Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Target audience: Uses and Gratification

The uses and gratifications theory is a way of categorising the way of what the reader/audience uses and needs the media for. It is a way of approaching the audience use and therefore helping the minds behind the media in knowing what content to place in the media. In this case we are applying this theory to the uses of my magazine; there are four different uses of which are Surveillance, Personal relationships, Personal identity and finally Diversion.

First we have
Surveillance:
This use is one where the user simply wants to be kept informed of the happenings of whatever media they are using. For individuals using my magazine, they would want to be kept up to date on the latest charts for indie music, the latest new bands, the gigs and concerts and even competitions. They would use mine as a way to stay connected to the music world and count on it not to miss anything important. I chose to advertise this more on my contents page and such so to not disrupt the style of my magazine.

Personal Relationships:
Personal relationships is where the audience feels that they could become part of the people they idolise's life such as band members and singers. Particularly if the people are seemingly normal or more accessible like indie artists and as such easier to imagine themselves with as opposed to the pop genre and I think that this is more possible with my magazine due to the nature of the indie genre being on that is non-mainstream and this means the artists are more easily accessible in public.

Personal Identity:
This is when the audience sees themselves or a representation of what want to become, such as in terns of fashion and attitudes to life which is often shown through use of interviews and such. I think this is achieved through my magazine as I tried to use personalised pictures to look as if they were taken by themselves instead of looking very manufactured as a majority of magazine photos look. The clothing I chose for my models on my cover are very casual yet unique to their own style and this enables the audience to be more encouraged to have their own style or even follow theirs.

lastly we have
Diversion:
This can be used as a method of entertaining oneself with no real purpose such as surveillance but simply to waste time away instead of spending it bored. It can be seen as a relaxation method and as such I portrayed my magazine in a way that is useful for entertainment adding little things such as witty puns and giving an element of some gossip in the contents page.


Demographics:
The gender of my target audience is an mix of males and females, equal mix as there just as many males who enjoy the indie genre as females. Race isn't a big part of it, but in ways the cultural aspects of people are more likely to affect the persons taste in music meaning that it can affect people's like in colour. The colour scheme favours both females and male as it is a soft colour that can be seen as liked for both genders. The age range for my target audience is between the ages of 16-28 years and the location of most of my audience will most likely be based in UK but a website to improve range could change that.

Psychographics:
My target audience are likely to have hobbies such as listening to music, making music, playing an instrument, photography and possibly drawing, things of which follow a creative path as music is a creative pursuit. These are usually things that fans of the indie genre tend to share. Due to the non-mainstream nature of a majority of indie-genre lovers they are likely to be independent themselves, creative and always on the look out for the next thing. The males would be more likely to dress casual but still looking stylish whereas females tend to go for the harsher look with eyeliner and dark dresses, leather jackets are also a big thing.
Many of their aspirations in life are likely to be something creative or in the industry of music. They are likely to use their spare time going to gigs, concerts, meeting with friends and of course listening to music, other activities of creative means are common too amongst my target audience. Many of their role models such as the ones featured in my magazine are likely to be to successful managers or musicians by their own means meaning that they're likely to also try to break into the indie music industry themselves prompted by the many bands and singers in the indie genre. From all this I chose to advertise concert tickets and competitions to win them and meet certain artists. Furthermore I also have codes advertised to enable indie genre music to be downloaded cheaply or free depending on the artist's choice which will help my target audience and make them more loyal to my magazine.

Target Audience Bio's:

BIO ONE

Name: Jolene Marlene

Age: 17

Job: Student but works at HMV

Wage: minimum and pocket money

Jolene here is someone who has chosen to veer off the mainstream music genre of pop and the top charts choosing to listen more to alternative rock and indie music. She is the oldest of three and often has to babysit when not working for her parents. This is how she earns her pocket money from them and has money for the many gigs and concerts she likes to go to. She fancies herself to be a music blogger where she reviews all types of music and has built up a good following and dreams to work in music magazines and interview bands and such. Her idol was the fly; unfortunately they have ended their production which hit Jolene hard as she has been a loyal subscriber to them for many years.

She currently attends 6th form and is studying English Language, music and media to help her dream of someday working at a music magazine company. Working at her local HMV enables her to music cheaper and also to see what's new in all genres of music, even in the mainstream music as she sees this as a way to broaden her horizon's in terms of being an music journalist.

This girl finds music to give her an escapism from her life and all the stresses from her circumstances.

Name: Liam Grange

Age: 20

Job: Student in Uni

Wage: minimum

Liam has enjoyed music all his life being an only child to parents who were journalists, one for music reviews and the other for general news. Growing up he was influenced to want to become a journalist however at GCSEs he decided to change his mind and actually make music as opposed to simply reviewing it. Having learnt how to play guitar he now studies music in uni and is always listening to different sounds but edging towards more indie music. As an only child his parents encouraged him to go to gigs and concerts as a teen and continue to do so the one who works as a music reviewer giving free tickets obtained through the job to Liam.

He has started up a band with his uni colleagues and continues to read music magazines and not just a form of escapism but a way for him to be informed at all times. 
The band have also started up a youtube channel and have gained some hits since.

Q6. Use of technology

Q2 -How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Q2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups? from toonling

Q1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Q5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

My magazine used the many conventions of the indie genre of which follow a similar pattern. They all follow simplicity choosing to focus on the basics of the images and font and colour scheme. I attracted my audience through use of my simple yet effective font with a bright background which is out of the convention for the normal market such as pop and R n’ B however within the indie genre is something that is typically normal.

Here's how I attracted and focused on what would appeal to my target audience:

Q4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

WHAT GENRE DOES MY MAGAZINE FOCUS ON? AND WHO IS THE AUDIENCE FOR MY MEDIA PRODUCT?

My music magazine is focused on the genre of Indie music; which can be interpreted as independent music or simply indie style. Typically my magazine would appeal to stereotypical female and male ranging from the ages of 15-25. Because the genre is one of which isn't something considered mainstream this means that my magazine wouldn't have as much competition as say the pop/R n’ B genre.

This would be a typical music video of the indie genre that my audience would listen to: -

WHO IS MY MAGAZINE AIMED AT?

The magazine would target people looking for a alternative sound, one that combines many different new sounds. My target audience would be vastly diverse allowing me to branch out to different cultures and types of people. A problem which could arise is that where it seems my magazine wouldn't have as much competition as say the more popular and mainstream genres. However due to the fact that indie genre is a close-knit community it means that it is also one that is hard to break into and thus might have slow acceptance.

I believe that my magazine could and can be enjoyed by anyone who would like to find out about music and the indie genre. However if it were for relaxation purposes it would simply be something for the reader to enjoy visually as well due to the simplicity of my work which allows it to draw the eye easily. 

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS AUDIENCE?
I chose this audience because I felt that they were varied enough and easy to research; the means of which many existing products used to attract my target audience were interesting and each idea was more unique than the last. In a society of individuals; the thing that gives status is being unique and one to start a trends. And so the target audience is always looking for a unique magazine of which will give them ideas on how to be unique. Through my magazine they would find new artists to listen to, new competitions.

WHAT INTERESTS YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE?
In terms of interest, I reinforce my previous statement on the fact that they look out for a unique way to stand out with their music tastes and such. I made sure however that the magazine as a whole would be something that they could connect to as the audience.

Photoshoot plan

Photo-shoot plan:

To begin with I had to research examples of what sort of photos and costuming I would want to do in order to appeal to my audience and suit my genre. It was quite grimy usually and had a sort of darker element to the bands and a very simplistic feature to many of the magazines of the indie genre.

I tried to use both qualities ensuring that I would have the best of both worlds, initially however I would've gone for a more grungy look but decided that this wouldn't suit the simplicity theme and chose not to head too much in that direction. Furthermore it was duly noted by the make-up artist that the make-up needed to make a statement despite the clothes and scenery being as simple and untouched as simplicity alone would’ve likely bored the reader.

I instructed all the models to wear clothes that wouldn't be deemed as ‘hipster’ a term used to describe very mainstream people who dress very demurely with pastels and spring-like clothing as so often seen on pop magazines as it would give the entire magazine the wrong kind of feel and just change the genre.

I chose the idea of making a series of photos for the double page spread which in turn would allow the idea of the band members being a couple to be enforced onto the reader who in turn would be convinced of the contents of the article. In a sense it was an accidental idea as I took the close ups as a back-up and asked them to make faces which would give it the overall effect of being the photo booth strip and actually being natural instead of being as stiff as certain models often seem. Because the indie genre is so far away from mainstream and is known to be out of the norm to have such natural picture which aren’t edited to the point of a different person suits the genre and that is why I asked all the models to act as they would in normal photos and as goofy as they like.

Furthermore the angle of my front cover chosen was to give a good angle, which remained somewhat mysterious at the same time and not give too much away and the simplicity – no goofy faces or such, which maintained the level of simplicity that I had chosen due to the gained inspiration from my research magazine ‘the fly’. The angle was a high-angle shot looking down diagonally to give a nicer affect due to the lighting.

For the contents page the effect wanted was the same and so I told the models to do the same thing, however the models on the contents page were dressed more lighter than the rest of the magazine simply because it’s not professional as the ‘editors’ to be dressed so darkly and in indie-style. Nonetheless the affect gained by these photos with their mid-shot to close up shots was well met and gave the magazine a good overall ambiance.

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