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Describe the relationship between a media product and its target audience. What is the impact of One technique used to appeal to a specific audience. The New Zealand magazine “Tearaway” published by Tearaway press Ltd is targeted at teenagers from aged 13 to 18 both genders and at all academic levels. The magazine uses techniques such as colour, language, fonts, style but most of all content. Presentation is a large factor for a magazine as this is usually what attracts readers and buyers but for this specific company their content is equally important.
The content appeals to the target audience as it has something for everyone, it is written and contributed by the target audience and it is used in schools. The “tearaway” magazine supposedly targets all teenagers aged from 13 to 18, this is a very large demographic group to be able to target in a 40 paged issue. The large age difference also creates a challenge for the editors and authors, as a 13 year old would have different interests than an 18 year old, making the content of Tearaway hard to narrow down. Because the magazine targets a wide age range they include something of interest for everyone.
For example in the September 2009 issue they include articles about Universities and career paths aimed at the older teenagers as well as content such as music and movie reviews, competitions and gaming reviews ect which are aimed at the entire target audience. The magazine’s core team of six people are aged between 17 to 25 and the magazine has an enormous network of young writers, photographers and other contributors from around the country. The Youth Participation Case Studies for Tearaway magazine states “One of the major benefits of youth participation for Tearaway is the freshness that young people bring to the magazine.
Having the content primarily driven by young people keeps it relevant and adds innovation, creativity and clarity” We see this throughout the 2009 issues for example in the July issue the majority of the magazine is based around movies ect. This is because around the time the magazine was published many popular films were coming out into the cinemas for example transformers 2 or Harry Potter. The magazine includes articles on both these movies and gives the readers information about them, includes quizzes, facts and much more.
The up to date content of the magazine also talks about social, economic issues relevant at the time. This comes in handy for teachers as the magazines are primarily bought by schools. Tearaway magazine has successful built a strong relationship with many schools in New Zealand over the years. The schools can without hesitation buy bulks of Tearaway magazines for the classrooms and libraries with the trust that the magazine has appropriate information and also social and economic articles which the teachers can refer to in some of their classes.
Therefore the magazine’s content is influenced a lot by teachers as they try and include some relevant information for the teachers to use, the company even makes a teacher resource for each issue of the magazine. An example of content that teachers may use in their classes is in the April 2009 issue all about binge drinking. This is the main focus of the magazine for April and includes a lot of information against it in an easy to understand take of the issue and with a youth voice which is influential for other teens. Or in the February 2009 it talks about the recession, explain what it is, how it affects NZ and also how it effects us.
In conclusion the magazine Tearaway is targeted at teenagers aged 13 to 18, both genders and at all academic levels. The content is relevant to the target audience as, the magazine is written by young adults who understand what the target audience wants to read whilst keeping their topics relevant to what is happening in New Zealand and in our schools at the time of publication. The magazine includes something for everyone within the target audience as well as extra articles which aid the teachers in their teaching about relevant social or economic issues in New Zealand.