4)who would be the audience for your media

4)Who would be the audience for your media product?

Audience• To find the audience for my music magazine, I created some questions on Survey Monkey, to

interview teenagers who would be interested in my product.

• I also researched the readership of similar music magazines by looking at their average ages, class and the types of music that they enjoyed to find out much more information about my potential target audience.

• I then created a reader profile, to describe the type of person that my magazine is aimed at:

• Isabelle is 17 years old and is currently studying for her A-Levels at college. She has a big group of friends and loves shopping: her favourite shops are Topshop, New Look and Urban Outfitters, but she also enjoys spending her time going to the cinema and dancing. She loves a variety of music, from Pop to Indie and sometimes R‘n’B, and is inspired by artists such as: Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Jake Bugg, but also bands such as Two Door Cinema Club, Bastille and The Script. She has an iPod touch and is a frequent visitor of iTunes, buying mainly singles but the occasional album also. Going to concerts is one of her favourite things to do, but she does not attend as many as she would like to because pop concerts especially can be quite expensive. She has a part time job working at a clothes shop in the centre of the town she lives in, and her fashion choices are heavily influenced by the images of artists that she sees in the music magazines that she buys. She also acts as a trend setter within her peer group.

Gender• Although the majority of readers will be female,

the magazine will also attract some male readers. The girl on the front not only shows that it is a magazine for females, but also could reflect the interests of boys when using Laura Mulvey’s theory of the Male Gaze.

• This is reinforced by the use of the banner across the bottom of the front cover: images of both males and females are used.

• We can tell from the image on the cover that the female audience will be interested in make-up, hair styles and fashion; appearance will be very important to the target audience. This suggests that the magazine promotes a very stereotypical view of women and their interests, and is appealing to an audience that conforms to society’s expectations.

Age• The purple colour on the masthead and which is

used throughout the magazine suggests a teenage audience because it is bright, bold and colourful; this colour would not be seen on a magazine aimed at a more sophisticated, mature reader.

• The hash tag also represents the social networking site Twitter, which is very popular among young people and is one of the most visited social networking sites in the UK. The number 1 appears like text language which is typically associated with young people, but it also has connotations of the music charts in which young people often dominate and follow by purchasing the latest singles.

• The use of the exclamation mark at the end of the tagline seems quite excitable and can also be related back to a young target audience.

Age• The features and articles included in the magazine also suggest that

it is a magazine aimed at a younger audience. Firstly, the brief titles of the articles make information easy to read, and do not present the audience with lots of unnecessary text that they probably would not bother to read.

• Posters are associated with teenagers, with having many on their bedroom walls, so having them featured in the contents page suggests that the magazine is aimed at younger people.

• The fact that festivals are mentioned on page 12 also hints at a younger audience because teenagers love attending festivals and many do so regularly.

• The top article shows that the magazine is aimed at a younger target audience because of the mode of address. Very informal language is used, such as ‘mates’ and ‘dates’, language that is associated with teenagers and text speak. The playful rhyming connotes a younger audience.

• The competition to win an iPad Mini shows that the younger generation love technology; they will probably already have new phones and iPods, but to own an iPad is more unusual and therefore quite desirable: especially one in the branded purple colour.

Age• The font used for the headline on the double page

spread is rounded and looks as though it has been hand written, which looks informal and connotes a younger audience. It is quite a simple, neat and an easy-to-read font, which reflects the often formula written chart music and shows the personalities of the target audience: it has to be easy to read to stand out to teenagers, because they are often inpatient with short attention spans.

• The font used for the headline on the front cover also shows that the magazine is aimed at a teenage market, it again is simple and easy to read, which is a necessity for a teenage audience who want to know quickly what the main features will be.

• The canted rectangle behind could symbolise the nature of young people to rebel against their parents or their schools; putting it an angle makes it seem as though it is not conforming to stereotypes.

Age

• The ratio of text to images on the double page spread hints at the target audience. There is less writing on the left hand side then in magazines such as Q and Rolling Stone, as these magazines are aimed at an older target audience. An older target audience will stereotypically be interested in more text, compared to a younger target audience who do not want to read so much writing.

• This is reinforced by the use of the picture at the top of the page which breaks up the text, emphasising the idea that the use of less writing is aimed at a teenage market.

• The audience also becomes apparent through the mode of address: the questions asked are quite colloquial and chatty (‘so it sounds like you’ve had your fair share of broken hearts then!’), and the responses are very informal. This shows that the magazine is aimed at a younger age group because it mirrors the style of language that they use; a magazine aimed at an older audience would use slightly more formal language.

Lifestyle/Psychographics

Psychographics is the study of personality, attitudes, values, interests and lifestyles.

There are 7 main types of Psychographics:

•Belonger•Achiever•Emulator/Wanna be•Socially Conscious Type A •Socially Conscious Type B•Balanced/Totally Integrated•Needs Driven

Lifestyle/Psychographics

• Needs Driven are impulse buyers who respond to urgency. Some of the target audience can fit into the group Needs Driven, they see the artists on the front cover and are immediately encouraged to buy the magazine. This can be seen by the words ‘free posters’; they feel the need to buy the magazine just so they feel like they are receiving free things and getting value for their money.

• Emulators are groups of people who want to appear rich and successful, looking cool and fashionable is very important to them. Some of my audience will be emulators, and will be motivated by sex appeal and attractive appearances, as can be seen on the main image on the front cover of my magazine.

Class and Interests

• The price of my magazine is £2.50 and new issues are released monthly, a cheaper price then magazines such as Q or We Love Pop, but slightly more then NME, although this is released weekly. This suggests that the target audience will have some disposable income to be able to buy the magazine monthly, but they do not have a lot of spare money.

• Chart music is a mixture of genres, Indie is often associated with the middle classes, whereas Pop music can be associated with the working classes. The cheap price of the magazine can be related to both classes because neither will want to spend too much money and both will be attracted to the type of music shown. This audience is shown clearly when analysing media packs and other reader profiles; the next slide shows some example pictures associated with my target audience. The majority of readers will fit into the ABC1 category, which is similar to NME magazine with 65% of their readers coming under this demographic.

• Some of the hobbies and interests of my audience are; going to the cinema, going shopping, hanging out with their friends, going to parties and doing sports or dancing. Some of the movies that they like to watch are The Hangover, Mean Girls and The Inbetweeners movie. They enjoy TV programmes such as Waterloo Road, The Big Bang Theory and Keeping up with the Kardashians. Favourite brands include: Converse, Vans, Topshop, New Look and Ark.

Some images associated with my target audience...