Liam Keenan

Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to the concept of audience.

The concept of audience is crucial to the production of a media text. A magazine editor must take into account the gender, age, interests and social status of the targeted consumer in order for them to purchase the magazine. For my AS coursework I created a full magazine cover, double page spread and contents page. My primary target audience is predominantly male teenagers aged 15-20 because my magazine has many conventions that will appeal to them. My media product uses the same conventions real magazines today include. I was influenced by NME and Kerrang when constructing the front cover. Existing products today use colours and fonts to appeal to certain audiences. They use repetitive house styles which they use in each and every issue of the magazine for example the red house style for NME and Kerrang. I used a black and white house style throughout my magazine production to dominantly contrast but mostly black to attract depressive, hormonal teenagers who listen to music to fuel their emotions and not the normal everyday indie rockers today’s society is abundant with. The black connotes death, sadness and danger which would appeal to young males because they love fighting/destruction. The white could also appeal to women and connotes purity and happiness. This widens my audience and attracts both genders and all races though it is targeted at male teens directly. I used a similar layout scheme to Kerrang to attract the gothic, emotional rockers and widen my demographics again. My magazine provides information about new and upcoming acts so will appeal to the ‘cool kids’ whose lives revolve around music. I undertook a small class survey last year and found out that the greater number of magazine readers are mostly male teenagers aged 15-20. The front cover of my production: ‘Funkzone’ appeals to my selected demographic and stands out because of the bold black serif masthead in the primary optical area according to The Guttenberg Principle. I have also located the price in the primary area so the audience see this first and foremost. The masthead I used was found on Dafont.com and I used the same harrow font throughout to continue my house style and to represent fame through the posh font. This will attract a more contemporary audience and widen my demographics. The use of white on black stands out and could show the bands good side and other dark, bad boy, cool image. Some aspects can appeal to an older generation such as the harrow font and the parka my main subject is wearing on the front cover image, this can also widen the demographics for my magazine. The parka will also attract a mod audience and older people such as fans of the jam for example. The hybrid genre of tech grunge that the band my main story focuses on could also attract a young and older audience because it combines elements on the past and future. The magazine also uses genres like future garage, tech house and electro for a younger hip audience. The two small pictures located in the primary optical area attract a rebellious younger audience due to the snapback cap and Rasta colours. The picture below this uses shallow depth of field and could connote confinement due to the metal bars. This would appeal to teenagers who think nobody will understand them and that they are trapped by higher authorities and powerful people.

Liam Keenan

Liam Keenan