Why are audiences important?

I believe Audiences are important because they are who you create your product for. They are who make you your money and make your product popular. No media text has any meaning until it is read or decoded by an audience. This also links to the theory of "Gatekeeping" where a theorist called White (1961) spoke of "Gatekeepers" to be the people who are part of the decision making process of a media text. I believe an audience to be "Gatekeepers", I think this because when a film is created there are film tests where an audience sit in a cinema and watch the film then give feedback as too what they may have liked or disliked too the creators of the film. This way the creators can then decide if they need to change something in any way to make the audience appreciate the text more.

We were asked in class "What comes first, the audience or the media producer?" and I believe the answer to be the audience. Without the audience what is the point in creating a product? Without an audience there is not product as it will not earn money, be spoke about which means it will not be watched. Therefore I think the whole point of producing something is for others to benefit from it else it is worthless.