Jessica Luu, 10877, 9304

Thursday 25 April 2013

How did you attract/address your audience?

How does your media product represent a particular social group?

 My music magazine represents the social group of 11-15 year old girls. The popular and inspiring pop magazines are read by my target audience when they need to relax and have some alone time. At the beginning of the project, I did not know how I was going to represent my chosen social group. I made sure I used as many research methods as I could include interview sessions and surveys. I asked them questions such as: What is your favourite colour, do you listen to pop music etc. Once I found the results from my market research, I went onto to look through existing pop magazines that were my competition. With this big market, I evaluated each pop magazine so I could understand the structure, layout and the colours/font used. Once I had done the research and evaluations, I moved onto the conventions of the magazine. I recognised that the magazines I had been looking at all featured female models. I think this is simply because the target audience admire and respect older girls so they can aspire to be them. This also helps the target audience to relate to the artist and feel connected. I wanted to create a magazine where there is no sexualised context and it is purely based for young girls at the age of 11-15. I did this because I feel that girls at this age are still trying to find their pathway, usually at this age, they have many un-answered questions on who they really are. This is why I chose to not stereotypically put them in a social convention where they would be represented as the typical 'moody-teenager'. By choosing colours favoured by all girls it had opened my target market (not only feminine girls). 

Coming from a teenage girl myself, I believe that girls should be portrayed innocently in the 'Golden Ages'; the study from The New Rights in 1960 - 1070; whilst they are growing up. I tried to show this in my work when I used pictures of a young happy teenager simply enjoying herself. The vibrant and energetic colours are used to excite my audience and present them in a positive way. For most of the magazines that I analysed I saw a trend in the use of white backgrounds or block colours. They had done this because it is a psychological way on unconsciously calm down the mind and unravelling from cluttered thoughts.

 For most pop magazines, the use of props was very limited, occasionally there were instruments but with limitations, I could not find any instruments to use. I came up with the idea of using a pair of headphones. I did this because when I was doing my research, a lot of my target audience enjoyed listening to music rather than making music. By doing this, it helps my audience to relate to the artist. As for the artist I featured, I made sure my model was young, vibrant and enthusiastic. This is because when a model has these types of characteristics; it is usually portrayed in their photographs. I wanted to use a female model because I wanted my target audience to be inspired and look up to the artist instead of adoring a male artist; a role model rather than a crush. The costume I got my model to wear was a crop top and a skater-boy skirt. The reason I did this is because I know that my target audience are interested in fashion. This means that they will be interested as soon as they see that the artist is dressed well. A crop top symbolises a playful and fun personality whereas the skater-boy skirt contradicts this and portrays a cheeky ‘tom boy’ who likes attention. I think in some elements of my magazine it does conform to a stereotype (the colour scheme is very predictable); however, I have tried to show my target audience in a positive spotlight. By using a female to represent women’s power instead of a male to show a patriarchal male dominant society.

 I have chosen to represent my target audience in this way because I want to show that all girls are not always what they are portrayed like in the media today. They are simply just young girls that enjoy having fun and relaxing with friends but unfortunately they are seen as sexual and moody which I did not want to show in my pop magazine.


Here is an example of my target audience.

Sunday 14 April 2013

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?


Although it is desirable to work with these successful institutions, there are limitations to these big companies because magazine numbers are falling, the use of the internet is becoming more popular leading to a fall in consumption of magazines. A way I could overcome this problem is by targeting my magazine to smaller institutions such as 'Frontline'. This company distributes magazines and newspapers specifically to the UK. They distribute 'gossip magazines' which are usually targeted at the UK audience. A advantage is that they also work with other distribution and publication companies such as  Bauer, Immediate Media Company and Haymarket. I believe they would distribute my magazine because they have magazines ranging from TV listings, Gossip magazines, Car magazines and many others. This is an advantage to me because I know that they do not distribute any other pop magazines, this is beneficial because it shows that they already distibute a wide range of magazines and my pop magazine will potentially be chosen. 

However, a way I could challenge this would be by self promoting my magazine through advertising space in other magazines or newspapers. This would be quite expensive to achieve, so another way that I have thought of to improve would be to share and distribute it through social networking sites. This would be fairly cheap. Specialist social communication programmes such as Facebook, Blogger, YouTube (viral's) can really help you distribute your magazine virtually for free. Even though the amount of publicity will not be as much as going through an institution which could do it on a wider scale, it is one of the best ways to spread the publicity of the product. 

There are many different types of media institutions that might distribute my magazine, but most importantly, you could work alone and distribute your own piece of media.