Interview

Interview

Purpose of my

Interviews

The purpose of my interviews were to find out what makes people buy music magazines. I will do this by asking them questions about the layout of existing magazines, asking them to compare magazines, asking them why they like reading them and asking how often they buy them etc. By asking these questions, I get an overall idea of what a majority of people are looking for in magazines which makes them buy them, so I can include these concepts which should make my magazine successful.

My Interview

questions

The Interview

I carried out an interview on 5 people- 3 females and 2 males. I did the interview with the 5 people at the same time which saved me from doing 5 separate interviews. The interview lasted about 20 minutes. I asked the questions to all of the interviewees and then asked each person to answer me separately. This way, social desirability is kept to a minimum. As each person was answering, I took down notes and wrote on a separate piece of paper for each person to save confusion as to who said what.

Interview notes

Interview notes

Interview notes

Interview notes

Interview notes

Interview notes explained- Jessica

From interviewing Jessica, I found out that she is in to more ‘girly’ music magazines. She preferred the Mixmag front cover as it was more girly, because of the colours used and the image used. She said the colours gave off a feminine touch and the image reflects how a young woman acts on holiday or around the poolside so she felt she was in the main girl’s shoes in a way. She also preferred the mixmag front cover because it had more information than the Vibe front cover. This made her more interested in reading what was inside because she had more of an idea about it. When I asked Jessica about how she thought the people on the front covers were represented, she said that the woman on the front of the mixmag magazine is like a young woman who is very girly and fashionable and cares about her appearance. She also said that the man on the front of Vibe magazine is represented as mysterious because of his body language and the words written on him.

Interview notes explained- Josh

From interviewing Josh, he noticed that some of the main image covers part of the title of the magazine. His favourite front cover was Vibe because it looks less busy and looks more ‘boyish’ because of the font that was used and the colour of the font. Also, the main image makes it look ‘boyish’ because it is showing a strong man which is presumably what most boys want to me. When I asked Josh what he likes to see in music magazines I discovered that he likes to find out about venues of gigs, interviews, gossip about the artists and uses the gossip to talk to his friends about. He does not buy music magazines very often as he can not afford it, so looks for information elsewhere such as online. It is only if he can not find the information he is looking for anywhere else, he will buy a music magazine as a last resort. Josh likes to see boyish colours and fonts in a music magazine such as red, blue and black. He likes the font to be ‘serious’ and not ‘bubbly’ etc because he thinks it makes the magazine look cheap and tacky which puts him off buying it.

Interview notes explained- Amy

Amy noticed that there is a line of writing above the title of the magazine and also that the main image takes up the whole of the front cover. Her favourite front cover was mixmag as is was more colourful and she liked the catchy headlines. Amy likes to read the music magazines because she likes to read the exclusives and also likes the gossip about the artists. She likes to participate in the quizzes and competitions in the magazines too because it gives her something to do and makes her feel more involved with the magazine. She buys music magazines fortnightly or maybe even more often depending on when she goes to the shops. She usually goes for the cheaper magazines because she buys them quite often. Amy likes to see bold colours included in her magazines and also likes the font size to be big because it catches her interest more. She likes the magazine to have a colour scheme because she feels it is important.

Interview notes explained- Ruby

Ruby found that the writing on the two front covers is all in capital letters and is in short, snappy words. She said he thought this was because it attracts people’s attention because they do not have to read a lot which will bore them. Her favourite front cover was Vibe because it was very bold which made it eye catching and also the image of the man was very attractive.She likes to look at the pictures in her music magazines for fashion and also likes the freebies included. Freebies are the main reason she buys magazines. Amy prefers sophisticated colours, she said that bright colours make the magazine look cheap and tacky. When I asked Ruby about the representation, she said that the young woman is represented as a young woman having fun on holiday but still cares about her appearance and that you can see that because of her swimwear and how ‘perfect’ her hair and makeup looks. The man on the vibe front cover is represented as ‘in control’ because of the way he was standing and the words printed on him.

Interview notes explained- David

David noticed that the main image is in the middle with writing around it. His favourite front cover was mixmag because it was more colourful which makes it more ‘fun’. Another way it was made ‘fun’ was all the excamation marks that were used. David likes to look at the pictures in music magazines and also reads them to find out who is at the top of the charts. He likes to read interviews and uses these as a topic of discussion with his friends. He does not buy music magazines often as he can not afford to, so only buys them if they are cheap and something interests him on the front cover. David likes to see bright, bold and eye catching fonts and colours in music magazines as they are more interesting than plain boring colours and fonts which makes him more interested in the magazine. David thought the woman on the front of the mixmag magazine was represented as a typical woman clubber on holiday at the beach in the day still looking good after a night out. He said you can tell she had been on a night out because of the sunglasses hiding her eyes and the headlines.The man on the vibe cover is represented as confident and muscly because of his stance and the angle of the camera.

Conclusions of

my interview

After carrying out my interview, I can conclude that:

-The main image is very important and catches most of the attention and is very stereotypical because of the way the person is standing and what they are wearing. -The colour scheme is important and most people prefer bright and bold colours so I will take this into account.-Most people buy magazines fortnightly or monthly and go for the cheaper magazines. -Pictures are important as most people buy magazines to look at the pictures.-Interviews are very popular, so I will include an interview in my magazine.