Target Audience Profile For My Magazine

 

This image above is Kerrang's! idea of building an audience profile, so this will give me a general idea of what my target audience will need to keep the certain design style in mind. It states that the target audience Kerrang! are aiming for are “15-35 men who are young, individual minded and passionate consumers, an audience with attitude, passion and loyalty.”

The ideal theorists for this target audience would firstly be Blumer and Katz (1974) who in short state: “audiences read a text for a variety of purposes such as diversion (escaping reality), personal identity … surveillance (reading the text for informational purposes).” The second theorists to apply to this would be Stanley Hall (1904) who in short states: “adolescences aged from 14-25 are involved with criminal activity and sex.”

Audience Profile

This will be my ideal target audience profile that I have in mind for my magazine:

• Age: 15-35
• Gender: Men
• Class: E-C1
• Lifestyle: Young men that are passionate about the rock genre music and will be loyal to purchasing the magazine as a hobby. Also these young men will be strong and confident about their personal identity/appearance to the world, they will also have a adventurous and fun youth type lifestyle.

Common Conventions Of A Magazine

Common conventions that are needed upon a magazine cover that will attract their primary target audience:

* Masthead

* Straplines
* Teasers

* Images

* Layout

* Genre

* Barcode

* Issue Number

        

Analysis Of Edinburgh Contents Page

The Content Page Layout

To get a better understanding of existing magazine contents pages for a student audience, I will now analyse a contents page that has a target audience aimed at students (both male and female) that are aged 22+ and within the social class of C-A+ because their going into higher education and gaining even more qualifications from University. The secondary target audience is relatives of graduates and lecturers.

 Masthead -

There is no masthead for this contents page, although in terms of magazines having common conventions upon each page, this university magazine doesn't follow it and really should have placed it anywhere upon the page, even if it isn't as obvious as other pages.

Layout -

The layout for this magazine contents page the same theme as the front cover, a simple layout of the same colours (red,white and black) and outlines/borders/shapes. But in terms of the text there has been a mixture of even more colours such as blue, purple and green. This does not follow magazine conventions because the theme isn't quite the same and may put the target audience off by how unprofessional it looks.

Colours chosen for this layout is red, white and black, this will be suitable for the target audience because it will fall under the Stanley Hall theory as these colours could be connoting emotion as the layout of this page looks very pale and dull just like the front cover.

Imagery -

In terms of imagery used, this page contains an image of students who are either still at University or have just left, which has been done deliberately to attract the target audience even more in terms of personal experience (following the Blumer and Katz theory) and encourage them to study here for further education because its much better.

Also to balance out that there is older target audience for this magazine aiming at a mass audience, there are is an image of a father holding his son in his arms. This would have also been deliberately done by the editors of this magazine to let the older audience know that the education for this university is for everyone, not just for youth's who have just finished College/6th form. Once again this image will fall under the Blumer and Katz theory.  

In terms of denotation image of people with different coloured skin, this could connote that this university is a acceptance type university and will welcome anyone in terms of their beliefs and culture. Therefore this will disagree with the theorist Malik because these people stereotypically in this image look very approachable and are being accepted into University even if they are different than being British.

Text -

There are more common conventions added to the contents page on the further right of the page in black text, this tells the reader/audience where the magazine was printed, who it was designed by and etc. So this magazine does look slightly more professional and suited to its target audience who fall under the Blumer and Katz theory.


There is a comment from the headteacher of the University, which is using a members resources technique by trying to gain a relationship with the audience who are interested at attending this school. This has been placed in there deliberately to try and encourage the reader/mass audience even more in what such a good university this will be when they attend it for further education. 

But in terms of denotation, the text is very simple and quite dull which makes the university look as if they have either rushed this magazine or really don't know who their target audience are because their trying to make it suitable for such a mass of people of such a variety of ages.  Therefore this could put some of their audience off, but you could argue its easy to read because its all spaced out.

Analysis Of The Edinburgh Napier Magazine Front Cover

The Edinburgh Napier Magazine Front Cover

Target Audience

The primary target audience this publication is designed to represent is Napier graduates who, because they have degrees, most probably fall under A-C social class categories. This could be people all over the country of both genders who are 22+. The secondary target audience is relatives of graduates, lectures and students.

Masthead

The masthead for this magazine is very simple and appears more than once upon the on the front cover. This is appropriate for the target audience for this magazine because it will be easy to remember and stands out massively as the colour contrast of the red triangle stands out in the dull colours provided, white. Then again you could argue the dullness of this magazine is appropriate for the target audience as it shows that this new stage in their life is serious and time to be successful as its an opportunity of a lifetime and it also shows how its suitable for both genders who read this.

Images

In this magazine there is only one image to represent the Edinburgh university and the image looks as if its been edited to make more room for the masthead to make it stand out clearly to the audience with a white simple background. The established shot image of the university has the sunlight shining upon it as if the sun is rising for the morning, this could cannot that its trying to that this is the right university to go to if you want to be successful and could connote a fresh start. This is very appropriate for our target audience as it shows this magazine will probably provide all the information they needs to encourage them to enter this university in a positive manor.

Text

The text for this magazine front cover is very simple and plain with three different colours chosen to stand out in the established shot of the university making it easy to read. The text also all around the page instantly gives you an idea that if you are only interested in a certain area of the university like “News/Events/People/Benefits” and “This Years Highlights”, it encourages you to pick up the magazine. Therefore this is appropriate for the target audience as it shows that the boring style of this could connote how serious this time of their life is as well as encourage them to enter the university and it also shows how its suitable for both genders who read this. 

Bodmin College Analysis

The College Magazine

Target Audience

The main target audience for the Bodmin College is School students aged 11-19 years old, both male and female. Also another main target audience is parents and guardians, which can range from C1-E social grade as Bodmin has a wide range of skilled and unskilled people. Also another main target audience this College Magazine is aimed at is people who are involved in the school, governors, teachers/staff and etc. These people are a secondary target audience who fall into the category of C-E due to how Bodmin is so demographic. 

The masthead

The masthead for the Bodmin College magazine is very uninteresting due to how it is the logo that is worn on the uniform is placed upon the magazine also. This isn't a very creative masthead like many of the magazines you'd purchase within a shop, that blend in naturally because of the themes and layouts provided. But the masthead also doesn't blend in with the image of corn slapped on top of the magazine, making it look even more dull and this could be inappropriate for the target audience because as they may not be aware of the purpose for the magazine.  

Layout

In terms of denotation the layout for this magazine is very poor as the images on the front cover are just 3 long shots that have been poorly taken and then perhaps zoomed therefore causing the pixelation. The picture is blurry and has obviously been taken on quite a low quality camera. Usually in magazines that you purchase in the shops there is only one main image that blends in naturally with the text and the colour scheme.

But then looking at the top of the magazine you notice a inappropriate image of some wheat/corn type plant which looks as if it’s just been slapped there. Therefore our target audience may just look it and refuse to read it due to the poor representation of the magazine cover.

In the layout images there is also more females in the cover, which may put many men in the target audience off from reading this magazine because it fits into the semantic field of older school years dancing and this may put 6^th formers off because of the stereotyping used in the magazine.

Colour

The colour of the magazine cover looks very dull and uninteresting due to the 80’s style that has been presented to the target audience. They clash and do not go well together making anything look naturally put together. Their also very dark and dull and makes the female dancers look very ‘off’ due to the colour of their skin and facial appearance, putting many females off from their self esteem as well as picking dance as an option in the older years.

Text

In terms of denotation for the Bodmin College Magazine’s font looks very simple and just slapped there as it is easily recognizable meaning the poor representation may put the target audience of reading this magazine and in a magazine you’d purchase in the shop it would never have an appearance such as this.

The text in the middle of the Bodmin College magazine is not easy to read and immediately alienates anyone who didn’t view the dance platform or take part and instantly may put most of the target audience off from reading this as not all of the target audience may be interested in the Dance Platform.  

Bodmin College Magazine

Analysing Existing Magazines

In order to become more familiar with common conventions I shall be analysing two separate magazine covers and contents pages before creating my own that will be suitable for the target audience that this magazine is aimed at.

"A process needed for problem solving...not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people." (Jones, 1993)

"The making of the new and rearranging the old." (Bentley, 1997)

"Creativity results from the interaction of a system composed of three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a field of experts who recognise and validate the innovation." (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996).

Prelim Task

To be able to develop skills in pre-production, photography, photoshop and critical reflection before undertaking my main task I shall start to by finishing the preliminary task outlined in the student brief:

My AS Media Foundation Portfolio

The foundation portfolio I have chosen to undertake is the print brief as I am interested within the music industry and feel that my developing skills in print will give me a solid foundation of understanding concerning media production. The brief I will be working on will contain:

Target Audience For my Magazine

Audience Analysis

Designing a front cover and magazine contents page for the Bodmin College magazine will show that this will be suitable for the target audiences that range within Bodmin from classes E to C minus. But the primary target audience for this magazine will be students, who are aged from 12-19 years old (this is including the sixth form and Green field) meaning this will also be aimed towards young people/children with disabilities, but overall students who could be still living at home with their parents still. This therefore will link to my next target audience for this magazine, parents. Parents are within the Bodmin social class E to C minus and could be at a variety of age and ethnicity. Another target audience finally will be people who are working inside Bodmin College, governors, teachers and etc, who still fall in to the social class E to C minus and could also be at a variety of age and ethnicity, this means the magazine will need to be suitable for the huge variety of target audience selected to read this.

To start off and ensure that my magazine will be suitable for my variety of target audiences, I shall be planning a survey on a website called www.SurveyMonkey.Com. This will be posted on many social websites that I know to gain a variety of feedback from the local people in Bodmin and find out more information based upon the layout that will be created due to their feedback.

The types of questions that shall be asked upon my SurveyMonkey will be to influence me to create interesting information and layout within the magazine. An example of the type of questions I shall ask inside my SurveyMonkey will be “Which of these headmasters do you like best?” And “What encourages you to pick up a magazine?” There will be many more questions asked with multiple choice answers to select and personal comment boxes to gain better feedback on the type of magazine they’d pick up.

Then comparing this information from my results on the SurveyMonkey to ask my current target audience. Do you currently read the College magazine?” This will help me get an idea of who is basically interested in the magazine all together, so I could then compare this to my final result.

Annaleigh Benn