Evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

At the very beginning of the making stage of my music magazine I have focused on Pop/Dance music magazines and began my research on those topics. The research consisted of areas such as analysing magazines, creating brand-eyes, and stating the shops, jobs, interests etc. my magazine audience could have. I have found this stage very useful during my research as by this I have gained a very detailed knowledge about Pop/Dance music magazines which I have then used later on in the making process. Then come the time for my questionnaire to be designed and given out to my target audience, and this is where I was shown what the audience really wants. Instead of having a Pop/Dance music magazine the audience have chosen that their most favorite genre of music is indeed Hip Hop and Pop. This meant that all of the research which I have done beforehand was not going to help me as much as I thought it would with the making of my final magazine. This meant that now I had to go into more research and amend my target audience profile into a more Hip Hop related character and base my magazine on this.

Who would the audience of my magazine be then? Well as I have mentioned above the magazine is to be consisting of both Hip Hop related content as well as Pop but with a larger focus on Hip Hop, meaning that the audience definitely has to have a high Hip Hop music interest. The audience additionally do not mind a typical Pop song which comes up on the radio. My audience would be considered as more of a mainstream audience, however they could also be counted into the aspires category as because of their high interest in Hip Hop music, they would probably aspire to become a Hip Hop artist themselves. This could link to the Ideal I theory by Jacques Lacan as the audience can see the Hip Hop/Pop artists in the magazine as their idols and would want to be successful in life as they are. They could mimic the music artists by wearing similar clothing, following the same diet or even take on board the way they talk.The audience for my magazine is relatively young therefore I would consider them to be easily influenced by the content as they are at the age where they experiment with their personalities and find the correct path in life, meaning that they could easily take on the areas represented by the magazine.As a result of this I would consider the majority of my audience to be in he aspire category. As I am interested in Hip Hop music and suit the target audience of the magazine, I could base the audience profile on my own liking in terms of the clothing. If I was to see a male individual on the street reading a Urbanflow magazine I would imagine him wearing Nike trainers, straight jeans, a Hip Hop related jumper with big logos and probably a hat. However if the reader was a female she would probably be wearing bright trainers, skinny jeans, a hoodie jumper with her hair tied back. By this I would assume that the male audience would like to purchase goods in shops such as footlocker, JD or Topman, whereas the female audience would aim to purchase goods from shops such as Topshop or H&M. This is a more of a stereotypical point of view as it is not how all of the people who read UrbanFlow would look like. In my opinion the audience for UrbanFlow would be a mix of both males and females, however for the particular issue of UrbanFlow which I have created I believe the audience would be more considerably male. This is because on the front cover I have placed a female model, grabbing more of the male audiences attention. This could link to the 'Male Gaze' theory by Laura Mulvey as men look at the front cover from a heterosexual mans point of view and are attracted to the female model.On the other hand the representation of the female in my magazine can be considered as a counter stereotype as the women is not objectified, however she is empowered by the facial expression and posture. This could be a very positive influence for my female audience as it could inspire them, show that it is alright for females to follow this genre and convey the point that Hip Hop is not dominated by men. Last of all, linking back to my questionnaire research I have found out that the audience of my magazine is to be mainly 16-19 year olds however people at the age of 20-23 would also suit the magazine. This point can be backed up by the price which I have set for the magazine (£3.50). Individuals over the age of 16 can earn money therefore the price of £3.50 is not relatively high in comparison to XXL magazine which costs around £3 ($3.95), so that the audience can afford to purchase the magazine and enjoy the content.

The above images represent both the male and the female audience which UrbanFlow can have. I have taken these images from a clothing brand website as I consider them being a really good representation of what my audience may look like.

Concluding, I believe that my audience analysis has been very effective and that I have mentioned points which are clearly backed up, however I believe that there is no right answer to the audience question as it depends on the individuals clothing style and lifestyle. The right audience for the UrbanFlow magazine would be the audience which will enjoy reading the magazine with a high interest for music.