Target Audience Analysis

The picture shows my typical target audience for the magazine I will be designing. For example, this is Calvin Stone, he is 25 and lives in a semi-detatched house in the urban-rural fringe between London and Hertfordshire. He dresses in a very smart casual way, often being a shirt, jeans and dark coloured shoes. He enjoys going to rock concerts, playing guitar in his spare time and going to the pubs on friday nights with his friends. Calvin enjoys reading; Q Magazine, Classic Rock, The Word and Revolver Magazine. With his favourite bands including; The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Dire Straights and Guns N' Roses.

Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs

Psychological theory that was developed in 1943 for research into which priorities take importance over others. For example, "physiological factors" are at the bottom as they are the more most important influences in human life. Whereas "self-actualization" is at the very top because it is the least important selection of needs involved in human life. The pyramid consists of 5 stages, (bottom to top) Physiological, Safety, Love/Belonging, Esteem and Self-Actualization. The media industry of magazines fits into the hierarchy of needs theory in between Esteem and Self-Actualization. This is because if someone who is different feels they cannot fit into society because of the way they look, dress or other aspects of their personalities.

Uses and Gratifications Theory

The uses and gratifications theory, can also be referred to as the needs and gratifications theory. The theory focuses on why people use specific media (In my case: A magazine), to get specific contents. It is not a single approach, but a large wide spread approach to a media analysis. The common theme of uses and gratifications is that people use certain media products to get specific gratifications or needs. It has four stages; 

Entertainment:  The media product provides pleasure for the audience.

Social Interaction: Films, television programmes or magazines are common topics of discussion. We often use the media to continue this social interaction. 
Personal Identity: We can get an idea of ourselves and close friend groups from the way similar people are portrayed in films and magazines. We may identify with particular celebrities or people in the public eye, of which we may even use as role models.

Information: The media is full of information which we use on a constant day to day basis.