Textual analysis of codes and conventions - Studying reader profiles

How does the reader consume music in NME and Uncut?


In NME, the reader consumes music through all sources, their results say that in the last year, their readers consumed:
- 39 CD albums (or £430 worth per reader)
- 45 CD singles (or £135 worth per reader)
- 55% of reader's buy the majority of their music from a Major music chain. e.g. HMV
- 45% buy vinyl from a specialist record shop
- 28% purchase CD's online e.g. Amazon
- 19% own an iPod
- Average of 15 single downloads per reader per month


In UNCUT, the reader's also consume their music in many different forms, such as:
- 79% of reader's said it's important for them o keep up-to-date with the latest music
- 97% of reader's are passionate about music
- On average, reader's spend £600 a month on CD's, compared to £480 on average in 2002
- The average reader download's 8 album's a month
- The average reader consumes 6 CD album's a month

The similarities that I can see between these two reader profiels are that the majority of reader's still prefer a hard copy of music, i.e. CD's. This shows that the audience's of these magazine's are working people as they have money, but also that it is a mature audience that don't like to download as much as have their collection of their favourite artist's.

However, there are also differences in the two reader profiles such as UNCUT give a very brief look over on how music is consumed, whereas NME goes in to much more detail about the average's of consumtion of music by there readers.

I think that these reader profile's show that they have two different types of readers and therefore would have both similar and different advertisements. For example, I think that both these magazines would advertise new albums and singles as the majority of their reader's buy both. I also think that both magazines would have advertisements for 'HMV' and 'Amzaon' as these are large retailer's for their reader's music consumtion.
On the other hand, In the reader profile of UNCUT, they only give a brief description of how their reader's consume their music and so must have other things that they feature on in the magazine such as films or new gaming electronics. This opens up a wider variety of advertising as they can reach into three possible different categories in which they can benfit from advertisements.
Also, I think that even though NME has a wide range of statistics to do witht he music consumtion of their readers, I think that they would branch out in to different types of music forms for their advertisements; such as, an iPod advert as a substantial amount of their reader's put their music on an iPod to listen to it on the go. I think they would also branch out in to advertising vinyl, and shops that sell vinyl, so being clear about the target audience's.

Top of the Pops reader profile:
- £2.35 per issue
- produced once every four weeks
- 104,709 in circulation
- 344,000 regular readers
- 15% male audience, 85% female audience
- target audience age range: 11-15

I think that ym prediction of who Top of the Pops was aimed at was right as, they advertise a wide range of products, from Camp Rock (Disney channel, showing a young audince) to Always sanitary pads. This shows that the target audience is a young audience, but it also shows that the magazine is aimed at girls who are maturing. I also think that the price is a hint toward the target audience as it is not too expensive and is a price that young girls can afford with their weekly 'pocket money'.

Overall, I think that these reader profiles reflect the target audience very well and display the estimated age grouos through the consumtion of music, apart from Top of the Pops, which tells us the target audience age. I think that these reader profiles are very useful tonhelp identify the target audience as their statistics display how much income the reader must have on a monthly basis to afford the magazine and the music that they buy i.e. the amount of CD albums bought on average a month.

Comparison of Blogs

I have looked at a variety of blogs such as Film blogs, Music blogs and Scientific blogs:

Film blogs I looked at:
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/markkermode/
- http://www.fadedglamour.co.uk/

Music blogs I looked at:
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog
- http://www.buzzinmusicblog.co.uk/
- http://www.livemusicblog.com/

Scientific blogs I looked at:
- http://scienceblog.com/
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog
- http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/science_blog/

One thing i found common among all of these blogs was that the layout was very easy on the eye. I think his is a good quality to all of these blogs as they were easy to read and configure. I also found that the blogs had adapted to their genre of the blog. For example, the live music blog had theme colours of red and white to show the vibrant feel of live gigs, but white so that the text on the blog was easy to read.

By looking at these different blogs, I have learnt that the blogs that had more hits and were more interesting were fairly plain, with detail highly related to the purpose for the blog. Using this information I know that I should keep my blog simple and informative but with the information I need, laid out in different ways.

Content Analysis & Target Audience Research

Top of The Pops:

Advertisements:
1 Page - The Hole (New Film)
1 Page - Always (Cosmetics)
1 Page - Tampax (Cosmetics)
1 Page - Street Dance 3D (Competition)
1 Page - Mobile Wallpapers
1 Page - Mascara (Cosmetics)
1 Page - Sims 3 Racing (Computing goods)

Overall, the advertisemants in Top Of The Pops Magazine take up 7 of 56 pages.

Features:
1 Page - Pixie Lott
2 Pages - Justin Bieber
2 Pages - Selena Gomez

The features in Top of The Pops take up five of fifty-six pages.

In total, Top of the Pops featured 2 Pages for new albums & three pages for small advertisemants (Mobile screensavers)

NME:

Advertising:
4 Pages - Halo (Computer Game)
1 Page - New Album
1/4 Page - Film
1/4 Page - New Album
1/2 Page - Stop Torture (Charity)
1/4 Page - Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. (New Album)
1/8 Page - Crinderman (New Single)
1/8 Page - Plants and Animals (New Album)
1/4 Page - Memories of Loss (New Album)
1 Page - Yazoo Drink (Competition)
1 Page - New Album
5 Pages - Concert/Gig Dates and Venues
1 Page - Orange (Mobile Advert)
1 Page - Sold Out Tour
(The Quarter and Half Page Adverts have had to be compressed to make one)
Overall, NME advertising takes up 15 &3/4 pages out of 200.

Main Features:
- 1 PageFront Cover
- 2 Pages 'How to Save 'Rock 'n' Roll''
- 4 Pages Arctic Mokeys Interview
- 2 Pages Festival Poll 2010
- 1 Page New Manchester Riot
- 5 Pages The 'XX'
- 2 Pages The Joy Formidable
- 2 Pages Zola Jesus
- 2 Pages Edwyn Collins
- 2 Pages Rediculous Is Nothing To Be Scard Of
- 2 Pages We Do Things Our Way

In total, NME had 25 pages on festures out of 200.

In total, NME featured eight T.V and Radio adverts and six and a half pages of small ads i.e concert dates.

These show me that advertisements are very effective in magazine's, but also that the bigger the magazine, the greater the amount of adverts to both recieve funding for the magazine's producers as well as filling th pages within the publication.

ICT Skills used:

I produced these Pie charts using my ICT skills. I first entered all of the information above each pie chaet in to Excel, in the format:

I then highlighted all of the numbers and the total, and created a pie chart by clickin gon insert and then pie chart and choosing the design of the pie chart I wanted.

Using my ICT skills, it allows me to display my work in a different way, making clearer visual images of my research so that I can understand it clearer.

Masthead Research

Looking at these Mastheads, it shows me that all of them are designed to suit the name of the magazine as well as the genre that they are promoting. Having this information shows me how I can both advertise the music genre that my magazine is based on as well as the name in relation to this genre and my magazine.