Audience Research

I created a survey with questions in that I decided would be helpful in designing a successful music magazine for my target audience. I used the website www.surveymonkey.co.uk to create the survey and used the link https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CX28MLJ to send to contacts who I knew were reliable sources. I received 15 responses to the survey which I feel is enough people to get a small but fair sample. The results of my survey are below. I did this in order to find out the most likely age range of my magazine and what genre to focus on for that audience. I also used my survey to collect the topics that people are most interested in so i can make sure to include these in my own media product.

Q1

I chose to ask my sample audience this question in order to compare my survey results to conventional/stereotypical gender preferences when considering the target audience. Knowing that a large proportion of my sample were female will help me when analysing the other questions.

Q2

I created my survey and decided to email the link to family and friends. I mostly chose people in this age range as by having done research, I know that the most likely people to buy a music magazine are usually in this age category. I will go on to analyse the survey results with it in mind that my target audience will be between 16-25 years old. When analysing the most popular genre of my results, this will only account for this particular age range, not most popular genre of music magazine in general.

Q3

This is a relevant question to have included as this gives me an idea of whether people answering the survey have an idea of the topic and whether or not have an interest into the subject. This also reinforces my research into 16-25 year olds (roughly) being interested in music magazines. Only one out of 15 people who answered this question were not interested and did not buy music magazines, therefore making my audience sample very reliable for me.

Q4

Knowing how regularly this particular sample reads music magazines gives me an idea of how up to date the sample is on modern magazines' layouts and content. As the most popular answer here was reading music magazines 'often' it tells me that the sample will be a reliable source when finding out what modern conventions are and what audiences prefer.

Q5

Asking this question to my sample allows me to find out the topic in the magazine that people most care about reading and will be attracted to when buying magazines. The most popular answer here was to read music magazines in order to discover information about music artists that people are interested in. In my own media product I will aim to include some of the most popular music artists in my specified genre in the hopes that my audience will see artists that they are interested in and will be attracted into buying the magazine. I will include these artists names on the front cover of my own magazine so people will see this easily.

Q6

I used a rating system in order for me to see how my sample preferred each topic that may appear in a music magazine. This way, I have an idea of what my most likely audience will prefer to see. I intend to use the topics that my sample most prefer in my own media product. In the table above you can see that the topic the sample were most interested in was up to date information about their favourite artists, which correlated with Q5. The least favourite topic here was posters. I will prioritise other topics over posters when deciding what to include on my front cover and contents page.

Q7

My final question was to get a better idea of what genre my audience would most like to be featured, this way if I target my audience for 16-25 year olds, I can specifically include artists from their most commonly liked genre. There was a clear difference here between answers, with pop music being the most popular. I will aim to focus my media product around pop culture.

The data I have gathered from creating a survey researching my target audience suggests that the age most interested in music magazines are young people between the ages of 16-25. From this, I can also come to the conclusion that the most popular genre of music in this age category was pop music. This may be because there are so many magazines that are available today that feature pop artists, such as Q and Top of the Pops - which are also mostly aimed at youth.

The most popular topic featured in music magazines turned out to be 'information about favourite artists' among this sample. I can apply this to a wider audience and draw the conclusion that within this age group, young adults are less concerned about things like posters or reviews and are most interested in up to date information on their favourite artists. This is therefore something I will be focusing on featuring in my own media product.

Masthead Analysis

Conventions of magazine mastheads that I intend to use in my own work are below.

• All mastheads are in somewhat bold and stand out, it is unusual to have anything other than thick, chunky writing - possibly in capitals - in order for people to clearly see the name.
• The masthead commonly fits with the genre of magazine in order to appeal to a specific audience, for example an edgy masthead indicated a non-mainstream genre of music.
• Mastheads typically stick to one or two main colours to keep it simple.

Front Page Model Analysis

I decided to look at three different music magazines, each of a different genre, in order to see conventions and contrasts between the models that were featured.
NME - Rock/ Underground music focus.
Classical Music - Classical and orchestra genre.
Q - Pop and alternative genres.

Music Magazine Model Analysis from Lucy Taylor

Double Page Spread Analysis

From doing research on double page spreads in music magazines, I have gathered the following common features and conventions that appear. I will be including these in my own media product.

• There is usually a large headline that contains a pull quote or information from the featured article.
• The featured artist that appears in the article usually appears in an image that fills at least one half of the page. The figure them self usually only appears on this one half even if the whole image covers the double page; this is to avoid folds over the focus in the image.
• It is common to have an interview of some sort on a double page spread and will usually make the questions into subheadings that are bigger and bolder than the text body.
• There is often a pull quote place on the page - possibly in the middle of text.
• The text on the page is sectioned into columns.
• In terms of graphology, the layout compliments the main image and the font and text colours all tie in to the house style of the magazine.
• The very first letter of the text body is enlarged to mark the very start of the text.

Contents Analysis

The following are the conclusions and conventions I have discovered from researching contents pages from real media products. I hope to include these in my own final product.

• The title of the contents page, usually sticks with the same font, style and colours as the front cover to carry over the same house style.
• The text body conventionally fits into the width of one third of the entire page.
• The listing of each page conventionally includes the headline, a brief description and the page number in chronological order.
• It is common to include an editors letter or note.
• Deals, competitions and discounts are usually mentioned again on the contents page.

Regular VS Feature Content

• The standard content of all three of these music magazines have listed their reappearing stories alongside a page number in list format.
• The standard content that is listed also includes stories or articles that may not featured a specific popular artist or interview and therefore is also presented in list format beside a number.
• Feature content can been shown with an extra image or bigger and bolder writing on the contents page; usually in the centre or middle of the list of standard content. For example, In the Q magazine the feature content would be the images with bold headings in the top left hand corner.

Cover Analysis

Conventions of magazine covers that I have come across, that I hope to use in my own media product are below.

• There is usually one main image that sits in the background and does not cover anything. This typically be across the entire page but will mostly fill the middle thirds of the page (unless more than one model).
• The featured artists name is usually the most bright and bold text, other than the masthead, on the page and usually sits jus below or across the main image.
• There is usually at least one pull quote from inside the magazine.
• There is conventionally at least one discount or give-away featured on the front cover in order to attract customers.
• The barcode and similar information are most commonly found in the bottom right hand corner of the page.
• It is common for magazine covers to include plug adverts of artists that are featured inside.

The History of Music Magazines

Lighting Terminology

Small lights:

Small lights, like bare bulbs and sunlight, cast strong, hard shadows. They can be softened with a diffuser, or you can fill them to reduce the shadows - with another light or reflector.

This lighting technique can be useful when producing shots for a magazine, as the shadowing details that the small light draws attention to works well as a piece of media that people will be able to hold and look closer at themselves.

Medium lights:

Medium lights, like light from a window or Chinese paper lantern
Great balance - big enough to be soft but small enough to be atmospheric

Big lights:

Such as a cloudy sky or reflected off of a white wall. They give off very even lighting and soft shadows, with little atmosphere. Easiest type to use and also good for detailed photos and group shots.

This is a technique less commonly used in print media format for things like magazines, as big lights do not focus in one one (or few) specific models. They are better for group photos, as mentioned above, and so contrast with conventional magazines which usually only use one or two models in images.

Direction of light

Light from directly in front is flat and characterless. Three quarter light, from a 45 degree angle is an average/normal place to start in traditional light setups. Light from directly above tends to make people's eyes disappear into shadow, unlike light from the side is very atmospheric though very hard to work with. Light from below gives people a scary look, similar to rim light, from light behind the subject is very atmospheric.

Light from the front.

45 degree angle.

The following three shots are not typically used in a magazine as they are limited in terms of the detail captured in each shot, something a magazine with little space for images cannot afford.

Light from below.

Light from the side.

Rim lighting.

Light from above.

Outdoors

Using daylight is easiest on days where there is little cloud cover and therefore you can shoot in any direction and get good shots.
Sunlight is trickier as it can cast harsh shadows and dazzle your subject. For a subtler effect, use it as rim light (behind the subject, out of shot) as in the shot above.
Low sunlight is tricky to work with but it can be very atmospheric: many films are shot in the rich ‘golden hour’ light just after dawn or before dusk.

Indoors

You could bounce a powerful light, like a builders’ work lamp, off a reflector, a white wall or the ceiling. You can also use work lamps to shoot low-key (side lit) closeups. Or you could buy a set of film lights. Halogen film lights get very hot; LED arrays use less energy and run cooler.

Both outdoor and indoor lighting can be used in magazine images as neither limits the detail captured and both show the subject of the photo nice and clearly. It is often more common to see indoor lighting used, as most magazine photographs begin life in a photoshoot, in front of a white screen under bright indoor lighting.

Conclusion:

In our film opening, we are going to try and use big lights, to keep a simple and effective atmosphere. We will also try to use outdoor lighting. We will experiment with more atmospheric and detailed shots like rim shots and lighting from below to try and follow the theme  of horror genre. 45 degree angle is going to be the easiest to use and therefore we will possibly include that too.

The lighting techniques most likely to be used for magazine imagery, would be a front facing, indoor light with little shadowing or heavy contrasts in order for the reader to be able to see all features of the subject from one depth.

Shot Analysis

Camera Shot Analysis from Film from Lucy Taylor

Magazine Publishing Industry

Usually there are 6 categories or types of magazines:

• Teen (Seventeen, Teen Vogue etc..)
• News Magazines (Time, Newsweek etc..)
• Sports
• Music/Entertainment (Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Giant etc..)
• Women's (like Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Marie Claire etc...)
• Food/Cooking

The publishing industry produces a variety of publications, including magazines, books, newspapers, and directories. It also produces greeting cards, data bases, calendars, and other published material. Although mostly producing printed materials, the publishing industry is increasingly producing its material in other formats, such as audio, CD-ROM, or other electronic media.

Publishing is estimated to have accounted for 231,000 jobs in the UK creative economy in 2013, with an almost equal split between men (50.2%) and women (49.8%), making it difficult for many people to find jobs in the industry.

Reasons why magazine sales might be falling in the UK

Social Media - With the current social media, we are able to find out current trends and recent gossip to catch up on the generation's gossip instead of reading newspapers or magazines.
Internet - With the internet you can view it online for free (proliferation of technology) - this being an option it means not as much money will be spent in stores on magazines. This option is also quicker and more convenient for different people and their lifestyles (e.g. daily commuters).
Less to pay - Viewers are able to view the magazine online multiple times and it wont require them to pay for it.
Expensive - The cost of magazines is rising which means that it costing people more money as they will have to purchase it, not only is the amount of the magazines rising but it is also not worth it as you are able to find this information out just by searching the web as they will have all up to date information that people will want to know about.
Correct Information - When looking at the information that is included in the magazine, it can sometimes appear not to be correct, this would loose sales as the readers would not want to purchase/repurchase a magazine if they were not able to provide the correct information.

Coursework Decision

For my AS coursework I have chosen to do the print option. This will involve the following:

• Produce a front page, contents page and double page spread of a new music magazine.
• Task must be completed individually.
• All images and text must be original and will be produced by myself.
• Minimum of four images per candidate.