Conclusion about Audience Reasearch

I conclude that the questions i came up with to ask my audience are good as they are going to help me get my audience's opinions about what they would like to see in a music magazine. Also because it gives me a way of  connecting with my audience due to the communication i had with them in order to obtain the findings i did. They also helped me recognize that producing these questions and asking if they had any other ideas was a good as it helped broaden up my ideas for my music magazine.

The findings i got back from my research audience are good because i have a variety of ideas from my audience, both male and female and from the same age group in which my music magazine targets. As i used Msn chat as a method to gather this research, i think the audience were not bored as this was a different way of gathering research compared to the ordinary way of gathering research such as a questionnaire on a white sheet of paper.

I could have however improved my research audience by mainly including open ended questions as closed ended questions would have given me more reliable results that would have been easier to gather. The fact that my questions were closed ended questions was bad as it narrowed down the audience's responses. It was not a good idea to include such questions as the questions mainly had my choices and preferences therefore not giving the audience that much of a choice to say what they really wanted or preferred.

I also then decided to complete a moodboard which also helped me understand what my typical audience research is and what they are mostly interested in.

Main Task:Audience Research

                                          Audience Research Questionnaire

1.      What type of magazine do you prefer to read? Music, Fashion, Sports,

2.      Do you think music magazines are useful?

3.      Do you enjoy reading gossip sections in music magazines?

4.      What colour theme would you prefer a music magazine to have? Red and White, Purple           and White, Pink and Black, Pink and Blue

5.     Do you think competitions attract readers to read music magazines?

6.     What type of music genre do you prefer? Rap, R&B and Soul, Hip-Hop, Indie, Rock, Punk

Lennard

(12:50am)

Ash: hey

would u mind me asking u you a few questions to help with my media coursework?

Lenny: erm no its cool go on

Ash: 1. What type of magazine do you prefer to read? Music, Fashion, Sports?

Lenny: Music

Ash: 2. Do you think music magazines are useful?

Lenny: Yea i do

Ash: 3. Do you enjoy reading gossip sections in music magazines?

Lenny: nope

Ash: 4. What colour themes would you prefer a music magazine to have? Red and White, Purple and White, Pink and Black, Pink and Blue

Lenny: purple and white

Ash: 5. Do you think competitions attract readers to read music magazines?

Lenny: I think they do

Ash: 6. Which music genre do you prefer? Rap, R&B, Hip-Hop, Indie, Rock, Punk

Lenny: Hip hop

Tobi

(12:42am)

Ash: What type of magazine do you prefer to read? Music, Fashion, Sports

Tobi: sports

Ash: 2. Do you think music magazines are useful?

Tobi: Yes, for entertainment purposes

Ash: 3. Do you enjoy reading gossip sections in music magazines?

Tobi: Yes

Ash: 4. What colour themes would you prefer a music magazine to have? Red and White, Purple and White, Pink and Black, Pink and Blue

Tobi: Red and white

Ash: 5. Do you think competitions attract readers to read music magazines?

Tobi: Yea

Ash: 6. Which music genre do you prefer? Rap, R&B, Hip-Hop, Indie, Rock, Punk

Tobi: Rnb, rock mixed 

Debbie

(12:51am)

Ash: heya, would u mind me asking you a few questions to help with my media coursework?

Debbie: yeah course

Ash: 1. What type of magazine do you prefer to read? Music, Fashion, Sports?

Debbie: mmm music

Ash: 2. Do you think music magazines are useful?

Debbie: yeahhhh

Ash: Do you enjoy reading gossip sections in music magazines?

Debbie: definitely

Ash: 4. What colour themes would you prefer a music magazine to have? Red and White, Purple and White, Pink and Black, Pink and Blue

Debbie: purple n white

Ash: 6. Which music genre do you prefer? Rap, R&B, Hip-Hop, Indie, Rock, Punk

Debbie: r n b

Irene 

(12:50am)

Ash: heya, would you mind me asking you a few questions to help with my media coursework?

Irene: no problem ask

Ash: 1. What type of magazine do you prefer to read? Music, Fashion, Sports

Irene: Fashion and music

Ash: 2. Do you think music magazines are useful?

Irene: Yhh

Ash: 3. Do you enjoy reading gossip sections in music magazines?

Irene: of course

Ash: 4. What colour theme would you prefer a music magazine to have? Red and White, Purple and White, Pink and Black, Pink and Blue

Irene: Purple and white

Ash: 5. Do you think competitions attract readers to read music magazines?

Irene: Yhh kinda
Ash: 6. Which music genre do you prefer? Rap, R&B, Hip-Hop, Indie, Rock, Punk

Irene: R&B and soul

Moodboard for My Audience Research

                            Audience Research 


This is the mood board i created as part of my Research method. I did some research into the typical audience my music magazine would target. These are the things I came up with that give an impression of the type of audience the music magazine I am going to create will target. 

Update

To improve my AS coursework, i have decided to complete a moodboard that shows what the typical target audience for my music magazine is into.

Audience Research Questions to consider asking the audience

                                                         Audience Research


These are some of the questions I came up with for my audience questionnaire. I am going to select a few of these to ask my audience. 

• What is your gender?
• How old are you?
• Do you enjoy reading magazine?
• What type of magazines do you prefer reading? Music? Fashion? Sports? College?
• Would you buy a music magazine?
• What's the most you would buy it for?
• Do you think music magazines are useful?
• Do you enjoy listening to music?
• When do you think music magazines should be issued - Weekly? Monthly? Seasonable?
• What attracts readers to music magazines the most? Artists featured? Genre magazine is mainly focused on? Articles ? Theme
• What type of music genre do you prefer?
• How many pages do you think are suitable for a music magazine?
• Do you think competitions attract readers to read music magazine?
• Do you like it when music magazines give out free posters?
• Do you enjoy reading gossip in music magazines?
• Do you think American music magazines are better than British music magazines?
• Do you think women read more music magazines than men?

Main Task:Profiling my audience

                                                           Profiling your audience task

This is what I found out about ‘Vibe’, a music magazine of a similar genre of the one I’m intending to produce for my coursework.

About Vibe

‘Vibe Lifestyle Network is the parent company of VIBE Magazine and VIBE.COM and is the premier destination for the hip-hop generation. Vibe Lifestyle network represents over 25 sites and reaches over 19 million unique users per month. The new Vibe is the premier destination for urban music, entertainment, culture and lifestyle for the aspirational 18-34 year olds.’( http://www.vibe.com/about/)

Below are screen shots showing the type of stories and celebrities in which this magazine mainly focuses on, also screen shots showing the type of language in which the people targeted by the magazine use etc.                                                                       

 This screen shot shows that Vibe is the type of magazine that focuses on the news involving artists it features as well as just photos of them while they are out at events. As the target audience for this music magazine is from the age of 18-34, we notice that it features artists such as Bowwow, Diddy, Solja boy, Justin Bieber and Keri Hilson. This suggests it includes music from genres such as the R&B, Soul Music, Hip-hop, Rap.

In this screenshot we also notice that the music magazine Vibe also includes personal news involving the artists/celebrities it features. For instance the relationships and issues they have in their life. This gives me an impression that most of Vibe’s articles are mainly brought by readers because they are so fascinated and interested in learning more about their favourite artists or celebrity’s personal lives.

We also notice that vibe acknowledges the greatest singers in the music industry, whether they are still alive or if they have passed away. By including news on the recent issues involving Tupac and Michael’s death we see the music magazine is not only interested in entertainment but also interested in reminding and keeping it’s readers up to date with the work of these artists when they were in the music industry and even now when they have passed away. This helps me with my coursework as it shows that my music magazine does not only have to include stories on recent artists but could include 1 or 2 articles on those singers that have passed away and are still loved and remembered in our world.  This in a way supports the fact this music magazine has a target audience including those in their 30’s as some of these readers might have enjoyed these late singer’s music.

This screen shot supports that the magazine’s main target audience is between the ages of 18-34 as we notice one of the articles is ‘Twitter Beef! Chris Brown vs. Raz B’. We are convinced that this is the magazine’s main target audience as many of the people around these ages are using twitter as their social network nowadays.

All this research that I have done does show that Vibe magazine’s main target audience is of those around the ages of 18 and 34, therefore when I’m making my magazine I’m going to make sure that I keep in mind that’s the age ranges in which my music magazine should roughly be as I am doing one of the same genre.  It also shows me that this music magazine mainly focuses more on black American artists compared to the White Americans, therefore which could suggest that this is a music magazine in which others may not see as portraying equality that much. This could help me with my magazine because I can keep in mind that I want my magazine to be read by a diversity of people not just those of the black race, therefore I will have to include stories on artists from all backgrounds. The research I did also helped me see that even though this is a music magazine it doesn’t necessarily mean that I cannot include articles that focus on other things such as the news and what goes on in the film and media industry. By this I recognised that the main target audience of this music magazine are ones which probably enjoy watching TV channels such as MTV, BET, MTV Base and Kiss, Living TV and E.

Main Task: Music Magazine Contents Page Textual Analysis

                                      Music Magazine Contents Page Textual Analysis

This vibe contents page depicts a well known R&B artist called Ciara wearing a sexy leopard like outfit with a pair of heels.  The image used is of her laying down holding eye contact with the camera.

The Masthead for the contents page is a large faint letter ‘V’ which stands for the music magazine name Vibe. The masthead is pasted in the middle of the page and just below the title.  The font used is a sans serif font. The title for this contents page is bold, white and written using a sans serif font.  It is pasted on the right hand corner of the page in capital letters in order to stand out.  

The main image stands out and is of Ciara, a well known R&B artist. In the image she is laying down with her legs up in the air. As she looks quite relaxed, we notice why this is when we read the subheading that goes with the main image. She is wearing a greyish shoulder length leotard with a waist belt. This image is quite effective as it shows the sexy side of her, therefore attracting more readers, especially male readers, even though the magazine is targeted at both sexes. Her jewellery, outfit and shoes could connote that she is a classy and stylish woman. The image also shows her looking directly at the camera, which could symbolise that she is an artist that allows her fans/readers to engage with her.

The issue date is pasted at the bottom right hand corner of the page next to the name of the magazine and the page number.  This is written in a black as to complement the white background. Unlike many music magazine contents pages, this particular contents page does not include a subscription, contact info, web address a competition or editor’s letter. Even though this contents page goes against some of the conventions of a music magazine contents page, the way it is constructed makes it appear to be a good contents page. At the left hand corner of the page, there however are some photography credits which are also written using a black sans serif text.

 The colour scheme used in this contents page is white, grey and a dark shade of grey. We notice that the background colour used goes from a dark grey to white as you get to the bottom of the page.   This colour scheme is quite effective as it sort of assures that the reader’s attention is not taken away by the use of bright colours. The use of the simple colours makes the magazine appear to be a simple music magazine which is serious about its music. However it is quite dull as it only consists of one image and a simple colour scheme.

This music magazine contents page is also dull because it only has 1 image and that is it. This can be effective in some ways as it could symbolise how the music magazine has specific artists that it likes to focus on each issue, instead of many different artists.  As it has a very simple layout, it only has one column, making the text easy to read and maybe attracting more readers as they can sometimes get bored of a contents page full of writing.

This contents page consists of two headings (categories): features and fashion. These are bold and in a black serif font connoting tradition/old fashioned. The sub headings to go with these are written in a grey text and are written in a sans serif font. The text under the subheadings is however a mixture of both a sans serif fonts and serif fonts. The serif font connotes a more modern feel where as the other connotes tradition. This could be used as to symbolise the fact that this music magazine does not only focus on current music news or artists but also on those that are retrospective.

Overall I think this contents page is good as it has a simple layout and is easy to read.  Even though it does appear to be quite boring due to the use of only one image, the reader’s are given impression the article focuses on getting up close with the main artist (Ciara) more than other articles that may be in the issue.

Update

Today i have decided to do a textual analysis of a music magazine contents page as i did not complete one before my work was marked.

Main Task:Textual Analysis of a music magazine double page spread

                                              Textual Analysis of a music magazine front cover

                                                                          

Denotation

This double page spread of the music magazine ‘Juicy’ has the title ‘POWER CHICKS’ and has 9 well known singers spread across it, Zoe Saldana, Alicia keys and Queen Latifah on one page and Nicki Minaj, Raven Symone, Rihanna, Jada Pinkett Smith, Serena Williams and Jennifer Hudson. Under each celebrity’s photo is a little description box with a brief description about how far they have come in either the music or fashion industry.

Connotation

The title of this double page spread is called ‘POWER CHICKS’ and is written in a pink sans serif text. The title it self suggests to the reader these pages are going to be about ‘some of our favourite women who are “livin” in the 21^st century and doin’ something mean to it”’. To a certain extent we notice the title of this double page spread anchors the images of the celebrities because these women are globally well known therefore readers automatically have a mentality that they are ‘superheroes’. We notice that throughout these two pages there is a consistent house style kept because we can see that each name of the celebrity is written in a pink serif text and the description of them is written in a sans serif white text. As the title is written in pink when the readers read the title of the double page spread and  scan through these two pages they will automatically know that these ‘Power chicks’ are the ones in which have their name written in the same  pink serif text.

All of these celebrities featured on this article are glamorously and smartly dressed. Rihanna’s image is pasted on the top right hand corner of the 2^nd page and is a medium close up shot of her smiling at the camera. Her hair is red and she’s wearing a dress that blends in with her skin tone. We notice this image has a narrow depth of field as Rihanna is the sharp focus and her background is quite blurred. The description of her allows readers to see the type of artist Rihanna has become and what she’s gained from all the years of being a singer ‘eight no1 singles’ and also acknowledges her fans that without them she would not have been able to get these no1 singles.

The medium long shot of Serena Williams wearing a dark purple dress allows the readers of this magazine that this music magazine does not just focus on the music industry but also on other industries such as the sports one as Serena is a well known tennis players. The description beneath her image also allows readers to see what she’s planning to do. This shows she is a power chick as she is not just a participant in sports but is also collaborating with OPI to create a sports theme nail polish called "Glam Slam."

The language in which is used on these two double page articles suggests that this magazine targets those that use social networking sites the most, but however those that are around the ages of 16-early 30’s. For instance we notice the magazine uses a section of slang words such as ‘living’, ‘chicks’, and ‘doin’. The language in which this music magazine uses just shows readers that the magazine fits the type of genre in which the artists featured in it speak. The language used by this magazine fits the style of the rest of the magazine as the magazine is a RnB, Hip-Hop and Rap magazine and it is stereotypical to use this type of slang. This double page spread has a neat layout as all the pictures are roughly the same size and text is the same amount for each celebrity. As the two pages are not too busy we are given the impression that the magazine is quite serious about it’s music and keeps it nice and simple.  

Main Task: Textual analysis of a music magazine front cover

Textual analysis of a music magazine front cover

Denotation

The denotation of this image consists of a famous singer: Kelly Rowland with a direct contact with the camera, hugging herself in front of a greyish, faded green like background. She’s wearing a black see through top and greyish trousers. At the top left hand side of the magazine is the title of the magazine.

Connotation

The main image of this JET magazine is of a Midshot of a famous singer Kelly Rowland which takes up most of the magazine front cover. This could suggest this music magazine is mainly an R&B magazine as she mainly produces music from that genre. As she’s from a black background it could also suggest that it mainly features stories on more black artists than white as many magazines produced in America are like this usually depending on who the publisher is and what type of magazine genres they publish. Her NVC shows she looks serious and fierce. Her arms could be wrapped around her as to symbolise her passion for music and just how closely she keeps it to her. The background could suggest that R&B genre of music is quite calm as the colour seems peaceful. As Kelly Rowland is a global well known artist, this is good as it could help the magazine attract readers; it could help attract fans of Kelly Rowland but also help to attract more fans for her. As she is directly looking at the camera, we get a sense of interaction between her and the person reading the magazine.

Masthead

The masthead – ‘JET’ is pasted on the top left hand corner and is in a sans serif, white text. It stands out because it is bold and has a background which does not clash with its colours.

Main Coverline

The main cover line anchors the main image as it is about Kelly Rowland. It is written in a sans serif text and is on top of the main image and says ‘Kelly Rowland, IN charge’. It is written in white and pink and also blends in with the rest of the colours used in the magazine. The pink arrow anchoring the text in pink just below the main coverline saying ‘On record Label Drama, New Music & Creating Her Own DESTINY’ could symbolise because she now going solo from her group destiny’s child she is now in charge of her own music and is looking towards making her way to the top as the arrow is pointing in an upwards direction.

Coverlines

The first coverline at the top right hand corner says ‘Is Obama losing with independents?’ this could represent that the music magazine also focuses on issues going on in America not just focuses on the music industry. The second coverline below that says ‘what’s in this fall: 3 Beauty tips Just For You’, this text is also sans serif but is written in 3 different colour shades: green, light green and white. This coverline could also represent that the music magazine features articles on health and beauty as well as other articles relating to the lifestyles of celebrities. The colours used for this font could symbolise the glamour in which this magazine portrays in each articles about the people it features.

Dateline

This feature of the ‘jet’ magazine has a dateline under the masthead; it is white and written in sans serif text. As this magazine is a music magazine and is purchased in stores it has a dateline of ‘Sept 6/13 2010’. This shows that this is the 6^th of 13 issues to be published. Like many magazines in which are sold in stores datelines are mainly there so the readers can keep up to date with the articles as well as stories involving the music industry in which are released at that particular time of the year.

On the bottom left hand corner of the magazine there is also a bar code in which has the price of the magazine on top of it. As many music magazines are sold we notice that this magazine cost $1.99.

Selling line

Unlike most music magazines, ‘JET’ has no selling line, which is quite unusual for magazines, this could be because the magazine is already up in the market and doesn’t really need to sell out it’s editorial philosophy in order to target it’s main audience.

Conclusion

Overall I think that the magazine front cover is very effective as the colours that are used for the front cover all go well with each other and the main image used is very good at attracting readers. Also that it not only shows that the magazine is for the readers entertainment but also suggests that it’s target audience if roughly from those of the age of 16 to people in their late 20’s. I would also say this music magazine cover is simple but yet looks professional as it has a consistent style in which is kept; using 2 types of fonts and not looking too busy.



Main Task

For the main task of my coursework I am going to create a magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread.