How did you attract/address your audience?

Samantha King

Attracting• Attracting my target audience is all about making my audience want to engage with

my media product and invest time and (usually) money with it.

• I used many different ways to attract my audience:

• Masthead• Photograph(s)• Colours• Free stuff• Posters• Layout• Cover lines• Price

• These elements have then been manipulated to appeal to my specific audience.

AttractingThese are specific elements of my magazine.As elements of my final product display,I am aiming to emulate existing music magazine products, especially Kerrang!Therefore, these elements would attract my audience as they communicate well with the audience through the use of font style and colour scheme.

Attracting

The writing style is very basic, I have taken a very straightforward font style and modified it in a very distressed, flawed manner.

An interpretation of this could be that it indicates the sense of breaking or even corrupting the standard conventions, there is a sense of anti-establishment which is greatly reflected in the type face by the element of distress.

The sense of anti-establishment also reflects my target audience and the themes of the rock culture and how they disobey the ‘rules’ and break the conventions of society.

AttractingThe colour scheme consists of yellow and black, this conveys aesthetic conflict between the use of these two colours in such a compact element to a fairly significant extent; as the brightness of the yellow clashes with the darkness of the black. There becomes a sense of juxtaposition, which detonates an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.

The brightness of the yellow is, with intent, placed directly above a dark jet black background. On an every day basis, these colours are commonly used together to signify warning, i.e. on road signs to connote nearby danger, to grab the attention of individuals. This idea of danger is portrayed through the conventions of the Rock genre, as it connotes rebellious themes and breaking the conventions of the norms of society. The juxtaposition of the colour scheme of my contents page is following the theme of the house-style of the ‘Kerrang!’ magazine, as the consistent masthead on my cover page is similar to this idea, in the fact the white and black are contrasting colours of which compliment one another, by making it stand out and appeal to the audience of this magazine. This technique is adapted from the way in which it is used in ‘Kerrang!’. Reference to this is displayed below.

Addressing

Once I had attracted my audience I addressed them.

You can address an audience in terms of both written and visual language.

When I did my initial research I looked at the writing style of the magazines I had researched and identified the way that the magazines addressed their audience.

The writing style and the use of certain words or phrases are ways magazines address their audience in terms of a written language.

Addressing

''Last week the rock world was in the news for all the wrong reasons. While newspapers and people who know nothing about our world and our bands talk rubbish, we’ve been getting excited about the amazing shows coming our way in the next few weeks. Not only is the Kerrang! Tour getting ready to roll into a town near you (turn to p11 for your chance to win tickets!), the mighty Rob Zombie us also gearing up for one of the most unmissable tours of the year (see p6 to find out what he’s got in store). If that wasn’t enough, this week’s cover stars A Day To Remember are preparing to invade the UK on their first ever headline tour here. We caught up with them in their home state of Florida (p22) to witness the chaos they’re currently whipping up whenever they go first hand. Believe us, you won’t want to miss their shows!''

Below is an extract taken from a contents page of ‘Kerrang!’ magazine, displaying the use of different lexis within the article, used to engage with their audience, addressing them using language which is familiar to them and which they typically regularly use in their every day lifestyle to interact.

Addressing

The language used within the specific rock genre magazines is very significant, this has been taken from a contents page of ‘Kerrang!’ as it is used to engage with it’s audience. For instance, ‘rubbish’ is an adjective that you wouldn’t be especially stunned to see appear within the article/column of a rock genre magazine, whereas you may by alternatives such as ‘nonsense’, as you might expect this to be used within a more mature magazine catered for an older target audience in a different genre of magazine, perhaps. In the same way, ‘amazing’ is an adjective that unquestionably is approved to be displayed within a rock genre magazine, whereas alternatives such as ‘marvellous’ are perhaps inappropriate for this genre and target audience and more suitable for magazines for other genres such as, jazz and blues etc. That are aimed to engage with an older audience generation. The adjective ‘invade’ holds a rather aggressive aspect, as it denotes: ‘’to enter a place or situation in large numbers with an intrusive effect.’’ Synonyms of invade include attack and raid, all of which maintain the forceful tones of destruction and rage. The use of the word ‘chaos’ emphasises the impression of mayhem and disorder to a further extent, due to the continuity of the antagonistic ideas, connoting havoc and distortions of the morals in society and also the typical concept of breaking the conventions of society by the rebellious themes which is reflected within my target audience.

Below is an analysis of an extract taken from a contents page of ‘Kerrang!’ magazine.

AddressingI used similar lexis within my magazine to that which has been noticed within ‘Kerrang!’ For example, my double page spread:

‘kick of their biggest ever tour’

‘sure as hell’

‘perform live’

‘tour dates’

AddressingLexis used is important as language is a major element that not only attracts but addresses your audience and helps engage with them, I had to consider what adjectives I would use, for example:

• Would I say song or did you say tune, record, beat, single, mix, hit, track, piece etc?

• Would I say the album was great or awesome or savage?

• Were my featured band playing gigs or shows or concerts or performances?

Addressing

Alternative language for ‘perform’ that wouldn’t be particularly appropriate for my target audience:present, act, play, put on, stage.

Alternative language for ‘kick off’ would be lexis such as ‘start’ – I chose ‘kick off’ as it holds a more aggressive tone that engages well with my audience, it suggests rebellious themes which the rock culture relates to and therefore would appeal to my audience.

‘sure as hell’ also holds a rebellious appeal due to the informality and destructive tone.

AddressingImages are an important part of the way I addressed my audience.

The mise en scene I chose engages with the audience and gives them information.

Addressing

There is a theme of black and white, monochromatic consistence of my contents page, this has been deliberately done to give a visually dynamic look against the yellow, black, white and red lettering which it is surrounded by. There is the impression that it isn’t a pristine photo and that it is therefore perhaps self produced and slightly flawed. The Rock genre ideology of breaking the conventions of society is reflected within the image as it suggest the flaws of the rebellious mannerisms and imperfections of this stereotype. The fact the image is captured from a live event immediately creates intimacy between the audience and the subject and being a reader of this magazine you then begin to feel involvement with the atmosphere of this image.

AddressingThe ratio of text to pictures is another way of addressing your audience.

This double page spread taken from NME magazine clearly has a reasonable amount more of images than text, this is due to the basis that this magazine has a target audience of individuals between the age range of estimated 15-25 year olds and therefore enjoy more visually orientated applications rather than staring aimlessly at huge blocks of small lettered text which may be over phasing or lead to disinterest.

Addressing

I have taken this into account when considering the composition and text:picture ratio of my own double page spread. As displayed above, this page visibly has a reasonable amount imagery that dominates the entire page, this is intentionally being proposed due to the basis that this magazine has a target audience of individuals between the age range of estimated 15-25 year olds and therefore enjoy more visually orientated applications, this is also why I have chosen to feature a poster as my double page spread , as my audience would enjoy this more rather than staring aimlessly at huge blocks of small lettered text which may be over phasing or lead to disinterest.

Addressing

These are some examples of the photographs captured to potentially be displayed within my magazine product. The performer is posing for the camera, this expresses the personality of that reflected within the rock culture, deviating the social norms and rebelling against traditional conventions, i.e. rather than angelically smiling for the camera, a traditional convention of society, the performer is captured to be screaming with aggression.

Addressing

My performer is captured in medium close up/close up frames focusing on her pose and facial expression rather than costume. These poses within the images communicate the idea of rebellion and breaking the conventions of society, reflected by the rock culture and its audience, this holds a realistic aspect of them through imagery that the audience can associate themselves with. However, what you do see of the costume is a black fur coat. Fur coats are often opted by the middle class or wealthy individuals within society. This shows an aspect of fantasy and is something for the audience to aspire to have. Black connotes darkness, mystery and death themes, these are all negative associations we relate with the black colour and therefore the idea of rebellious themes is engraved into the minds of the potential readers that engage within the product. Also, a huge segmentation of the audience is targeted towards males, having a female cover star addresses their attraction and engages with their personality and age stereotypes.