Audiences- Social Class

Social class is linked to the type of occupation and the level of income someone is earning.
As of 30 or 40  years ago in the UK, the term 'working class' was used for people who did more manual and physically demanding jobs, such as working in mines or in heavy manufacturing industries.
Nowadays, the classes are not easy to define because there is less heavy industry, education has improved and it is easier to move up the social classes. For example, It is known that most footballers come from a lower class background but their level of income suggests that their social class is upper class.

The media industry uses Standard Occupational Classification to categorise their audiences, which make it useful for media producers and also advertisers.
Below is an outdated table in November 2005 showing how different newspapers fit their readership into different groups.



Key
A - Upper middle class (Higher managerial, administrative or professional)
B - Middle class (Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional)
C1 - Lower middle class (Supervisory or junior mangerial, administrative or professional)
C2 - Lower middle class (Skilled manual workers)
D - Working class (Semi- and unskilled manual workers)
E - Those at the lowest level of subsistence (State pensioners, casual or lowest grade workers)

Reference.
Baylis, P. et al (2007). Media - BTEC First. Heinemann

It is said that some of the more commercial radio stations that play more modern music know that their listeners are more likely to be in the C2DE groups, and people in those groups tend to buy tabloid newspapers rather than broadsheets. So the presenters on these radio stations talk about stories in the tabloids.


Although my target audience is all teenagers, it is important to look into the socio-economic of those teenagers' backgrounds. For example, if the teenagers come from an upper class background, their tastes are more likely to be tailored to an upper class standard and might prefer newspapers that target an upper class audience. When designing my newspapers I will consider the socio-economic of the teenagers' backgrounds in order to make the right type of newspaper and tailor it to their tastes.