CCR2 – How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? – RESEARCH

How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

There are a number of concepts that need to be addressed to answer this question fully.

1. Who is you audience?
2. How did you fulfil your audiences needs and expectations?
3. What is meant by distribution?
4. Who owns and controls magazine distribution
5. How are real media texts distributed in the online age?

Audience

You must define and describe your audience in these ways.

1. Demographics and Psychographics – audience segmentation
2. You should also use your Yougov findings to explain what other media texts they consume as well as other information.

Uses & Gratification

1. You should link specific elements of your magazine (contents, bands, representation, language, design (fonts / graphics) to specific uses and gratifications that you think your audience have.  Refer to Blumler and Katz’ ideas and also AIDA:
   1. Attention
   2. Interest
   3. Desire
   4. Action

Distribution – Lesson 1 + 2

1. Complete this work sheet in order to explore magazine ownership & distribution.  It is in classroom for you.
2. In Groups, you will be allocated an article to read and summarise and then present to the class. The articles and sheet are in classroom on a presentation for your class. These articles will help you with an understanding of the business of magazine distribution and the challenges created by the internet & social media.

Research Articles – summary of the articles

• Article from journalism trade rag on decline in magazine sales.
• How print is surviving in the digital age.
• Facebook & Google – a digital duopoly?
• News magazines increasing whilst celebrity gossip decreasing sales of some magazines re news are going up whilst fashion, celebrity and gossip magazines are going down in popularity.  Significance? – Readers are prepared to pay for valid, trustworthy journalism in traditional print.
•   How Magazines will be changed forever– print editions have a different reader experience – not overwhelming or exhausting to read whilst digital editions are not always easy to navigate and encourage a ‘down the rabbit hole’ experience that can be distracting to audiences. Significance? – new and traditional media could co-exist
• How publishing has changed in the digital era  certain print publications growing in popularity like Private Eye – readers value real journalism and not fake news – Significance? – readers will pay for good quality journalism they can trust.
• Print v Digital – what do readers prefer? Pros and Cons of digital magazines v print magazines.  Can they actually work together? – Significance? – both types of media have their pros and cons.

Institutional (Distribution) Issues

• Audiences expect to get their media for ‘free’
• The younger audience don’t like to read.
• Quality (factual) journalism is expensive and so is traditional print and distribution.
• However, it’s hard to make money out of online content.
  • Most of it goes to FB & Google, leaving everyone else scrabbling for the scraps.
• Exclusives remain ‘exclusive’ for about 10 seconds before it’s all over social media.
• How do you square this circle?