When producing my media coursework I discovered that it was me who was in control over my audience, as I was able to manipulate and mould the music magazine to the target market. This related to the theory created by Blumber and Katz, which was the ‘uses and gratifications theory’. This is a theory which is a humanistic and optimistic approach to the media and their audience, where the audience have control over the media and they are free to choose what they want and what to believe within media products. The ‘uses and gratifications theory’ is useful for media producers because the producers understand the audience and are able to market to their product to appeal to them directly. This makes products easier to sell and more successful in the market as the audience is more accessible and understood.
A key part of interpretation the ‘uses and gratifications’ theory is entertainment. My magazine, like most, is entertaining to attract the target audience. For the type of music genre the magazine is aimed at the audience would expect a laid back approached to new music and therefore a ‘light hearted’, entertaining articles. To ensure that I was creating entertaining articles I researched into similar magazines and analysed the language used, this gave me the ability to write funny and witty articles which the audience could relate to. I also attracted the audience by including competitions. These were an incentive to buy the magazine giving me some control over the audience as I played on the 60% of males which would be likely to enter the competition as they demonstrate a risky, laid back lifestyle. I gave the opportunity to advertise winning a iphone, this gave my music magazine as a product a consumable attraction, the audience find the magazine informative and entertaining. As well as creating successful music magazine I included articles about new film and DVD releases where critics can voice their opinion in an entertaining way, this would possibly attract a wider audience as some people could buy a magazine purely for new releases in media. By including both new music and new film and DVD releases I have covered a large media industry and made my magazine more appealing.
The ‘uses and gratifications’ theory includes information as a key part of the construction of the theory. My magazine is influential as it contains a variety of images of fashion in the music scene, the newest music and how it makes you feel and news updates in the industry. This is all part of the information in the magazine, it’s another way for the audience to consume the magazine and take something from it. Information like new music and artists can be presented in double page spreads and displayed to attract the audience for example exploiting the primary optical area and using star bursts to optimise the ‘dead areas’. I also used information to in the articles to give the readers an opportunity to learn about the music industry and give potential young bands and artists the chance to see how successful artists got found out and famous. This was shown in my articles such as ‘The Newbies – who are the new kids on the block?’ and ‘Marina and the Diamonds – her brand new album of 2010!’ and ‘Is there such a thing as ‘Chart Corruption’. These articles are examples of the features, news and reviews from the contents page of my magazine; they give the readers information about the different areas and elements of the music industry.
For me a huge part of the magazine was about engaging with yourself and discovering what influences you to make you, you. I understood from conducting my questionnaires that the audience were heavily influence by music and felt it was important to make sure that there was a strong sense of personal identity. This is another branch of the ‘uses and gratifications’ theory, it is one of the most important areas of the theory as it is aimed directly at the audience, about the audience. I believe that the audience will identify the most with the mise-en-scene, particularly the clothing and fashion set for the main article. This is because the band, ‘Alice & The Americans’ are demonstrating a great music lifestyle and are similar age to those in the audience. The band also acts as an admirable achievement in the new, young music industry as the audience can relate the magazine and the main article the audience can take something more from the magazine than just entertainment. Although the readers might not look positively at the images, because the audience are individuals and each will have their own interpretation which consequently could make them feel negatively about themselves. This is a flaw of the ‘uses and gratifications’ theory as the theory presumes that all readers of media are media literate which is a naïve approach to such a large number of people. The theory has unlimited interpretations because there as many interpretations as there are viewers, giving the readers of my magazine a strong sense of personal identity.
The last area of the ‘uses and gratifications’ theory is integration and social interaction, this means the readers can talk to others about a similar subject or topic. This not only gives the audience a socialising opportunity to meet new people but also keeps them interesting to current friends as there is a conversation topic. My magazine also shows artists lifestyles of the music industry and gives young people with talent something to aspire to, I purposely produced a main article which the audience could relate to. The artists I created where from a similar background and upbringing to those in the audience. This technique gives the audience a realistic sight of the music industry helping to give the younger generation a more positive outlook on life. I included feature articles about this year’s festivals and gigs which will give the readers a chance for them to meet like minded people giving them more social interaction between the similar groups of people.
Overall, I have created a magazine which influences a particular group of people who can interpret a magazine in more than one way, subconsciously through the ‘uses and gratifications’ theory. They are unaware of how they read and what they take from a magazine which ultimately means that a media producer is in control over the audience, even if the reader chooses to avoid a certain article it is still the media producers which gave them the choice. My music magazine represents how I was in control over my audience as I attracted them using particular media techniques and gave them articles which I had selected to put in.
Sophie Binns
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