AS Media Coursework Evaluation: Questions 4 & 5

Who would be the audience for your media product (Q4) and how did you attract/address your audience (Q5)?

This is the simultaneous response to questions 4 and 5 centred around audience and their requirements from my media product.

Pictured are some of the identities that I was reaching out for as my target audience whilst designing my media product. The top photo is one of my main feature album - this is because the people who would typically take the time to consume my Press PLAY 'franchise' would be the same sort of people who are featured in the magazine itself, to enhance the opportunity to relate. The conventions used in the product often reflect the interests of my target audience, which would specifically be described as around the 16-25 region (as specified in Q2) and a unisex trend. I have used a variety of different features to appeal and suit my target audience, as I would imagine my typical reader to be a college/university student, either male or female (the features are generic and follow a lot of latest trends and chart changes), one obviously interested in quite a wide array of music, and maybe with links to music in wider society such as someone who performs somewhere in the music industry in their spare time. The latter of those is not part of a fixed criteria but would maybe boost interest. The modern world of music is usually an interest to almost everyone to a certain extent, to the degree where anyone with literally any social background, hobbies or pastimes may take a read, whether their main aspirations in life lie in music, sport, education, politics, fashion, technology or any other major topic of interest. It is difficult to hold down one identity of a typical reader whilst at the same time going beyond age, general interests and gender. Whilst there appears to be nothing remotely specific about the conventions of my media product, other media my target audience may consume could be through most notably modern technology, through the overwhelming significance that it has taken on the lives of people of the younger generations. There could be a decline in media sources such as newspapers and radio, but instead the ever-hatching Web 2.0 of user-generated media, applications and an increasing deep sea of television channels and box office access.
The visual and aesthetic appearance of a typical audience member could be considered to follow or expand on latest trends (top two images); have an element of vintage subculture or postmodern influence, taken on by new meanings and motives of how one looks (third image from top), or have their own spin on proceedings whilst still looking appropriate for the way society is (bottom image). The mode of address I have largely used is in a friendly manner, acting sociable on the part of the magazine writers and editors to give a degree of comfort to a typically young and vibrant audience reader. From the features advertised in the contents to the synergised font and colour schemes and the direct address of the cover stars, there is a level of social quality maintained throughout, as touched on in other evaluation responses. As a whole, there are thousands of ways a member of this magazine audience may construct their entire life, appearance, personality and interests, even the way they consume media, but somewhere they will have a link of relevance to Press PLAY.