Audiences

My Kitchen Rules broadcasts to a very wide audience, from all ages and all sexes. It is a popular television show, topping the television ratings and winning a Logie award in 2014.

The audience is generated through both the use of different social media platforms and the way producers broadcast the show. For example, throughout the airing of the show, followers can live-tweet using the hashtag ‘#mkr’ or tagging ‘@MyKitchenRules’ and their tweet will then be viewed on the television screen. This allows for a wider audience to tune in as Twitter is a universal platform that invites people to join a conversation, no matter what their interests are. Moreover, producers can edit advertisements for the next episode to make it look like something good or bad may happen, thus intriguing the audience and inviting them to tune into the next episode. This is also done through the medium of magazines and radio which broadcasts the content to people that may not usually participate in the My Kitchen Rules culture. The audience is still being maintained on the online world, however it is reflecting onto a variety of different platforms and mediums.

My Kitchen Rules’ audience responds to the media presenting something good or bad happening in a way that relates to the values and behaviours of the audience. It is evident that the audience values cooking, however there is no indicator that they value respect.

In 2013, an incident occurred where contestants were abused with racial vilification and received death threats. This highlights that the audience is made up of individuals who thrive on gossip and are easily influenced by the media, therefore showing their true identity in the fan community. ‘In explaining the value of studying fan communities, Gray, Sandvoss, and Harrington explain that studying fan audiences allows us to explore some of the key mechanisms through which we interact with the mediated world at the heart of our social, political, and cultural realities and identities.’(Gray, Sandvoss and Harrington, cited in Potts 2012, p. 2).

Potts, L. 2012, ‘Amanda Palmer and the #LOFNOTC: How online fan participation is rewriting music labels’, Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 360–382.