How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

IntroDuring the process of production, I had to research theories, to make sure that my magazine was engaging to my audience.

Research that I conducted, including the questionnaire helped me understand my audience. I used Audiences theories on how to promote the beliefs that I want them to believe.

Determining the Audience

During the research I had to categories my audience as passive or active. I assumed that most of my audience would be active audiences. As they don’t just receive information passively but are actively involved, often unconsciously, in making sense of the message that I am trying to portray. As my magazine is a niche product, and looks to challenge conventions, hence active audiences would be suitable.

How to expose the product to

AudienceThe theories that apply here is Two Step Flow and Uses and Gratifications.

Two Step flow is where there is an opinion leader, who takes an ideology and convey them to others. This can be celebrities or even my magazine. This requires an influential figure or product, to have an influence on people. So it can be difficult for audiences to respect an up and coming artist, but hence it is aimed towards strivers, who want to make it.

How to expose the product to Audience

pt.2Blumler and Katz uses and gratifications can is part of 4 needs that need to satisfy the audience in one way. That is Entertainment, Personal Identity, Social Interaction and Information.

Entertainment: my audience are hard workers, hence at times they need relaxation and escapism, so using images to entertain them, was a factor as they are fox thinkers. Especially the image of Glock in the front page offered entertainment as they image challenges the usual representation of a Rap Artist.

Personal Identity: As my he experienced the typical start career of a Hip Hop artist and hence it paudience are strivers who work hard, sometimes they might need inspiration to keep going, so by having up and coming artists, it provides them with a personal connection. Kareem who is a young up and coming artist can be relatable as rovides personal identity as not only can the audience relate, but they can also feel sympathy for the artists as he opens up about his struggle.

How to expose the product to Audience

pt.3The audience, should receive my media product in an informative fashion, but at the same time providing entertainment and stress relief. The audience is fox thinkers and using images, help them visualize and help sympathies with an artist better. Due to there youth they are easily influenced, at this point, hence I aimed for a dominant reading. This was done by having the content in first person most of the time.

How to expose the product to Audience

pt.4Social Interaction: As an active audience, and at this day and age, so young audiences, it is a need to become a social person. This means that a person would have read my product to produce topics, that are sociable and relatable to the lives of the majority making them social and sophisticated. Due to the niche product, it creates many subject matters, as one of the ideas of the magazine is to challenge conventions. Hence this creates a social interaction as, controversial incidents would be talked about hence raising awareness and providing the audience of new up and coming artists to talk about.

Information: My audience would receive information about how to become an artists as that is what my magazine is about. Glock shares his struggle with life on the road as an artists and the temptations that come with it. Kareem provides facts about how he made it as an artist.

But Wait there’s more

I also considered that some of my audience might be passive Culmination theory and Hypodermic syringe and see that the audience are now mass media and follow mainstream ideologies. I feel that I can apply this to the anomaly of the niche audience.

Culmination Theory: they have been injected with ideologies but for it to be accepted it has to be repeated overtime. As I am constantly going to challenge conventions, my audience will receive ideologies of Hip that over time they will accept. Hence by providing negative views about Hip Hop the more they are likely to avoid it in life e.g. Glock.

Hypodermic syringe is that the audience are given an ideology and instantly with agree with it. It means that by providing negative views on Hip Hop I can inject the audience with my beliefs about Hip Hop. As these specific topics are being injected.

Morley’s & Hall and Reception

AnalysisReception Theory emphasizes the reader’s reception of a literary text. The theory is similar to Reader response literary theory, seeing these audience as individuals.

The different types of audience reception:

Oppositional- people disagree with the message and reject it.

Negotiated- On the whole, the view is agreed with but slightly altered.

Dominant- The message is fully accepted.

Morley’s & Hall and Reception

Analysis We can apply Morley’s readings to my magazine. I want my audience to take a Negotiated reading of my product as this means that as an audience they are still becoming individuals. This means that my magazine will be successful as they understand what conventions I am trying to break of Hip Hop but they could adjust these messages that I am trying to connote and alter to suit their personal preference.

The audience can also take an Oppositional reading because they are active, they can reject some messages I am trying to connote. This means that as I am trying to show reality and breaking the conventions of Hip Hop, they might think it’s incorrect and they will reject the reading I wanted them to have. This means that it won’t be as successful.

Dominant reading is very unlikely to be in my audience, because my target audience is active. Dominant means that they fully accept the message I am trying to connote and if this happens, this can create a more mainstream type of audience who believe in the same thing. This is why I want my audience to be individuals as I am not following mainstream methods.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs & how does it

work?This theory suggest there are 5 stages the people go through in life, depending on different circumstances that might be due to money, profession, and type of person. The theory says that at each stage we have different motivations that drive us. It’s an important theory that helps reach out to the audience and understand the type of products that need to be provided in order for the audience to interact with those needs, provoking a response.

In the magazine product I have provided and Self-actualization.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

Self-Actualization: This is the lack of Prejudice, acceptance of fact and the morality and creativity in life. The moment where the person realizes there personal potential. In order to achieve this the individual has to achieve the previous 4. I feel that this is relevant to my product because that seeing these up and coming artists make it into the industry makes them realize that they can do it and they have the potential. I portrayed the lack of prejudism by having diverse artists, and this helps the audience realize the growing number of diverse ethnic artists. This ends with the acceptance of fact the magazine provides the with constructed reality and something they accept that gives them the desire to work harder to become everything they can be.