Culturally and socially motivated audiences

Master thesis, Cand.Soc. in Management of Creative Business Processes

Master thesis, Cand.Soc. in Management of Creative Business Processes

Friends/partners are the preferred companions and more than one out of four often goes the cinema alone. Not surprisingly, this segment prefers upmarket cinemas like Dagmar and Grand and 43% have art films as a preferred genre. Dramas, thrillers, science fiction and social realistic films are also popular among this segment.

In the film choice process, the director of the film is an important factor along with genre and plot. Actors are still important although not as important as for the general survey population or the socially motivated segment.

When looking at sources of information regarding films, publicity in the written media plays the most important role. In general, this segment is more aware about publicity in all media and gives less weight to word of mouth than the general survey population, although it is still the second highest rated inspiration source.

Reviews in all media, except radio, are more essential for the culturally motivated segment.

Although a larger part of this segment assigns no weight to reviews on the internet, the ones that do use the internet reviews put more weight on them than the general survey population.

Below is a figure depicting the socially and culturally motivated segments attitude towards the impact of reviews on their film choice:

Figure 5: Motivation and the influence of reviews

The above table indicates that the culturally motivated audience is much more affected by reviews than the socially motivated audience. The findings on the culturally motivated audience show that the segment is more active in searching information about films and the importance of the director for the film choice, indicate a more thorough knowledge about films in general. Not surprisingly, a higher percentage of the culturally motivated audience do

Master thesis, Cand.Soc. in Management of Creative Business Processes

trust the meaning of specific reviewers. Since the film experience is a vital part of the cinema experience, quality indicators are searched in different media and the favourite reviewer is consulted before a choice is made. That the segment is highly affected by the collective opinion of reviewers suggest a higher trust in reviewers in general and could stem from the fact that not only is this segment mainly well educated but also older. Age and education were said by Bourdieu to be connected to a more likely ability to decipher art and cultural references. Possessing these competences could increase the understanding of reviews, their premises and references thereby making it not only relevant in the film choice process, but in the film evaluation process as well as an interesting piece of entertainment in itself.

Dividing the culturally motivated segment according to age does not suggest differing age patterns in this segment.

The socially motivated segment sees the cinema experience as a nice way to socialize and do not expect intellectual challenges or an aesthetic experience²¹. 46 respondents belong to this segment, which is characterized by a younger age (70% is below the age of 35) and a prevalence of people with a lower educational level. The segment is dominated by a lower number of high users compared to the culturally motivated segment and the survey population in general.

Family is more often the chosen companion for this segment and the mainstream cinemas are the preferred venue for the event just as with comedy, action and adventure are very popular genres. The actors and the genre are generally more important for this segment, whereas the director plays a smaller role for the film choice. Trailers are a more important inspiration source for this segment, which is in line with the genres and cinemas preferred; as mentioned earlier mainstream productions often have a higher marketing budget allowing for intense exposure of trailers in cinemas as well as in television. Word of mouth is the most important factor for this segment.

Reviews in almost every form of media play less of a role for the socially motivated audience except magazines; this could be explained by the many teenagers who get free magazines such as Chili and Tjeck at their schools.

The table above shows that the socially motivated segment is less influenced by reviews than the culturally motivated segment. Still half of this segment is affected by the collective

21 Have ticked of in sentence 7 or 10 and not in sentence 1 and 3.

Master thesis, Cand.Soc. in Management of Creative Business Processes

opinion of reviewers and 44% are influenced by advertising material with stars and quotes from reviewers. The advertisements with star ratings and quotes often attempt to give the impression of overall positive reviews and this can be the way this segment feels affected by the collective opinion of reviewers since reviews in specific media did no mean a lot to this segment. User ratings are also used by one fifth to sort in the film choice – relative to the other review forms, this is an important factor for this segment.

Reviews are definitely more important in the film choice process for the culturally motivated segment, which has the film experience as the most important element in the cinema event.

The socially motivated segment is less influenced by reviews not only compared to the opposite motivated segment, but to the survey population in general. Two thirds of the survey population could be divided into either socially or culturally motivated segments, leaving one third to be socially, as well as culturally, motivated. It is likely that the motivation can change from time to time depending on companion and which film is watched – meaning that these audiences can move between segments.

For an overview of the characteristics of the socially and culturally motivated audiences, see table C in appendix A.

In conclusion, H1 is supported by the survey analysis; the culturally motivated audience is more affected by reviews. Only 4% of this segment is under the age of 20, making it difficult to say whether there is a difference between teenagers belonging to the culturally motivated segment compared to older audiences.

With the exception of Christian Rønnow Hansen who expressed a general scepticism against the effect of reviews, H1 has been supported throughout the thesis.