Target Audience: Codes and Conventions

NME's usage of Codes and Conventions to Attract Aud

On each issue of NME, codes and conventions are used to attract and appeal to certain types of groups that the magazine targets. In this case it's 25 year old men in full time employment with a knack for media entertainment. By analysing how NME soes this, I can make sure that my Cover Page does exactly the same to make sure I appeal to same type of audience.

Masthead

NME uses the convention of a dominal masthead in the top left corner which is both memorable and makes a great lef third. Also the letters are bold which creates the sense that the magazine is superior to others. The masthead appears modern in its shape, size and font and therefore will attract modern audience that enjoy moderrn entertainment. The font of th emasthead is simple yet really memorable which reflects on the youg and trendy target audience.

Image

The image is also domiantant and the cover stars are usally blocked to appear spacious and superior with their rebel and bad boy attitudes. The cover stars are behind small and fragile cover lines usally which attarcts fans of that specific artist. NME is a huge magazine and will always have popular bands on the cover, also they will be dressed to reflect the kind of music they play and the kind of attitude they portray to the public. The cover star is rarelt looking away from the audience as the mode of address creates a relationship with the reader.

Cover Lines

The other headlines are clear to read and never stray from the chosen and main colour theme and reiterates that they were placed there for a reason and thought and time has gone into choosing the right font, size and place for each of those cover lines. This creates a snese of simplicity throughout the magazine and appeals to the target audience: males. The cover lines also never completely cover or distract from the cover star, they subtly placed in around the image to appeal to the target audience.

Target Audience

Target Audience

I have completed the creation of my final draft of my music magazine "Sound Alive" and now I must check whether or not my target audinece will accpet and purchase my product. My magazine is a an indie rock magazine and is based on NME and that is the magazine that I researched. Therefore similar bands, articles, and headlines will appear in our magazines. My magazine will have interviews and life stories from bands such as The Black Keys and Arctic Monkeys. 

The average age of an NME reader is 25. My magazine layout and cover star are indie and upscale just the right amount to appeal to 25 year olds. The price of £2.50 deffinitely is suitable for 25 years olds as my magazine will be released on a weekly basis. The study shows that the average NME reader is in full time employment and so can afford any reasonable price that the magazine will be sold for.

The target audience of NME on average also tent to be educated in other forms of media such as film and fashion and so to appeal to their other interests, on my contents page, I have added in reviews of films that my target audience would like such as Boyhood. The soundtracks in that movie are brilliant and I could also talk about them in my music magazine or pick the best ones. I have also picked the costume that my cover star wore to maximse the capiacity for which they can be appealed to my magazine.

The study also shows that the average reader of the magazine will spend most of their disposable income on new entertainment, tickets for concerts and gigs and even instruments. My magazine has many articles on many bands that the readers should go see and therefore I am appealing to their natural habits.

Drafting and Planning: Contents Page

Contents Page

This is a draft of my contnts page, however it looks pretty much complete. Maybe a couple of tweeks here and there to finalise it and make it look realsitic. I have tried to create consistency all the way throughout my magazine with the usage of similar coulrs on my Cover Page, Double Page Spread and the Contents Page. I had difficulty with doing that as I have used two different programs: Doubke Page Spread On Page Plus and Cover Page on Paint.Net. This meant I couldnt transfer the exact colour I used on the Cover Page but I sure got close.

The cover lines omn the Cover page are consistent with these and I have added two backup artists that have their picture on here as well. There is a lot of information on here and I have added in 73 pages worth of awesome articles. NME was the magazine that I researched, it is a weekly magazine and usually they have from 60-70pages. Sound Alive is also a weekly maagzine an dis in the good page range. I have also listed featuerd articles just like on the NME content spage.

Drafting and Planning: New Cover Page

Improved Cover Page

I have improved on my Cover page again after speaking to my teacher and he has given me some brilliant advice on how to improve/change/alter the cover page to make it better.
This is a link to my cover page before improvements. The difference is huge and my improved version is way better, more organised and has less negative space.

http://amateurpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/drafting-and-planning-cover-page_14.html

This is my improved version:

These are the difference that I have added:

• Name of artist made bigger and bought up to catch attention
• Masthead made bigger
• Quote from main artist was bought down to keep the whole story about the artist together and not spread out over the whole cover page.
• Deleted the "What is wrong with me media?" article and swapped it for the Jordan Fields article which keeps consistency with the contents page.
• Added the Red Lips article to get rid of negative space.
• Bought another article from the contents page to the cover page "50 albums from the 50's"
• Altered The Mechanics cover line

All these improvements made the cover page look more real and look alike the magazine that I researched. This cover page also will appeal more to the audience that I have targeted.