Define Niche and Mainstream audiences
A mainstream audience consists of a mass audience being targeted by a media text. An example of some media texts, of which would target a mainstream audience would be: The Simpsons, The X Factor and The Sun. The Simpsons is scheduled on different channels, including channels you may pay for such as Sky1, and also Freeview on C4. By broadening themselves on a range of different channels, this makes it more accessible to the audience to whichever time of the day suits them best.
The X Factor is a form of typical 'Saturday night TV', even though it's only scheduled twice a week, it's still highlighted as mainstream. The show is presented on a few ITV channels which are accessible on Sky, virgin, freeview and so on.
Over the years, the TV show has hosted some of the world's most popular celebrities within the music industry to judge. The older generation tend to tune in more because of the fact, Take That boy band star, Gary Barlow happens to be judge. Whereas the younger generation tune in mainly because of the young, attractive, female pop stars such as: Nicole Scherzinger and Cheryl Cole.
Within the X Factor, background stories of the contestants unfold and in some cases tend to pull the audience's heartstrings, this may be because the audience feels as if they can relate to the situations or become sympathetic towards them. But on the other end of the scale, the audience mainly tune in just to laugh at people making 'fools' of themselves. This show has been decoded the way it was encoded, and this goes for most passive/mainstream programmes.
A niche audience consists of a fraction of people who take a unique interest within a specific media text. An example of some media texts, of which would target a niche audience would be: Breaking Bad, Brass Eye and Cycling magazines.
Brass Eye was scheduled 6 times during 1997, and once in 2001 originally broadcasted on Channel 4. Although it's no longer accessible on the television, you're able to still watch the episodes via YouTube and other sites.
'Mocumentaries' such as Brass Eye are aimed at the niche audiences as they are for more active viewers. Brass Eye is a series of mocumentaries which cover specific stories the national news cover often but in a fictitious way, such as: Drugs, Paedophiles, Crime. Within the series, dry humour/sarcasm is thrown about which only active viewers would understand. The show hosts celebrities who are told to speak about the 'problems' in today's society. They're given certain lines to say which include 'facts' that aren't always correct, not knowing that the audience's reactions would be different to how they're trying to portray.
