Target Audience

For an educational public service announcement on energy efficiency and the opposing views on global warming, the most accepting and beneficial viewer would be a conservative democratic woman between the ages of 16 and 24, student or recent graduate, and living in a suburban area. Venues for this type of media would be television networks whose target audience is a young age group, such as MTV and Vh1. ages 16 – 26. This audience will be educated and starting to read the paper and watch the news occasionally. They are beginning to take an interest in current events, but do not yet make it a priority to stay on top of them. When trying to become informed, they are finding that there is a lot of contradictory facts and opposing opinions. An attempt to become informed about social issues turns into a confusing and disheartening experience. Within this group, the P.S.A. will target viewers from upper middle class families. The audience will have more time and financial resources to be concerned and take action on energy efficiency as opposed to a lower income citizen struggling to make ends meet.

This group of viewers is the most likely to be concerned about the current state of the environment, the environment in general, and is willing to trust media concerning the environment. These features were gathered from the Gallup Opinion and Harris polls. In a poll titled ‘Younger Americans are more likely to be pessimistic about the environment’ it asked, “Right now, do you think the quality of the environment in the country as a whole is getting better or getting worse?” and the largest percent, 70%, that answered ‘worse’ were the 18 to 29 year olds.



In the Harris poll ‘Roll of the Media’ that asked, “Lately there have been a lot of reports about threats to the environment. In general, which is closer to your view?” 50% of females, 42% of males, 26% of Republicans, 45% of Independents, and 65% of Democrats agreed that “these threats are as serious as the media portrays”.



In another Harris poll, ‘Environmentalist or Not?’ in all age groups the larger percent said that they thought of themselves as “sympathetic to environmental causes”. Not only is this age group more pessimistic about the quality of the environment, but also they are more willing to trust media concern with the environment.



A female audience member between the ages of 16 and 24, who is a conservative democrat, would be most receptive to and in need of a public service announcement that presents the opposing debates on global warming side by side and offers energy efficient solutions.