Year 11 - What do my Readers Want in a Magazine? Creating a Questionnaire

Consider who is your Target Audience and how you are going to find out what they would like to read about in your magazine. To do this, you need to create a questionnaire using Survey Monkey. You will then have data to use when planning the content of your own magazine product.

Task: Go to the website www.surveymonkey.com Sign up and then create a list of 10 questions for your potential readers. Send an email to 20 of your friends asking them to complete the questionnaire.

Year 11 Target Audience Task

Go to the UK Tribes website.
Explore the website to help you research how to define Target Audience groups. Think about how this site may influence your own ideas about the Target Audience for your magazine product.

Task: Create a description of the Target Audience for your magazine product. Add this to your research powerpoint as a new slide. Can you include a description and images that would suit your target audience. You are trying to create a Target Audience Profile to show the kind of person who you imagine would buy your magazine.

CD Cover Task - Evaluation Questions

When you complete a piece of creative work you are required to evaluate it. The questions you need to answer for this task are simplified versions of the ones you will need to answer for your coursework. These are the things you need to evaluate and comment on.

• What is good about your work? (Consider image, layout, colour, font, design). 
• What needs improvement? (Consider image, layout, colour, font, design). 
• What will you do differently next time? 
• What have you learnt?

Magazine Research and Planning Task List

You need to complete the following (use Martha's work as a guide):

• general magazine x1
• specialist magazine x2
• genre conventions
• moodboard(s)
• magazine analysis (cover, contents, double page spread) x3
• colour palettes x6
• fonts (including descriptions) x8
• audience profile (male & female - as applicable)
• UK Tribes audience profile
• questionnaire and questionnaire feedback

GCSE MEDIA: Analyse a Magazine Examples

GCSE MEDIA: Analyse a Magazine: Analyse a cover, contents page and double page spread from an existing title within your genre.  Use the examples below to help with your ...

Magazine Research by Martha Causier

GCSE Media Studies Magazine Production from LouiseDownie

Magazine Glossary

Masthead – The name and logo of the magazine.

The Lead – the introductory paragraph of an article. Usually written in bold or capitals.

Body copy - refers to the text of your written articles, which should be produced as a printed presentation to accepted industry standards, e.g. correct use of language, font size, word limits etc. Usually written in columns.

Serif font – fonts like Times New Roman, or Baskerville Old Face, which have little bars (serifs) on the end of the letters.

Sans serif font – fonts like Impact, or Agency FB, which do not have little bars (serifs) on the end of the letters.

Drop Capitals – Really big letter, which start off an article.

Cross Head – Small sub-heading used to split up a large block of text.

White Space – white parts of a page other than text or pictures.

Mode Of Address – How the magazine talks to the audience.

Sell Lines – Text on the cover that helps to sell the magazine to the audience. Kerrang!’s sell line is “life is loud”.

Banners – text, which stands out because its on a coloured background.

House Style – a magazines distinctive design that distinguishes it from its competitors.

Borders – the gaps at the edges of the page.

Gutters – the gaps between the columns of text.

Leading - the space between lines of text.

Kerning - the space between letters.

Strap Lines – a smaller headline, printed above the main headline.

By-lines - name of the person who wrote the article. Picture Credits - where did the photos come from, or who took them.

Anchorage – The way in which text helps to pin down the meaning of a picture and visa versa.