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.