HOW DO MEDIA PRODUCERS CREATE PRODUCTS FOR SPECIFIC AUDIENCES

Shania Carter

CREATING AN AUDIENCE

The media producers, first have to have a tight grasp on their target audience before beginning to produce any specific work.

The producers also have to realise that their audience changes over the years so therefore the products have to change with the audience. E.g. in gaming, there is new stars (footballers) that people like every year so the covers etc. have to change.

SELECTING CONTENTS

There are four different steps when selecting content. Such as:

Images- Pictures and Graphics. Words- Written Content. Colours- a colour scheme. Fonts- Style type.

In an example, such as a children’s magazine, the colours are bright and loud such as yellow, because that represents that the children are happy. Whereas using dull colours in older people’s magazines because they are not ‘loud’ people.

IMAGES AND WORD PLACING'S

Images: The images are a big part of finding your audience, you have to know whether they like a number of smaller images or one big image that takes up the whole front cover. An example that has ‘one big image’ on, is the Doctor Who magazines because they focus on one topic, whereas in celebrity magazines there are different candid photos of celebrities. The main focus in a gossip magazine is to show the raw photos of the celebrities that everyone wants to see so its important that there is a lot of images to keep the mainstream audience occupied. However you have to choose the right images otherwise the customers won’t buy your magazine. In mainstream magazines they run out of ideas and therefore can’t produce any good pictures and turn to making fun out of celebrities body shapes, that brings the readers back into interest.

Word placing: The way words are written can help define an audience as well as an image. Some audiences like big

wording- such as in a broadsheet newspaper whilst others like small paragraphs and like to look at pictures. Captions can also help define an audience, captions are mainly used in chat magazines, as the producer wants the candid photographs to be seen. Some of the captions in chat magazines can be quite jokey as they want to keep their readers interested by making them laugh, this can sometimes be done by mocking celebrities such as this example of James Corden and many others. Wording is essential for your audience as you don’t want them to not read what you have written, so if you put the wording before a picture, your audience are most likely to read it.

COLOURS AND FONTS Colours: Finding a colour scheme for your selected audience can be quite tricky but if you are

looking/aiming at a younger or older audience it won’t seem that hard. Children like bright colours such as yellow and red, that’s why children’s magazines have a set colour scheme such as yellow/red- In the Noddy programmes this colour scheme is used throughout. If you are looking at an older audience they tend to have a ‘softer’ approach to colours, such as light pinks or greys.

Fonts: Different fonts appeal to different audiences, again if you split the audiences into two (young

and old) you get a clearer understanding of what fonts to use. If you were creating a children’s magazine you would have a bold and chunky font such as ‘Comic Sans’ because this font is used in schools and the children are familiar with it. If you were looking at an older audience you would have to consider a font where it doesn’t make your writing too fancy or too childish. Children do get bored of a black font so as an example, the Noddy magazine includes big letters (and the font) which could keep the child interested.

LAYOUTS The layout is about deciding where to put everything in the

newspaper/magazine after the text etc. has been confirmed. The layout is also important when looking at defining an audience because they may be picky in wanting certain pictures and text.

In the Readers Digest, most of the time the text goes round the pictures, which personally I do not like because you don’t know whether you should follow the text or look at the pictures. Another magazine that follows a different layout is the FourFourTwo magazine, it does have pictures but it follows a layout where you look at the picture first and then read the text.

The layout can say a lot about an audience- such as, if they like pictures or pictures and lots of text. Young audiences tend to like lots of pictures because their way of learning is by visuals, maybe with captions. Considering older audiences like broadsheet newspapers so therefore like a lot of text and to indulge in a lot of information.

LAYOUTS CONTINUED

In VOGUE magazine, normally the celebrities head is covering the ‘G’ and the celebrity is either in a relaxed or posed position, which helps the readers understand what type of issue the magazine is going to be about. Both Beyoncé and Gisele are in model poses showing that this particular article is going to be about high fashion. Both women have their bodies placed so they are missing the ‘G’ however both layouts are very different because Beyoncé's cover looks more relaxed with the pink whereas Gisele’s cover photo is more bold suggesting that she has a louder personality than Beyoncé.

Inside VOUGE the layout is quite messy as the numbers don’t go down in order, suggesting that this is just a relaxed index page for browsing and for you to expect on what to come. Having images at different places on the page breaks up the text so it doesn’t get boring and you are not having to read a big chunk. Also the producers want to make sure that you are looking at the fashion on some pages so the producers include minimal writing and make sure it’s eye catching. The producers of Gisele's cover want you to pay attention to her because she is not a well known celebrity compared to Beyoncé, so they have dressed Gisele in bright trousers and that will make the readers intrigued.

Strong and bold pose

Soft colouring and wording placed to make sure there is a more feminine touch

CAPTIONS

Captions, as I mentioned earlier are the title of a picture or a short description of something. A caption can totally change a picture and the viewers' perception on a topic. As an example I am going to use the Sun newspaper. This a ‘newspaper’ which includes lies on captions to get themselves noticed. I do like funny captions however they can go too far in tabloid newspapers.

Here is a picture after the truth was revealed about Hillsborough, with the captions under Margaret Thatcher and some of the political party, rightly branding them liars. With these captions, The Sun newspaper is trying to win back the trust of the public and is their way of apologising, even though this newspaper has now been boycotted in Merseyside.

Some captions can also be quite jokey as in America some of the headlines are put onto social media sites with ridiculous captions, in the UK there is also some funny short descriptions, like this example of David Cameron.

Caption- the caption is big and bold therefore exposing the truth.

CAPTIONS CONTINUED

Here are some more examples of titles, small captions and short description from some of the gossip magazines such as OK and Chat!

On this particular front cover for OK magazine, there is a caption for the Prince Harry story, whilst the other stars have small descriptions about their interviews.

Some stories, in this magazine can be quite distressing.The captions such as ‘Heartbreak diet’ and bold one words such as ‘This’ appear on the page, it tells you what to expect from the actual story but what the image is about. There is an overweight women under the caption ‘heartbreak diet’ suggesting she has lost some weight and has lost her boyfriend.

ANCHORAGE

Anchorage is used to give a specific image meaning. It tells the audience how to view and image and used widespread across newspapers and magazines for advertising purposes. Anchorage is also used so that the publisher can get across their interpretation rather than letting the audience have their own. An example of this could be a headline for a police arrest. Roland Barthes, had a theory that all pictures were open to any interpretation, from this any publisher can then change an interpretation quite easily. (my examples are on the next slide)

EXAMPLE

Policeman arrests a protester

Policeman gets caught for assault on protester

From these images, the audience’s interpretation can be totally changed. The publisher may want to put out a bad image for the police service and go with the second headline. The second type of headline is normally used in tabloid newspapers, as they make assumptions rather than write the actual news story.

CODES AND CONVENTIONS

Codes and conventions are ‘rules’ that a publisher has to follow when thinking about creating their magazine/newspaper. These codes are:

Colour Scheme Photography Writing style and Language Text and picture ratio Fonts Mode of address

COLOUR SCHEMES AND PHOTOGRAPHY

Colour Scheme- the colour scheme is important in the codes and conventions, it can either make the magazine look ‘dull’ and ‘boring’ or ‘bright’ and ‘colourful’. The colour scheme has to be chosen carefully so that your magazine is appealing, if you want to sell a fitness magazine it has to be full of bright colours so then it jumps out.

Photography- photography in magazines can be either professional or candid, it can automatically sell to your audience, a mainstream magazine often has candid photos because the public want to see the celebrities in a different light, however in other publication such as ‘FourFourTwo’ or ‘Readers Digest’ mostly all the photos taken of the celebrities/football players are professional.

WRITING STYLE AND LANGUAGE

Each media product uses a ‘language’ to target its audience, the text is most often written in a way that the audience might speak or write. In tabloid newspapers, there is no language style because they want to manipulate their audience rather than agree with the audience opinions/the truth.

The writing style will be different to those of a tabloid newspaper (The Guardian) to a broadsheet paper (Daily Telegraph). Tabloid newspapers are aimed at a more ‘younger’ target audience, preferably mainstream whilst broadsheet is aimed at an ‘older’ target audience because they are a niche market- example of the Sunday Times, looking at classical music hence the piano.

TEXT/PICTURE RATIO, FONT & MODE OF ADDRESS.

This is all about the amount of text compared to how many pictures are on the page too. In the mainstream magazines, the target audience tend to look at the pictures more than reading, this is because more information is presented on graphs and the readers can visualise the information more. In mainstream magazines, the target age is normally from 16+, because they want to look at pictures of their favourite celebrities. Teen magazines also are filled with posters of their favourite celebrities, the publishers know from social media sites etc. what teen (female) target audiences like and therefore bring out a magazine from time to time just full of posters.

The font used, is to appeal to different target audiences. Magazines such as Kerrang, use a ‘spiky’ kind of font, to put across the tone of the magazine and helps promote the type of music in the magazine. Teen magazines and gossip magazines have a different approach as they use a more ‘softer’ font this also sets the tone for the magazine as it shows a calm and feminine manner. Mode of address is about direct speech or the way a magazine speaks. If it is direct the publisher will include ‘you’ often and talk about the third person. This can feel more personal as if the publisher is talking to you about things. Mainstream magazines tend to not use ‘you’ but just writes in third person using ‘she’, ‘he’ and ‘it’. Most magazines use the third person as it is easier to write in and also the readers from the target audience e.g. 16+ can understand about their favourite celebrity, ‘she drove to his house’.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACKThere is no second guessing whether anyone or a group of people will like what you have created, even depending on the size of your target audience. There are times when people’s opinions change and therefore the magazine can’t keep writing about the same celebrity i.e. Cheryl Cole. There are several ways however, of getting positive feedback about the product.• Focus Groups - a group of people that talk about design layouts,

images and fonts used in a magazine/newspaper.• Audience Panels - another group of people that ‘stay in touch’ all

year round, the panellists are often the same number of people.• Trailing - after a product has gone on its ‘trial’ changes can be made

before the product is released to the public. In effect the newspaper/magazine is being judged before the public can purchase.

• Complaints – where the audience can give their feedback critically, it is a chance for a publisher to see the audience reaction and to see if and why their product has a negative response. Complaints can be seen over social networking sites and on forums.

OK MAGAZINE

OK MAGAZINE MEDIA PACK

OK MAGAZINE ANALYSIS

86.1% are women that buy OK magazine whilst only 13.9% are male readers. There is more women because celebrities such as Peter Andre are featured on the magazine quite often. The age range for this magazine is 18-24 year olds, and the social grade would be a grade D, most of the people in this age range would not have a full time job yet so this is why they are placed in this particular social band.

OK MAGAZINE - IMAGESCheryl Cole, is a single woman and is the centre of attention on this cover. Also in the pictures, Peter Andre has a new love interest, Danni Minogue has had a baby and Rachel Stevens is expecting one. The magazine presumes that people of this age range (18-24) are looking for a boyfriend, having a baby or have had a baby.

This particular magazine has chosen Cheryl Cole as she is described as the ‘nations favourite’ she has also been chosen because she is a figure most women look up to and the young women will therefore want to read about her.

Rachel Stevens, Danni Minogue and Peter Andre have all done their fair share of acting and singing and are still role (back in 2010) and today this is why the key images of them are on the front cover. Rachel Stevens was in the biggest band in the 90’s so the people of this age range (18-24) have grown up around her, the publisher knows that this will attract people as they have grown up around her.

OK MAGAZINE – WRITTEN CONTENTThis feature is on the Royals – William and Kate. There is a lot written here because it is very rare some magazines actually get to talk about the Prince and about his private life. Here, this article is talking about the pregnancy of Kate which everyone in that moment wanted to know about because it was the first royal-common baby.

The magazine has to keep the readers interested with the words they write, people want to know about Kate so the publisher would have to select carefully and produce an article where it is interesting to read about the royals.

You can define your audience by finding out what and how much they like to read in a magazine. In this instance, the publisher would have to keep it short and to the point because that is the main reason of a mainstream magazine.

COLOUR SCHEME AND FONTSEvery magazine has a colour scheme, the colours that ‘OK!’ magazine have stuck with over the years are a range of colours, red, white, blue, pink. The red white and blue colours are all part of the England national flag, representing that this magazine is British. The white colours stand out on the magazine as they are bold and therefore ‘show off the story’. The white is also used to show world interviews, such as the one with Barack Obama. There are lots of different colours on this magazine to be eye catching to any one buying this magazine. The age range also comes in to the colour selection because when young people go out they tend to wear bright colours and the colours on the magazine could reflect this target audience’s personality and that’s why these colours were selected.

The font on the front cover of this magazine is a caps lock, the caps lock emphasises the point that the publisher is trying to make. The font is also very straight and tall, suggesting that this magazine is ‘above all the others’. The font changes inside the magazine but on the outside the bigger the font- tells you which stories you should be reading.

OK MAGAZINE - LAYOUTSThis extract is from an interview in OK magazine, this layout here focusses on the text. Layouts can help break up the texts making it easier for readers, this particular layout has the question in bold and the answer not in bold. The reader can then distinguish questions and answers so that the reading will flow.This extract is the front cover of OK magazine. The layout of the images are quite confusing for this magazine, there is a picture of Cheryl Cole, next to a picture of Kian Egan, claiming ‘she hates a woman’. The cover is jam packed with pictures, this could draw your attention away from the main topic (the wedding). As I mentioned earlier, in the target audience, Cheryl Cole is a main figure, however the target audience will then be driven to the picture and story of Cheryl Cole, and skipping through the main story of this issue.

Well known celebrities, eye catching as Cheryl Cole is the media’s favourite whilst Westlife are also well known in the media, two big stories and two big celebrities that attract to the target audience – attractive male and female.

CAPTIONSThere are four different captions on this front cover. The main caption being about Prince Harry and Kate – it shows them both smiling and looking like brother and sister. The title given is ‘she’s like a sister to me’ it also a quote that draws the people in because it shows the bond between them both. There is more titles than actual captions on this cover as the pictures are quite self explanatory.

Simon Cowell’s picture at the bottom of the picture has a caption, telling us that the pictures of him are going to be in his new home. He is sat on a sofa so the picture kind of explains itself.

ANCHORAGE

Red dress makes Holly Willoughby ‘larger than normal’.

This sort of text makes the reader believe what they have read, this picture is also making a jibe but also gets the reader to actually look, anchorage can actually change a person to believe something, such as these two comparison pictures.

Red dress enhances Holly’s curves.

If this sort of anchorage is included in someone’s favourite magazine they will believe anything the publisher writes, even it is about their favourite celebrity. Even though there is nothing wrong with Holly’s weight the publisher knows that a critical anchorage will get them noticed more.

OK MAGAZINE – CODES AND CONVENTIONSThe codes and conventions are the; Colour SchemePhotographyWriting style and LanguageText and picture ratioFontsMode of address

As already talked about in the previous slides, the codes are very important for the target audience. The target audience would like to see, professional photos rather than amateur ones and so on for the rest of the conventions.

OK magazine is the perfect example of combining all 5 of these codes, there is examples of photography, text and picture ratio, fonts, mode of address and writing style.

OK MAGAZINE- AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

Within a product there is no guarantee, that the whole audience will appreciate or like the product. Even if there is a large audience, the feedback could be more negative than positive, leading into people not buying OK magazine. OK magazine could use focus groups, audience panels, trialing and complaints to help them get the best out of their feedback.

• Focus Groups - a group of people that talk about design layouts, images and fonts used in a magazine/newspaper.

• Audience Panels - another group of people that ‘stay in touch’ all year round, the panellists are often the same number of people.

• Trailing- after a product has gone on its ‘trial’ changes can be made before the product is released to the public. In effect the newspaper/magazine is being judged before the public can purchase.

• Complaints – where the audience can give their feedback critically, it is a chance for a publisher to see the audience reaction and to see if and why their product has a negative response. Complaints can be seen over social networking sites and on forums.

FOCUS GROUPS

OK magazine do not specifically have a focus group set up themselves, however they could set up one which would benefit the company because there is a large number of people who are able to give their feedback and therefore the publishers can take fresh advice and ideas.

AUDIENCE PANELSAgain, OK magazine could have its own audience panel but we cannot find information on it at this time. Audience panels give advice all year round, this is so the magazine can change and make better their magazine, when audience panels get in touch, rather than waiting a month or so for a focus group to arrive. Also, audience panels are the same group of people each year, so that the opinions and information doesn’t alter too much.

TRIALING AND COMPLAINTSIn this instance, the magazine is being pre judged to see whether it is suitable to be available to the public. Like everything, it has to be trialed and tested first, which looks at the pros and cons, once this is over any changes can be made to the magazine and then put on sale.Complaints:An audience can give their feedback very critically, especially if they don’t like your product. It is also a chance for the publisher to look at the negative side of their product because even the big magazines get critical feedback. Complaints can be sent any way possible, it is mostly using social media sites such as twitter or facebook, but the majority of people still send complaints via post.OK magazine could use these two ways by collecting and taking on the criticism from complaint letters and the trialing sessions to make their magazine better and to possibly gain a larger audience.