Ratings And Circulation Figures

Ratings are what people think of a product, they are normally out of 10, so 1 as poor and 10 as excellent, I had to get ratings for the magazines that I chose to analyse, this was useful because it allowed me to see what other people thought of the magazine.
Circulation Figures are how many copies of the magazine are made each issued  whether it is every week month or year depending on how often they come out. Having the figures for my magazines were helpful because it told me how successful they were and then I could use the best ones as a guideline for my magazine.

I found that GQ the largest circulation figures, so I chose to follow this magazine as inspiration when it comes to making my magazine because it is very successful and people like it, so if I create on like this hopefully mine will be good as well.

Benefits:

• Allows you to see how successful the magazine is 
• lets you know what other people thought

Limitations:

• limited information
• They are not always needed   
• Ratings can be bias

I will create a graph of 5 magazines circulation figures, this will let me know what magazines sell more and then i can look at their magazine and see what they are doing well and incorporate this into my own magazine to make it better and more professional. 

Magazines

Magazines are another source of research, you can get different types of magazine like gossip magazines e.g. Hello, OK, you can get formal e.g. Which?, and sport and many more. First you need to know what you want to find out, if you want to learn something or read more into a subject formal magazines are good, you can go on the internet and look for magazine, or go to the shop, and just read them to find out your information.
I found looking at other magazines and analysing them to help me when it comes to making my magazine was really helpful, if you can identify what is good and effective in another magazine and what attracts you to read that magazine then it will help your magazine achieve this because you know what to include to make it effective.

Benefits:

• Interesting to read 
• They don't get boring
• There is a variety of different magazines to read
• Different opinions in different magazine, so they give you different point of views about a subject

Limitations:

• Information isn't accurate as it someone's opinion 
• Hard to find exactly what you are looking for 
• They are not free 

I will use magazines in my research by analysing 5 technology based magazines so I can gather some further information on what the codes and conventions are of  technology magazine, I get some inspiration of some top magazine companies, that will hopefully make my magazine better. 

Books

When using books to help you research a topic or subject, you can either go to the libairy, and find a book or you can go on the internet to Google Books and find one on-line. this can be useful as you have a wide range of books with different information, so you can get a variety of opinions and facts. For the on-line option all you have to do is go to Google and click on books, then type in the type of book or the name and look through the suggestions.
When I was doing my research for technology magazines I found a book that was really helpful with codes and conventions of technology magazines, and some examples or them.

Benefits:  

• Wide range of different books 
• Each book will say something different about a topic 
• They last long 
• They can be moved around easily (portable)

 Limitations:

• They can get boring
• The information stays the same it doesn't get updated 
• Takes long to find the exact information that you need

I will use books a little bit in my secondary research, as I have to show I can use a wide range of sources and it will give me a different information than the internet because it is much more formal, and more complicated, and I can read more into the subject. 

Internet

Internet is the source that I mostly used when completing my secondary research, this is because I am comfortable using it, and I can find anything I want. The research that I done with the internet was:

• Images
• Ratings
• Circulation Figures
• Box Office Figures
• background information about my subject

As I used the internet for all of these all of my secondary research was what I wanted, I found out everything that I needed to know, I found that the internet made researching much easier because I was quick and accurate.

Benefits:

• Fast 
• Easy to use
• Accurate searches
• A variety of different website 
• Different sources e.g. Google books

Limitations:

• Need a laptop or computer to access the internet
• Some websites can be wrong 
• Need to be specific in your searches for the right information
•  Easy to copy and paste text into your own work, which is not allowed in A Level 

I am going to use the internet to help me find inspiration and ideas when it comes to designing my magazine, and I will research more about magazines to help me do mine. 

Questionnaire

Firstly I had make a questionnaire to find primary research for my target audience. My quiestionnaire had to be relevant to suit my audience and what I wanted to find out. After I completed my questionnaire I printed it and gave it out to my audience which were teenagers. Doing this gave me accurate infomation of what they like about magazines, this would benefit me when it comes to making my magazine because I will know what to include to interest my audience.

Below are thge results from each question i asked out of the 15 people i asked:

Using questionnaires as a type of research definatley has benefits because you get very eccurate infomation because it is fromyour target audience, also you get an insight into what you could include in your project, in my case after doing them I knew what had to include to most attract my audience so this was an advantage to making a better magazine. Some limitations to questionnaire are if you have loads of really long open questions peoplewill get bored and wont bother doing the questionnaire, also you are limited to how much infomation you find out.

I am going to use this infomation to help me design my magazine because I can make the product to best suit my audience because I already know what sort of infomation tthey like. this will help me make a better magazine for teenagers.

Targets for unit 2

• To show an excellent knowledge of different research methods
• To carry out research to a professional level
• To reseacrh into media product with complete independence
• To show a wide knowledge of production equipment and understand the benefits/ limitations of them
• To have evidence of improving skills levels for media production
• To be able to discuss how to operate a camera