Preliminary Task: College magazine draft layouts

These are the images that i drafted out for the front cover of my College magazine

These are the images that i drafted out for the contents for my College magazine.

Preliminary Task: Audience Research Graphs Evaluation

Question 1

This is my first question in my questionnaire. I randomly selected 20 people to fill out my questionnaire and found out that I handed out the questionnaires to 10 females and 10 males. I did this randomly so that my results would not be dominated by any factors. The main reason why I asked this question was because i wanted the questionnaire to be representative of college students of both sexes. 

The graph shows that I gave out my questionnaire to 10 males and 10 females. This is quite good as it assures that me answers will not be biased or one sided due to the gender of the people. Instead there is a sense of equality, therefore meaning my results are going to be neutral as they are from both sexes.

Question 2

I asked this question because I wanted to know the age of most of the people that filled out my questionnaire. Even though the ages ranged between 16 and 19, I wanted to see whether their answer s would be influenced by their age. The reason why my age groups vary between 16 and 19 is because my questionnaire is based on college students.

Even though I randomly selected people to fill out my questionnaire, the graph shows that out of 20 people most of the people that completed the questionnaire were 16 year olds. This is quite good as most college students are 16 and 17, therefore when closely examining their answers I know who my target audience are and how they feel about certain things being featured in the college magazines.

 Question 3

I asked this question because I was interested in knowing whether most college students like reading magazines. This is a useful question to ask as it means if most of my participants do not enjoy reading magazines, then I have to research why they don’t and try to make the issue I publish make them interested in reading them.

From the results I got back from the questionnaire, the pie chart shows that all of the participants that done this questionnaire enjoy reading magazines. This is good as it gives me the confidence that the students will recognise the fact the college has a magazine and may just pick it up and read it.

Question 4

I asked this question because I wanted to know what type of magazines my participants were interested in reading. This would have helped me because then I can compare the different types of magazines and if for instance many of the participants enjoy reading music and fashion magazines then it could help me decide what music and fashion based features I could include in my college magazine.

The graph shows that many of my participants enjoy reading sports and college magazines. It also shows only 6 of the participants enjoy reading music magazines while 1 enjoys fashion magazines. These results are good because 8 participants said they enjoyed reading college magazines therefore this can be generalised to say quite a lot more of the college students might actually read the college magazine. 

Question 5

I asked this question because as a researcher I wanted to know how many of my participants would be interested in buying the magazine. The results I gather from this question will help me decide whether I am going to make my college magazine free or whether I will charge students for it. 

The results I got back show that 65% of my participants would buy the college magazine if I decided to sell it.  These results suggests that students would not mind paying for the magazine, which also ensures me as a researcher that those who will actually buy it have a higher chance of reading it as they would have spent their money on it.

 Question 6

This question is a follow up of the previous question and I asked it because out of my participants I wanted to see how much they would prefer the magazine to be if it was to be sold instead of handed out for free. The results also give me an overview of roughly how much participants would be willing to buy the magazine for. 

The graph shows that many of the participants said they think a suitable price for the magazine is 20p. The graph shows that many students would prefer to pay a low price for the magazine. A couple of people wouldn’t mind if the magazine was 80p (highest price choice).  These results can help me decide on what price to make the magazine because my aim is to make college students want to read the magazine, therefore in order to ensure this happens I have to make sure I sell the magazine for a reasonable price.

 Question 7

I asked this question because I wanted to see whether the majority of my participants thought that college magazines are useful. This is because the results from this question will help me decide whether to carry on with the college magazine as the main reason for making it would be because I think it’s useful for students. 

These results show that 13 participants out of 20 think that college magazines are useful. This is good as it also gives me the impression that these 13 represent the number of students in the college that might buy the magazine as it would be useful to them throughout their college life.

Question 8

I also wanted to know what college students are attracted to when reading college magazines. I asked this question because I wanted to have a rough idea of the things I should include in my college magazine. This is because I wanted to include the most popular features as to make sure that my target audience are interested in the magazine as it will have what appeals to them the most.

The results I got back show that most of the participants are attracted by the main image and colour when they pick up a college magazine. This is good as I know that my target audience will definitely mainly look at these two as my questionnaire is representative for those that are the same age attending college.

Question 9

I asked my participants when they thought college magazines should be issued because I wanted to know what my target audience’s view was as the magazines are issued for them.

The graph shows that most of my participants think the college magazine should be issued monthly, while 7 think monthly and another 9 per-term. These results will help me determine when I am going to issue my magazine, depending on the most popular choice.

Question 10

The next question I asked in my questionnaire was what colour themes my participants preferred for the college magazine. I asked this question because I wanted to know what colour theme most of my participants would want their college magazine to be as they attend the college in which the magazine will be based on.

From the results I gathered, the graph shows that both the themes purple and white and purple and black were selected by 7 participants each.  These results will be helpful as they give me an idea of what theme my participants would prefer their magazine to be.

Question 11

 In my questionnaire I also asked whether my participants wanted the magazine to be entertaining or educational. This is because I wanted to see their opinion and keep it in mind when creating my college magazine. 

The pie chart above shows that 75% of the participants think the college should be entertaining while 25% think it should be educational. These results will help me as they will give me an idea as to what type of things my participants would like to be featured in the magazine.  By this I also know that my participants are going to be expecting to read columns on gossip, music, fashion and any latest college news that’s entertaining not just an educational magazine.

Question 12

The next question I asked my participants in the magazine was how long they wanted their college magazine to be. This is because I wanted to see if many of them agreed on the same number of pages or if their choices would vary. I am also going to use the most popular chosen number of pages as a rough guide of how many pages to make my college magazine. By asking them this question the readers also have a say so that they don’t feel as if the magazine is too long. 

The graph shows that most participants prefer the college magazine to be 10-15 pages. This is good as I know roughly how long to make my college magazine.

Question 13

I decided to ask my participants whether they thought including competitions in the magazine would attract readers to the magazine. This is because I want to attract many readers to buy the magazine, therefore if many of the students choose that competitions do attract reader to read the magazine then I am going to include competitions in the magazine.

The graph shows that on a scale of 1 to 5, 8 participants chose the rating of 3. In other words they think in some ways yes, probably depending on the prizes in which they being rewarded. This question is helpful for me as part of my research is to make sure I find what readers like or do not like about magazines as well as what would attract other college students to pick up the magazine and read it.

Question 14

I decided to ask this question because I wanted to know what types of prizes my participants would like to win from competitions that may be included in the magazine. I did this mainly because I know types of prizes grab reader’s attention therefore depending on what most of my participants choose I have an idea of the types of prizes I should include in the college magazine.

The graph above shows that 16 of my participants would rather have gift vouchers as prizes from the competitions.

Preliminary Task: Audience Research Questionnaire

                                                            Questionnaire

I am doing this questionnaire as part of my audience research for my media college magazine. I would be very grateful if you would complete this questionnaire to assist with my research.

1.                1.   What is your Gender?                                             Male         Female

2.             2.      How old are you?                                          16                 17

18                 19

3.      Do you enjoy reading magazines?                 Yes               No

4.                 4   .  If so what type?                                            Music           College                                  

                                                                     Sports              Fashion

5.      Would you buy a college magazine?             Yes               No

     

6.      If so for how much?                                       20p               40p                                                                                                   60p                80p

7.      Do you think college magazines are useful to students?        Yes                      No   

                 

8.      When reading college magazines what attracts you the most?          

Main image          Colour           Articles inside             Title

9.      Do you think college magazines should be issued      Per-weekly            Per-month 

      Per-term

10      10.   What colour themes would you prefer for the college magazine?
                                               Black and white                      Purple and white 
                                                Blue and purple                     Purple and black 

11      11. Do you prefer the college magazine to be           Educational                           Entertaining 

    12.   How long would you prefer the college magazine to be
                               5-10pages      10-15pages               15-20pages
    13.   On a scale of 1-5 do you think competitions would attract the readers to read the magazine? 

                   (1 being strongly disagree and 5 being strongly agree)

                                                       
                                                          1         ----------------- >        5      

Thank you for taking your time to complete this questionnaire.