1. Audience Theory

6. Most of my experiences are on my own so I may not be influence until after I received the information. I talk to people after I have received the text so I may be influenced by them and if the same information comes up I would have already been influenced by other people. Following Burton’s theory, for socially grouped audiences, my music magazine audience will be divided depending on gender, age, ethnicity and education. I am creating an urban (Grime, Rap, DnB) magazine so the stereotypical audience would be adolescent (13-20) black males from a lower background and education but other people from different ethnicity, age, gender and class may listen to this music and therefore read this magazine. The stereotypical representation of the grime genre would typically be an audience of lower class with interest in rap music similar to a crime culture, this could come from their role models and idols being footballers or rap ‘gangsta’ without having a family father figure to look up to. Generic conventions of the grime genre mise-en-scene would be different depending on the artist and how would like to be portrayed to the audience. Their clothes would generically be dark, negative coloured hoodies and baggy jeans with matching trainers, usually wearing gold chains and sun glasses to show their wealth. The use of formal words and lack of ‘slang’ may possibly present this. Burton’s theory also suggests that an audience is not only socially grouped but media grouped. For media grouped, my target audience will be people that are interested in music of all genres. The media types I can use could be the internet, magazines, television and maybe radio. The internet would be my main media type as it is accessible wherever and whenever where as radio can be used mainly within in a car. I could use television to advertise my magazine with adverts. Through product research the main colours or an urban magazine would be black, red and parts of white. The main artist on the front cover will have medium/close up shot of their face to show facial emotion; also the artist will take up most of the page and have other features round the side.

7. By using Hartley’s developed idea of how an audience is divided I am planning to follow the following concepts: Self: The aspirations of my audience include being a ‘music-lover’ and interested in upcoming music events and new artists. Gender: My audience will be male. Age group: I want to appeal to old teenagers and young adults (adolescent) therefore my magazine should include features which attract this audience. Richard Dyer states that people will respond to a message if it offers them compensation for their inadequacies in their own lives. My target audience could have the inadequacy of feeling isolated and turn to music as part of a way of ‘comforting’ themselves. Therefore my music magazine could offer advice, company and sympathy through the contents. By using an interview or biography on the double page spread, an artist that has experienced situations which the audience may have experience, could offer company and provide advice. Fiske adds a further 5 factors which should be considered when identifying an audience such as; education, religion, political, allegiance, region and urban vs. rural. For example, when designing a magazine, I could consider what factors might appeal to urban region. Rural regions may prefer to see well known, rich idols featured to inspire towards.

8. They used Dyer’s Utopian Solutions Theory to motivate and engage their audience, offering their target audience ways of saving money They also applied Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, but threatened their audience’s need of ‘safety’ by using an unfamiliar environment in the setting that our main character would explore. This should engage their media literate audience, using their foreknowledge and understanding of the genre to establish meaning. They used photographic techniques to encode messages about the characters; the use of low angled shots on our protagonist for example, as well as the use of subjective photography to engage their audience actively with the main characters. Levi-Strauss’ Binary Oppositions theory helped them to consider the characters they wanted to create as Chris Brown’s character represents powerfulness, dominant and authoritative.