Research Methods

Before creating my music magazine I need to do some research into what would appeal to my chosen target audience and background research into magazines that are already on the market.

Research is split into two different types; primary and secondary. 

Primary research is research that you do yourself. For example:

• questionnaire
• survey
• interview
• focus group
• phone call
• email
• letter 
• textual analysis

Secondary research is research which you collate from someone else, such as: 

• books
• internet
• search engines
• industry websites
• websites by individuals
• newspapers, magazines
• journals

These can then be split into a further two data groups; quantitative and qualitative. 

Quantitative data is to do with numbers and looking for certain patterns or trends in people's responses. Examples of these are questionnaires or surveys. This type of data tends to use closed questions as it is then easier for the researcher to compare their target audience's answers.

Qualitative data is to do with opinions, words and feelings in people's responses which can be retrieved from methods such as the information you would collect from a focus group. This type of data prefers to use open-ended questions in order to get as much detail as possible within the answers. The researcher can then use the answers in more depth.


Although the majority of these research methods will be beneficial for me some of them will have their drawbacks. For example, a questionnaire may have rushed answers as people may not want to answer it and therefore the data wouldn't be reliable. Also, some participants may feel influenced by the person giving the questionnaire, also know as 'Interviewer Desirability Bias', and so may answer in a way which they feel would please the interviewer.

Preliminary Task - Final Drafts

This is my final draft for my preliminary task.

The most obvious thing that’s changed since my first draft is my masthead which I added a shadow to in order to make it stand out more against my background photo. I think the use of shadow draws attention to the masthead and therefore the magazine itself. It also gives the magazine a modern vibe which will appeal to the younger end of my target audience. Although I admitted that the house colours of my magazine were bland I decided to keep them the same as after trying out different colour schemes I discovered that they didn’t look right with my background photo and so I chose to stick with the original. I think the colour scheme works as the colours blend well together and don’t clash. It gives the magazine a more sophisticated edge which will help it to appeal to the parental side of my target audience. After doing my focus group research I edited my ‘Inside this issue’ column slightly to include a ‘Thought for the term’ and ‘English department staff profiles’ as these are things that Mr Swain said he would be interested in when looking at a school magazine.

The main improvement that I would make to my front cover would be the colour scheme as although I think it does work well I’m still not too fond of it. To do this I would retake my background photo against a white background so that I could edit it out allowing me to make the background any colour of my choosing which could give me more options for my 3-colour colour scheme.

This my final contents page for my school magazine. I made quite a few alterations to my orignal draft in order to make my magazine more appealing. I started by changing my background colour from white to the same shade of grey that is used for the 'Inside this issue' column on the front cover. I feel that this ties the front cover and contents page together and helps to make my magazine look more sophisticated. After carrying out my focus group research I then went on to change some of the articles slightly and changed my language to make it more appealing, such as 'Exclusive Interview with Laura Christer on life in Year 7. I changed the colour of the page numbers to red to make them stand out more and also to fit in with my 3-colour colour scheme. Finally I added an extra photo next to the list of contents so that there is more for the reader to look at and to brighten up the page.

The main improvement that I would make to my contents page is again the colour scheme. As I had already used the grey on my front cover I needed to make sure that my contents page fitted in with the house style and therefore I had to use the same colour. If I had taken my photo against a white background it would have given me a much wider selection of colours to choose from..

Overall I’m happy with the look of my magazine as I think it would appeal to my target audience as it modern and sophisticated and has articles which would appeal to both ends of the spectrum.

Focus Group Research

In order to ensure that my magazine is successful within my chosen target audience I asked a group of Year 7 students and a teacher, Mr Swain, what they would like in their ideal school magazine.

After questioning Year 7s I discovered they wanted:

• bright colours to grab their attention and make them more interested in the magazine
  competitions that they could enter to win prizes
• lunch menus for the school canteen as they often don’t know what food is being served on what day
• funny/embarrassing stories about teachers

My research from Mr Swain told me:

• our magazine should be every half term so that there it is more fulfilling than a weekly one
• information about upcoming school trips should be included along with photos of previous school trips so parents and students know what kind of thing to expect
• a list of school term dates would be beneficial so that parents know exactly when training days and holidays are
• a ‘thought for the term’ to encourage students to focus and think about what is important eg. revision
• staff department profiles so that students and parents can learn more about their teachers and who each department is made up of and what their exact roles are

I have decided that my chosen target audience is going to be both parents and students and so I am going to incorporate ideas received from both groups in order to achieve this.

Preliminary Task - First Drafts

Here's my first draft for my magazine front cover. Overall I'm pretty pleased with it although there are some alterations I would like to include in my final piece to make it more interesting as I feel it looks boring due to the colour scheme.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my first draft for my contents page. I am pleased with my article ideas and the use photo at the bottom. However, I feel that it is plain due to its white background and so I am going to work to make it more appealing to my target audience.

Final Images

After looking at possible locations I chose my top three - the Front Entrance, a classroom and the Sixth Form Common Room Entrance.


The main image for my magazine needs to be a mid close up of a student. I asked a Year 7 student to stand against a black background and smile so that it looks as natural as possible.














I decided that I liked the idea of having the front of the school as one of my main images as I feel it would make the magazine appear more welcoming and homely.









For my third location I chose outside the doors of the sixth form block as it is a key part of the school and therefore I believe it needs to be included in my magazine.














I chose a classroom as I wanted to show students in a working environment to portray a hardworking school.










I'm not neccessarily going to use all four of these photos but I thought if I could narrow down the originals to a final four I would then have more to use if my cover looks too bland.

Choosing a location

I went on a 'recce' around school looking at different locations that I could use to take my front cover photos. I took photos of each location I was interested in as you can see below.

Sixth Form Common Room














Pig Pen














Tech Block


















Tech Benches


















Common Room Stairs

















Afloor Lockers













Library















Art Gallery


















Bfloor Bridge

















Reception














Front Entrance

Fonts, Pages and Images

Font

• Serif Font - Times New Roman; often a traditional font and to do with the past 
• Sans Serif - Comic Sans, Tahoma, Verdana; modern and more appealing to a younger target audience
• Handwriting Font - Monotype Corsiva; more personal font as it is like somebody has written it themselves

Front Cover

• Banner or Masthead - generally the title of the company  
• Sell Lines - text that reveals a snippet of information about the content
• Burst - graphic design element; look exciting and intrigues the reader 
• Menu Bar - advertises other things within the magazine, often at the bottom 
• Blue Line - barcode, price, issue number, date etc
• Capitals - portrays shouting, used to show important information

Two types of magazine front covers:

• Busy and cluttered - suggests value for money, lots of information inside, exciting
• Simple and clean - makes the magazine look sophisticated and organised with a secure target audience

Pages 

• Callout - quotations taken from the copy
• Copy - the article 

Images

• Camera shots used in moving image all translate into print
• Black and White -old fashioned, classical, timeless
• 3-Colour Colour Scheme - strict colour schemes

Magazine Deconstructions

As part of my research I deconstructed two other school magazines in order to help me decide what would and would not work for my own.

The two magazines I chose to deconstruct were ‘The Griffin’ and ‘News from Hampton’. Although they are both clearly public schools ‘The Griffin’ is an example of a poor school magazine whereas ‘News from Hampton’ is an example of a good one.

The colour scheme on ‘The Griffin’ is bland and clashing. The background colour is grey and plain which is very basic and unappealing to the eye. The two main colours on the front page are black and purple. The use of black is bland and unexciting as it not only blends in with the grey background but is a boring colour. The choice of purple used for the banner at the top of the magazine is not the same purple as is used for the sticker or some of the font and therefore it clashes and is cringeworthy as it doesn’t look right on the page. The font not only changes colour but also changes from bold, italic, capitals and lowercase which makes it confusing to the reader as you don’t know what to follow. The headings ‘WHAT’S NEXT?’ and ‘SCHOOL FOOD’ instantly draw your attention as they are in a bigger font and are also in bold so your eye is drawn in their direction. The photo is well cut and placed and draws attention to the poster as it is central and everything else is focussed around it. The logo of the griffin is placed at the bottom left of the poster and makes the poster look tacky as it looks as if it’s just been placed there and no thought has gone into its positioning. The poster tells you that it is free by the use of a sticker with the word ‘FREE!’ written on it. The sticker is a graphic that has been made to look as if it is peeling away from the magazine. It was most properly placed there in an attempt to make the magazine look modern and therefore appeal to its target audience but if anything it just makes the magazine look tacky and cringeworthy.

‘News from Hampton’ is a magazine which is clearly aimed at parents as you can tell straight away due to its appearance. It’s not your typical school magazine in that it has a simplistic front cover with a professional finish. The magazine has followed the ‘3 colour colour scheme’ and uses white, yellow and grey as it’s main colours with the exception of the logo. This helps to make it look classy as well as appealing to the eye as the colours compliment each other. The logo is placed in the top right hand corner where it is out of the way but can still be seen along with the school website. Underneath the logo is a column containing the title of the magazine and an ‘In this issue’. The title is in a large font so that it grabs your attention and it is also sideways on so that is makes the magazine look compact and neat. The ‘In this issue’ is helpful to the target audience as it gives them an insight into exactly what they can expect from the magazine and what parts in particular may appeal to them. The main focus of the magazine is the school production of ‘Les Misérables’. A wide shot photo has been placed at the top of the photo showing the majority of the cast mid production which instantly draws attention to it. Underneath the main photo are three smaller overlapping photos showing various scenes and characters during the performance. The main body of text is then placed in the lower half of the magazine talking about the production and what it involved. The text is laid out in small paragraphs so that it doesn’t bore the reader by dragging on and containing too much.