As Evaluation Question 4
Posted by Martyn Hollinshead | Labels: Evaluation Questions | Posted On Friday, 30 March 2012 at 05:05
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for my magazine is mainly males that are
aged between 18 and 28. Approximately 80% of the readership would be male and
20% female. The reason for this is reflected in the featured content and
general appearance of the magazine. The majority of the bands that are
interviewed or written about in the particular issue I’ve created are male,
with exception to Paramore, who have a female lead singer. Furthermore, the
music that they produce is normally aggressive and heavy in nature. I think that
stereotypically a female audience prefer songs about love or happiness rather
than the sometimes negative outlook that rock can show, so this is why I think
that by tailoring the magazine towards a male audience, the chances of it selling
successfully would increase. I tried to show this through the article that I
wrote for my double page spread. It focused on an artist who had a troubled
past full of violence and prison convictions. I tried to make it as appealing
towards males as possible, so that my respective audience would find it
entertaining.
My colour palette is another feature that I tailored towards
the target audience. Whilst the colours appeal to both sexes, they suit the age
range of the audience (18-28 years). When red, black and orange are combined
together they start to show representation of the gothic and darker side that
rock has to offer. This usually doesn’t appeal to a child audience; lots of
colour is normally associated with them. Furthermore the ideas that the colours
represent are not easily understood by an audience of minors, with black
connoting death and red representing evil or, more commonly, blood. These ideas
are also unsuitable for children to focus on as generally they do not
understand the concept of death or the genre associated with it; they have a
low ability to rationalise, and so by learning about death and blood (with
which violence is associated) a child can become aggressive. For this age
related reason then, the colours are highly important in signifying that the
target audience is more mature, and it will possibly be the first aspect of the
magazine that would grab the reader’s attention (aside from the masthead).
When deciding on a target audience I believe that being
highly selective is essential to both the appearance and potential success of
the magazine. For example, if you were to create a magazine that was aimed at a
younger audience you might use smooth or cartoony fonts as opposed to the
rough, grungy fonts that I used in my magazine. The placement of text might be
more organised for easier readability and cartoons may be used instead of real
people, as a child was find this especially entertaining. The language however
would be completely different to that of a magazine aimed at adults; there
would be no taboo, no sex references and very mild if any references to
violence. Another reason why it is important that you select the correct target
audience is because the scope of the readership varies depending on age and
gender. Generally children’s magazines sell less than their adult counterparts;
this is down to the fact that normally it isn’t actually the child that
purchases the magazine but the parent instead. This means that before the
magazine can even be bought, the target audience would have to play a ‘game of
persuasion’, with a 50/50 chance of success. Typically then an adult audience
would be the most appropriate option as it is much less likely to be subjected
to these odds.
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