AS MEDIA: February 2015

In this task I have both planned out and constructed a online survey for the audience to fill out. The questions which I have implemented into the survey were mainly closed questions which allowed me to gain a clear answer from the audience. Additionally I did not use any double negatives in constructing my questions therefore the questions were not confusing for the audience. By this I have made sure that my survey is quick and easy for the audience to answer which would not make it boring, because if the survey would be boring the audience will not be encouraged to answer truthfully and with full potential. This made my survey very reliable and by this I can use it as a guide onto my own magazine creation. Below I will show and analyse the results which I have gained from the survey using SurveyMonkey.

In the first question of the survey I have asked my audience to specify their gender. As we can see the female gender has dominated the male gender. 8 results were from the female representatives whereas 5 results were from male representatives. By having a variety of genders answer my questions I am sure that my results will not be bias in terms of only female or male points of view. However, concluding from this result I will consider my magazine to be more focused on the female audience rather than the male audience meaning that I have to consider my magazine containing more content which would be targeted at females.

The next question which appeared in my survey was the "What is your age?" question. By this I was allowed to easily acknowledge the age of the people which answered my questionnaire. We can see from the result graph that the age group which mainly filled out my survey was 16-19 year olds (average sixthform/college students). These were followed by 20-23 year olds. By this I know that the answers which I will gain from the survey will be specified for the 16-19 target audience. This means that when following the results from the survey I will make sure that the magazine is aimed at 16-19 year olds, however it can contain content which is also tailored for audiences of 20 years old+.

In order for me to conclude upon what music genre my magazine will be based on I have decided to add a "What is your favorite music genre?" question. By doing so we can see that the answer which I have gained is mainly Hip Hop genre with nearly 40% of answers, followed by Pop and R&B/Soul. Concluding from these results, I will create my magazine to be focused on the Hip Hop music genre, however to make it reach a wider audience I will include features which will match the Pop and R&B/Soul interested audience. This will increase the sale rate of my magazine.

The purpose of listing the above question in my survey was to see how often the audience which answers my survey purchases magazines. As we can see the "Not at all" answer has dominated in this question with over 69%, followed by "Slightly Often" and "Moderately Often". This shows me that no individuals tend to purchase magazines often. This could be beneficial for me, as by the audience filling out the rest of the questions they can tell me what they would like to see in a magazine, which they did not already come across. By this my magazine could be specific for them which would attract their attention.

In the above question we can see that I have asked the audience about the budget which they would like to spend on a music magazine. From the table below the graph we can see that the "£3 - £4" answer has been chosen as the most favorite. This benefits me, as during my magazine planning I can easily make out the price which I will set for the magazine to make sure that it is attractive for the audience. On the other hand we can see that a certain percentage of the answers have been targeted at the "£1 - £2" answer. Concluding, to make sure that I am generic with my decisions, I will set the final price for the magazine to be £2.50. By doing so I have chosen a price in between the two answers, which will be satisfactory for the audience.

Next of all, I have asked my audience what colour scheme they would like to see throughout the music magazine. In the above question I have provided my audience with a variety of colour combinations to choose from. However we can see that the "colourful/eyecatching" answer is definately dominating in this situation. On the other hand we have individuals who would like to see "elegant" or "contrasting" colours in the magazine. By this I conclude that during my creation of the magazine I will make sure that most of the colours used in the magazine will be "colourful" however I will implement "elegant" or "contrasting" elements.

In this instance we can see that the question has provided me with a variety of results. Some of which are definitely chosen by the audience and with some that could be used forward into my making. Looking at this from another perspective, all of the listed features are useful towards my magazine making therefore to make a full use of the results I will use all of the features. However looking at the results, I can make out which features are more important than others therefore the features which gained a large amount of votes will be definately used, whereas the features with few votes may or may not be put forward into my making depending on the design which I create. The question has been specified to show what the audience likes to see on a front cover therefore by this I have easily acknowledged what my music magazine front cover has to contain.

Same as in the question before we can see that my audience has voted for many features, however in this question we can see that one feature has not been chosen by any individual. This is the "negative space" feature. By this results I have been clearly shown that negative space is not to be used in my contents page therefore during my magazine creation I will have to consider amendments to limit the negative space. Moreover, we can see that "Headings", "Images", "Clean layout" and "Creative use of colour" have been favorited amongst my audience therefore I will definately choose them to be implemented into my design. However features such as "text layout" or "quotes" which gained fewer results will also be put into my creation, but with a smaller attention as they are not as needed. By providing these features with smaller results I will make sure that the magazine matches my audience as most as it could be. This results have clearly shown me what features should my contents page contain in order to match their liking.

As the two questions before we can see that his question has been specified to show me what the customer would like to see on a certain area of the magazine. This time I have specified the question to be about the double page spread (DPS). The results which stands out the most is the "large title/headline" that has scored 8 votes. This feature would be definately used in my magazine creation as it would make the information stand out, as well as making my magazine follow standard formats as large headlines are mainly used on double page spreads which I have acknowledged from my magazine analysis. In this instance I will choose to use features which score 4 votes or above, meaning that my magazine will definitely use "facing pages", "pull quotes", "large title/headline" (as said before) and "images split onto two pages". Other features can be put forward and used depending on the design that my magazine will follow.

In this last question of my survey I have asked the audience about the features they would like to see throughout a music magazine. The results which I have gained are self explanatory. We can see that all of the listed features have been voted very high therefore I will consider to use them in my magazine creation. However the two features that will not be seen in my magazine are "advertisments" and "reader interactions". I have not chosen to use them as in comparison to the amount of votes other features gained, they are not liked by the audience. By doing so my magazine will be made up to my audiences liking therefore it will be tailored to them, making it a appropriate magazine for them. On the other hand, this question has been very different to others as we can see that I have been provided with a "other" answer. The comment which has been provided says "upcoming events". This feature has been hinted by a audience member to me. I consider this feature to be very helpful as it would be very informative for my audience and by it being transferred in such a way to me showing that it is needed, it will be put up to use during my magazine creation.

What do I want to know?
In this task I am to plan out my questionnaire for my music magazine. By the use of a questionnaire I will be allowed to broaden my research and gain third party feedback which will influence my making of the magazine. I plan my questionnaire to ask questions which are vulnerable , which as a result would help me decide upon the elements which I will include in my magazine. My goal of this research is to gain as much information about the audience as I can in terms of their personal likings and opinions which would allow me to tailor my design to match their specification, making the magazine convenient and enjoyable.

What information do I need?
From my respondents I will aim to gain specific, truthfull information as by this it would make my research very effective. To make sure that I gain information which are trustworthy I could specify to the audience that the information which they include in the questionnaire will be confidential, and used only for my own personal use. This would make the audience more confident with the questions as by this they can provide me with their own opinion, not what they want me to think. This questionnaire needs to provide me with information on what the audience would like to see in the magazine such as the images, features, colours etc. I will benefit from this as by basing my creation on the information I gain, I will allow my magazine to be tailored to my specific audiences liking therefore making the magazine more consumer appealing. On the other hand, from the questionnaire I would like to know what interests people have as this could provide me with a hint upon what content I can include throughout my magazine.

How am I going to analyse each question to get the results that I need?
In order to gain the information that I need I will choose to analyse the information using various methods. One of them is to use bar charts or pie graphs. By this I present the information visually which makes it very easy to understand which option has the most votes. On the other hand If I gain information which is out of the criteria such as the persons own opinion I can compare the responses, list how many similar responses there are and upon that make my final decision.
Analysing my results is a crucial part of my magazine planning as by this I get a clear idea of what my magazine should contain and how it should be presented. By this the magazine will be succesfull as it will match the audience.

Time Management:
I plan to send my online survey and give out my paper based survey and gain the results during a 7 day period. By setting such a deadline for myself I will make sure that I gain and analyse information very quickly. This would allow me to plan my magazine design, layout and content that will be included in it which then would allow me to immediately begin creating my magazine in class.