Target audience for the magazine I brought

I have recently brought the latest issue of 'We love pop' magazine. I reviewed the front cover and have decided that this magazine's target audience looks as though they would be young girls aged 14-18. I came to this decision partly based on the large image of One Direction on the front cover attracting their main audience of teenage girls. The font choice also suggested this as the italic text more interesting making it appeal to a teenage audience and also the italic effect makes it stand out from the rest of the magazine and really attracts the readers eye. Sans serif is used on the majority of the front cover which makes it simple and easy to read for the target audience.

The main colours used on this magazine are red, pink and white.This is good because the background is white, which has a great effect on the magazine, as the text is in bright colours, which attracts the readers eye and makes it stand out, making it easy and clear to read, which is perfect for their target audience.

The layout of this magazine cover is very busy. It contains a load of captions and pictures scattered all around the main image, which covers over half of the magazine, making it stand out from the rest of the images and text. This is cleverly laid out as it has everything a teenage girl is interested in on it, including: Sue Sylvester answering problems, popular boyband Union J, teen icon Amelia Lily's wardrobe and latest fashion, all fitting nicely around the main picture of worldwide boyband One Direction.

The masthead of this magazine shows that this magazine is very informal. This is because the title only contains two words 'We' and 'Pop' and the word love have been replaced with a red love heart, which appeals to their young target audience, making it look even more cluttered and better to read. Also on the masthead it includes three words 'Gossip.Fashion.Boys'. These are three thing that girls that age are in to and like reading about, which attracts their attention and makes them want to read whats inside.

Hypodermic needle theory & Uses and gratifications theory

In today's lesson we discussed the hypodermic needle theory and the Uses and gratifications theory. Before we reviewed these theories I researched them both and found out that, firstly the hypodermic needle theory is often referred to as The magic bullet and is a theory of communication that suggests that an audience is helpless to the effects and messages of television. This theory says that an audience will absorb all of the intended information and will unknowingly believe anything they see. This was one of the first theories used as an attempt to explain how audiences act to media.
In our discussion we said that the mass media are so powerful they can target and 'inject' their messages to their audience. A few of the people with great responsibility and power in this country include: The Prime Minister, Parliament, The Queen, Police, Teachers, BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Record labels, ect. Also artists such as, Justin Bieber, One Direction, Cher Lloyd, Muse, Tulisa, Rihanna, ect. are powerful and have got target audiences hooked on their music and has great influence on them. The quote from the film Spiderman "With great power comes responsibility" is a great example of this, as it shows that they are injecting their message into the audience.
  
I found out that the Uses and gratifications theory is a theory that argues that we turn to media to fulfill pre-existing needs. For example: some people love hearing about other peoples’ lives so they watch gossip media. It's the audience's choice of how they use the media, and what media they choose to use is driven by their need for gratification.

Magazine deconstruction

This is a successful magazine, as it appeals to their target audience, is between 14-18. The main image is a prevalent image, as it fills up the magazine front cover and is what the reader will see first. The image is a mid shot of the hot teenage icon Justin Bieber who has a worldwide fan base, of usually the younger generation. Also there are young male singers and popular boybands on the front cover, as well as what to wear for the summer and a summary of what is inside this magazine going across the masthead 'Gossip. Fashion. Boys' telling us that its main target audience are female.

In this image the star is looking directly in the camera, adding a personal touch and is as though he is looking directly at you, which will hugly have a big effect on the young females readers. This magazine is cluttered with several other pictures and stories, telling you what is inside. This will have a positive effect on the reader as it lets them know that ther have brought a magazine worth their money, as it also shows that it contains 10 posters 'Even hotter than last month' showing five of the celebrities, who include Zayn Malik and Jessie J. This sums up and confirms that it's target audience is teenage girls.

The three main colours in this magazine are white, pink and blue. The fact that the background is white is good because it really makes the text stand out and clear to read and allows the reader to be particuly drawn to the text on the magazine, making them want to read more of what is inside. The sell lines on this front cover

Research methods

There are four types of research methods, these are:

• Primary
• Secondary
• Qualatative
• Quantitative

Primary research is first hand research that is carried out by yourself. This can be thorough a questionnaire, surveys, interviews, focus groups, phone calls, emails letters and textual analysis.

Secondary research is research you collect yourself from an outside source. This can be information researched by the Internet, using search engines, e.g. Google, yahoo, Bing. You can also collect research form industry websites, e.g. BBC, or even social networks like Facebook or Twitter for people's opinions and views. It can also be information gathered from books, as well as newspapers, articles. magazines and journals.

Qualatative research is to do with words, opinions and feelings in people's response. This can be collected through a questionnaire, which can be both positive and negative. Questionnaires can be a positive research method as, you can ask a wide range of people and build up a lot of information from a large amount of participants. However this can also be a negative, as people often lie on questionnaires making them somewhat unreliable, the answers they give might be blunt and not very useful, you can't gather the same amount of in depth, detailed information, some questions on a questionnaire can be influential and lead the participant to an answer they wouldn't normally provide.

Quantitative research is to do with opinions, words and feelings in people's response. An example of quantitative research is focus groups. Focus groups again can be both positive and negative. It is a positive because you can get a range of different views and ideas from a varied age range. It can be a negative because people can get intimidated within the group and be pushed aside, forcing them to agree with everyone else, rather than giving their own views and opinions.

Contents page

School magazine cover