AICE Media Studies AS
Portfolio Project Concept Refinement
Fall 2020
|
CATEGORY
|
DETAILS
|
|
Film OR Magazine
|
Magazine
|
|
Genre
|
General interest
|
|
Target Audience (Be specific)
|
For men aged 18-24 who are looking at what's new and hip
|
|
What is your concept? (Be thorough & specific. Review the links
on Blackboard)
|
Trends are everything now-a-days. I want to be able to give people
the ability to understand what is in and what is out. The best way I can do
this is to appeal to people like me which is why I came up with that
audience. The over-arching topics will start with a cover page of the top
music artist of the week, to keep things fresh. The front cover will have
subtitles that will catch the eyes of many. The next page will hone in on the
interest of everybody, food. Food imagery will be placed here with the food
plate of the week. What else is big in today’s world? Technology. The next
page will contain the game of the week along with top reviews and gaming
community news. Finally, the last page will contain news of the week, this
can range from our government to the weather to COVID-19. I hope to give
appealing topics to a classic teenage boy and give them quick information
they can retain and talk about amongst their friends.
|
|
How did you conceive the idea for this concept?
|
I talked to someone about what I should write about and they started giving me ideas about
things I know a lot about. So, I came up with the idea of appealing to mainly
guys like me because I know what appeals to me generally and specially.
|
|
What do you believe is unique about your concept?
|
My article is unique in the fact that it’s a specialized teenage boy
article. I haven’t found an article quite like that before. I plan on
bringing out the trends of the community out into the boy’s world. With
topics most boys like, I think the gaming, food, and music combination is
something unheard of targeted for the common teenage boy.
|
|
Why do you believe this product will be of interest to your audience?
|
This will interest the young men because they can see things that may
interest them, and now they might learn some information they can use to talk
about with their friends. The article will be quick and easy information a 14
year old could understand.
|
|
FEEDBACK RECEIVED FROM PEERS
|
·
Refine age range to specific young adult range
·
Think about how I am going to get information
·
Think about combining with grace
·
Look over how my magazine is going to be
unique over other magazines
·
Review topics discussed in the magazine
|
After reviewing the feedback received from my peers, I decided that I would make my target audience a little older, because their attention span is a little longer, and I can appeal to a more narrow audience. I think this change will help my magazine plot as it tends to shift towards a new audience target. If I can create a magazine that is unique towards young men, I can implicate new ways to look at the news of the month. This means reviewing the topics I discussed. I am going to keep the topics I have that are relevant based off popularity in interest by young men. After reflecting over our concepts, me and Grace both realized that our views of what information we want to impose are vastly different. If we were to combine, our target audience would have been to broad to what a magazine should be. Being separate will allow us to convey are unique styles to a specific group of people on different interest topics. To summarize on the feedback, I have changed my target audience and now know where I'm going to get my data; I have reviewed what makes my article unique and I know that to get a unique magazine, I have to find what interest my audience.
Derived from the data magazine (1) by Wood Wing, “Niche publishers have not merely survived the past decade - many of them are thriving. They’ve managed this feat by staying relentlessly focused on one specific category and by thoroughly understanding the types of content and information that their audiences want, need – and in some cases, what readers don’t yet know they need." The information from this statement proves the fact that new publishers are thriving in the magazine industry. This is because they know exactly what their audience wants. I know that my target audience, based upon my interest, would love to be able to have access to a magazine that has information about different topics that are all important in today's world. It could be what's the new food everybody is trying or the ever changing news about our country. This is all information people want to know about and if I focus on that quick and vibrant information, I can attract subscribers.
From another statistical article (2) by Statista, "The number of magazine readers in the United States has increased in the last four years, with an estimated total of 216.5 million adult readers in 2015." This means that the magazine industry is growing, not declining like majority of people think. As new readers join the magazine world, what better a magazine than a trendy article with colorful text and subtitles that make people want to flip to a specific page with their favorite artist. This magazine concept is something never done for a male audience. I truly believe that this new audience target with my idea will instigate a new wave of readers. Also from the article by Statista (2), "The number of magazines in the U.S. has also stayed fairly constant over the years, varying from around 7,383 to 7,218 since 2008." This proves that the magazine world is not dying but is still able to thrive in a world of technology. With the combined topics that appeal to most readers in my target audience, it seems like this magazine my thrive like that.
From my assigned magazine by Dungy, it states, "...keeping our call for manuscripts up to date on our various outlets to keep us on the lookout for new talent, providing editorial feedback to our current authors, and monitoring production..." In the magazine world, their are a bunch of talented writers who are looking out for new talent. They hope to include these new artist into the new age of magazines. My goal is to appeal to these writers so I can evolve my magazine into the number one read piece of work. Also stated from my feature article by Dungy, "While I have had the great fortune of eventually meeting these writers--mentors and teachers, really--offline and in person, that it all originally happened on social media can't be neglected or overstated in its significance to writers who certainly understand the solitary nature of their work but also wish to acknowledge a deeper need to be a part of something greater." Since I am a younger artist with a better stic in the social media field, I might be able to convey my work through a broader group of people all throughout social media. I do work already on social media to get the most views and attract viewers. It goes hand-in-hand with my magazine article because most of my following is my target audience, and that will help me get this project off its feet.
(1) https://www.woodwing.com/en/blog/magazine-publishing-trends-for-2019
(2) https://www.statista.com/statistics/208807/estimated-print-audience-of-popular-magazines/
