AS Media Portfolio: October 2012

Thursday, 25 October 2012

Initial Ideas

These are the initial ideas for my music magazine's front page, contents page and double page spread.

Wednesday, 24 October 2012

Tuesday, 23 October 2012

Music Magazine Focus Group

The questions we asked were:

Do you read magazines?

If you do, what genre do you buy?

If not, what’s stopping you?

What magazine do you read?

How could you improve that magazine?

How much are you willing to pay?

What is the first thing that attracts you to a magazine?

What artist are you interested in?

Do you prefer weekly or monthly magazines?

Would you be likely to buy a subscription?

Would you respond to an advert for a magazine online?

This is a video (not one I took myself and the sounds not great) from The Midnight Beasts I Kicked A Tour In The Face tour on the 4th of October in Leeds. It was the best gig of my life (so far) and I can honestly say that they are just awesome live.

I think that this band and others like it would attract a large audience if on the cover of a magazine as they are an up and coming band, have a large following and wear bright and colourful clothing that would attract attention on a front cover.

Uses and Gratifications Theory

The theory of Uses and Gratifications first arose in 1974 when Blulmer and Katz highlighted how the use of media caused gratification of the social or psychological needs of an individual. The 4 main areas in which the media does this are Personal Identity, Social Interaction, Diversion and Information.

There are many ways that the public use the media for personal identity. Characters on TV shows or people in magazines act as models for behaviour therefore reinforcing the personal morals and behaviour of an individual. For example, people who read a punk music magazine will begin to dress like and, to some extent, act like the people featured in the magazine. The media is also said to give people an insight into themselves, this could be by reading an article about someone’s dog dying and learning how you are expected to react if this same incident occurs in your life.

The public can also use the media for social interaction. Television shows often have exaggerated versions of events likely to happen in real life, which can gains insight into the lives of other people giving the viewer a sense of social empathy with the characters. All forms of media stem questions and topics of debate; this means that they create conversational topics for social interaction giving people something in common to talk about. Also, characters in long running television shows and bands and artists featured frequently in magazine interviews give the reader/watcher a feeling that they know them well and become almost ‘friends’.

Magazines and Television provide a change from daily routine. For most people they are a form of relaxation acting as a diversion from real life issues and problems that an individual faces. They show case the issues of other people so for a while you can forget about your own. They also provide emotional release such as crying or laughter, which some people don’t do enough of in daily life that can help to reduce their stress levels.

Lastly, the media can be used to provide information. The news tells people what is going on in the world from day to day and Magazines provide information about upcoming gigs, album reviews and artists old and new. This makes the audience feel involved and up to date with what is happening.

[Image source: communicationsinsider.weebly.com]

Demographics

Demographics are measurable characteristics of media consumers such as age, gender, race, education and income level. They are important to understand and think about before creating a magazine because if you target the wrong demographic then you are unlikely to get any readers.

There are 6 categories of social grade classifications, originally created by the National Readership Survey to classify readers, that organise everyone by their income and job level. The lowest level of these categories is E which includes very low earning people, the unemployed, pensioners and students. C2 are the skilled working class and ‘skilled manual workers’ such as builders, contractors and other skilled tradesmen. The highest social grade classification is A which is upper middle class with jobs such as CEO’s of corporations.

My magazine will be a monthly magazine costing £3.00 aimed at an audience similar to the one Kerrang appeals to and a demographic of C2, D and E. This demographic will be able to afford £3 a month therefore should buy my magazine if it appeals to them. My target audience will be aged between 15 and 25, mainly males who like indie, rock and punk music.

[Image Source:www.southwoodsalt.com]

Audience Research

Kerrang! magazine is a weekly magazine costing £1.99 that is aimed at an audience of 15-24 year olds. Their readership is 60% male and 40% female so the layouts are created mainly to attract male readers. The lifestyle of the readers are generally modern, individual students that are consumers of media, fashion and computer games and buy 31 albums a year on average.
People of this age group are generally college or university students therefore their only income is what they get from their parents or have spare in their student loan. Kerrang! is priced perfectly to attract this age group as most students can manage taking just £2 put of their budget.
The cover pages appeal mainly to a male audience as the cover images are mainly of male fronted bands in masculine clothing and poses. The text is bold and brightly coloured, not something associated with magazines trying to attract a female audience.
The competitions and giveaways that Kerrang! offer are especially catered to their audience as they are for items of clothing, gig tickets, personal film screenings and computer games which are likely to interest their target audience. They also advertise articles about similar subjects on the font covers to attract this audience.