Creating an effective questionnaire

By Jonathan Mak

Survey Research

My music magazine that I'll be creating will be of the rock genre who’s target audience will be males and females of the ages between 11-18 years old.

The front cover of many rock magazines have a similar colour scheme, for example: Kerrang; Rock Sound and MOJO, all of which, features the colours: red, white and black, repetitively, therefore including these colours on my magazine front cover will help the audience easily identify what genre of magazine it is, according to Steve Neale's Theory, the "difference in repetition", where magazine producers create magazines that look unique, but still carry certain aspects of a magazine to make it professional and identifiable.

My magazine front cover and contents page will have instances of "repetition" to suit the guidelines and standards of a typical magazine, for my front cover, repetition would be seen in the: masthead, central image, puff promotion, pricing and the date of publish.

The differences that will be made to my magazine to make it seem more unique will be the layout of different conventions; like making certain conventions stand out from the magazine, the front cover would be the first thing that the audience will see and will separate it from other magazines.

Population and sample

Who is your target audience?My target audience will be aiming at 11-18 year old, males and females, according to Hartley's seven subjectivities, this is typically the age at where individuals will start to explore the music alternatives, finding the type of music that they enjoy listening to. Socio-economic needs and why?I will be aiming at category E, according to the socio-economic needs, this is because the younger audience are at a stage where they explore their music alternatives and they typically have the most time to listen to it.• Kat’z ‘Uses and Gratifications’ theory and Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy

of needs’?Including the band as the central image located on the front cover of the music magazine will attract my target audience, according to Kat’z theory.

Collecting results

• What format will your questionnaire take?My questionnaire will be created using Microsoft Office, Word, this is because it is easy to use and be accessed using any type of device whether it be a computer, Mac, smartphone or tablet.• Focus group/ handed out to specific group of people.These questionnaire will be handed out to people of around the same age as I am, as the age meets the range of age of my target audience, 11-18.• Explain how you will know that your results will be accurate and true to your aims.To know if my results are accurate, I would compare my results to other people, then relate my results to already existing magazines.• Explain why you chose not to use a site like survey monkey.I chose not to use a site like survey monkey because it is unreliable.