Evaluation Question 5

1. Question 5:
How did you attract/ address your audience? (Include
evidence of audience feedback)
When constructing a media
product you need to attract
your audience. In magazines
this is done by the appearance
of the page and how it attracts
the audience. Blumler and
katz’s Uses and gratifications
media theory suggests that
people pick and chose both
media and messages. It also
suggests that people now use
media for multiple reasons to
benefit themselves.
People respond and interpret
differently to a piece of media
depending on some of these thing:
their background, personality, and
values. Because of this I tried to
include subliminal messages thought
my magazine to ensure the readers
decode it in a specific way. Although
the majority of the symbols are
polysemic I've purposely used things
such as a gender neutral colour
scheme to suggest to my audience
that my magazine is aimed at both
males and females.
The first thing I purposely
constructed for my audience was my
front cover image I hoped would
appeal to the artiste audience
because she is an attractive 18 year
old female, who is one of them. A
medium close up shot allows enough
detail to be shown but still allow
enough space around her for thing
such as the cover lines. The use of
direct gaze is something I included
throughout my magazine because I
feel it adds a more personal feel to
an image and creates a connection
between the model and the reader.

2. The second thing I purposely constructed was the colour scheme, I used
a a gender neutral colour scheme with some pastel shades and also one
dark colour. Because my chosen genre is Indie music I feel using both
dark and light colours will cater for both the more relaxing side of Indie
music and the more rock side, magazines such as NME and Kerrang also
add a dark more bold colour to their colour scheme for the same reason.
Pastel colours suggest a more chilled vibe but at the same time the main
colour purple, includes the calm from the blue and the fierce from the
red. Purple is often associated with peace and also wealth, it is also a
gender neutral colour and appeals to both male and female. I also
included a dark red/purple colour relates to the more rock and grunge
side of Indie music and is also a gender neutral colour that will appeal to
both males and females.From my initial survey I know that a bright
colour scheme would appeal to my target audience and also the Indie
genre because each colour has different connotations and meanings and
therefore suggests a variety in the magazine and audience. A bright,
vibrant colour scheme would be most visually appealing and eye-catching
however because my target audience is of the older teens and younger
adults I wanted to give it a more sophisticated feel which is why I didn't
include too many colours because I feel it could have been too over
powering.

3. Cover lines are also another thing I hoped would
catch the eye of my target audience. I purposely used
shorter snappier cover lines that include well known
artists to engage the reader. I chose suitable artists
that would appeal to my target audience both from
the rock Indie side and the relaxed side of Indie
music. I purposely used stroke on the cover lines to
make them stand out more against the background on
the front cover image. The masthead and typeface
throughout the magazine is another thing I focused
on a lot. I chose to use serif fonts on the cover lines
and main body text elsewhere because it gave it a
more sophisticated and minimal look. However on
things such as the main cover line of the artists name
I chose to use a sans serif font as I felt it was slightly
more informal and allowed the reader to connect on
a more personal level with the artist. For the
masthead I stuck to convention and placed it in the
top third of the magazine cover because then it is
visible on the shelves when being sold. I chose a very
simple and bold serif font so that it is very strait
forward and easy to read. I decided that white or
black was too plain therefore I chose to use the same
purple as on the models lips in the front cover image,
I just adjusted the opacity of it so that it was not too
bold and overpowering on the page.

4. Audience Feedback
From my audience feedback I know that everyone I
asked really liked the overall colour scheme. They
particularly liked the link between the purple lips on
the model and the purple masthead as they felt it
was impressive and eye-catching. Also from the
feedback I knew that i needed to change the cover
lines to make them more legible, because they didn't
stand out against the background when they did not
have the smoke and drop shadow on them. Because
the background is quite busy on the cover photo it
was quite difficult to get the cover lines to catch the
eye, however as I feel the image is quite dark, using
white for the cover lines made them noticeable on
the page.