TARGET AUDIENCE ANALYSIS: THE ROLE OF BARRIERS IN DETERMINING ACCESSIBILITY

Modern hybrid conflicts move confrontation into the realm of perception, trust, and behaviour.Information operations are no longer merely an adjunct to combat actions; they are a tool for shaping the conditions required to achieve military and political objectives.Planning information operations (hereinafter IO) in accordance with NATO standards is based on a behaviour-centred approach: what matters is not only facts and messages, but also the expected cognitive effect and the tracking of behavioural conditions of audience groups [1].In AJP-10.1,IO is treated as a staff function comprising four interrelated components -analysis, planning, integration, and assessment [2] -where analysis is directly linked to observing audiences and refining the commander's intent.Under these conditions, target audience analysis (hereinafter TA) is decisive for selecting channels, tempo, and forms of influence, as well as for the timely adjustment of the commander's intent based on assessment results.In practice, TA analysis is often dominated by demographic characteristics, nominal channel reach, and descriptions of the media landscape.However, the experience of the Russian-Ukrainian war shows that the mere existence of a channel is far from guaranteeing real reach of the required audience.For this reason, the study emphasizes the indicators of the TA accessibility model.Target audience accessibility (hereinafter TAA), in an applied sense, describes how effectively a message can reach an audience and influence its thoughts, feelings, and behaviour; this concerns not only technical delivery, but also the social, cultural, and psychological conditions of perception [7].Such an understanding of TAA makes it possible to interpret it as a comprehensive characteristic of the real reachability of an audience segment in a specific environment and at a specific time.Within TA analysis, determining TAA is one of the key stages because it links the "portrait" of a TA segment with a practical plan of action: which channels to choose, with what intensity to act, which message formats to use, and how to assess results.NATO doctrinal approaches emphasize the need for audience segmentation and analysis in order to optimise influence and achieve behaviour-centred objectives, as well as the importance of an assessment cycle to adjust actions [3].