"Does strictly come dancing target a mass audience whilst Homeland targets a fragmented audience?"

A Mass audience denotes a section of the media specifically designed to reach a large audience. Eastenders is shown on BBC 1 at 20:00 shows this also with their 8,675,000 views last week. The opposite of this targeted type of audience is named 'fragmented' in which the division of audiences into small groups due to the wide spectrum of media available. The television show; "Storage wars" helps show this with its 165,000 viewers and viewing channel and time being the History channel at 20:59.

Strictly Come Dancing has been suggested to have a mass audience displaying their television show to millions in Britain. Their viewing count last week (11,413,000) shows the huge range of the public that watch it. The channel chosen also adds evidence to the question with BBC One being the suited for a mass audience as well as being the first and main broadcaster in Britain. The date and time scheduled also suggests the targeted audience being mass with the time being 18:31 on a Saturday. This is very specific and strategic with most people either having dinner or watching their television before going out. The show from this will encourage more viewers into watching because of this. The show itself involves a variety of British celebrities that the public are aware of, from this it involves the viewer more making it feel more personal to them.

Homeland on the other hand, has a completely different style of audience that can be seen in a variety of ways. The viewers from last week stand at 3,040,000, a significant difference compared to Strictly Come Dancing. The show is also played on Channel 4 which is very open to U.S. shows compared to other channels. This connotes the fragmented audience that Homeland has because of the narrow selection it is showed on. The schedule also has a significant factor because it is timed at 21:00 on a Sunday. Many people would either be sleeping by this time however a small section of the public choose this time to unwind or watch something whilst they get ready for work on Monday. The genre of the show (political thriller) also fragments the viewer’s even further because of the specific interest needed to watch it. It is also specifically aimed at U.S. citizens in which portray the targeted audience in Britain to be even more of a niche viewing.

In conclusion, Strictly Come Dancing has 8,373,000 more views than Homeland last weekend showing a significant difference in both show's targeted audience. The channel both are showed on different channels which both have separate audiences that watch. Channel four focuses more on cultural and niche types of viewers compared to the BBC who are the national channel and broadcaster. The two shows are completely different as well with Strictly being more of a reality television show compared to Homeland, a fiction drama with American roots.