Primary research is research that is completed by the person who needs the information. Primary research is more reliable because you know where it has come from, although primary research is usually more time consuming and costs more. Secondary research is research that has already been collected by another person, and used by somebody else. Secondary is less reliable because you haven’t collected it, but it takes less time and is usually cheaper.

I found it useful to research my competition because then I could see their ideas and adapt them to use for my magazine cover. This research was secondary. I could also see about how much they charge, this was useful to put a price on my magazine, in relation to how many they sell per year/month etc. I found this information useful because then I could look at aspects of the front cover to see how well they sell. I noticed in 'Total Guitar' that they use a main picture that is usually a guitarist or two from a band and usually not the whole band which I found useful when I was creating my own cover. I used this information in my front cover to make my magazine more visually attractive and look more professional.

I found it very helpful to do a detailed analysis with annotations of a magazine cover. This was primary research. I could then understand what all the different components of the front cover were and then use these in my front cover. This was also helpful because then I could label each part and write a brief description of the purpose of the component to help me understand how this component helped sell the magazine and attract the target audience. I was analysing the sections of the magazine such as the tagline, banners and left third etc.

In this analysing, I found that the front cover was heavily created around the target audience. This was linked to the denotation (what the audience directly sees) because the audience a lot of the time choose what goes into the magazine and dictates the content and even the layout. As well as denotations I analysed connotations (what the audience feels when a particular word or image is used or the message that the audience gets from an image of words). I found that often the connotations are used for a humour e.g. A word with two meanings would be used. I chose not to use this in my front cover but if I was doing a whole magazine I would have included.

Researching this has affected my magazine cover because I have learnt some 'tricks of the trade' by research and detailed examinations into my competition. I have found some aspects of creating that magazine companies use to pull in an audience and attract them to their magazine.

As part of my research I completed a questionnaire, this was primary research as I completed it. I found it useful to get some input from my target audience as this would dictate what went into my magazine cover. I used a title from one of my questionnaires and also named my magazine 'Shreddage' which from one of my questionnaires. In my questionnaire I used open and closed questions to get a variety of answers. I used open questions when I wanted more information, and I used closed questions when I wanted the audience to pick from a list. The information has dictated my magazine cover and I have designed it around the target audience.

I have used my research to help me design my front cover and contents page, and found it very useful. If I did the research again I would change my questionnaire to have more specific questions to my magazine rather than just a general music magazine. I think that I could have researched more deeply into my competition into finding other not so well known magazines and finding out about them. I think I annotated my front cover well and have used my research to my full advantage.