2. How did you attract/address your audience?

To construct the perfect magazine for them I took into consideration the genre of music that will appeal to them. I decided that the music genre would be dubstep. Therefore this limited to my age group to a 17-25 with the target audience I have considered that their disposable income is limited therefore the pricing on my magazine I had to take these factors into account so I charged a reasonable price in which it would not be to “expensive” for this age group. The music I chose is based around a new era of music known as dubstep which is a type of electronic dance music most commonly heard of in my chosen target audience age group. In addition, this music genre also limited my magazine to male sex therefore this impacted on my magazine becoming a “lad’s mag” with a C2/C3 scale which can occupations such as a sales assistant. As I am of a similar age to my target age group this allowed for me to be put in the audience’s shoes I took into account would I buy the magazine? And what I believe stands out about the magazine. I used this to my advantage and aimed for my magazine to stand out. My magazine is a monthly magazine I decided this because I took into account the demand for the magazine and I believe that the magazine will not be as popular as other music magazine therefore it will not be able to compete as a fortnight magazine.  As an encoder it was vital that for attracting my audience I address my audience in the appropriate way, this is called the mode of address which generally really refers to the encoder making assumptions about the decoders’ (audience) knowledge, interests and understanding of the world and encode their texts accordingly. Those assumptions are cultural and can have an impact upon the audience. In terms of my magazine I constructed words such as - “Rave generation”- these types of words will appeal to my target audience and will also impact on attracting my target audience.

When constructing my pictures as an encoder I had to create pictures that would appeal to my target audience.  From planning my photo shoot I adapted my pictures an added anti social behaviour to help attract my target audience. Although as an encoder promoting anti social behaviour- would not increase sales therefore I minimised anti social behaviour to a level in which it could still be used however was “acceptable” from an encoder’s perspective.  For my picture I chose a medium long shot where I aimed to centralise my “DREx” banner and make it the centre of the picture in which it added a factor of anti social behaviour incorporating fire into the background.

In terms of an encoder when producing a magazine I had to include puffs and plugs into my music magazine. A puff is words of phrases used to boost magazine’s status whereas a plug is information on the front cover used to ‘hook’ the audience. I used plugs on my front cover by saying “win a free £25 itunes voucher” I used this statement as a result of carefully considering what my target audience would want. In addition I also used puffs in my magazine by incorporating words such as “exclusive” this helped to address and attract my target audience.

Furthermore, as an encoder I had to think about my language used. For my target audience the “formal” language would not attract my target audience therefore I had to incorporate more bolder words and language that would appeal to my target audience my dubstep genre theme  resulted in me basing my language to this theme everything that I said as an encoder had to link to my dubstep theme.When creating my interview, I took into consideration what sort of language I could use to attract my target audience, as someone of this target age group I used language that I would use words such as “vibes”. These types of words the older generation wouldn’t know what they meant therefore my target audience was crucial when determining my dubstep theme.

Choosing the correct fonts is also a key aspect for attracting and addressing my target audience.  As an encoder I wanted my fonts to be big and bold and stand out. Throughout my music magazine when creating my masthead I went for a contrast between the background colour and the masthead so as a decoder referring to semiotics this was the denotation as  the bold font draws the decoders attention too it. I also used simple fonts so it was easy to read. When deciding what fonts to use I put myself into a decoder’s perspective and thought about which font would appeal to me.

In addition as an encoder I had to take into account the themes that were carried out throughout my music magazine. My dubstep genre theme impacted on me choosing a wild “rave” theme throughout my magazine. This impacted me having to integrate this into my pictures and the set out of my front cover, double page spread and contents so it would attract to my target audience.

When constructing my magazine as an encoder I used Stuart Halls theoretical encoder/decoder model as a basis, in which I asked 3 people about my magazine hoping for them to outline my target audience. In which I received my dominant response all 3 people believed that my target audience was male dominated. This signifies that my magazine target audience has been met as an encoder I wanted this result to occur. Furthermore from a decoder’s perspective being a similar age group, from this I was able to understand the intentional connation on my magazine. All media texts are polysemic. 

I also had to take into consideration the pricing of my music magazine.  When developing the price of my magazine I had to develop a price in which was reasonable for my target audience and would be able to compete against rival magazines.