Audience Research

The subject we chose for our magazine is music and we are going to try and base the magazine around student life. Our target audience is students aged 16-19, we chose to do a magazine for both male and female readers. We see our audience as apirers and achievers in the physographic scale, and in the demographic they are C, D and E. The demographic scale, again, is not a very clear representation of this type of audience, it shows them as lower than everyone else, which is not true.

• You are a student interested in music
• You go to the pub for lunch
• You like to be in big groups of people
• You prefer tomato ketchup to mayonnaise
• You make to trips all the way to brum just to reach primark
• You think peacocks sucks
• You have a play station 2
• You love pacman and space invaders
• You sometimes play world of warcraft in your free time
• You like to play your music so it deafens everyone

Five things i need to do to target my audience effectively

• A colour scheme perhaps consisting of black, white and red
• A range of different fonts
• Freebies and give-aways
• Screamers
• References to freedom
• Model in front of masthead

Reasearch

For the next preliminary task we had to find 3 magazine covers and annalyse each one, to help us produce our own. We chose to look at music industry magazines.

We noticed that each magazine used the same colour scheme which consisted of black, white and red. This gave it quite a sophistiated look.

We then found that the magazines each used a variety of sans and sans serif fonts on there covers, and that the masthead was written behind each model. The models were all well known figures within the music industry and had their names written across the magazines. Covering the masthead shows us how well known the magazines are and how everybody knows the names.

The language used to address the target audience was quite similar because they spoke alot of freedom and expression like, 'New musical express' and 'Unfold the puzzle of life'.

There was alot of screamers on each magazine but only kerrang gave away freebies and gifts to its readers.

Preliminary Task

For the preliminary task we have to create a magazine front cover and contents page. We looked at some examples from previous years to help us get an idea of how we should complete own magazine and gained good knowledge of what it should contain.

I chose to look at a previous magazine called : Squash

I was able to recognise it as a magazine cover because the main masthead or title was written at the top of the magazine and had coverlines and reverse lines all over it. Also, it had the barcode, issue number, price, website and date written. Lastly it had a large headshot of a student behind the text, which is a typical feature of a magazine cover.

The audience for this magazine was male and female students aged 16-19. The psychographic profile was acheivers and aspirers and the demographic classification was probably E. However, the demographic classification is not a very good representation of the audience to this magazine, it suggests that students are a lower group in society and are at the bottom of the pile. The contents of this magazine is 'student finance' and how to create 'personal statements'. This shows that the age range is not at the bottom of the jicnar scale because they are concerned about the maturer issues.

This magazine targeted its audience very well by using calming mature unisex colours, a comical photo and also academic articles inside. It used shortened text language to communicate with the younger readers and make it slightly more relaxed, despite it being an academic magazine. It also gives help on what students find most difficult, which obviously appeals to most because they need the advice.

Initial Annalysis

In our second lesson, we used the magazine covers that we found and annalysed each aspect using 'Denotations' and 'Connotations'. I labelled and wrote what i saw in the particular area or image then listed what i thought this meant.

Magazine Cover

In my first lesson of Media studies, i learnt the key points and conventions of a magazine front cover. I found a magazine cover on the internet, opened it into a word document and labelled the key points we had discussed. I learnt a range of new terminologies and i learned to look further into what magazine covers really mean.

AS Media Studies Introduction

Hello, my name is Stephanie Franklin and this is my AS Media Studies blog. Here i will display and showcase my Media Studies coursework for you to view. It will be updated frequently, with written evidence and attachments of my latest work.