James McClements - Media OCR 2015-16

1. Questionnaire planning
James McClements
6949

2. My magazine
My main production work will take the form of an
Indie/Alternative music magazine. It will be
comparable to the leading institutions in this genre:
‘NME’ and ‘DIY’. NME, representing what is now a
‘mass-media’ magazine; being available for free at
public places, used to be the leader in alternative
music publication in the UK for over 20 years. DIY is
now the leading Indie music magazine, and still
caters for the niche market. I will feature instances of
‘repetition’ (Neale) in the design of my magazine with
DIY, and enough ‘differences’ to avoid plagiarising,
and being unique enough to attract an audience.

3. Target Audience
My target audience will be, as mentioned before,
stereotypical ‘Indie kids’, or counter-culture ‘hipsters’.
I will cover both ‘genders’ (Hartley) and an age range
from ‘16-24’. The majority of my audience will be
‘middle class’ creatives who conform to
socioeconomic class ‘B’, otherwise for the younger
readers who are students, their class is ‘E’. Ethnicity
is not an important feature for my magazine,
however stereotypically Indie music appeals to
‘white’ people. Lastly, my magazine will appeal to
people from the ‘UK’ rather than an international
audience.

4. Questionnaire form
My questionnaire will take form of a written page where
contributors will tick boxes to answer questions. It will be
distributed to a focus group collective of my target
audience. 16-24 year olds who enjoy indie music. I
decided against using an electronic survey from a site
like ‘Survey Monkey’ as the results often are represented
inaccurately, and I will produce far more useful and
concise results If I produce evaluative graphs myself.
I am confident in expecting accurate results thanks to my
specific sample, and reliance on the knowledge of my
target audience, who being the potential buyers of the
publication, should know what to look for in a magazine.

5. Questionnaire
Music&Magazine&Questionnaire&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&Name&______________________________&&&Age&____&
&
&
1)&What&is&the&most&important&feature&in&a&magazine&front&
cover?&
o A&catchy&main&headline/coverline&
o Inciting&puff&promotion&
o An&exciting&main&image&with&‘Star&appeal’&–(Richard&Dyer)&
o A&good&colour&scheme&
&
2)&What&would&you&prefer&to&see&in&a&main&image?&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
(Pick&one&answer&from&each&section)&
o A&mid&shot&of&an&artist&or&band&
o A&full&body&shot&of&an&artist&or&band&
and…&
o A&photoOshoot&style&quality&image&with&props&
o An&image&shot&in&a&natural&background&with&a&clear&location&
&
3)&What&is&most&important&about&a&magazine’s&masthead?&
o A&short&name/&abbreviation&(e.g.&‘NME’&or&‘DIY’)&
o A&reference&to&a&song&or&art&piece&(e.g.&‘505’&–&Arctic&Monkeys)&
o It’s&relation&to&a&genre&(e.g.&‘Alternative’)&
&
4)&Who&would&you&like&to&see&interviewed?&
o The&Libertines&
o Tame&Impala&
o Django&Django&
o Mac&Demarco&
o Wolf&Alice&
&
5)&What&feature&would&be&most&important&to&you?&
o Gig&and&Concert&reviews&
o New&Album&reviews&
o New&bands&
o Artist&interviews&
&
6)&What&colour&scheme&best&suits&a&music&magazine?&&
o Reds&and&whites&
o Blacks&and&whites&
o Yellows&and&oranges&
o Blues&and&greens&
&
7)&What&category&suits&you&most&below?&
o I&always&look&at&the&contents&page&and&view&features&before&reading&
o I&browse&through&the&magazine&and&ignore&contents&pages&
&
&
8)&What&category&suits&you&most&below?&
o I&always&look&at&promotions&and&freebies&in&magazines&
o I&do&a&quick&browser&search&after&seeing&album&promotions&
o I&ignore&promotional&items&in&magazines&
&
9)&Do&you&always&look&at&the&main&feature&(doubleOpaged&
interview)?&
o Yes&
o No&
&
10)&How&much&would&you&pay&for&a&monthly&Indie&music&
magazine?&
o Nothing&(free)&
o 99p&
o £1.99&
o £2.39&
o £4.39&
&
11)&If&you&have&any&additional&comments,&please&feel&free&to&
add&here:&
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________&
&
&

6. Questionnaire design
My first question discovers what the most significant convention is to my target audience. This is usual
to discovering what ‘jumps out’ to my target audience, either ‘star appeal’ (Dyer), the design or layout
of the front cover, or the actual content – i.e. main headline.
My second question identifies what kind of image representation matches the genre of magazine, and
appeals to the audience. Either a mid or long shot of my feature, or an image taken in a studio, or a
location shoot.
The third identifies what kind of masthead could attract an audience. As most magazines in the genre,
(‘Q’ ‘NME’ and ‘DIY’) are fairly short, I am discovering if that is essential to the genre, and audience
appeal.
Question 4 simply tries to identify what artist/band will be most popular to interview for the first issue in
my target audience.
The fifth question is used to discover what codes and conventions in my magazine to prioritise,
particularly in my contents page in terms of font size, or even for my front cover.
The sixth highlights what the audience will be attracted to visually, and identifies the influence from
competing magazines (‘NME’, ‘Q’), as they both features reds in their design – a colour synonymous
to the genre. I need this to discover the importance of colour, and whether because of a magazine like
‘DIY’ that does not use red, could still be attractive to my target audience if I don’t use synonymous
colours.
Question seven displays the importance of the contents page in my target audience.
Eight discovers the importance of puff promotion in my magazine.
Nine discovers the importance of double-page spreads.
And lastly ten seeks to find out how much my target audience would pay for a magazine. (I included
free as an option because both ‘DIY’ and ‘NME’ are free magazines). It will be interesting to see the
results for this question, as if my target audience are used to not paying for music magazines, then it
might be essential to also release a free magazine to compete with others.