Results Of Questionnaire

Questionnaire
I asked a sample of 15 people do a questionnaire so that i could find out about the audiences taste in music. I got many different results which i can collate and base my music magazine around.
Firstly i needed to identify the types of genres that the audience like within their music taste. This would therefore give me an idea of the genres i could include in my magazine.The question i therefore asked was "what genre of music do you listen to?". The answers were in option boxes so the answers were rather restricted. The answers i got were predictable for people of my generation. The most popular answer was R & B music close following indie music. This was predictable because younger people are all listening to the same genre of music. Also most younger people are start to reconise acoustic music.

Secondly it is also important how the audience are listening to their music. The technology has expanded so rapidly recently that there are any electrical good which hold songs on, which are portable. In the results from the questionnaire I can tell that the most common piece of technology in the younger generation are Ipods. Another important fact that i would need to know from the audience is how they get hold of their music. In the past 2 years most people have turned to downloading music because it is cheap and is also convenient. When I'm creating my music magazine i could play on this and advertise downloads.

 

The next question on my questionnaire was what music magazines do they already read. This answer can help me see what style readers appeal to for a music magazine. There are many music magazines existing at the moment and i need to identify which readers go for. From the answer I got i can see that NME is most popular magazine at the moment for younger readers, followed by Q and Kerrang. The conclusion i can make from this is that these magazines are all very similar because they all offer the same information but in different styles. Therefore are they are all very informative, however in different ways.

The last type of question i asked was if they go to gig/ concerts. This because gigs and concerts are main features of articles are also used for advertising. Most music magazines have dates of gigs for all different artists. The results from the audience survey i can see a positive response that most people attend gigs through music magazines.

Questionnaire For music magazine

Questionnaire of music magazine

Case Study On NME

NME:



Background and Ownership.
The weekly paper, the New Musical Express, was first published in 1952. The New Musical express was bought by Maurice Kinn. On the 14th November 1952 the fist magazine was first published, however it was a non-glossy tabloid format. At the beginning of the New Musical Express it was competing against other magazines like Melody Maker. However the magazine sales for NME were much healthier than Melody Maker as NME was selling 200,000 issues a week,
The NME magazines wanted to have an edge like no other magazine so they took the idea of the US Billboard magazine and created the first UK Singles Chart. This then adapted in the 1960’s. Firstly they featured band like the Beatles and The Rolling Stones on the front covers of the magazine. NME then created their own poll winners features bands like these within the magazines. The results of the polls then featured in the NME poll winners’ concert. These featured many bands and made NME more known. They awards were filmed and aired on British Televisions weeks after the event. This was their first of many cross broadcasting.
In the beginning of the 70’s NME was starting to loss public interest to Melody Maker magazine. Therefore NME started to change their face of the magazine and this appeared to bring the readers back. Later in the 70’s saw the punk era. This meant that magazines like NME had to change their style for the reader’s suitability. However for magazine like NME it was a slow process to change the cover to this new phenomenon. It then started to advertise for “hip young gunslingers” and this brought back readers and started some new readers. Bands also started wanted to be noticed by NME because they had the biggest circulation.
The 80’s brought the mergering of Rough Trade records. This meant that readers could gain cassette tapes by mail order at low prices through NME magazine. This cassette tape included many new and famous bands (Orange Juice, Linx, buzzcocks etc). The second tape was released in 1986.
The 90’s for NME brought the launch of the first virtual version for music magazine, this was the NME webpage. This dated all the important development in the music press online. This was not such a big success but was redeveloped in 2005.
The years of the 2000’s brought many new developments for NME. In 2002 NME released orginal magazines which had artist reviewing and relating to one artist or band. This relates to the many different genres of music. The NME was catering to the many musical trends. Examples of this could be the 60’s mod, 70’s punk and the 80’s Goths.

Style/layout/mode of address
The current circulation of NME is 58,284. NME currently cost £2.20 weekly (However there is an option of a years subscription). It consists of many A3 pages with a glossy print on the front cover. This front cover, compared to earlier covers, looks bright and enticing. It consists of one main image at the centre of the magazine and then smaller images and headlines surrounding the magazine. The main image is of a relating artist to the reader. In this case it would appear MGMT is on the front cover. This will appeal to the reader’s profile. They will recognise the band and want to develop their enthusiasm for their music. This could by the article inside the magazine or by posters, in this case just the article. The mode of address for NME can be seen by the terminology and images. The terminology used slang. This can be interpreted in different way for different sub-cultures.

Content And Approach To Music
The content of NME is based around mainstreams. This is because of the different sub-cultures of today’s society. The NME is an attractive magazine, which attracts many enthusiasts. This is because it is focuses on the cotemporary music and bands. This includes visiting all gigs, listing the up coming gigs and listing the up to date music charts. NME is known to have all these features and more. They promise to have the “first on music news” with these entire top artists in their articles. The regular artists they have on EMA are The Killers, Kings Of Leon, Green Day, Fran Ferdinand and Fall out boy. The main focus for the content is the current artists who are producing new material and songs.
In this particular issue the main bands featured are The killers (with Elton John), Fall out Boy, The wombats and MGMT. The rest are all unsigned bands or local bands that become known. NME first show news articles relating to the bands and then goes on about the album releases and song releases. Then lastly there are gig lists and upcoming tour lists.
Also within the magazine there are many adverts that some readers keep because they are very amusing adverts. There is also a section within the NME magazine where the readers have a chance to have their letters published and people then can then discusses their views. This lets everyone have an opinion and makes the readers feel included within the magazines. The letters can be based around any form of music, even if that band is not previously mentioned in the magazine. The gig guides are very interesting for the music euphuists.
Near the end of the magazine there is special section, which is written by an artist. In this case it is Mick Jones the artist from The Clash. He writes his point of view for the readers to see.
The mode of address through these two types of features in a magazine is very reflective and informal. Both of these bring in readers because it evolves the reader and their views.

Promoting the Industry And Other products.
Within many NME magazines there is many adverts for many different reasons. The relationship between the editors and advertisers is very symbolic because each is different. Within all the magazines there is many musical adverts, however there are also general adverts. In this particular issue there are adverts for the musical game Lips. This is just one of the many musical adverts. Another example is the orange advert, however this is just a general advert.
The way adverts are layout in the magazine is by how much they are willing to pay for each page. Each page is worth an amount of money. The order in which the adverts are laid is also fixed by the price that the company is pillaging to pay.
Every NME reader has a profile and the advertisers appeal to this. The magazine is aimed at teenagers and appeals the “typical” teenager. An example would appeal to their fashion, their hobbies or even their music genre. This is because the representation of the NME is young audience.
Also through the advertising NME promote their other ways of broadcasting. This is through the Stylish website and radio. They can let the readers know of their cross broadcasting through using their products like the magazine. This is because the reader can already relate the existing products.

Sub-Cultures

Sub-Cultures

There are many types of subcultures which relates within the music industry. The definition of Sub- Cultures is a subdivision of national culture, this effects a persons fashion, behaviour, personality  and beliefs. In some cases it defines who they are. The target market i am focusing on for my magazine is teenagers, which means their are many different subculture i could aim my magazine towards. Examples of this could be punks, wannabes, goths and Hippies. The type of subculture I will be aiming my magazine towards is the "Normals" an average R&B and pop child. This is cross over between two subcultures in music, however i feel this brings a retro feel to the magazine. I am also changing the conventions of most teenagers magazines by choosing this type of subculture.  

The average R&B child would feel an individual by being in this subculture because of the individuality they gain in become one. This could be by choosing a type of fashion. For example this subculture wheres jeans, a dance showy top and some heels. Therefore this would mean that would shop at stores like Topshop and New Look. They would also change their hero's and idol's to be like them. For example this could be Miley Cyrus, Lindsey Lohan, Beyonce, Britney Spears. They base this around they would want to become one of these stars. Looking and feeling like one of their idols gives a person a sense of belong, which is why subculture exists. 

Also they make friends within their sub-cultures, because they tend to be the same. 

In contrast another sub-culture is goths, who are completely different because dress in black clothing from any shop. And they listen to music which is not in the singles chart. This sub-culture have the type of music which reflect how moody and sad they feel. 

The "Normals" are those of the sub-cultures which does not rebel against their feels or people, they are those who face up their problems. They also feel stronger enough in themselves to stand up for themselves against other people.  They are therefore a consumerism because they choose to be safe and they choose to be heard.  This sub-culture is also open to neophilia because it means to be more accepting of new things which apply to many situations.

 

Fanzines

Fanzines are fan based magazine which focuses on a particular cultural phenomenon. This was around many years ago because it meant that many fans could communicate. The fans would swap view and therefore build a magazine. This is different to today because today we use blogs and websites to do this. This is because this is easier for most people to use. Fanzines are normally free of charge, or for a nominal cost. There are all different fanzines available because of all the different cultural phenomenon.

There could be

• science fiction fanzines
• horror film fanzines
• punk fanzines
• rock and roll fanzines
• local music fanzines
• sport fanzines

Here are some links to example Fanzines online:

http://www.enoughfanzine.com/index.php?cID=96&view=columns_detail

http://www.setanta.com/Templates/News/NewsArticle.aspx?id=61097

http://www.ayup.co.uk/turn/turn0-5.html
http://www.sciencefictionbuzz.com/fanzines.html

Music Magazine

Music Magazines:

This NME music magazine which is an established British weekly magazine. This is a different music magazine compared to most other music magazine. Music magazine which are around today define a certain reader and the type of global music industry. NME is different from this because it does not select just one type of music is selects many. This means that NME have many different modes of address because it addresses all different readers of all different music tastes.NME is the title of the music magazine, this stands for New Musical Express. The significant of this title is that it uses the word musical which shows the focus of the magazine. The connotations of NME is just three letters,however the connotations of New Musical Express is that it is the up and coming music magazine which shows that they are promising to report the music news first. Express connotates that they will be the first to report the news.

The colours used on this NME front cover are very bold, this is because they are using red and black. These colours are used continiously on the NME magazines. This is because they represent the types of indie and acoustic music shown in NME.
The layouts on the NME magazine are all similar and have been for many years. This is because they have the main picture in the middle of the magazine for readers to see. In this case the main image is of the Killers. Readers would reconise this band because they frequently occur in NME magazine. The title is also at the top of the magazine, which means the title is in the readers eye line. This is because the title will be the first thing the reader will see when the magazine is on the shelf. The are smaller images are around the sides of the magazine and at the top. This shows readers what else will be appearing in the magazine.

The NME magazine cost £2.20 for the A3 magazine. This is a reasonable price to pay for a detailed magazine like the NME this is because of the detailed content.

Kerrang




Kerrang is another music magazine which is very popular to music buffs. This is because it informs the readers of all the relevant information. Kerrang is a very successful company with many types of media. This can be seen from the music channel Kerrang and also the radio station. Many readers can relate to all the Kerrang cross medias.
However the magazine is very popular. It currently sells at £2.20 on many A4 pages. The layout and style of the magazine is very similar to others music magazines. The layout of one main image and then smaller images around the front cover is a layout used for many music magazines. The genre of the magazine is heavy rock and the sub cultures that would be associated would be Emo's or grungers. The main image used on the front cover is Slipnote which many people within the sub-cultures relating to magazine will recognise. The relating sense appeals to the reader because it will make them realise they want to read the information.

The colours used are very bold and also very similar to NME magazines. However they only use a little amount of red font colour, the rest of the font is in black and white.

Smash Hits


The Smash Hits magazine is one of the most popular teen magazines around. Its wide range of articles aimed at teenagers are very informative. The writers at Smash Hits base there article around teen idols and teen celebrity gossip.
The magazine is very colourful because this is how it attracts attention. It colours used are not all the same. All the different sub heading are all in different colours which makes it very appealing to the reader. Also the images used are in a different layout from the past two magazines. There is one main image in the middle of the page, which happens to the band simple plan. Readers aged between 13-16 would understand what band Simple Plan is. However other images layed out on the page are also rather large around the edges. These images are of other large artists. These images are there to entice the reader to buy the magazine because it describes the content.

The connotations of "Smash Hits" are they are the best hits and they know who are the best bands and who are know. The word "smash " is used in a different way than violence, it suggests that they are going to be the best. The meaning of this is that they know all the celebrity gossip compared to other music magazines.
The typical reader for this music magazine is aged between 13-16 as the style and articles are suited for this because of the Mode Of Address. This is a quality A4 magazine is also cheap to buy. The company Smash Hits is very popular because it has other cross media's. For example it also has a music channel, Smash Hit TV. Reader can probably relate to the magazine through the TV channel as well.

Top Of The Pops

The Top Of The Pops is another popular young magazine for teenagers.  The articles inside the aimed at teenagers. I can tell this because of the idols that appear in the magazines.  For example the magazines includes Zac Effron and Miley Cyrus which are characters on the Disney channel.  These are the teen idol's that this target market support. The way that the stars are layout on the page is very busy and crowded, which emphasises the many piece if news that the reader needs to know.  Also the colours used are very appealing to the target market, which is case happens to be between 10-15 years old.  This is because the colours are bright and bubbly which is the type of font the readers like to see.

Also the fonts and styles used are very "cheesy" and retro which is what a typical reader is meant to appeal to. The "cheesy" effect comes from the types of couples appearing on the front cover. For example there is "loves dream couple" from High School Musical (the most popular Disney film currently being sold) in the centre of the page surrounded by George Sampson and one of the Jonas brother which to teenagers are the "hunks". Therefore this magazine meets all the conventions of a teenage magazine

The connotations of the title "Top Of The Pops" is that they are first for the pop music news. It also shows how they first to report the charts. This is backed up by the cross media TV show which shows the music charts. This is most success chart based programme and is very popular as it is broadcasted on the BBC. 

Overall this magazine is quality A4 magazine which has a mode of address towards the younger market.  It is also available at a cheap price.

Q - magazine.

Q is another music magazine around today. Is sophisticated music magazine which has been going for many years. It has been very Popular over the years for the amount of detail on news compared to other music magazines.  The target audience  for this type of music magazine is for middle aged and some younger age range. This is because of the types of bands used inside the magazine and also the other information included.  This includes bands like Take That and Oasis. Even though they are starting to appeal to the younger market, they were originally aiming at the older market.

This front cover is very organised and has a neat layout. This can be seen by the way certain stories are sectioned off on the page. This gives the reader an insight to what is inside the magazine. This magazine is different from magazines like Kerrang and NME because its make focus is on music artists interviews. 

The magazine was originally called Que and then to "jazz" the magazine up they just changed it to the letter Q. However the connotations of the Que is sense of queuing a record, which in today world means to play a song.  Overall the magazine is priced at £3.90, which is expensive however you pay a higher price for the different mode of address.

Blender Magazine:

Blender is another teen music magazine which available today. This is a more presentable magazine compared to the other teen magazines. This is because even though it is aimed at teenagers it does not have that "cheesy" affect. This is because the target market for this magazine is teenagers but the older teenagers. Older teenagers range from 14-18 years old. 

It appeals to the teenagers on the content instead of the layout and colours. In this case it appeals to the readers by using Taylor Swift on the middle of the front cover and by mention other artists that also feature in the magazine (For example Panic at the Disco). 

Taylor swift is a teen legend in America and the artist is finally trying to make a name for herself in the UK. 

The layout is white which is neutral, however we can tell the gender audience it is aimed at  by the artist used. This happens to be aimed at a female based audience. The connotations of the title blender is that the information within the magazine is a mixture. This could mean the different types of music represented or even the different type of articles used on the music in question. 

Overall the mode of address of blender is very serious and informative, which most older teenagers will appreciate. A4 magazine is also very cheap for the teenagers to get a hold of. 

M- Magazine

M is another teen magazine available today. This magazine is another typical teen music magazine and i can tell this from the stars on the front of the magazine. For example the Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. These idols are on mainly every teen magazine which shows their music style is appreciated by the target audience. 

The gender of the target audience can also be spotted from the front cover of this magazine because it shows the Jonas Brothers which every teenage girl fasinates over. 

The layout of the magazine is busy and compact which gives it a retro feel similar to the magazine like Smash Hits and  Top Of The Pops. The retro feel also comes from the fonts displayed and also the bright colours used.  These are the bright pinks, red and yellows. 

Another feature that other magazine offer but do not display are free posters available in the magazine. However in M magazine displays this so this gives M an advantage over other magazines. This is because little girls desire to put their idols on their bedroom wall or door. 

The mode of address is very informal and addresses the younger reader very well. Overall it is a cheap affordable A4 teen magazine which fulfill its need. 

Evaluation

Evaluation

While making my school magazine I carried out some research to establish what type of magazine that I wanted to create. Firstly I looked at the existing school magazines. However when it came to researching school magazine it appeared that there was not many magazine available on the Internet or that most schools did not have a magazine.

One reason that schools might not have school magazine is that it takes time to structure, organise and create a magazine. When I did come across some school magazine they were mainly only whole school magazines rather than just sixth form magazines or college magazines. I decided to challenge this convention by creating a magazine for the sixth form.

My sixth form magazine challenges the conventions of a normal school or college magazine. This is because most of the school magazines that I saw were written by teachers and read by students. My magazine was written by students to be read by students. The structure and layout of all the magazines that I have looked at is all educational whereas my magazine challenges this because half of my magazine was educational and the other half to be general information (e.g. Fashion). I decided to do this because it is what my target audience supported this idea and because it is unique compared to other schools.

The ideas for inside my magazine came from my questionnaire which I asked my target audience, Students aged between 16-18. I decided to carry out a questionnaire because it was a simple way of finding out the needs of my target audience. The idea of the questionnaire was successful because I found out all my results that I needed to make the magazine. Results from the questionnaire showed that the audience wanted to read about fashion, gigs and many other interesting subjects. I then targeted my target audience, I put questions to my focus group because then I can ask more elaborate questions. If I was to do this research again I would possibly use a large number of people for my focus group to get a variety of answers.

When creating my magazine I considered many flatplans so that I knew all the possible layouts. I came up with the name of the magazine through asking my focus group and using the questionnaire. Having made my decisions i moved on to take my photographs. When I took photographs for my magazine it took many attempts to decide what photo suits the style of the magazine. Whilst taking the photos I came across some problems, for example there were some sun spots which could not be edited. Also when I gathered people to take my group photo there was a problem because not many people would agree to be part of the image. However i felt that a group photo was beneficial because it gives a friendly view. When I took the pictures for the magazine I wanted to show the sixth was very ethnic, therefore I included people from all different races and religions. This can be seen on the contents page.

The imaged used on the front cover was of an average student named Laura. The background of the main image is of a brick wall. This represents the strong community of the school. The body language labelled on the front cover is meant to show Laura as shocked and amazed. However when I showed this to my focus group they agreed that her faced showed the stereotypical teenage way to act shocked but if an adult was to see this they would think Laura was laughing. Therefore the message coming across to my target audience is very confused. However if i had more time to create the magazine I would construct another photo to make sure Laura's reaction was clear. I therefore decided to take another image and change the face expression to be more bold.

I then brought all the ideas together to create the front cover of the magazine. The image for the background was an average student acting out against a brick wall. I used this image because it was like no other magazine. The font that I trailed out first was Black because it stands out against the orange brick background. The audience were able to read the sub heading. Also the way in which the subheadings were laid out on the page were limited and there was very few. 

However I showed the first draft of the image to my focus group they agreed that the font and colour appeared very boring and not very appealing for a student magazine. Also they felt that there was only a few subheadings and there was not enough information about what is inside the magazine. Therefore I solved these problems by adding more subheadings about the issue and also I changed the colour of the font to yellow. This seemed bright and appealing to the target audience. Yellow can be seem as a happy cheerful colour. This could be compared to the use of yellow in the SEEC Dave magazine which I analysed in my magazine research.

I created my magazine on Mac computers in school and at home on CS3 Photoshop. Mainly all media products are made on Photoshop now. However for me this caused problems because I had never used Photoshop before, so it took me a long period to gather the many different concepts and features of Photoshop. However as this is only the preliminary task I can now learn and develop my knowledge of Photoshop to create a better magazine for the main task.

The magazine will be sold within the school, as i feel this will be the best way to sell the magazine. The school magazine will be made and produced by the school. However money will need to be provided to fund the magazine, the money will be raised by sponsorship from outside the school and also from inside school. Companies that aim at students from outside school are likely to sponsor because it’s an easy way of advertising straight to them. The magazine will be given out to sixth form students for free because this guarantees that each student will read the magazine.

Overall my school magazine represents the interests of an average 16-18 sixth former. The magazine focuses on both the life of the school and general girl information, in a way that students would find interesting. This means that the students will read the magazine instead of their parents because the articles relates to the student. I have learnt a lot from this preliminary task, even though I could change a few details. I can now develop these ideas from the main task, the music magazine.

My front cover and Contents

Flatplans

I created flatplans to show the ideas of the covers of the magazine. The following show the ideas i had for the front page:

And this was the decided idea for the front page:

The decided on a contents page:

Summary of results

Summary of results

I conducted two surveys to find out information about my target audience. I found out many valuable peices of information that could contribute to my school magazine. I found out that they would like to hear both school and general information. Also that pictures are very visual and would attract people. As well i found some personal information. I found out their interests like listening to music and also their hobbies likes sport. I then asked how important certain subjects are, for example i asked how important fashion is to them.
I as got together a focus group and put certain questions to them. I find out their day to day interest, for example the types of music they listen to. I asked three different types of people so that the information i asked was varied.
Overall i got varied answers and i can now use these to form ideas for my school magazine. At this time i feel very strongly about producing a magazine which shows general and school information.

Focus Group

Focus Group

I have decided to find out more about the target group i am studying. Through doing this i will find out their interests and daily aspects of their lives. From this i can relate to what the readers lives involves and also what styles they are currently interested in. I have decided to ask three different females interests within my target audience to get a range of ideas.

This is Charlotte Smith who is aged 17 and is currently studying at St Bernards High School and Arts college sixth form. She is studying English combined,Maths, RE and Sociology. She seems to enjoy these subjects, however is undecided about her future goals. She has many interests in life and these include spending time with her new boyfriend Ant, her best friend and her close friends. She is a respectable member of the community as she takes time out of her busy social life to help out at her local Brownies as she feels its important to give back to the younger children. Currently her music interests are local bands and Indie music, she regularly download these types of tracks off Itunes to listen on her Ipod. She therefore enjoys going to local bands nights at youth centres and also places like Club Rega and Chinnerys. Charlotte is a person that cannot be seen without a mobile phone because she is constantly texting everyone.The other form of communication that she uses of an evening is the Internet, using MSN Messenger.Charlotte regularally shops in Topshop, Miss Selfridge and New Look.Finally she feels news like upcoming fashion is important, however does not read magazine weekly so she is not a commited reader.

This is Liliana Amaral who is aged 16 and is currently studying at Southend East Essex College (SEEC). She is studying Travel and Tourism with a future goal to travel to parts of the world. Lilys interests in life are spending time with her friends and spending time with her family. She regularly looks after her younger brothers while her parents are at work. She loves to listen to any type of music, however her favourite type of music is soundtracks for films like Step Up. Lily is also very interested in daily celebrity news and is also keen to know what her star sign is monthly. Lily was happy admit that she loves using her mobile phone and occasionally would use MSN Messenger. She also uses her MP3 while she is traveling to and from college to keep her amused.


This is Mimi Makina who is aged 16 and is currently studying at Southend High School For Girls Sixth Form. She is studying Sociology, Psychology, ICT and Product Design and her current goal in life is to work with children as a social worker as well as having a family when she is older. She has strong views ontrying to understand young children and would voluntarily give up her own time to help. For example she has recently joined Listening Line at school to listen to younger students problems. Her other interest involve street dance, singing and music. She has a passion for singing however she is not always confident to sing in public. Mimi attends regular classes every Saturday to keep fit and just for a general challenge. Her musical interests are old school songs, she listens to older music as well as new music but prefer older music. She listens to her musically regulary on the way home from school on her Ipod.

Questionnaire 2

Questionnaire 2

I constructed another questionnaire to find out more general information about the target audience wants and needs. To make it fair i asked the same people from the first questionnaire. Through doing this i can see the types of activities the target audience is active in.

The first question i asked was what hobbies they take part in outside of school. The most popular seemed to be the music and then sports and socializing also became popular. From finding out their main hobbies i can adapt parts of my magazines to relate to them. For example i can relate articles to hobbies and the target audience directly.

The next important question i asked was what other magazine do they read. This i a very important question because it identifies what type of reader they are and what types of articles they are use to reading. I can then adapt my magazine for the readers needs. From the responses Vogue was the most popular but also Okay is popular as well. These show the types of styles and articles some readers enjoy reading.

I then asked some more short questions to the reader about their interests. These were about losing weight and also if they enjoy like hearing about celebrity news. Most people voted yes for both answers because people like to hear about celebrities lives and some even use them as role models. The other shorter question i asked was if they look for fashion updates like if new clothes are in fashion. The reponses to this was very positive as most people voted for yes, this is because most people care about their appearance these days.

The final question i asked was what shop they normally shop in because from this you can tell what type of person they are and what they look for. The most popular answer being Topshop followed by Miss Selfridge. I myself can relate to these as I shop at both these shops.

From this i can tell alot about my readers about their general daily lives. I have learnt about their interest and what types of articles they are use to reading. I can now adapt my magazine to fit the typical reader of an aged 16-18 sixth former.

Research- Questionnaire 1

Results of Questionnaire 1

This is the first of the two questionnaires that is aimed at my target audience. From this questionnaire I expect to find out what target audiences' expect to see from a sixth form magazine. From this I can create my own school magazine around my targets audiences' needs. This will also ensure that there is something for everyone and shows I have considered peoples thoughts in the creating of the magazine.The first question that I asked was what they would expect to see in the magazine and the answers that i got were, inside and outside school information, achievements and student photos. This shows that they would like know what school life is like and also all the events taking place so that they know what is happening. Another question which was asked was whether they would like to school information or just general information in the magazine. The average answer to this was general information, however people were almost half and half on their answers. This may suggest that people would like to see both types of information in the magazine.

The next question was what entices them to buy the magazine. This gave a variety of answers however the most common answer was pictures the on the front cover. This shows the importance of using the images and which imag

es to use.

Another important question was if people thought the colours were important to the magazine. The majority of the people except one chose that the colours that appear in the magazine are important.

I asked the question whether the target audience read the magazine or if their parents read the magazine. The majority read the magazine themselves however some gave it to their parents to read so that they would be able to find out some information about the school out without asking their child.
Asked if they would like to see a sixth form magazine instead of a whole school magazine and the response to this was defiantly a promising "yes" that people would like to see a new school magazine. This is a good response because this shows they would be open to my idea of a new sixth form magazine.

Also i asked a question suggesting some names for a new school magazine and this seemed promising. There was some good response to this. The first two Sixth and News 6 were the joint most popular from the target audience.

I asked how often they bought or would like to buy the magazine. the response to this was very significant because it shows a clear response. The main response being every month and every week. This means that if i was to release a school magazine i would publish one every month because this is what the target prefers and also it gives enough time to come up with the news and publish the news.



The overall response from the target audience was very good. They showed positive responses to the questionnaire, this has showed me the response i would get when i launch my sixth magazine. It shows that people would be keen to buy the magazine for the information inside, the colourful fonts and the interesting pictures.

Target Audience

Target Audience

The magazine that i am going to create is for Southend High School for girls Sixth Form. This means that the target audience will be the students of the sixth form. This will be the magazine for both year 12 and year 13. This means that the magazine will be aimed at female students aged between 16-18 years of age. The magazine will entice the target audience by having both school news and having general information. I feel this will create a balance for the readers and they get to know both types of information. It will offer a range of images that will feature students from the school, if the reader can recognise and relate it would entices them to buy the magazine.
The front half of the magazine will be all sixth form related. For example it might focus on universities or school activities.Whereas the second half of the magazine will focus on general information like fashion tips. This will enable the audience to get a wide range of information.

MoodBoard for school magazine

MoodBoard

This mood board represents everything that interests my target audience. This will help me relate to them when creating my magazine. My mood board will contain all the different categories that i could discuss in my magazine. In this case it shows that they like listening to their ipod, they like shopping at Miss selfridge/ Topshop/ Primark, they like watching the programme Skins and they are interested in universities.
This is an average 16-18 year old girl and her interests.

Magazine For Target Group and General

Reigate College

This is a school magazine for Reigate college. This is aimed at people aged from 16-18 years of age. This is a college magazine which is written by the actual students of the college. The fact that it is written by the students means that it can relate to the students themselves. The magazine is titled; The True College Celebs. The connotation of this is that each one of these students matters and should have a status just like a real celebrity. It represents these students as true real people and not fake so they deserve fair chances. The positioning of the title can sometimes be very important and it is normally in the readers eye line. However on this front cover the title is small and in the corner, the individual pictures seem to be more dominant over the front page. The whole design of the front cover of the magazine are cut out images of various people at the college. This is eye catching because each image is different. The denotation of this image is that they are just pictures of people, however the connotation is that they are pictures of all different students within the college of all different course but they are all individuals that are all equal. Features such as the "free huggs" posters are also included, the connotation of this is a warm, friendly and very welcoming. Around the images are stars the semiotic meaning of this is bright and unisex, this because it is aimed to all students both male and female. The front cover also has some background colour of yellow, this represents neutralness between the two genders.

The enticing aspect of this magazine is that it is written and read by the same type and aged people so they can therefore relate to the information. This is because they share the same types of views and it also emphasises the importance of the images, that everyone is important and unique. Also the actual magazine involves students' work, poems, creating the ad's and even modeling.

The magazine front cover does not appeal to me. I feel that the layout of the images are very informal and messy because there is not structure to the images. The images are also not arranged in any way so it does not entice me. The title is also very small and does not standard out even though i feel it is a very interesting. Also because of the structure of the front cover it does not state what the magazine will have inside. This is because there are no subheading which state what the magazine will involve. So would not personally buy this magazine to read it because it does not appeal to me and i do not know the subjects that it will be based around.

SEEC Dave Magazine

Dave is the SEEC magazine for the current students of South East Essex college. SEEC is equivalent of a high school sixth form for students aged 16 and above.
The front page of the magazine is the first thing that the reader or student would see when they would purchase it. The title Dave can be seen as a male name however in this magazine it is aimed at both female and male students. It is at the top of magazine because it is also sold in shops so it would be the first thing the person would see in their eye line. The masthead is also in a bold yellow color. The color yellow symbolizes a neutral color that appeals to both females and males.

There is only one image on the whole of the front cover. This image is of a male, who in my opinion looks like a music student. This could also be hinted at with the sideline of “can you gig it?” Also because of the genre of the magazine it looks like he is a student of the college. This would make sense to the reader or student because this means they can relate to him because he is just a normal person and not a celebrity. There is also a header that goes through the poster that say “summer off Sam” this would suggest that the male in the image is Sam.

It states that he gives an interview of what is happening to a normal Southender in the summer time. The normal effect that this student represents is something the reader can relate.

Along the bottom there is a statement that advertises the Southend Arts Festival. This is symbolized by the image at the bottom of the front cover. This is also in yellow, which represents a neutral colour for males and females. This magazine is very informative about the activities around the college. It illustrates life of a normal student around the college campus.

This magazine is different from any other college magazine because it personallises about their college and it makes unique from any other college.

This magazine appeals to me as a reader because it is very eye catching. It does not come across as boring. The student on the front also turns out to be in a brand, which every student can relate to. If I was to go to this college i would buy this magazine because it offers a variety of information. It is different from other magazines because it is very personal, and not just about the college information.

Guildford College Magazine

This is the college magazine for Guilford college. The name of the magazine is College Porridge, this connotates a very warm and friendly feeling from the food porridge. This represents that the information is about the college.

The magazine is aimed at the students of the college. This means that the students reading the magazine will be aged between 16-18. Therefore the age range is very small but there is alot of people within that group. This magazine is therefore aimed at males and females of this age range. The articles will relate to each student of both genders .

The front cover displays more of a newspaper layout when it is in fact a magazine. The structure of the magazine is based on a story and then an image. There also the latest news along the side of the front cover. There is also a banner at the bottom of the front page.

There is also a lot of images on the front page. These are to add effect to the front page because it adds colour. Below the masthead is the schools slogan which is "Warm, fun, Filling and tasty". The solgue here links to the name porridge because these are all the properties of porridge.These words are describing the life of the college and how students see their college.

The magazine is published by the college and the only money they take back from selling the magazine is the money spent on buying the paper.

The one disadvantage for this college magazine is that is cannot be read on the Internet. They could change their platform by putting their magazine on the internet for people to read. This could also make more students read the magazine because students are constantly on the internet in their every days lives.

The overall view on this magazine is very plain and dull. It only shows the schools new and in form of a newspaper instead of magazine layout. This magazine would not really appeal to the target audience as a magazine because the layout and style is more a newspaper style, as a reader myself this confuses me.

Level Best- Bristol College

This is a magazine that is for Bristol College students, which would be aged at students aged 16-18 or older possibly. This means that the articles inside the magazine will relate to their interest or studies. This makes the magazine very personal and very exciting for the readers to read.

The front cover is a very bright and appealing for students of this age. This is very tempting because if they enticed by the front cover they will be under more pressure to buy the magazine. The masthead of the magazine is very ironic. The denotation of the title is do your "level best",but the connotation is to do your best in your studies which is aimed at A Level's and the title is "Level Best". Therefore there is a play on words by using the word Level from both contexts.

The images on the front cover are very interesting because it is of a student at the college having fun in the grass. The colours used are also very interesting because they are bright and appeal to the students of the college and this may make them buy the magazine.

Also in the bottom is the college logo and this is how they are recognized as a college. So this is informative to the reader because it tells you the theme is Bristol college information. The style of the front cover is very presentable and eye catching to the target audience because the image is of a student laying on the grass blowing bubbles. This style is very unique compared to other college magazines.

The College would publish the magazine themselves and would only pay for the cost of the paper. However there is a very good feature of this magazine because it can be read online as well as being bought by the students. This shows that the platform of the magazine is very different from other college magazines. Also the different platform could mean a bigger target audience because not everyone like to buy a magazine first hand.

Overall this magazine is very appealing because it colorful and it is appeal for people to buy. The college students would find this an appeal and interesting magazine for the life and information of the college. I personally appeal to this type of magazine because it is aimed at my age group and the front cover is very enticing because it is different from other magazines.

Southend High School For Girls School Magazine

This is Southend High School For Girls magazine. The magazine is called this because it is the name of the school. The connotations of this is that it is an all girls school. Magazines like these name the title after school to show the main theme of all the articles.This could hint that the all the articles are education or school related.

This magazine is aimed at students of every year. This ranges from the age of 11-18. Therefore with such a wide range of age groups it can relate to many different people. This means that the articles have to relate to everyone which means that the articles used are only about school life. For example this can be illustrated on the front cover. This is because the image used is of a girl in a mask which could mean that she is a drama student for a school play or pantomime. This shows that the school are every active with their work. On the front cover it entices the reader because it shows the reader the fun factor of the school and that it is not just all hard work. It also interacts to the reader because the person on the front is not just anyone it is an actual student that they know of or have seen around the school. Also the body language of the model is happy and smiley which also gives a good happy feeling of the school. Also on the front cover is the school's Logo, which is the symbol for the school. The denotation of the logo is "glory to God" and the connotation is the translated from latin which is written on the Logo. Colours that appear on the front cover are very bright and stand out which makes them appealing to the target audience. The magazine is made and published by the school and then is sold on to the students. The magazine is priced because it costs money to publish the magazine. The one detail it is missing is that the style of platform could be different because it can not be seen on the Internet or even read on the Internet. This is one aspect Southend could look at in improving their product because it would be easier for some students to read the magazine online, it also saves paper if the magazine was published online.

The magazine overall is unique because it is unlike any other school magazine. This is because it is personalised with the use of the student on the front and also the use of the school logo.

King EdwardVIHigh School For Girls Magazine- High Profile

This is the magazine for the King EdwardVIHigh school for girls. This magazine is aimed at all students in the school. this therefore is aimed at pupils aged from 11-18 year of age so it has to appeal to many students tastes.

The title of the magazine is High Profile, this connotates that everyone within the school should expect highly of themselves within their school work and in the way they treat each other. It is very catchy name for a magazine and is a very relavent title for a school magazine. Also the way that the title is put onto the magazine is very eye catching. This is because the title is put into two different styles of font. This is done by having High is normal font and then Profile in bold lettering. This is done like this because it can create empahise on the profile because profile is the way in which people present and talk about themselves.

The image put on the front page is very appealing because it shows students are work in a lesson.It is appealing because it shows a fun factor in a lesson. From the body language used it shows that they are preparing a drama peice because they seem in character and very posed. The slogan below the image is "a Star is born" which re-emphaises that the image comes from a drama. This is then confirmed because it explains beneath the slogan it states that the show they are acting is the "Little Shop Of Horrors". This shows that the school is very envolved in extra activities.

Another feature on the front cover of the magazine is at the bottom because it is a list of what else is included within the magazine. Readers will find this very interesting because it will inform them of what they are reading. This also relates to the reader because it envolves them on the articles inside the magazine.

Schools like King Edward VI for girls are very up to date because not many schools have a school magazine which is appealing and which can be brought and also read on the internet. This saves on school resources instead of buying a lot more resources like paper.

Overall the school magazine is very appealing and would catch a readers interest. This is a perfect example of a interesting school magazine because it appeals to target audience and has interesting images and articles.

The Bishopbriggs Academy Magazine

This is a school magazine for Bishopbirggs Academy which is a high school. this magazine is aimed at all students in the school, who are aged between 11-18. This means the information given in the magazine should apply to everything within the school.

The title of the magzine is the name of the school, which also emphaises that the articles inside the magazine will be related to the life of the school. The connotation of the name of the school is that the name should be treated with respect.On the website it suggest that name of the school is one to respect and look up to. Also the name has different fonts and this is eye catching for a reader. This is because the colour of the font is Blue which is bright and bold. The font colour is blue because that is this particlars school colours, this is how they are seen or reconised.

The theme of this is then continued because it then has the school's logo to the right of the front page. This is a sign for the school and this is how people reconise this school from any other school. It shows that this is the Logo for this school and no other school so it is a very significant sign.

This front page has two images on the front, both of these images are images of school activies. The first is of the boys football team. From the image we can see that they have won a match and that they are getting rewarded for this. This is showing great achievement for the school and it shows how proud the school is of their pupils. The other image looks like a Ski Trip arranged by the school, we can see this because the snowy mountains behind the students and also the students are wearing ski clothing to keep themselves warm. The connotation of this image is that this great school gives it students the chance to go abroad and learn new skills.

The magazine is very advanced because the magazine can be seen in full on the internet and can also be bought on paper copy which shows the different platforms it is avaiable in. The school could of done this to save resources and to make the magazine very enviromentally friendly. It also target a larger name of the target audience online because a lot more students use a computer and internet daily.

The magazine overall is very presentable and shows the school's students and the opportnities they are offered as a students. The magazine for this school is a form of communicating news from members of staff to students.

I personally do not appeal to this type of magazine because it has no pull to entice me to really want to read it. The information avaiable is strictly school news.