QUESTION 4 & 5Who would be the audience for your media product? How did you attract/address your audience?

My target audience is both genders but mostly aimed at a female audience as my front cover does in some way resemble a woman’s magazine. The ages of my target group are 18-24. I did address them and their opinions on my magazine through my focus group. They gave me feedback on my production and how people of that age group would desire the style. A first I didn’t want to aim my magazine mostly towards one gender, but the way I wanted my magazine turned out to be mainly focused towards females. But can be aimed towards both genders, through the house style and images. The house style is black and gold and not specific to one gender, and I have used both male and female gaze in photography. But I was not stereotypical at aiming it towards one gender rather than another.

The price for my magazine is £4.50, but is aimed for ages 18-24, meaning that these ages are more likely to afford this magazine compared to school children 16 and under, although people of these ages may still purchase the magazine. I addressed the class of my magazine to be all rounded. I feel that my magazine looks classy, sophisticated at the gold in the house style looks rich, these being the reason for my choice in price, also that my target audience would be able to afford it.

The nature of my magazine would definitely be a mainstream magazine, as there are no conventions that would be aimed at a niche market audience. My magazine includes, popular and new music, well known artists, and new artists. This may attract my target audience as they may like to keep up to date with new music and upcoming artists, concert photos as well as well know artists in the industry. For mise en scene in my magazine I dressed my main model in a black sparkly dress which looks sophisticated and classy which links to the house style of my magazine. Although it shouldn’t be about what the artist is wearing because its a music magazine not a fashion magazine, I think that if an artist has fans the audience are going to look up to this artist and aspire to look like her and want to wear what she is wearing, again the audience creating identification with the artist. The dress also linked to the house style as it was black with gold sparkles. The clothing could also attract a male audience as they could perhaps see the dress as revealing and ladylike.

The images I have used are eye catching and attract the audience, and conform to Mulvey’s gaze (front cover, contents page and double page spread). Another example would be the brightness of the images, the brightness and shine of Lydia’s (Cara Aurellie’s) hair and the red lipstick she is wearing which makes her stand out more again and makes the images eye catching and looks classy, attracting my target audience. The direct mode of address in my images creates a personal relationship ( uses and grat) which can be very important to the artists fans as they feel a personal relationship with the artist, this would allow me to give a dominant or preferred reading.