LO2 How Media Producers Create

Products for Specific Audiences.

The website that I will be analysing: www.youtube.com

At first glance, it is clear that the predominant colours are red, white and black. These colours are
not gender specific which shows that the website is aimed at a mixed audience. In common, a
childrens website would probably use bright, primary colours such as blue (for males) and pink (for
females) as well as cartoon artwork throughout the website. The lack of these features suggests that
the website may not be intended for a younger audience, but instead people older.

The font used is also very minimalist and not at all difficult to read. The font is set out so that the
larger the font size, the more important the information. As the audience becomes more familiar
with the website, they smaller font types will be noticed as giving more details about the main
information such as descriptions of the videos that can be watched and the creator of these videos.

Because YouTube is a video sharing website, the homepage displays several of the latest uploaded
videos from the most popular channels by using various sizes of image thumbnails to attract the
audiences attention. Adverts are also displayed on the homepage to increase the revenue of the
company, and, if a user has an account; adverts are displayed with relevance to ones interest
depending on the videos they have watched. This is another method of using a website to direct ads
to a certain audience.


The website will only play sound when the video that you have chosen is clicked on to be played. By
having a wide variety of videos all of which are of a random genre on the front page, the website can
appeal to a wider range of audiences as well as having a choice whether or not they want to watch
the video or not. In my opinion, the intended target audience for the website is teenagers and young
adults as people of this age tend to spend the most time using the internet to satisfy needs, relax
and to pass the time.



On the homepage the layout of the list of top categories (shown below) are split on the left side
page, being very small. In order to appeal more audiences, the have also split up the categories on
the centre of the page alongside a few of the most popular videos in that genre.



This layout is very spaced out and not cluttered. This makes it easier for new users to get around the
website. By having a few categories shown with several selected videos, YouTube are trying to get
lucky with finding the nature of certain people in the audience. For instance Gaming (mostly
appeals towards males) is displayed.
There is also a comment section underneath videos to get different users to interact with each other
and comment on the video. This can attract more people to the site, and because it is on a particular
video it may bring an audience with a similar interest e.g. gaming, together to discuss things.
However, because YouTube is aimed at a teenage-adult audience, there are a lot of immature
people that fill up the comment section with pointless arguments. Because of these people, the
YouTube comments section is now an infamous area of the website.

Because the logo with the red, white and black colours is so widely known; it can make the audience
think of the website if seen. These colours are now so connected with YouTube, just seeing these
three colours together can make the audience think of the website Also, by implementing these
colours across the whole site, it will increase this feeling
YouTube does not implement a vast amount of information about the website, but immediately
attracts the audience in by getting straight to showing popular and trending videos. However, when
a user is about to upload a video, they do have the option to see instructions on how to upload a file
to the internet, which new, very young and elder users may not be familiar with.


When Uploading instructions is clicked it brings up an easy step-by-step guide to users who arent
very familiar with uploading a file to the website.
It also gives tips on how to increase the length of your maximum video upload to above 15 minutes
as this is locked until the user is more familiar with the website. It asks this question in bold so that
the new user can immediately understand what it is they must do in order to upload videos longer
than 15 minutes



Questionnaire
a) What is your gender?
Male
Female

b) What is your age range?
8-12
13-17
18-22
23-27
28+

c) How long do you spend on the internet daily?
0-2 hours
3-5 hours
6-8 hours
9-11 hours
12+ hours

d) How long do you spend on YouTube per day?
0-2 hours
3-5 hours
6-8 hours
9-11 hours
12+ hours

e) When using the internet, which other websites do your also frequently visit?
Facebook
Twitter
Bebo
Reddit
Other
_________________
None of the above


f) When using YouTube, what do you usually search for (by genre)? Tick all that apply.
News and Politics
Music
How-to, Style Film
People and Blogs
Science, Technology
Sports
Animation
Comedy
Education
Entertainment
Gaming

i) What do you enjoy about the ticked categories above?











ii) What do you dislike about the unticked categories?






g) What do you use YouTube for? Tick all that apply.
Entertainment
Education
Work
Other
_________________________





h) If you had to pay to watch YouTube videos, would you?
Yes
No
i) Why?




Audience Feedback
Mixed genders for feedback
Mostly in the 13-22 age range
Average hours spent on internet = 4 hours
Commonly used with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Gmail, Netflix and Tumblr
Most search for Gaming, Music, Entertainment and Comedy
Unticked genres are News, Sports and Educations, as they werent worth peoples time
Used for entertainment mainly


I was also given feedback on what the audience thought of the website as a
whole and what they would like improved.
User friendly Simple dual tone colour scheme which is easy on the eyes
Improved comment section to stop YouTube trolls
Report
If a company was to create a website with a mass audience, or one for mainly teenagers and adults
(ages from 10-65), it is important to provide an easy-to-use interface, where step-by-step
instructions can be located easily and arent too complex to follow. Of course it will be hard to
appeal to such a wide audience, but if it is a website which includes a wide variety of search
categories and tools, it is important to have them carefully listed in the layout. Also, colours and font
types should be simplistic, and not gender specific (blue and pink). Anything important such as
images and text should be carefully sized based on importance and interest.

This website is aimed at a very broad audience which covers both males and females. This can be
seen from the use of non-gender specific colours such as White and Red. The YouTube homepage is
very easy to navigate and has a very minimalist style that is not overcomplicated; this is similar to
Google and is easier on the eye to navigate. This means that not only does the site appeal to both
males and females, but it is easily accessible by a wide age range. This means it appeals to a mass
audience. Because anyone can upload their own videos onto YouTube, it therefore automatically
appeals to everyone. Currently, YouTube videos are broken down into eleven categories which are;
News and Politics
Music
How-to, Style Film
People and Blogs
Science, Technology
Sports
Animation
Comedy
Education
Entertainment
Gaming
These categories cover most interests and therefore help the website to appeal to a larger audience.

I created a questionnaire in order to be able to find out what the average user of YouTube is.
Unfortunately I had to give most of my questionnaires out to younger audiences and all of my
participants were from the same demographic area so a lot of my results are based off of this. That
being said, I am sure that much older audiences use YouTube as well
After giving out my questionnaire I was able to find out that a mix of both males and females use
YouTube however, even though the website is not gender specific, this number consists mostly of
males. I was able to deduce that the average age of the users of YouTube range from 14 18 years
old and that this age range usually spends 3 6 hours on the internet daily in which an average of 2
hours of this is spent on YouTube. These averages of people also appear to frequently visit social
media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
By looking at the results that I received I realised that there was a correlation between the age of the
participant and the number of hours that they spent on the internet and on YouTube per day. This
correlation showed that older participants spent less time on the internet compared to younger
applicants.
When on YouTube, the most frequently searched topics are Gaming, Music, Entertainment and
Comedy. When asked why they searched for things regarding these categories, most people stated
that it is something that helps to pass the time and that it is also relaxing. I then asked my candidates
why they didnt prefer to search for other topics such as News or Science and Technology. I was able
to find out that the average teenager will use YouTube after school once they get home and
therefore want to watch something that has no relation to learning and instead is quite relaxing and
doesnt take much mental effort to watch. I deduced that this was because most students where
quite tired after a day of school and felt like watching something to wind them down for the evening
instead of something educational.
Through my questionnaire I was able to discover that the younger audiences tend to use YouTube
for entertainment purposes whereas older audiences tend to use the website for more educational
purposes and as a research tool. I was also able to find out that Younger audiences use the internet a
lot more than older audiences.

YouTube is also accessible by multiple social classes and groups. Because there are no subscription
fees anyone can access YouTube as long as they have a computer and access to the internet which
nowadays is pretty much everyone. This means that YouTube appeals to the working and middle
class, as well as the higher classes.
The website is accessible by multiple social groups as well. For example a plumber could use
YouTube in order to help with his work and a teacher could use it in order to help teach his/her
students. This supports the fact that YouTube appeals to a mass audience.
Overall, most people said they were happy with the looks of the website being easy to navigate;
user-friendly; and has a simple dual tone colour scheme which is easy on the eyes. On
average, YouTube scored 8 out of 10 on how happy people were with it, which is very successful.
Not much went into improvements section, however one did write a statement about YouTube
trolls (unconstructive criticism) in the comments section, where people who do this should be
suspended or deleted. It is clear that no particular audience wants this feedback and is
something that should be worked on by YouTube.