Audience Feedback

by Kyle Harbour.

Websites used

http://www.facebook.com/
-Used to carry out my questionnaires.

http://www.blogger.com/
-Used to record my coursework.

http://www.nme.com/
-For research, looking at similar magazine's.

http://www.undertheradarmag.com/advertise/
-To research into institutions in America.

http://www.youtube.com/
-Gathering video's and researching the different type of artists I would incorporate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerrang!
-Getting information on other genre's of magazine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_of_the_Pops_(magazine)
-Once again information of other magazine's that would be competing with mine.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamjacksonphotography/
-Friend who gave me inspiration for my photographs

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Alexa Chung.

My target audience would look very similar to Alexa in her style of clothing and the fact she is at a music festival. She is also around the age my magazine is targeted at.

My magazine represents quite a large range of people yet it is aimed at are people with quite a specific music interest into 'Indie' and Acoustic music. The magazine has a common theme of this genre and even the model has quite a particular look to portray this. My target audience is people aged around 13 - 25. Though this is quite a small group of the population, these are the people that read magazine's most and have quite specific interest's therefore would be quite likely to purchase it. Also for my research I only asked people of this age as I felt it would be easiest for myself to make a magazine that I would be able to relate too and due to most of my friends being this age I was able to get a lot of good and reliable responses. I had asked my family about music magazines before hand and found none of them read music magazines and this therefore would not of been ideal. When making my magazine I was mostly influenced by magazine's such as NME and Under the Radar. They both used mostly Indie artists and had quite a similar target audience's- they are also both very successful which would help my magazine sell well as it is fresh and new yet still has similarities with current products out there. My reader profile was very similar to that of both of these magazines and this also helped with choosing the age range of my target audience and the aspects I would include.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I decided to make it very music related in all the topics and offer a lot of information on things such as tours because people that often buy music magazine's have a real interest in music and do not just listen to the charts. I also decided to have well known and up coming artists and this gives variation and makes people more aware of different types of artists. Music magazines often only use big celebrities such as Pete Dougherty and I decided I would not do this. I used an interview on my double page spread which is another factor that conforms to conventions as an interview is the most commonly used. This allowed me to have a lot of text to write and also still be able to use an image as the main focus. I have also rarely seen many other type of double page spreads in music magazines. I have included a price, bar code and issue number. When doing my research I found they all had these and this therefore meant I needed to conform to the conventions of current magazines. I used a large eye catching mast head as well as without this people will not know your magazine name straight away and it will not catch their eye. I included a tag line and made it quite relaxed and light hearted so readers would get a feel of the magazine style and understand what it is about, I found from Under The Radar that using something that is not too serious makes a large difference in the way in which people view your magazine.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine is mainly targeted at mostly female's and therefore I have chosen to represent women through my product. I have chosen a female model and decided to only have medium shots of her, this is because I wanted people to focus on her features and for those to catch her eye. I also thought a medium close up would be most suited because people can not judge her or get idea's about body weight and be influenced for example with some magazines they will only have models under a certain size and I do not agree with this so I am therefore representing women and their rights through this. My target audience are also quite young and I chose quite a young model so it is easily to relate to. She has a relaxed posture and is smiling, she is also not dressed up in expensive clothing or trying to look sophisticated therefore relating to a large range of people. Teenagers would be able to relate to her look and also the things she says in the interview can be related too by a large range of people as they are centred quite a bit around love and this is something every social group and age experiences in their life time.

What kind of media instiution might distribute your media product and why?

Whilst making my music magazine I had a lot of influence from the magazine Under The Radar which is distributed in North America by Rider Circulation Services. Unfortunately my magazine is targeted at a British audience and therefore this would not be ideal if it were to be sold. I also studied NME quite a lot and decided that IPC media would distribute my magazine. Both of these magazine's were very similar to my magazine; they both target around the same age range of 17+ and have very 'Indie' focused aspects to them. Due to IPC already distributing a 'Indie' style magazine which has been very successful, it shows they would have experience with this and also that they would know exactly how to market the magazine and make links with the two to create a bigger success. NME also have very similar artists to my magazine Acoustic Unplugged and have done featured articles on The Arctic Monkeys, Blur etc showing how similar the two magazine's are in the music industry.IPC Media also currently only distribute one music magazine whilst they have at least 3 TV guide magazine's. This shows that they are able to have more than one magazine successfully distributed at the same time and they could possibly take on another music magazine though they are focused on the same genre of music, all TV magazine's have the same content and therefore this would not effect either magazine or the success.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I decided to use my model as the main attraction to my magazine. By using a large image in the center and then smaller one's it catches your eye and ultimately attracts you to it. I had not seen this on any other magazine covers before and therefore I think it adds individuality and makes it quite unique. Also by using a dark background I enabled the model to stand out more and by photoshopping some of her features such as making her eyes brighter it makes it stand out more through contrasting the other factors on the page. Along with this I decided to use red in my colour scheme so it stands out well and once again catches your eye- this was also helped by the other two colours in my scheme, black and white. I used green on the background of the smaller images because I felt it added more colour to my front cover yet this is not something I kept throughout the magazine as I felt the black, white and red looked effective on my contents page and double page spread alone. It is also easy to read against the background so you can automatically see what you will be reading and know if you are interested. By using direct eye contact it makes the audience feel they have a relationship with the model and this will attract them to know more. I used quite innocent looking pictures yet chose to have my model with her hair done and her make up more dominant than in my preliminary. I did this so it attracts a male audience due to her attractiveness, it can attract any age group and the image is appropriate and also due to her being quite a natural and real life model size it would attract a female audience and also not put any pressure on them about weight or looks as it is not that type of magazine. It is about music and not beauty. I decided to use a lot of the same style artists, I feel this adds continuity through out and enables people to know what they are going to be reading.