Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

My targeted audience is 15-25 year olds and a secondary audience of ages above that. I plan to have a larger female audience than current music magazines to encourage more females to take up in the music world due to it being male dominated.

To attract female readers

Naomi Wolf’s theory (1991) : Images used of attractive women to try sell products to other women as they will aspire to look like them, and therefore more inclined to buy the product because they want to look like the women on the product. She believes that women have been conditioned into aspiring to what is ‘fashionable’ now by a male dominating patriarchal society.

Adopting Naomi Wolf’s theory

I have adopted Wolfs’ theory by using an attractive girl on my cover to attract females of the same age and who like this genre of music to expand the female readership in music magazines, especially within the rock genre. This will therefore, providing the theory is correct, attract a large chunk of my target audience, girls, as they will want to look and aspire to be like the girl on the cover, it can however still attract males to my magazine.

Marjorie Ferguson

Theory (1980):identified four types of facial expressions in covers of magazines:

Chocolate box Invitational Super-smiler Romantic or sexual

The expression used in the cover of my magazine would primarily come under invitational: Emphasis on the eyes, mouth shut or with only a hint of a smile, head to one side or looking back to camera. Projected mood: suggestive of mischief or mystery.

With rock being stereotyped with rebellion and mischief it certainly fits with the required facial expression which also invites you in to find out how they are rebellious.

Blumler and Katz (1974)Uses and Gratifications

Escape and diversion from everyday life

Surveillance and information Personal relationships Personal identity

Escapism applied to my magazine

My magazine creates and escape from everyday life for the readers so they get lost in the worlds of the rock stars’ in the magazine and what else may be happening. Reviews of gigs, interviews, etc.

Surveillance and information applied to my magazine

My magazine is heavily based on information of the music scene so it brings the people who are interested in the music scene more knowledgeable and up to date with what’s happening right now within the music industry.

Personal relationships applied to my magazine

Personal relationships are created through my magazine by giving people something to talk about and give opinions on and I have gave platform for this through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to allow them to talk in the most modern technological ways.

Personal identity applied to my magazine

My target audience will identify themselves with the lifestyle my magazine promoted through articles and such. Adding to this appeal I have used the same age range of the people on the cover to my target audience. It gives them an identity of rebelliousness without actually being that way just through reading the magazine.

My article is of young adults in the music industry who have came together to from a band from a normal, unprivileged, with no advantage to making it in the industry other than their sheer ability and effort which gives the readers a sense that they can do the same and aspire to follow in their footsteps and that they can do it too.

I have also made my models wear casual clothing and a style typical for the rock genre and what they would wear so that the people who read to the magazine find it easier to relate to the stars in casual clothing and so they can see what genre they are in and the style of music they listen to helping with personal identity.

Reaching my target audience I have made the models the same age group as the target audience to again help them relate and give inspiration that they could be someone like them if they wanted to.