Media Coursework: Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product

My target audience are young adults aged around 16 to 25 mainly men with a female audience also who strive to be individual and love the social aspect of music. Through my research reading reviews and learning about the target audience of many bands I can tell that many listeners and fans are within this age range and therefore targeting my magazine towards this age range would be the most successful approach. I have also noticed that this is the age range where people are most likely to go out and see shows, this is why I have included sections in my contents page regarding upcoming shows and gigs. The average acceptance range to go to gigs is 16, this was a determiner when deciding the age range for my magazine as I wanted my target audience to be active within the music community and motivated to go and explore new bands and genres. My age cutoff at 25 I feel is the age where most people decide to settle down. After finishing University, 25 year olds would be more focused on getting full time jobs over going out and watching bands generally targeted towards the teenage audience. This is cutoff around the age most people try and settle down in life and generally start to become less sociable and start becoming more introverted and retiring. My magazine will try to appeal to both genders however through research I have noticed that there is not that much of of a female audience so I doubt there will be many sales from a female readership.

My magazine would be all about the scene and focusing on the characters and personalities of bands yet also gaining a more serious take on reviewing albums, gigs and songs in detail. I also realized that the clothing worn by the bands members was crucial to making the magazine believable and realistic and appeal to my target audience. I noticed the gap within the market for a free magazine targeted towards more niche punk and emo based music genres creating a perfect market for my product.

When creating and designing my magazine I kept my research and planning in mind in an attempt to ensure that all my work fitted the stylization and genre I was aiming my content towards. I made sure my models were clothed appropriately regarding the task and fit the genre of music I was attempting to portray throughout my magazine allowing the audience to relate to the magazine. The messy aesthetic of my cover model ‘Ethan Smith’ also connotes the unorganized and layered atmosphere regarding my genre, relating to my target audience. The positioning of my model towering over the cover image also follows the conventions of punk magazines with a confident appeal and aura surrounding the cover artist.