4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

I orginially intended to base my magazine on the female demographic. However, to ensure that this was the correct decision to make, I had conducted some research by creating a Questinnaire on Questionpro.  What I have learnt throughout this search was who my audience were, which were the female demographic (which is who I intended to aim my magazine at), and their needs and wants for my magazine. To ensure I was achieving the results I needed, I posted my online questionnaire through the different social medias, as this is where I would be able to find my demographic; young females. Shortly after gathering the information I needed, I then created a presentation containing the questions and responses I had got from my questionnaire. I had also created graphs making it easy to understand the different responses for each of my questions. After summing up all of my results, I had created an Audience profile, which is a basic summary of my responses from my survey as a whole, which includes images and statistics, aimed at my demographic. I also included the fact I had conducted primary quantitative research, which is what enabled me to get to know my audience in detail.

I have created a pitch presentation which shows me presenting my survey results.

 

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My ideal audience was to consist of young females, in their late teens, to late twenties. Reasons to this was due to the fact I felt I could relate to my audience, as this target audience relates to me, so therefore I am able to understand and identify my demographics needs. There was also the fact of there were many theories that I could apply to my magazine, that would increase the chances of my magazine being purchased. This includes theories such as the Male Gaze, which is appealing to women do the fact women, may inspire to be like the women who represent the Male Gaze, as they may feel they can attract the same attention as they do from men, if they buy my magazine. Hyperreality also can be included within my images, as women inspire to have these ‘perfect bodies’that are represented, and therefore reinforces the idea they believe if they purchase my magazine, they will look like the images in my magazine. Lastly, the theory created by Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, where women, would see these images that may contain the Hyperreality, and the Male gaze, to then be inspired to these, and have dreams and aspirations to look like these images, which results in them, purchasing my magazine. Therefore this highlights that aiming my magazine at this demographic, increase the chances of my magazine being read.

I then found out via my survey, which included my audience profile a lot of things about my demographic. It shows majority of my respondents where teenager girls. However I decided to challenge this and therefore aim my magazine towards a more 16 up into the twenties, to 24. This way I could then understand myself the wants and needs of young females, as I fit into this category, and can relate to my demographic.

Most of my respondents had stated they were still in education, rather than work. This then shows that majority of them would be seen without jobs, and I should therefore base my magazine at a reasonable affordable price, such as around£1-£2. Another question that also helped me make this decision was the fact that most of my respondents parents had occupations in mixed quality jobs, so therefore u had to include penetration pricing, which is where I meet my consumers in the middle, with the price of £1-£2.This was the preferred amount suggested by my audience, as it consists of one of my questions from my questionnaire.

One of my questions from my questionnaire consists of asking the respondents to rank 10 different artists in order, where they consist of coming from different genres. The most popular decision came out to be a mix of both, Hip-Hop and R&B. This then leads to mix the two genres together to include in my magazine, however more towards R&B, due to the fact this was slightly more popular in from my demographic.

Due to my magazine being aimed at females, they tend to look through magazines looking at images they see as ‘beautiful’. I then therefore made sure I included ‘Dreams and Aspirations’ from (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs), within my images, that they can aspire to, also the sense of the Hyperreality, a theory created by Jean Baudrillard, and also a sense of the Male Gaze, which could inspire my demographic to be like the images included in my pages.

The images that I have included within my pages are aimed to give the correct mode of address to my target audience. It included images such as couples, which girls in particular find ‘cute’, and have dreams and aspirations to have the ideal‘perfect relationship’. Young teenagers in school are particularly seen as being in a relationship, and ‘love’ has a big impact on them, in particular girls, which is a reason why I included a featured story that was based on couples. I have also included images that are seen to be a wild female character. This was due to the fact of the response I got from a particular question, which was what their favourite was animal. Majority of the responses contained animals such as ‘Tigers, Lions, Dogs, Leopards’, which are all represented as wild, crazy animals, which may bring out my what my demographics characters are like, and explains their personality. Therefore this is the reason as to why I contained an image on my front cover, of a young female represented as a wild, outgoing crazy character.

Due to the most popular genre being R&B, I had to base my models in my magazine to look R&B, e.g., their clothing, hairstyles, etc., and this would result in me using the correct mode of address, to be appealing to my target audience. Two popular R&B artists that appeared were Beyoncé and Rihanna; therefore I had included things about them in my magazine, to appeal to my audience. This had then resulted in me knowing what my audience want and need, and made it easy for me to understand and relate, due to me agreeing with their needs and wants. My magazine was then made to a decision to aim at young females, age 16-24.

I have also found that my magazine relates to people who contain in the categories of the high working class, to the middle-class, which consists of them being placed in category of C1, which is mainly the middle class. However, I have included different languages appropriate for both classes, such as the elaborated code and restricted codes. This was due to the fact I have discovered from my survey results, as shown before, majority of my respondents had shown that not both their parents work, whereas the other parent would have a medium income job. This allowed me to judge on what class I should aim my magazine at, due to the medium income jobs from parents, resulting in my magazine being aimed at a demographic who sits in the C1 category.

However, even though my survey results show that majority of my respondents consist of the demographic females, age 16-24, I have decided to aim my magazine along with this demographic, however make it appealing to mainstreamers too. This was due to the fact that I had received some responses from males. This had led me to wanting to include a minimum mode of address to males. I had done this by including a featured story about two male artists, who are released from jail. By this, I have reinforced a stereotype of teenage boys, due to the fact young teenage boys, are often stereotyped by society, of being ‘trouble makers’. By this story, I have used the correct mode of address, to ensure this story is appealing to the male demographic.

I have also discovered that from my survey, majority of them had favourite artists, such as Rihanna and Beyoncé. This then reinforces the idea that my target audience, aspire to be like these artists. Therefore, this then results in me including a mode of address that is related to these two artists, so that this could be appealing to my audience. However, this also gives me an idea of what my demographic are like. It shows that they are quite powerful people, as these two artists are seen as quite powerful, due to their popularity, and are quite outgoing people. Therefore I had included things within my magazine, which come across as quite powerful, such as the typographies I have used, the colours, and my front page image, which reinforced the idea of power. This highlights that by discovering who my demographic inspire, I can then provide my magazine with the correct mode of address related to these artists.