How are audiences constructed by texts and authors? In this clip, Colbert mockingly praises the advertising angles for products in luxury yacht magazines that construct their readers as a threatened minority in response to the Occupy Wall Street protests. This offers a humorous introduction to how magazines offer advertisers niche markets. The products and ads in those magazines aim to reflect and direct the niche audience’s desires, fears, and even their identities. This particular segment is rich with possibility for discussing how media texts and products construct the identities of the “wealthy 1%.”
This discussion could launch students into their own exploration of how particular magazine and web advertising constructs their niche audiences. We should ask: Who is the target audience?; Who does the advertiser think the audience is?; As suggested by the ads, what does the audience want, what kind of people are they?; What production values and details of the ad tell you about the audience?; How does the construction of the audience in the ads compare to reality?
