another public.
- Benefit statement
- A concise account of how an organisation can provide value relevant to a public's relationship and needs.
Publics and Audience Analysis FAQ
Why is everyone not a useful public?
Everyone hides the relationship that makes communication relevant and prevents meaningful research, messages or evaluation. Define who experiences the consequence, who can affect the issue or who has access to the group whose response matters. A narrower public produces stronger strategy than a very broad audience label.
How do I choose a key public?
Assess the public's relationship to the issue, influence, vulnerability, involvement, communication need and the organisation's ability to provide a genuine benefit. Selection is situation-specific. Explain why the group matters now and how communication could reasonably change the condition.
What makes a public profile actionable?
An actionable profile includes the group's relationship to the issue, current knowledge or attitude, barriers, motivations, trusted sources, media behaviour and an ethical benefit. Each detail should affect an objective, message, tactic or channel decision. Remove demographic facts that do no planning work.
Assessment move
Draw a public map around one fictional organisation, placing enablers, producers, consumers, limiters, allies and intercessors. Then select two key publics and write a one-sentence justification for each. Build an actionable profile with relationship, barrier, benefit, trust and media behaviour. Test the profile by asking how it changes the objective and message. If nothing changes, the profile is too generic.
Rehearse the audience-public distinction with media examples because it is an efficient short-answer boundary. Add consequences to the map before adding demographics. For every group, write how the issue affects it, how it can affect the organisation and what action or decision matters. This prevents follower counts from becoming a substitute for strategic importance. Next, separate key publics from intercessory publics.
A venue manager may carry timetable information to shift workers, but the workers’ knowledge or behaviour can remain the campaign objective. State each role so the plan does not evaluate the messenger as though it were the target group. Build two competing profiles for people of a similar age but with different relationships, barriers or sources of trust; then show why they require different messages or routes.
Add practical access conditions such as timing, language, disability, digital access and institutional permission. Rank publics using relevance to the problem, capacity to influence it, vulnerability to consequences and realistic scope for communication. Record trade-offs rather than pretending every group is equally central. Finally, write a public statement that contains group, relationship, barrier, benefit and implication.
Use it to audit the objective, message, tactic and evaluation sample. If those later decisions refer to a different population, repair the chain. This exercise turns a descriptive persona into an accountable planning choice grounded in the situation.
