Research Rationale

Upon receiving my brief many ideas were circulating my head, such as the genre of my music magazine. I have decided to make my target audience 14-25 year old's as I know many people in this age range and feel they suit the genre of indie/alternative well. As I am a sixth form student in a high school I have access to a large group of students aged 11-18. This will benefit me greatly as I conduct my research. Some examples of the primary research that I will be carrying out include surveys, interviews and questionnaires. This will give me a better understanding of what it is that my audience would like to see in an indie/ alternative music magazine. 

 

In addition to this I will select a group of people to create a focus group. This should present various views on indie music magazines that I will later analyse and apply to the production of my magazine. I will be asking things such as, what are the most important aspects of a music magazine to you? What colour schemes do you feel work best with this genre? And so on. The only disadvantage to a focus group is that some people may be influenced by the views of others. To overcome this I will ensure that they do a survey before the discussion starts and then they can talk about their views with confidence.

Prior to this I will deconstruct several indie music magazines to get a detailed view of the genre and what elements they use that I may decide to recreate when forming my magazine. Previously in my prelim I deconstructed music magazines. As I already have firsthand experience of deconstruction this should prove to be a straightforward task.

To research the genre further I intend to visit stores or websites to see what indie magazines have to offer, which ones stand out to me, and my target audience. Through this I will achieve a better understanding of what my target audience look for in an indie magazine and what attracts people to a front cover. Furthermore I will create a video in which I will explore indie sub genera’s and indie artists that I personally enjoy listening to.

To conclude, I feel confident with the going ahead of my research and am looking forward to gaining a better understanding of what my music genre (indie) has to offer.