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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 Y O U R
M E D I A P R O D U C T ?
B Y L AY L A C A I R N S
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY AUDIENCEI gathered basic information for my primary (and secondary) audience, and did this by creating survey’s (via Survey Monkey), ‘Facebook’ polls and from doing initial research.
On the first survey I wanted to find out who was my audience’s favourite artists, this would then let me cater for what they were looking for in the content of my magazine. The next survey was purely primary audience based, and I asked them what they liked/ disliked, what their hobbies were, what their beliefs were and asked them for three words that described their personality. This allowed me to see what my target audience enjoyed etc, and therefore I could include specific things that interested them.
In my ‘Facebook’ group, ‘AS Media Studies-‐‑ Target Audience’, I posted a lot of polls and images and asked members to vote on their favourite or what referred to them. Check out my ‘Target Audience Research Results’ on my blog, to see my analysis of the ‘Facebook’ feedback.
Some initial research included my prior knowledge on the genre, and also from the ‘Target Audience Feedback’ which involved a video of a potential reader and myself.
READER PROFILEI produced a stereotypical reader profile, of what a certain individual may like, if they were a reader of mine. I took into consideration age, gender, social class, lifestyle and interests.
Overall, a reader of my magazine would:
• be a stereotypical female, in full time education,• enjoy female things such as fashion, beauty, and hanging out with their friends,
• is ‘C2-‐‑ E’ on the ‘Audience Code’, suggesting they lead a part-‐‑ time job and student lifestyle,
• on average, would spend about £50-‐‑£100 per month on luxuries.
This information allowed me to tailor my magazine to this type of character, therefore I ended up using colours that would attract them, and include things that they would like.
AUDIENCE PROFILESI created two audience profiles about single members of my primary audience, and you can find these underneath this presentation on this blog post.
The first reader profile (Naomi), helped me visualize my larger target audience as a single individual. Therefore, I can relate my contents and double page spread, to some of the content on Naomi’s page. Moreover, it doesn’t just aware me of interests, but of personality traits too. By talking to the audience, I can confirm that they are loud, confident and outgoing, which is who I attend to appeal too.
A second audience profile allows me to not only back up knowledge of my audience, but gain extra knowledge between each character. It helps me recognize differences between different people, relating to which artists they prefer.
In conclusion, I found that both enjoy stereotypical female things like going shopping and spending time with friends.
THEORIES TO CONSIDER…Uses and Gratifications Theory is based on why an audience member would use a particular piece of text or media, as to what effect it will have on them. This is relevant to me because they may pick up on my magazine for a particular reason. I feel as though the most relevant reason as to why my audience would pick up on my magazine is for entertainment purposes, as suggested by Lasswell in 1948 and Denis McQuail later on. This suggested that many of my readers will take interest in my production for amusement and to pass the time, I find that this theory accurately describes my primary audience, as they are stereotypically students, and in between studying and going out, they have time relax and read my magazine. Another theory that applies to my production is Bulmer and Katz, dated back to 1974, which recognizes the audience to relate themselves with my product. I think selecting an audience that distinguishes personal identity in my magazine is a key theory to consider. This could be as small as a piece of jewelry an artist is wearing, or what an artists favourite food is. Lastly, another theory I proposed for my production was by Denis McQuail, and this is by suggesting that my audience read my magazine for information purposes. So for example, to see when tour dates are for their favourite rapper, or when new music might be on the scene. I think this is a great theory to consider, because my primary audience may read this from any one of my media platforms (magazine, Twitter, Facebook, app, website etc) and then share it to their friends on social media, again extending my readers as they might want to be in on the latest news, and then consider buying my magazine etc…
Some theories I considered but didn’t end up thinking they were right for my production was the Two Step Flow, and the Hypodermic Needle Model. The Two Step Flow model is aimed at the concept of ‘word of mouth’. However this is seen to be used mainly by high leaders such as critics for big companies etc. I think for my magazine, this was not a correct theory to propose to my target audience, as I am not looking to appeal to high, upper class leaders. Same with the Hypodermic Needle Model, which was proposed in the 1920’s, I don’t think really worked great for my product. The aim of this theory is to feed a mass audience information through signifiers and particular imagery. This was used with World War 2 propaganda, therefore don’t think it is the right theory to connect with my audience.