Uses and Gratification Theory

Uses and Gratification theory is a theory that is very popular that explores the medias mass communication. The producer focuses more on the audience than anything else, they focus on the audience by asking "what people do with media" over "what media does for people". The media producer assumes that their audience isn't passive but they do take an active role into adding and using media in our every day lives. The theory says that different medias try to fulfill specific gratifications to their audience, and how different medias will compete to gain viewer Gratification.

The Hypodermic Needle Theory

Disadvantages: Persuade the audience into believing wrong ideas for militias purposes.

Advantages: Its very simple and straight forward.

Suggest and explain at least TWO ways in which your client can test the appropriateness of their new products through audience feedback

Questionnaires:

A good way in which your client can find the right audience for a product is questionnaires, questionnaires if had a good amount filled in can give a great insight into the fine details of your target audience and if the product works for them. All though the client should already know their target audience it is another good way to find that. In a questionnaire the client would want to ask questions as if they where finding their target audience so they can see if that person they asked fits into their audience group and if so then their opinion on the product would be valued more than someone who isn't in their target audience. Some of these questions could include age, gender, martial status, income, town they live in etc. Then they would want to ask questions that are linked to the new product, these could be if we where to release this would you buy it, what do you like about it, what would you improve, if you wouldn't buy it why etc. These would allow the client to see if their audience would buy it and if they wouldn't how they could improve it to make it better.

Focus Group:

Focus groups are another good form of research into a product because this method allows the client to get a lot more detail on what people like and what they don't. A focus group is a group of people randomly brought in to a room and given a product or a service and they give their opinions on it. An advantage for the client is that they can record what has been said and can take it back with them and review it whenever they like, as well as getting more detail about their product. A disadvantage is that they would pick the people out at random who participate in these focus groups, so the people may not fall into their target audience and whatever they say good be irrelevant because they are trying to target their product at their target audience. 

Explain why News UK should use this style for their new magazine

The Sun Readership:

News UK should use this style of magazine for their Sun Readership because it has all the techniques that you would tend to find on the front cover of a Sun newspaper. The main picture is very bold and big covering the majority of the page, as well as having male gaze for men to pick up and purchase if they like that kind of magazine. The headline "Alison Brie's Big Dirty Secret" is very bold covering a good section of the page. It is also in capitals and a green text so it contrasts well enough so it is the main attraction. The main words in the headline "Big Dirty Secret" is something you would most likely find on a Sun newspaper front cover and would attract the same readership. I have continued to follow up on this with the sub heading saying "The Truth Behind Her Kinky Shoot Revealed" that gives the readers a small amount of context of what the story will be about. On the right hand side of the front cover it has three photos and three mini headings of three stories that the readers would find inside. Each having their unique story but with a approach that would appeal to the readership. The three headlines being "Cheryl Cole and her naughty sorts", "Tom Hardy and his rustic tools", and "Matt Boomer and his rough sex life". 

The Times Readership:

News UK should use this style for their Times readership because it is much more simplistic while being much more sophisticated. The topic of this magazine is animals and our plant which appeals to the A-C1 demographic. The headline covers the majority of the top of the page, which is very bold and underlined by the two lines above and below it. The main focal point is the huge king penguin that covers the main proportion of the page. Their are also two sub headings that give an insight into some of the stories covered inside, these include "The Komodo Dragon of Komodo Island" and "The Snow Leopard of the Himalayas". At the bottom their are three photos of animals that you would find inside the magazine and two of which relate to the sub headings which allow the reader to see the animals in their habitats. 

Create digital moodboards and a digital mock-up of a front cover for each of the proposed magazines based upon what you discovered about the specific target audience for each one

Mood Boards

My Magazines

The Sun Readership:

The Times Readership:

Explain how and why the content has been selected and constructed, what codes and conventions and mode of address have been used to appeal to each target audience.

The Sun Front Cover:

The Suns front cover is very simplistic with very little text and what text is on there is very bold and in your face. The headline which in this cover of the Sun is "A house benefit for a king" covers the majority of the paper and has words that try to grab the readers or the passer biers attention, in this case the words are "Benefit" and "King". The iconic logo of the Sun newspaper is normally found at the top on the left hand side this is called a masthead, with what's called a Pug to its left. A Pug is a promotional or special offer that can be found in the top left or right corner, the Sun always has a Pug that allows them to bring in extra revenue. Another thing common in the Sun newspaper is the strap line that usually starts with the word Exclusive, for the newspaper to the left the Exclusive was in bright red and all in capitals. Lastly, the sun uses multiple photographs, they are commonly quite controversial with many woman with little on, and designed for the male gaze. In this case the photos include a photo of a house that is relevant to the Headline and a picture of a very attractive woman on the left.

The Sun Page:

The Sun uses very big titles with words that are quite childish and easy to read. In this article about the Southampton vs. Chelsea match they use a title "Kick up the Arsenal!", this title has no relevance to the article but is suggesting that Chelsea are coming close to Arsenal in the league table. The main photo is of Chelsea's manager and a Chelsea player embracing which covers the middle of the page. They also have lots of simple graphs and figures on the left hand side of the statistics throughout the game that is easy to read for the readers. Lastly, hovering over the picture of the manager and player embracing is a football odds bet. This bet is being advertised by the Suns own betting system of 7/2 for the player (Diego Costa) of being the premier leagues top scorer. This is very common in the Sun because the suns readership are in the D to E audience which is the same for the majority of football fans.

The Times Front Page:

The Times newspaper is a lot more formal, and has a audience that would fall into the A to C1 classification. The Times newspaper is a lot more sophisticated with a more of an adult approach that tackles articles and news story's more maturely. On the front cover of the Times newspaper to the left you find the masthead (The Times Logo) commonly at the top of the paper that covers the majority of the top section. The times newspaper does include a Pug usually but sometimes advertises a free CD that is included in the newspaper. The Times also includes a lot more text, enough text to cover one whole story. They usual feature the main story of the day and then would continue it inside the newspaper normally on pages 6-7. The main picture in this case Hillary Clinton covers the middle of the newspaper and is the vocal point, the main picture usually is to do with the main story.

The Times Page:

In the same story to the Sun the Times takes a more mature approach with more text and more information. The title "Conte's changes pay dividends for Chelsea yet again" has relevance towards the article talking about how the changes the manager has taken in the team have paid off. The mature language is key for the target audience because it is appealing and helps the audience to further their knowledge. The picture covers roughly half of the middle of the page with small amounts of facts and figures of the Southampton vs. Chelsea game. There is also a small article by a sports specialist that sums up the weekends football games with a brief summary of the most thrilling games. Lastly, the style of grammar and layout of the page is very mature and formal, talking to the large readership with sophisticated words and appropriate grammar. The layout is thought through and set out in blocks that is easy to read and isn't at any point confusing.

The Sun vs. The Times:

The Suns layout of the front page and page layouts are very simplistic with little writing and more illustrative material like photos and diagrams. Compared to the Times which has more writing about the story's and relevant photographs that correspond correctly to the articles. The Suns photographs normally have some sort of sex appeal to grab the attention of people. Another thing different about the two magazines are that the language used, the Sun uses very simplistic language with large titles with words like "Sex", "Scandal" and "Exclusive" etc. that grab the attention of the reader, but may not include anything in the article. Compared to the Times newspaper that use language that is a lot more sophisticated and is appropriate to their target audience, their titles also show a lot of relevance towards the article it is with. The Suns also takes an informal approach with its articles and straplines with bright colors on the page and coverage over things that their target audience like, over the Times newspaper being a formal approach and have less color and pictures with more text and detail in the text. The Sun comes under the category of a Tabloid newspaper, which tend to be mainly focused on things like gossip, are generally quite small and are targeted towards a much lower reading age. Where as the Times is known as a Broadsheet Newspaper and is much more formal with a higher reading age and right articles relevant to the worlds news.

Define the target audience for each paper using appropriate subject terminology



The Times Newspaper:

The Times newspaper has a large readership of around 1,128,000 people across the print and PC platforms. It averages around 440,048 papers in circulation between each issue, with around 1,093,000 readers of each issue. Whilst on the platform of PC the Times newspaper has around 37,000 readers. The Time newspapers main readership comes from the 65+ age range with a huge 34.1%, the closest range to that is 45-54 with 18.5%. The social demographic scale of the Times newspapers main audience would be the social class of AB adults (Upper-Middle Class) with 656,000 of the newspapers audience falling into that class. The nearest to AB is C1 (Lower Middle Class) with 285,000 readers falling into that social class.

The Sun Newspaper:

The Sun newspaper has a huge readership of around 4,461,000 people across the platforms of print and PC. The Sun has and average of 1,696,685 papers in circulation of each issue and a readership of around 4,316,000 on the platform print. On the platform PC the Sun newspaper has a much smaller readership which is around 159,000 people. The main age range of the Sun newspapers viewers is 65+ with 25.9% of the Suns audience falling into that age range, and the closest age range being 45-54 with 18.0%. The social demographic that the Suns main audience falls into is DE (Working, Student, Pensioner) with around 1,556,000 readers and the closest is C2 (Working Class) with 1,354,000 readers.

Times vs Sun:

The total readership of the Sun is much greater than the Time's total readership with a 3,330,000 difference, it is clear that the Sun is a more popular newspaper from these figures. This could be because the Sun caters to a much larger audience with its very controversial articles and more of a humorous approach. The ages of which people read the two newspapers are very similar, with both newspapers main audience being 65+, and second largest audience being 45-54 years of age. This is most likely because at these ages people have more time on their hands so they are more likely to read a newspaper. As well as newspapers being something they have read since they where much younger and have continued to read it over other methods like PC/Mobile. Lastly, the social demographics of both newspapers are completely different, the Time's main social status is AB and C1 which are the two highest groups and are more likely to be wealthier people. Compared to the Suns readership who fall in the social class of DE and C2 the two lower social statuses which are renowned to have less money. This shows that the Times is a more prestigious newspaper and caters for a more sophisticated audience where as the Sun caters for an audience who aren't as wealthy and may not be as sophisticated.

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