OCR – Level 3 Cambridge Introductory Diploma in Media

Unit 01: Analyzing Media Products and Audiences

Evidence

Name: Lauren DowleyCandidate Number: 2044Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic SchoolCenter Number: 64135

Set Brief - Print

Project/Brief –

Music Magazine & Promotion

Contents Slide 3- focus publisher and content Slide 4- Top Of The Pops magazine info Slide 5- LO1 Slide 6- Ownership Structure Slide 7- Operating Model Slide 8- Brand Ideology/Ethos Slide 9- Technological Convergence Slide 10- associated products Slide 11- market position Slide 12- competitors Slide 13- LO2 Slide 14 – front cover Slide 15- double page spread Slide 16- purpose Slide 17- genre Slide 18- form and style Slide 19- process of the product Slide 20- content Slide 21- LO3 Slide 22- target audience: uses and

gratifications (katz)

Slide 23- target audience: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Slide 24- target audience: demographics Slide 25- Target audience: psychographics Slide 26- Primary research - survey analysis Slide 27- Primary research - survey analysis Slide 28- Primary research - survey analysis Slide 29-Primary research - survey analysis Slide 30- Primary research - survey analysis Slide 31- Review analysis- Secondary

research Slide 32- Review analysis- Secondary

research Slide 33- Review analysis- Secondary

research Slide 34- LO3 Slide 35-product advertising and marketing Slide 36- product advertising and marketing Slide 37- LO4 Slide 38- legal and ethical issues Slide 39- legal and ethical issues Slide 40- IPSO Slide 41- My complaint Slide 42- my complaint Slide 43- my complaint reply Slide 44- my second reply

Focus Publisher and Product

Publisher Product1. It is a combined publishing house.2. The predecessors are magicalia, BBC

magazines and origin publishing.3. It was formed on 1 November 2011.4. Its owned by Exponent Private Equity.5. It publishes over 50 magazine titles and over

30 websites.6. It employs 750 staff in its offices in

Hammersmith, London and Bristol.7. Its CEO is Tom Bureau.8. 60% of Immediate’s profit is generated by the

Radio Times.9. In may 2014 Immediate announced its

acquisition of Future plc for £24 million deal.10. This acquires the company’s sport and craft

titles and 130 staff.

1. The genre of the film is pop music.2. The target audience is young female teens or pre-

teens.3. It is a monthly subscription.4. Its readership is 298,000.5. Its circulation is 98,030.6. It sold 63, 483 copies in June 2013.7. The magazine has quite a happy, cheery, innocent

and commercialized identity therefore making it a dominant ideology.

8. the magazine includes interviews, posters and details of bands in the charts and others stars.

9. The magazine also includes fashion trends and tip, beauty tips, and lifestyle tips. The magazine normally will come with a free gift and poster of a band or pop star.

10. There are also articles about the pop stars, quizzes, horoscopes and song lyrics.

Top of The Pops Magazine info

It is published by Immediate Media Company but the predecessor for the Top Of The Pops magazine is the BBC.

The number of copies sold are ‘47 million copies over the last 249 issues’ (http://www.licensing.biz/news/read/bbc-top-of-the-pops-magazine-celebrates-250th-issue/040132)

Its sister magazine was ‘It’s Hot’ sold its last issue on 19 July 2007.

LO1

Ownership Structure

The magazine launched in March 1995.the company was founded 1 November 2011. Immediate media is a local company in London and Bristol.Their sister company was called ‘It’s Hot’ but was cancelled and sold their last issue on 19 July 2007.The company plan to acquire future publishing's of sport and crafts.

Operating ModelStephen AlexanderChairman

Executive team

Senior Management

http://www.immediate.co.uk/ourpeople/

Brand Ideology/ EthosThe slogan for ‘Immediate Media .Co’ is ‘CONTENT. PASSION. ENGAGEMENT.’. This suggests that the company want their customers to be content with their magazines, passionate about their writing and company and be engaged with their magazines and company .

The banner for the website is mainly grey with a white font. The grey represents sadness but also compromise, as it is neither black or white. Grey also represents elegance and formality. The word ‘immediate’ connotes speed which suggests that the company’s media is instant and fast and therefore reliable. They are a local Publishing company in London and Bristol.Listed below are only a couple of the magazines that the company have published. As you can see all of the magazines have a special interest in magazines, but they are all very different.It was formed on 1 November 2011 and is owned by Exponent Private Equity. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immediate_Media_Company)

Technological Convergence http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5q7oJeRhgUn0DPJYY_MVsQ -

Immediate’s you tube account. https://twitter.com/Immediate_Media - their twitter page. https://www.facebook.com/immediatemedia - their Facebook page. https://www.linkedin.com/company/immediate-media-co- - their linkedin

account. Immediate media company don’t publish their magazines online but they

do allow you to look inside at a few of the pages of the magazine.

Associated products

Immediate media don’t publish just pop magazines, they publish many other different types of magazines of all different types of genres. They genres include cooking, gardening, science and technology, music, history, children’s TV shows magazines and many more.The net worth of immediate media company is £4,265, 444.

Market position

175928

76905

70866

Total Music Magazine Circulation

BLUE= BauerRED= IPCGREEN= Music Media

Immediate media isn't in the top ten list of publishers.

The link I got this from was:

Competitors

There are five major publishers: Immediate media, Dennis Publishing, Hearst Media, Bauer and Vice Media.

Dennis Publishing was founded in 1975 and is owned by Felix Dennis who passed away 22nd June 2014. His net worth was over £750 million. (Wikipedia)

Hearst Media was founded in 1887 by William Randolph Heart. The company's net worth is £9.8 billion. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2011/09/21/richest-families-on-the-forbes-400/ )

Bauer media was founded in 1875, by Yvonne Bauer. I couldn't find the net worth for the company.(Wikipedia)

Vice media was founded in 1994 by Suroosh Alvi, Shane Smaith and Gavin Mclnnes. Their net worth is £1.4 billion. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/09/18/shane-smith-vices-400-million-man-is-new-yorks-newest-media-mogul/ )

Masthead = simple font, which won’t be too complicated for young children as it won’t make a difference to them, hot pink, which is quit a girly and happy color for girls and definitely not suitable for boys, it has stars around the edge which makes it more pretty and again more girly. The white font connotes purity which makes the magazine more clean for young females to read.

Date, Price and Barcode = ‘9 September 2014, £3.99’ – monthly subscription.

Main headline = uses bright colors to appeal to young females and make the circle stand out more and the info inside the circle. The circle shape also stands out as most other things are square.

Colloquial or slang language has been used by the word ‘lot’ to appeal to the younger target audience, as they would most likely use more slang than adults.

The magazine cover overall uses a lot of bright, stereotypically girly colors to appeal to the target audience of younger pre-teen or early teen female girls. It also makes the page look more fun and attractive, therefore more enjoyable to read. The colors include: hot pink; yellow; blue and white. These colors connote a very happy, exciting and safe feel to the magazine, therefore making it appeal more to the target audience.

Main image = popular people from girls’ favorite boy bands to make the magazine look more fun, interesting and enjoyable. Each of the boys in the main image is star appeals from popular bands. The reader can then see that the magazine knows who is most popular and that they know what they’re talking about so therefore it would be a good magazine.

‘Pops’ the sub-genre is pop music.

Anchorage text= understand the headline in the main image.

Buzz word= ‘Bonus’ it is also outlined by a puff.

The title has used a pun in the title to appeal to the target audience as puns are never serious, portraying that the magazine and the interview isn’t very serious. This makes it more light hearted for the audience, which makes them want to read the article more.

This bold heading of the interview takes up almost half of the page, making it seem like the title is just as important as the actual interview. This suggests that the interview isn’t important. The reader denotes that the interview will be fun, entertaining and casual, which is just what a teen magazine should be.

On this page there is a big picture which almost fills up the whole page. The reader sees this and instantly knows what the interview is about and knows that there isn't much reading because the space is filled up with a picture. This attracts the reader to read the article because not all teenagers like reading heavy paragraphs a two or more pages of an interview.

This magazine also has images in line with the text as well. This makes the more interesting, there is less to read and more to look at. The font used is pink, which connotes a ‘girly’ outlook, something which could be considered fun and uncomplicated making the reader more interested as apposed to bored.

Image of front cover with specific section of the page labelled with page number for easy access to everything that is on the page.

Personal message for all the readers as an introduction to the magazine.

Pictures of celebs dotted around to fill up blank spaces.

Have spilt up contents into sections for easier location of article or to pinpoint the specific articles.

Pages in order of number.

Specific words in bold which the reader could find interesting or important e.g. ‘OMG!’, ‘Your Problems’ ‘Fashion and Make-up’, ‘Gossip’, ‘The Latest’ and stars like: ‘Ella Henderson’, ‘5SOS’, ‘1D’

Purpose

The purpose is to entertain young teenage girls by giving them tips, help, advice and many other thing including quizzes, interviews and posters of popular bands.

The logo for the magazine ‘Top of the Pops’ connotes that the magazine is about Pop music and that they're at the top, hence the word ‘Top’.

The strapline on the cover of the magazine is ‘GOSSIP CRINGES SHOPPING BOYS’. This shows the readers what the main subjects in the magazine are. This makes it clear for the reader to see and shows them that because they layout is so clear, its easier to understand as well.

Genre

The denotation of the genre is pop music. The readers can tell this from the verbal code of

the masthead ’Top of the ‘Pops’’, which obviously connotes pop music.

On the main cover there is always a famous pop star or band, which ‘signifies’ (De Saussure) straight away that it is a pop magazine that helps sell it’s issues based on capturing the attention of a young, passive reader with the use of ‘star appeal’ (Richard Dyer).

Form and style Through out the magazine utopian colours have been used on every page

to make the magazine more happy, light hearted and fun which appeals more to younger female teenagers.

Also throughout, the magazine uses different fonts for almost everything, as it makes the page seem more fun, interesting and exciting, therefore making it appeal to the target audience more.

The height and width of my magazine will be the same as all publications, height= 28.4cm and width= 21cm.

Bright yellow & pink

Blue & yellow

White, blue & pink against the blackWhite & yellow

against blue

The word ‘Solved’ shows reassurance for the readers who will by the magazine, suggesting they will learn something and get help with stresses so that they will never have to worry about those specific stresses again.

Production Process http://www.missiecindz.com/2013/01/12/the-process-of-creating-a-magazine/

I have tried to contact the magazine editors to find out more about the magazine and its process etc… but this is the only response that I have received:

Content The content of the magazine has things such as interviews, posters and details of bands in the

charts and other stars. It also includes fashion trends and tips, beauty tips and lifestyle tips. The magazine will normally come with a free gift and poster of a band or pop start. There are also articles about the pop stars, quizzes, horoscopes and song lyrics.

On the front cover the magazine specifies that the magazine will cover: ‘Gossip, Cringes, Shopping, Boys’. Clearly without having to look inside the mag or read anything else we know what the magazine will be about.

The magazine has a quite happy, cheery, innocent and commercialized identity therefore making it a dominant ideology.On this part of the contents

page it shows the front cover of the magazine and which shows what page number all of the things on the front cover are on. For example if I wanted to look at what Ariana said and her interview, I could see that its on page 12. This makes it easier for the readers to access what parts of the magazine they want to look at first, which makes the make that magazine easy to read as the layout is clear and understandable.

This section shows different parts of the magazine but in categories. For example, if people wanted to read gossip about One Direction as Niall’s face is by the number 11 and under the title of Celeb and Gossip, so they would then know to go to page 11. Again, this makes finding what you want to read easier, so it doesn’t feel like a challenge of having to flick through all the pages until you find what you want to read.

As the contents page numbers miss out some numbers (because they have already been showed from another part of the page), it makes it more fun to read and is more exciting because its all mixed up but you can still find what you want easily.

Target audience

Uses and gratifications (Katz)› Either inform and educate or personal

relations ship. Inform and educate as the reader may learn something new about pop star or band that they didn’t before by reading the magazine. Personal relationship because by reading the magazine, you can build an admiration for a certain star or band.

Spending Power

Spending power= how much you have left to spend.

Young teens will ususally receive pocket money that they can spend on magazine and other girly items like makeup and hair accessories.

This means that the price of the magazine will have to be affordable for girls to buy.

Target audience

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs› If you were to be a social climber or a care giver, you

would buy magazines for social and esteem needs, not for safety or physiological needs. For example, if someone didn’t have easy access to food, water or even struggled to breath, then if they had money they wouldn’t be buying a magazine. Also if someone was homeless, or was at risk or accidents or injury or health then again they wouldn’t spend their money buying a magazine. However if someone felt like they wanted to feel as if they belonged somewhere and be accepted by others like in friendships, family and social or community groups to avoid things like being lonely or unloved, then they would buy a magazine that could maybe help them to avoid those feelings.

Target audience

DemographicsThe audience will be most likely in group E because they will be too young even top get a Saturday job yet as they're still in school. Either social climbers or care givers. Social climbers because girls will feel that if they know more about certain stars or bands they are more privileged than others who may not know as much. Care givers because girls may feel engaged with and/or sympathetic towards a star or band.

Psychographics The audience for my magazine will be aspirers because young girls are interested in who’s most interested in who’s most popular and who isn’t, image appearance and fashion. This is why I will focus more no colour and puffs to make my magazine appeal more to the target audience.

Primary research - survey analysis

I asked what gender the audience of my questionnaire were because since my magazine will be for girls, the appropriate audience for my questionnaire will be girls so I would like to know what gender is answering my questions.

I wanted to know the age of my audience as the age of my magazine is young teen so if there were certain answers to my questions that I thought would be different it could be because the audience for my questionnaire is older then the intended audience for my magazine.

The answers of my question are mainly bright bold colours like pink, red, white and blue. This tells me that the audience prefer brighter colours maybe because they stand out more, so it has helped me to choose what colours to use on my front cover and double page spread. This will match the format of my magazine as it is printed in bold and bright colours etc… this will prompt the readers to buy my magazine.

Primary research - survey analysis

This question has helped me to decide what are the most important features that the audience will be interested in and what parts I should focus on most, which will be pictures and colours. I would have focused on pictures and colours most anyway because my audience are aspirers, who’re most interested in appearance and image (psychographics).

Primary research- survey analysis

If I were to re-do this question, then I would change the options to certain time periods e.g. weekly or monthly. Most of the audience chose the option ‘Slightly often’ which could be the possibility of a monthly subscription and my magazine is also a monthly subscription, so this answer is relevant and helpful for me.

Primary research - survey analysis

This question will help me because if the audience chooses rock, then when I asked them about appearance of my magazine they might prefer different colours which may not be as suitable or relevant for a pop magazine. This question doesn't help me as much with my magazine because most of the audience prefer rock, so I will have different or again irrelevant answers which wouldn’t be as helpful.

Primary research - survey analysis

Review analysis- Secondary research

The reader’s review states that their favourite part of the magazine is the gossip. This has helped as now I know that the gossip in my magazine will be very important to the readers (http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews146904.html)

Review analysis- Secondary research

This review of the magazine helps me because this reader has said that their favourite part is all of the celebrity interviews, so I now know to focus on my double page spread of a popular artist with interesting and useful questions for the reader. The only bad thing that the reader has said about the magazine is that the price is quite high, so I will make sure that my magazine is affordable and a relatively low price (http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews146904.html).

Review analysis- Secondary research

(http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews146904.html) this reader’s review of the magazine tells me that the best parts of the magazine in all of the information on celebrities. This has helped me to again focus on my double page spread to make sure that it will be fun and entertaining for the reader.

Product advertising and marketing

How is the product (Music Magazine) advertised?› In supermarkets or shops which sell magazines (e.g. WHSmiths), train stations,

What platforms (E-Media, Print, Broadcast) are utilized to help promote the product? › Magazines sell advertising space and are a good source of promoting a music

magazine; Flyers can be placed in shops and adverts can be placed on TV or Radio and on the internet as adverts flash up on PCS and also selling subscriptions for magazines offering better deals financially to induce the buyer to buy the yearly subscription.

broadcast

Retail outlets

Top of the Pops magazine can be found in almost every local corner shop, as well as more well-known shops like WH Smiths, the Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Tesco's and many others.

Product advertising and marketing

Marketing –The magazine pays what they can afford in order to get the best position for selling their magazine i.e. next to the CD’s in larger supermarkets.› Viral marketing= marketing through the internet. › Guerrilla marketing= the use of unconventional and low cost marketing strategies

to raise awareness of a product. (e.g. viral) Poster= mainly used in shop windows but Top of the Pops doesn’t use this. TV adverts= Top of the Pops doesn’t advertise on TV Radio advert= Top of the Pops are in partnership with BBC Radio1 Leaflets= a small cheaper way to advertise to hand out to people or put on

car windows. Top of the Pops does not do this.

poster

leaflet

TV advert

Viral marketing Guerrilla

marketing

Legal and Ethical issues Copyright= so no-one can copy or re-make your work.

All of the photos and content in Top of the Pops magazine is copyrighted. If Top of the Pops magazine were to be sued, this is the process that the complaint would go through:1. The complaint will go through initial assessment. This means that they will look at if the complaint is actually assessable and

that the article (etc…) goes against the code and if not it is sent back to you with reasons why. 2. Referral to the publication- if the article you’re complaining about does go against the code, the complaint will be sent to the

editor of the article who will try to fix the problem with you straight away. If it has been over 28 days and nothing has happened to fix it, the IPSO (International Press Standards Organization) will take over.

3. The investigation- if the complaint isn't fixed at all, your complaint will go to the magazine company its self, who will try to ask questions to justify your complaint. You will then get a copy of the reply from the company based on your complaint, and you will be able to be given the chance to comment on their reply.

4. Adjudication by the complaints committee- if it still isn't fixed, then the complaints committee will look to see if the magazine went against the editors’ code, but will only look at the information which has been seen by both sides of the argument. They will then post up their decision on the website.

5. Remedies- if the magazine company had gone against the editors’ code, then they're required to make corrections which will be decided by the complaints committee.

6. Review of the process- this stage allows you to ask to review the committees decision regarding your complaint. Then the committee will decide whether to refer the complaint to the Complaints Reviewer. If the referral is made, the Reviewer will review the process by which the decision was made, and inform the Complaints Committee within 14 days whether it considers that the process was substantially flawed. If the Reviewer does not consider that the process was substantially flawed, the decision will then be issued. If the Reviewer does consider that the process was substantially flawed, the decision will be will be reviewed by the Complaints Committee, taking into account the Complaints Reviewer’s findings. The Committee will then issue its final findings.

Complaints which are not pursued-  IPSO expects both publications and complainants to cooperate with it in the prompt consideration of complaints. If they don’t get an initial response to correspondence, they will contact you with another request for a reply within a certain time. If you require more time to respond, you have to write to them as soon as possible explaining why you are unable to reply substantively and when you expect to be in a position to reply. They will seek to accommodate reasonable requests. If we do not receive a substantive reply within the specified period, we may close your complaint as not pursued. Alternatively, the Committee may proceed to consideration of the complaint without the benefit of your comments. IPSO will not generally reopen a complaint which has been closed as a consequence of a failure by the complainant to provide a timely response. Complainants who seek to revive complaints that have previously been closed as not pursued will be asked to explain the reasons for the delay in their response. IPSO will only reopen a complaint where, in the view of its Executive (having considered the reasons given and the full circumstances of the complaint), to refuse the request would be unreasonable.

https://www.ipso.co.uk/ipso/procedure.html

Legal and Ethical issues

Unacceptable behaviour by complaints and vexatious complaints- The staff of IPSO’s Executive will be accessible and courteous to everyone who comes into contact with them. They understand that in some cases complainants will contact them in highly distressing circumstances, and may need significant support and assistance; they will not normally limit the contact which complainants have with the Executive. However, in a small minority of cases, complainants seek to interact with the Executive in an unacceptable way. IPSO’s Regulations make clear that it may reject without further consideration complaints which are vexatious or disproportionate. IPSO interprets this provision to apply both to the nature of the complaint, and to the manner in which it is pursued. IPSO does not expect their staff to tolerate unacceptable behaviour by complainants. Unacceptable behaviour may involve vexatious or disproportionate pursuit of a complaint. It also extends to any other behaviour that, because of its frequency or nature, hinders IPSO’s ability to handle complaints effectively, including:

• Using abusive, offensive, aggressive, racist or foul language in conversation or correspondence with staff;

• Harassing, verbally abusing or seeking to intimidate staff;• Engaging in unreasonably protracted or repetitive communications with staff;• Attending IPSO’s offices and seeking to speak with a member of staff without an appointment;• Repeatedly refusing requests by staff to follow IPSO’s procedures, despite having been provided

with appropriate information about these procedures;• Making persistent and/or unreasonable demands of staff and/or the complaints process. IPSO reserves the right to take appropriate action in cases where complainants are exhibiting

unacceptable behaviour, including by restricting the manner in which complainants may communicate with IPSO’s staff or declining to further consider a complaint.

https://www.ipso.co.uk/ipso/procedure.html

Legal and Ethical issues Editor’s code of practice:1. Accuracy2. Opportunity to reply3. Privacy4. Harassment5. Intrusion into grief or shock6. Children7. Children in sex cases8. Hospitals9. Reporting of crime10. Clandestine devices and subterfuge11. Victims of sexual assault12. Discrimination13. Financial journalism 14. Confidential sources 15. Witness payments in criminal trials16. Payment to criminals17. https://www.ipso.co.uk/IPSO/cop.html

Ethical- not to offend anyone’s race or culture e.g. calling a black rapper ‘nigga’ or any other similar language which could also offend the readers as well.

IPSO

IPSO stands for The Independent Press Standards Organisation.

They deal with all complaints about magazines or newspapers, including issues which are online.

The IPSO also help soon to be publishers with any concerns they may have, or prevent any contact or hassle with journalists and can be contacted 24 hrs a day.

Stereotypes

Stereotypes= “Stereotype is defined as to attach an idea or image to a person who belong to a particular group.” http://www.yourdictionary.com/stereotype

This group of pictures are stereotypical language which are used in pop magazines and also by young female teens.

These are all typical images that would be included in a pop magazines the girls all have a lot of make up on, one of the girls have rainbow hair, and also include stereotypical ‘selfies’ which would attract to my target audience.

My complaint

I did get a quick reply to my complaint and this is the e-mail that I received: