Jersey shore is the most watched television series on MTV with . A series based on four men and 4 women who range from 21-28 years. They go away and live together in a home already paid for, all they have to do is work at a t-shirt store, ice cream parlour etc, spending the rest of their time partying, sleeping around, tanning and fighting with each other.
Jersey shore is aimed at an audience of people between 12-34 years of age. I believe that this audience would fit into both young hopefuls and the next generation tags. These are people who are big television watchers and have low incomes. People who might not have started a family yet, so they could possibly have more free time on their hands, which other people may spend working full time, with their families or taking care of their children etc.
Techniques used to target this audience include the vocabulary they use in the show. Such as “Doggin’ you out”, “Grenade”, “GTL”, “Juice Head”, “smush”. This appeals to the specific audience because young people want and strive to be “cool” and along with having the newest gadgets, listening to the latest music, I think they feel that talking with the latest slang keeps them cool.
Another technique is the characters in the show. They are all in the age group between 21-28 years old. Because there is quite a range in the ages it appeals to both young teenagers and up to early 30 year olds. I feel that this is because when you look at the people on the screen you see people not far from your age. In some ways the audience might aspire to be like them and have the life they do which could draw them into watching the show. You could look at them and be very unimpressed, find humour in their stupidity or in their slow growing up because maybe you were far more responsible, grounded and settled at their age. This may convince you to watch it for a laugh, or to be surprised by the difference in your lives. You could look at the show and wonder how on earth they got to be in this situation. Either way, there are factors that could bring you to watch the show because of the characters, there are always exceptions in the targeted audience – not everyone in the age group finds enjoyment and pleasure in watching Jersey Shore.
The lifestyle these young adults live may be idolised by a percentage of their audience. The partying and/or carefree looking lifestyle could strongly appeal to people in their age group. Idealism could play a big part in attracting such a large following. They seem to have no problems but petty fights and arguments. There is no struggle to make ends meat, money doesn’t seem like an issue to them with all of their drinking and beauty expenses. They don’t need to worry about finding out how they are going to pay their next bill, well at least it doesn’t seem that way to the viewer. And right now money is very tight for some people which could attract the late 20’s-early 30’s. Both the young hopefuls and the next generation groups also have a low income.
The fact that Jersey shore has broken records for MTV’s biggest television series, with the largest views MTV has ever had proves that it is obviously doing something right to attract an enormous following and it doesn’t look like that is going to change any time soon with such a strong dedicated audience.
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