Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

When I started to develop my magazine, I quickly knew who my target audience would be, as proven in my mission statement;

"My target audience will be teens to early adults as that is generally the age for aspiring new bands, but that will not exclude 30+ if the age group has an interest in the topic."

The age range specifically was male 15-25 year olds, the age would match the informal approach to the audience and would hopefully sustain potential consumers in order to keep the magazine going. I chose the male gender as I thought the genre, content and representations contained would attract them and relate to them, rather than both genders or females alone.

Due to their age, I feel the magazine and all its offers would appeal as they are related to the target audience in terms of their opinions, topics and interests. Along with this, the growing social world across the internet, which thrives in the target age, can now share similar interests with other people of a similar age, by attending the same gigs, debating on the same articles and reading the same subjects discussed on AMPlified. The amount of consumers that express themselves is now more than ever, and with this target audience in mind, I feel that the magazine could really achieve success with its target audience

I also feel the audience are represented in my magazine, which supports the target audience choice. As discussed earlier, the images do represent a particular social group, in terms of their poses for example, they seem to be busy, enjoying themselves in their career aspiration. The same applies for clothing, all very typical of male youth, with hoodies, cardigans and smart casual shirts.

Their hair is also quite typical, there are examples of short, maintained hair and longer hair, two popular styles of the age group. The content of the magazine does also use a stereotype, in terms of the appeal of posters of popular successful bands for teens to put on their walls, information about the upcoming gigs in the country and free albums and a studio opportunity.

I conducted an audience survey with my target audience after the product was complete and analysed the results.

The masthead was associated with the terms "Loud" and "Rock" which is what I was aiming for in terms of impact. The main image suggested a "Rock Band, with a laidback and relatable atmosphere". The most interesting cover story was the story about the Indie Genre, as it offers opinions from people with similar mindsets. The front cover was voted as appealing as it was typical of similar magazines, easily readable and attention-grabbing.

The estimated age group that the product would appeal to was voted as 19-24 year olds, which is in my target range, making it effective in that sense, whilst male was by far the most voted gender the magazine was targeting.

The genre associated with the cover was divided in opinion, between Indie and Garage, which is basically my set genre. Meanwhile my contents page was voted as attractive, clear and resembling of a proper music magazine, although one in particular was not specified.

For the article page, it was mostly voted as an interest to read due to its headline, sub-description and offered the readers a chance to be the judge and have an opinion on this band. The main picture was seen as very representative of the accompanying article and the layout was rated a 4 out of 5.

However in general, most people said they would not buy the magazine as it was not their favourite genre to invest in, but did not deny that to the right audience, it would be effective.