1. Questions 4 and 5:
4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
5) How did you attract/address your audience?
2. Age: Predominantly aimed at ages 15-18, however with the genre, there is the possibility
of an older audience, so when writing my double page spread I will accommodate the
language I use so it may appeal to a more mature audience.
Initially when creating my magazine, I thought that I would be targeting a dual audience,
however at the end of creating my product I feel that I have lost the Vintage aspect of my
genre and created a predominantly Rock genre magazine. Still I do feel that I have achieved
the audience I wanted to focus on, 15-18 years old, and that I have done this to a good
standard.
When looking at my target audience feedback, they have said that the audience I have
achieved is anywhere between 14 years old to 20 years old, but the most popular answer
was 16+. This tells me that my magazine appeals to the main age group that I was targeting
and that I have pulled it off well enough for my target audience to recognise that.
Initially:
After Creating:
3. Gender: I would like my magazine to appeal to all genders, and I will try to achieve this by
using colours that are not usually stereotyped to a gender, e.g. blues and pinks, unless
necessary and for a specific effect.
Initially:
After Creating:
I feel like I haven’t used any colours that would be stereotypically linked to any gender, I
have not used pink or blue at all in my magazine, the main colours I have used are black,
white, red and gold. Before reviewing my target audience research I had felt that I had
achieved a magazine that was not gender biased, but after seeing the opinions of my target
audience and looking back at my magazine, I can understand their opinion that my
magazine is more female orientated.
Upon reflection, I would definitely try to include more draws for a male audience in order
to achieve the unbiased representation I wanted.
4. Sexuality: Again, I would like my magazine to appeal to all sexualities and I will try to
achieve this by not having provocative poses or fashion choices on my magazine.
Initially:
After Creating:
I feel that there is not a draw to any sexuality in my magazine, there are no mentions of
any kind of relationships or sexualities at all, so in terms of my magazine appealing to all
sexualities, that could be taken either way, it could appeal to all or it could appeal to none
In hindsight, if I were to make this again, I feel that I would have included more of a
representation of some sexualities. Looking back at my original target audience research, I
can see from my graph that my audience
wanted an equal representation of both
gay and straight relationships but “all
sexualities” won overall, and upon
reflection I would include some
mention of them in my DPS or
contents page.
5. Race & Ethnicity: Hopefully my magazine will appeal to all races and ethnicities,
however, it is more likely to have a western/white audience than anything else due to
the origin of the bands and the type of culture they appeal to.
Initially:
After Creating:
I think overall I have definitely appealed to a Western audience, the only ethnicity I have
shown in my images and articles is White British.
Upon reviewing, if I were to recreate my magazine I think that I would try to include a
wider range of ethnicities through either my DPS article or through my images as that
would open the audience for my magazine further.
6. Class: Middle/Lower class, rock music is more likely to appeal to a lower class audience
and has throughout history, however music barriers are breaking down and therefore
there could be some audience in an upper class setting.
Initially:
After Creating:
I definitely think that I have achieved this initial thought, I feel that in my article for my
DPS and though the type of articles included on my contents a lower to middle class
background has been easily achieved. One of the main ways I did this was through
emulating mainstream media in which this type of financial and societal background
appears to be the main target. Using this gave me basis to build from, magazines like
Kerrang! really helped in being able to show me the correct way to address an audience
when writing an article for the middle/lower class.
7. Lifestyle: There could be a range of lifestyles for my magazine audience, however the
most likely will be a working person or a student, therefore my magazine needs to be
interesting and entertaining so that it could be used for relaxation. The type of more
mature customer could be someone who liked the music of the bands/genre in their
youth and went to concerts etc. and continues to this day to enjoy the music and would
like to know more about the artist/band and the life they lived during the time the
customer was a fan.
Initially:
After Creating:
This section works well with my age range, as I was looking to meet a 15-18 age range I
was looking at targeting students in college and university, and after having my audience
moved to 20 years by my TA evaluation, I feel that the background and lifestyle I intended
has been achieved well. I included money saving articles in my contents page and also as
a pull on my front cover to attract people to read my magazine, and through these types
of articles I feel I have achieved that well.
The only real pull to a more mature audience would be the names of AC/DC, The Smiths
and Phil Collins on my contents page, however saying this, what I wrote about in my
initial profile works well with the names as it links to the bands and music they may have
liked when younger and would be interested buying a magazine for to see where they are
now.
8. Culture: The culture for my magazine will be more of a western world, and enjoying the
style of music of the genre is essential.
Initially:
After Creating:
As I planned to target a western culture who enjoyed the genre of music, I feel that I have
achieved this well. In hindsight I feel that I would have tried to include older artists and a
more vintage style of music just to include the vintage genre I originally strived for in order
to include more culture of the western world and expand my audience more.
9. Fan Bases: My magazine would appeal to the fan bases of bands like AC/DC, Led
Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Deff Leppard and Elvis Presley.
Initially:
After Creating:
I do feel that in a way I have achieved this, aside from including the names of the artists in
the “where are they now” section, I think that I have made my magazine relevant enough
that I could have reached some members of a more mature audience, however overall I
have definitely reached a younger audience and fan bases of bands like Bring Me The
Horizon and similar artists rather than what I originally intended.
10. Hobbies and Interests: The customers for my magazine could be interested in old style,
vintage rock music, vintage films or even more modern ones that use that style of
directing and production and music relating to the genre. They could also be into fashion
and the style of clothing associated with this genre of music, such as leathers and ripped
jeans and large boots. The audience could also be very into going to concerts and gigs of
bands that are in this genre or style of music, therefore I would like to include reviews of
concerts and albums, and dates for tours, reunion tours, singular concerts or
album/single release dates.
Initially:
After Creating:
I feel that upon reflection, the hobbies of my audience would be more towards more
current music, going to live gigs and concerts, maybe festivals, rather than being interested
in vintage films and old style rock like Elvis Presley. The fashion aspect has remained mostly
the same, my audience could be interested in the type of fashion associated stereotypically
with this genre or not, however there is an article and image on the contents page that
relates to that subject. I do feel I have targeted an audience that should be involved and
interested in live music as I have included a tour dates section, live images and an album
and concert review.
11. Fashion: The younger audience of my magazine especially may be very into fashion and
the style of music associated with this genre, so including coupons or discount codes for
stores or online shops that stock stereotypical rock style clothes could appeal to my
audience. Stores such as Hot Topic, Pulp, Asylum Industries and Blue Banana would be
the main, most known shops for this style of clothing by the audience.
Initially:
After Creating:
I have included an article on my contents page about discounts for some of the stores I
chose in my initial profiling, this would appeal to either females interested in fashion,
students who want to buy this style of clothing or males who are interested in merchandise
for their favourite bands. I have also included a “steal their style” section which is mostly
orientated at females and has an image of a female to accompany it, this could have
singled out males and been one of the reasons my evaluating TA thought that I had
achieved a magazine more targeted at females in the market.
12. Overall:
I feel that I have not differed too much from the audience that I originally planned to
include in my magazine. When looking back now and looking through the original profile I
created for my target audience, and then comparing it to the product that I have
eventually created, paired with the final target audience research undertaken by the A2
students, it is apparent that from the beginning to now my idea have not changed much
and that I have had a set idea as to what I wanted to create.
Upon reflection, I do feel that I would have tried to reach that dual audience and include
the Vintage element that I originally wanted, and I would have tried to do this by
representing an older generation in my images, articles and my DPS language, possibly
dropping the foul language all together, and if not I would definitely not have included it as
a pull quote over my image.
I am very happy with the final product I have created and I feel that I reached my younger
target audience well and achieved the main goal that I set out to do.
