A U D I E N C E - F E E D B A C K

I produced the following audience questionnaire that I printed out and gave to people, along with a copy of SOUNDWAVE. The questions are open and allow the audience to give deatiled ffeback on their impressions of my magazine. I gave the Audience Feedback Questionnaire to people both in and outside of my taerget audience, to understand if people recognise things such as the genre and target audience without even wanting to read it.

Audience Feedback Questionnaire

1 Can you identify the genre of SOUNDWAVE and how?

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2 What is the subgenre of SOUNDWAVE and how can you identify it?

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3 Who do you think SOUNDWAVE’s target audience is?

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4 What do you like most about SOUNDWAVE?

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5 Are there any improvements you could suggest?

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6 Do you find anything in SOUNDWAVE engaging?

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7 Would you buy SOUNDWAVE?

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The results for the audience questionnaire were as follows (put in related order):

1: Yes – Music, music, music, music, music, Yes - music culture, Rock music, music magazine, no.

2: Rock music, rock music, rock music, rock, emo, indie rock, Indie/rock/emo music?, heavy rock music, electronic rock, metal – light rock music.

3: Teenagers, teenagers, teens, teen/young adults, young adults, youths,  both genders teen-young adults, girls and boys in late teens, rebelling youths, adults.

4: Colour scheme, colours, model, sell lines, information, how friendly it is, it’s modern, it’s not the same as other magazines, its aimed more at girls, suits girls more, nothing.

5: Use less block colours, vary colour scheme, Longer article, more interesting article, more pictures, more photos, photos?, use different fonts, none, no.

6: The colours and model on the cover draw you in, the model, the pictures, the colours because its different to other rock mags, colours, text is friendly, casual styled writing engages reader, titles, it looks fun, - .

7: Definitely, yes, yes, yes, if it was cheaper, maybe, maybe, no, no, no.

The most common answers to all of these questions are as follows:

1 - Music.

2 - Rock music.

3 - Teenagers (/young adults).

4 - The colour scheme.

5 - More pictures used.

6 - The colours scheme grabs attention.

7 - Yes. (50% shown would probably buy it).

But what does this mean?

This shows me that I have reached my targets of making a magazines aimed at teenagers and young adults that is aimed at both males and females. It also shows the clear colour scheme attracts attention of the right audience and the kind of people who would buy the magazine.

L O O K I N G - B A C K - A T - Y O U R - P R E L I M I N A R Y - T A S K - W H A T - D O - Y O U - T H I N K - Y O U - H A V E - L E A R N T - I N - T H E - P R O G R E S S I O N ?

During the process of making my school magazine and the music magazine, I felt that I have learn lot’s of different things, such as the amount of research required for a successful production of a magazine and the fact that every tiny detail matters and has to be related to the connotations and regulation of the magazine. After making the school magazine and receiving feedback, I learnt that everything that is included in SOUNDWAVE has to have a relevant reason for being there that can be related to the target audience or purpose of the magazine.

Time management and photography were not much different when comparing the making of both magazine, but the structure and layout of them significantly changed.

As well as there being more content in the full production, the arrangement of sell lines and information on the cover was planned in much more detail to ensure that the appearance of the cover flows more and there is not more information cluttering the cover than there needs to be. The research into what sell lines my target audience wanted, (which was done by asking them through a questionnaire) showed me that more tag lines and assertive language needed to be used. This shows an improvement in researching when compared to my preliminary task because I did not ask these questions to the school magazines target audience.

The language and structure of the contents page in SOUNDWAVE shows that there was development in arranging the layouts of pages into sections such as ‘featured’ ‘regulars’ and ‘reviews’. This was done through looking at and comparing other music magazines to see what they had, whereas in the mock up of the school magazines contents page, no research was put into what the readers would want and how they would like it to be displayed.

Even though I didn’t create a double page spread article for my preliminary task, I found that I made improvements when creating the article on the Desolate Saints in SOUNDWAVE, through looking at the language used by other journalists and artists being interviewed in other magazines.

Preliminary task cover:

Main task cover:

W H A T - H A V E - Y O U - L E A R N T - A B O U T - T E C H N O L O G I E S - F R O M - T H E - P R O C E S S - O F - C O N S T R U C T I N G - T H I S - P R O D U C T ?

In the construction of my music magazine I used the following programs:

Microsoft Publisher,

Adobe Photoshop

and Macromedia Fireworks.

and also blogger:

I had already used these programs before but the one I knew least about was Macromedia Fireworks. I used Photoshop and Fireworks for editing my pictures but I had hardly used fireworks and it was the most available program on the computers that I was using so it has broadened my knowledge of the program.

I already knew about cameras and owned my own digital slr that I used to take the pictures of my magazine, so I did not gain much experience from taking photographs.

The main things that I learn was developing new skills in Firework and Photoshop such as air brushing people and making the girl on my cover look slimmer than in the original picture using different tools than what I am used to in the programs. This helped me to work much quicker and with more ease. I had never blogged before, but I found it helpful and fun to keep on track with my work. Updating it and sharing progress with people such as my classmates proved helful in showing what I had done so far and gave me a chance to look back and reflect on any developments that could be made.

One limitation that I reached was that the school only provided Microsoft Publisher 2003 in the rooms that I used computers, and I would have preferred to use one of the newer versions available, 2007.

W H A T - K I N D - O F - I N S T I T U T I O N - M I G H T - D I S T R I B U T E - S O U N D W A V E ?

I think that IPC media is the company that is most likely to distribute my product because They are an experienced and well established company with many successful magazine out now. IPC media already publish 2 music magazines, ‘NME’ and ‘Uncut’. Both NME and Uncut are regular music magazines that boarder on the 'rock' side of the general music genre. SOUNDWAVE would be a good magazine to be produced by the company because it would not only introduce them to the rock genre of magazines but also increace their revenue by expanding their target audience to more young women (because that is my magazines main target audience). 

A bit more information on IPC media:

IPC media is one of Britain's leading magazine publishers, focused on provided their audiences with lifestyle and leisure magazines.

W H O - W O U L D - B E - Y O U R - A U D I E N C E - F O R - S O U N D W A V E ?

My main/ideal target audience for soundwave would most probably be:

Age: I am targeting at anyone from the age of about 16 – 22 (although the magazine may gain some audiences a few yeas younger or older).

Location: It is for people living in the UK.

Occupation: The reader audience could be unemployed, still living at home with their parents, have a job or go to university; it doesn’t matter so much to the magazine along as they are young rock music lovers.

Interests: Music, video games, television, films, bands and artists, the latest information on what music is available, anything to do with technology, slightly interested in education (if they are still into education) and their own personal styles and gigs or concerts.

Hobbies: Playing in a band or attending local or large scale gigs, gaming, crafts or painting, anything to do with technology.

Background: Anyone from any kind of background who can afford a magazine, it could be an intelligent, rebelling female who is in her late teens living with their parents in a large house or a 20 year old man who lives in a studio flat above a shop who never got on well at school. Gender: There is no gender preference for this magazine. It is targeted at both males and females.

I N - W H A T - W A Y - D O E S - S O U N D W A V E - U S E / D E V E L O P / C H A L L E N G E - F O R M S - A N D - C O N V E N T I O N S - O F - M E D I A - P R O D U C T S

I have not challenged the conventions of the sell lines by using many with descriptions underneath. However, I have developed this by putting some of the sell lines in block colours which means the audience is drawn to the more important articles because they stand out.

The normal colours of rock music magazines are usually blacks and reds. I was originally going to make my magazine green, however, because i wanted to challenge the norm and appeal to female reader more than males, i decided to make it deep, rich purple colour to make sure it appeared different to the other rock magazines and stood out on a shelf.

The majority of band features have pictures of the whole band on the font, such as NME and MetalHammer, but i decided that i wanted to have jut the lead singer on the front of my band, because she was female and could appeal to the female audience as well as male, and some women could feel intimidated by an all male band on the cover, as if they do not fit in the target audience and they would not want to read it.

Here are some demonstrations of traditional rock magazine covers:

 

H O W - D I D - Y O U - A T T R A C T / A D D R E S S - Y O U R - T A R G E T - A U D I E N C E ?

The front cover of a magazine is the most important way to attract an audience because it is the first part of the magazine they will see, even before purchase.

Some techniques used on the front cover of the music magazine include eye contact from the large picture of the artist on the cover, which helps to grab the attention of the reader and draw them in. Other techniques such as bold, outlined text and colours help to attract the audience visually.

The text on the front cover (and also in the contents page) help to address the target audience by involving them in the magazine and addressing them directly using words such as ‘you’ and ‘your’. Another way to help address the audience is displayed on the cover as the phrase ‘DON’T MISS!’ which includes capital letters and an exclamation mark to draw attention and excite or alert the reader. The personal and informal language like in the letter from the editor helps to involve the reader because it is as if they are reading a letter to them, instead of just information.

The conversation between the interviews host and the band on the double page spread article acts as a conversation which is much easier to read and more involving, attracting the audience by making things easier to manage. The contents page addresses the needs of the audience because it shows them all articles and what pages that they can be found on. It also meets the need further by sorting them into sections, ‘Featured’, ‘Regular’ and ‘ Reviews’.