QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY -INVESTIGATING TARGET                     AUDIENCE 

Here are some images which I took while investigating target audience for my own school/college magazine. My aim was to explore variety of different elements that would make up a successful magazine, enjoyable to read to a certain age group. My research was based on a questionnaire survey which I done using specialist website 'Monkey Survey' but also through handing out the original questionnaires. I techniques allowed me to gather useful information which will then help me to plan my own magazine. 

     ONLINE SURVEY 

    

Here are some screen prints which demonstrate process of the online survey.  First of all, I typed up variety of different questions using the 'Survey Monkey' website. This part of the task was quick and easy as I was able to choose many suitable layouts for different types of questions. Once I finished my questionnaire I send it to other students using email. This allowed me to gather responses which the 'Survey Monkey' automatically changed into result charts for each question. I found this really helpful as it allowed me to analyse the findings clearly.  Then, I applied these findings to my magazine research.

The online questionnaire results showed that most of the respondents were males, however all repliers were from the same year group. This might be seen as a problem as the responds are in the same age group. Nevertheless, the overall results weren't repetitive.  Many of the students responded that they don't usually read school/college magazines. This might show their lack of knowledge of what a good magazine should include. However, as students they stated what they would like to see in a successful magazine. 

Furthermore, the results showed that students would want to see a portrait photograph on a cover page. While some prefer to see a wide shot image. (A portrait image is seen as standard but also in my opinion it's the most effective way to catch people's attention. This is why I am planning to use it within my own cover. Additionally, the colour scheme should be kept bright and eye-catching rather then dark or colourful. The magazine should also include student interaction pages such as puzzles, competitions or word searches. This would be followed by latest/ upcoming news, reviews and images which would make the magazine enjoyable and interesting to read. However, respondents clearly don't want students to be directly involved in the magazine (for example; student interviews).

    HAND OUT SURVEY 

    

Here are some more print screens which demonstrate my own layout version of the questionnaire, which I created using 'Word Document'. I particularly mixed different answer techniques, to obtain different types of responses, I used boxes in more open questions whereas I used ticking boxes in variety of closed questions. The questions were kept the same. Overall, I gathered similar responses to the  online survey.  This only re-insured me about the gained responses and gave me a starting point for my own magazine. This is because the survey allowed me to discover how students would want their school magazine to look  like and what they would want it to contain in terms of content. 

RESULT UPDATE

This is a screenshot demonstrating the update in my survey. The results slightly changed due to bigger amount of answers. The previous results were obtained by people from the same year group. However, this screen shot shows gathered responds from students attending to year 7 and 11. This automatically increases the usefulness of the survey as the results are not biased. Some of the replies are clearly identical to the ones obtained before. For example; within the student interaction section they would want to see variety of crosswords,competitions and games. The layout of the magazine should be kept formal but at the same time easy to read. However, in the front cover image they would want to see an idealistic example of a student for example; a shot while reading or doing any other activity relating to education.  In conclusion, the results haven't been significantly changed, however the usefulness has definitely increased as I gathered replies from different age groups, from the youngest to the oldest. This will now help me to decide my target audience for my own magazine.