Question 5: How did you attract/ address your audience?

I thought that the only way for me to effectively attract/address my audience was to stick to the audience research that I did as closely as possible. I used my audience research at every stage of production such as when choosing a colour scheme, composing and taking my photographs and when deciding how to compile my magazine. I used a very neutral colour scheme in a subtle attempt to attract both genders of the magazine which would help to change the stereotype of the folk genre being male dominated so that my target audience wasn’t too narrow and my product could be more widely accessible. Language was also a vital aspect to my magazine. As my genre was folk music and my target audience are enthusiasts or musicians, I had to ensure that the language I used was intellectual but not so much that prospective readers may feel intimidated or disinterested by the magazine. I think that I was successful with this goal and made my magazine accessible to teenagers and adults alike. I also believe that the title of a magazine is important as it is generally one of the first things that a prospective reader will see when they are looking for a magazine in a retail outlet. I chose the title ‘folk lore’. I wanted to include the genre of music in the title and also show that the magazine is not too serious by using a pun to interest and amuse possible readers which may persuade them to read/ purchase the magazine. In order to attract more than one type of reader, I tried to include stories in the contents page and grab lines on the front cover about different subjects such as a feature on musical instruments but also a feature on a new musician in the folk scene so as not to alienate the older reader from my magazine and also doing this would make my magazine stand out from other magazines of the same genre. I also attracted my audience by making sure that it would be very appealing to 16-21 year olds by looking at my audience research and following the people that I asked as my target audience and ensured that my colour scheme was appropriate. I also wanted the entire product to show the general laid back nature of the magazine and genre. In all of the pictures that I used, all of the people that featured in them looked happy, content and passionate. Furthermore, I made musical instruments I didn’t want the magazine to be too bright or busy as I thought that it would detract from the nature of the magazine and cause an identity blur as it would appear to be a folk magazine that was presented as a popular music magazine. I used a lot of text in my double page spread as I wanted to make clear that my magazine was for serious folk lovers and I also sometimes think that when a double page spread is full of photo’s, the interview has clearly had a large chunk taken out of it which seems to be an easy way out for some music magazines of other genre’s such as ‘smash hits!’ or ‘kerrang!’. For example, here is my front cover:



















and here is an example of a 'smash hits!' front cover :

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

My magazine is primarily targeted at young males as i believe that it would be the most effective of audiences to target as my product is a fresh new take on the genre of folk music which young adults/teenagers would like and as i have mentioned earlier, my magazine is male dominated because of the genre of music that features in my magazine so i will be most successful by targeting the young male group. Furthermore, my magazine is also targeted at people who are very interested in folk music or playing acoustic instruments as i do not think that my magazine would entice many people who are not passionate about folk music. In order to show you my ideal reader you need look no further than the young male that is featured on my front cover and double page spread. Here are a few other examples of my ideal reader:

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I would like my magazine to be published by Bauer Media as i think that they publish products that have a similar target audience to mine and therefore is the perfect publishing company for my magazine. Bauer media publishes magazines such as kerrang!, Q magazine, Mojo and pop.
CHECK OUT: www.bauermedia.co.uk

Question2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For my magazine, i wanted to challenge all of the negative stereotypes that i believe that folk magazines and the genre are burdoned with. I believe that there are stereotypes that folk music is boring, for old people is generally only popular in the countryside. To challenge this, i chose to feature a young folk singer who is bringing a new edge to the folk scene so that i could attempt to shake off the negative stereotypes. Also, the colours, language and images seem young and fresh which further challenge the negative stereotypes. the only negative stereotype that i have used unconciously is that i have made my magazine male dominated, which the genre is which seems to have made my product not as accessible to girls as it is to boys so this is why i tried to make my colour scheme more neutral and attractive to girls.

Question1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When creating my product, I used a lot of the forms and conventions of real media products in order to ensure that the music magazine that I produced was of a very high quality and looked like a genuine magazine that would sit on the shelf with real media products and not stand out due to it looking of low quality or unlike the rest of the magazines.
Images: I wanted to make sure that my images were of the highest quality and as clear as possible to ensure that they could be compared to, and look like, genuine music magazines. With my images, I wanted them to be very similar to the images in the magazine that I analysed, NME, as I believe that they have a very similar target audience and by using some of their codes and conventions, I believe that I accurately duplicated the results. The only thing that I did change about the images in comparison the pictures that were used in the NME that I analysed was that I didn't use any live performance shots as my magazine is much more clear cut due to the genre of music that my magazine features so it would not have been wise or appropriate of me to use lower grade images.
Fonts: I used the same font throughout my magazine as I believe that in order for the magazine to flow and make sure that all of the pages correspond with each other. This code is also used by the NME where there were only a few different fonts so that the magazine aesthetically went together.
Colour: The colours that I have used are very neutral and pastel as I wanted the colours that I used to be related and match the pictures that I took and used in my magazine which again ensured that all of the pages corresponded with each other and looked professional. Although I didn't use a similar colour scheme to the one in the NME cover that I evaluated, I believe that the colour scheme that I used in my final product was both effective and in accordance with my genre of music.
Layout: I would say that I used a very generic layout. I didn’t want to challenge or change any codes or conventions for the layout of my magazine as I believe that magazines only have one or two layouts that are used so by using anything other than this, it would have resulted in my product not looking like a magazine. To ensure that my product looked authentic, I just used the NME that I evaluated as a template for my magazine’s layout.