Question 5

My target audience varies between male, female, teenage to young adult age groups. As
part of research, I studied my target audience so that I could be sure that my magazine
appeals directly to them in order to become a successful magazine. Through researching my
genre of music front covers, I found that these covers consisted mainly of male images using
colours used which wouldn't appeal a lot to female audiences. I took into consideration that
this was the Leon Festinger theory of which we stereotyped the way in which we present to a
male audience. On the other hand, a female audience is stereotypically associated with
bright covers and colours, especially pink. Therefore I had to find that balance between the
both in order to attract and address my audience. 
To start with I had to consider the model on my cover. Considering Roland Barthes narrative
codes, my artist would be an open narrative due to the audience unravelling judgements of
her in different ways as she is a new artist. I initially had the idea beforehand, that my artist
will be female. With this, I had to adapt, considering, (using mise en scene), how I would
make her appeal to male and female audiences. Before taking photos and considering
poses, I worked on an appropriate personality that would suit her, her music genre, and the
audience. Hip hop/dance is enjoyed by both male and female, however stereotypically;
males seem to be the more dominant in listening to this kind of genre. Therefore I felt with a
female artist, she will promote the genre, making it more widespread. I then considered how
I would attract the female audience as they are associated with things such as fashion, new
styles etc, which is common on all women magazines; therefore I considered how Eve would
dress. By dressing her in fashionable clothes that women feel they can aspire to, I will
instantly attract a big part of the women consumer. I've created binary opposites from the
common, dull, male dominated, hip hop magazines, to, bright, female, new, hip hop
magazines. Adding to this challenge, I used enigma codes in the article. Therefore an
overview of Eve’s personality came across mysterious, appealing; in date and causes the
reader to raise questions of what is to come of her.

The colour pallet consists of burnt orange, black and a light brown – all on a white
background. To follow conventions of hip hop magazines, I used the colour orange as it’s a
colour that I have found has connotations of hip hop through research. The black is an
equal, simplistic colour and the light brown comes between the both colours bringing upon
continuity. These colours don’t directly link to a certain genre, so my magazine won’t be
stereotypically appointed to a specific genre. The white background appeals to everyone and
acts as a blank canvas to this ‘new magazine’ and ‘new artist’.

I’ve also had to consider the language I used in order to appeal to my target audience.
Considering technology, texting is popular in this age group; therefore I considered text talk
into my language on the front cover. By using superlatives and exclamatory, they act as
shortenings of words, yet still get the message across. These will appeal to my target
audience and also bring across the genre as it brings the formality of the magazine down to
the same level as the purpose. The artists on the front also link with target audience as I’ve
named up to date, new, popular artists that are well known by this age group.

Following onto the contents page, the same colours are used again to ‘keep hold’ of the
audience I’ve attracted. The use of pictures is considered. I have a mix of gender, style and
fashion in order to appeal to all my audience. The simplistic layout that’s easy to read makes
sure that it’s not too intellectually challenging for my target audience as the last thing they
want to do is read endless pieces of text. I’ve mentioned a lot about what WE, as the
magazine are giving to them, so they don’t feel like they’re missing out and feel more
involved in the magazine.

In the double page spread I’ve considered Laura Mulvey’s male gaze as part of graphology
in order to attract my audience. So far, I’ve already addressed female audiences by
considering mise en scene and how Eve looks and presents herself. Considering male gaze,
the model still has to attract male attention and I did this through a number of shots of Eve.
The way she’s presented is ‘appealing to the eye’ however I made sure that she was still
portrayed as dominant. Normally you would see the female model making direct contact with
the audience in order to get their attention; however I’ve used only one shot of her looking
directly at the audience. The other shots, e.g. the microphone shot, is in the semantic field of
music and pragmatically implies that Eve’s priority is music and her views are career based,
therefore this puts her in a higher position, rather than weak, to the male audience.