Analysis of Audience Questionnaire Answers (Student Magazine)

As I mentioned in my previous post, I handed out a questionnaire to 10 people in relation to their opinons of student newspapers. Their answers were unsuprising to me, here they are:

1. How many student magazines have you read?
• 0 - 5 (10 students)
• 6 - 10 (0 students)
• 10 + (0 students)
2. Would you still read the magazine if no one you knew was mentioned in it?
• Yes (4 students)
• No (6 students)
3. Would you prefer it if the magazine was more picture-based or text-based?
• Picture-based (10 sudents)
• Text-based (0 students)
4. What sort of thing would you mostly hope to read about in a student magazine?
• Homework/Exams (1 tick)
• Current school events (6 ticks)
• Teachers (2 ticks)
• Students (6 ticks)
• Other (please specify) Gossip                                                                                
5. How often should there be a student magazine?
• Weekly (3 students)
• Monthly (5 students)
• Fort-nightly (0 students)
• Termly (2 students)
6. What interests you most about the front cover?
• Picture (7 ticks)
• Headline (5 ticks)
• Coverlines (1 tick)
7. How much would you buy the student magazine for?
• £0 - £0.99 (9 students)
• £1 - £1.99 (1 student)
• £2 + (0 students)
8. Do you read the student magazine in detail or just skim through it?
• Read in detail (2 students)
• Skim through (8 students)

So, 10 out of the 10 students stated they had never read over 5 student magazines in their lives. That was very predictable, it's not exactly the most exciting magazine in the world. For the second question however, there were mixed opions. Although, as I would've guessed, more people said they wouldn't read the magazine if no one they knew was mentioned in it. Probably the first thing you do when you recieve a student magazine is looking for embarrassing pictures of your friends. Following up from that, all of the students asked said they would prefer the magazine to be picture-based, understandably. I don't think I know anyone who genuinely reads the magazines.

For question 4, I didn't make it clear that they were only meant to tick one box, so the majority of my participants ticked multiple boxes. So I'm going to go with the most popular subject the students want to read in the magazine and that's students joint with current school events. In other words, everyone just wants to read up to date gossip about students, which is what somebody admitted in the "others" option.

Most students said that there should be a student magazine every month, making it a regular thing. The student magazine in my school at the moment has an issue every term, so it's understandable that a more regular issue would be favoured umongst students.

For question 5 also, they ticked multiple boxes. When it came to what attracted them most about the front cover, I was actually surprised to think that the "headline" was so popular with 5 ticks. I didn't even think students cared what the magazine was called. Of course, winning at 7 ticks was the picture, but only one person ticked the coverlines which I found shocking. Personally I only read the coverlines to see if the magazine is going to interest me or not, it's strange to think that not many other people do that.

Last but not least, obviously 8 people out of 10 only skim through the magazine and 2 people genuinely read it in detail. I found it quite surprising that 2 people actually did read the magazine to be honest.