www.kerrang.com research

Investigating www.kerrang.com

What features does the website offer?

The website offers some of the features you wold see on a magazine cover such as the title of Kerrang on the top left ,straplines that you can see spread across the whole of the website including information such as advertisement for new events and even some suggesting information on popular artist of the genre. The website also features  web links such as twitter names so fans can follow them, this is like the magazine as the magazine always has the web link for the Kerrang website at the bottom.  As well as holding some of the traditional features you would see on the magazine, the website also offers a more attractive and interactive approaches, holding more information that the magazine ever could. The website offers a range of images of a range of artists all in different colour scheme in an attractive format. Interactive features  such as hyperlinked images and text allows the reader to navigate easily to the article they want to read and websites they may want to go on to buy or follow something from Kerrang, example of this is the Facebook and twitter signs and the sign that allows you to buy the magazine by clicking onto it and traveling to another website. The website also offers more advertisement than the magazine ever could, making sure that the fans know all of the new events that are coming up, and also advertising new and popular artists, the increased size of the website in comparison to the magazine allows it to do this. The website also features videos on the latest tour artists and festivals informing the  fans that were not there about the event, and also promoting the artist. The website also has a search bar acting as one of the most important features, this is because the magazine is aimed at t young people, and this generation has a tendency to dip in and out of information , and the search bar allows them to do this quickly, allowing them to find the subject they want to read about .The Kerrang website also allows readers to get access to a full list of tour dates and tour information, and also buy tickets directly through the websites navigation system, and you can even get band merchandise directly too. This particular feature makes the website an easier and more appealing use of media as it is fast, always updated and largely interactive. The navigation bar is largely responsible for the easy to use website and simple navigation, directing readers to there area of interest quickly, this is featured on the top and bottom of each page. This website is a good example of how Kerrang’s proliferation, distribution and Cross media convergence and how it has improved from its audience interaction has improved.

What content is it covering?

There are a number of areas of content that the website covers, and the navigation bar shows all of these so they can be easily assessable from every page. These areas are Latest, Hottest, Music and Lists, not to forget the original home page which can be accessed by just a quick click of the Kerrang logo. The Latest page includes articles on the biggest and newest news, and when the page is finished there is an option to access more of this new information. On this page there is also advertisement and other features such as social media links, so that the user is constantly being informed of Kerrangs different platforms.  Hottest includes contents such as the top 10 most popular and most read posts, this insures that the reader is keeping up with the biggest and best information around there genre  it also has the features described above e.g. social media links an other links.  Music's content includes the latest music articles listed in the order of most popular, this ranges from articles on artists, gossip the latest music news and facts and album and single notifications, also included is videos  which support cross media convergence and keep the audience interested. The music  area also includes the same general features described above. Lastly lists includes playlists and top 10s including artists favourite songs, playlist made my artists and others, and also the lists of top albums and even lists of the best covers and videos.

How does the website promote interaction of the user and how is producer and audience benefiting?

The website promotes interaction by having interactive features e.g. a navigation bar , web links and advertising. This benefits the producer because it means that the interactive features allow the readership to travel around the website easily, which may make it more favourable than other more tricky user interfaces which will make people want to use it more. This also benefits the producer because companies will pay for advertising space on the website and these interactive adds will make the producer money as they advertisers will pay for advertising space. This additionally benefits the producer as hyperlinked web links and other links allow for cross media convergence between different platforms and the website is also able to advertise other areas of the Kerrang brand through this. Next interaction benefits the audience as a navigation bar means that they are able to move around the website both quickly and easily, so the interface is beneficial to them so they will use it more, interaction also benefits them as advertising and web links allow them to explore related brands such as merchandise sites and allow them to purchase tickets and this merchandise quickly at one click of a button.  It also allows them to get to know Kerrang more by getting to follow there social media accounts and watching there YouTube channel. This in turn then benefits them further as it means that they are able to keep up with there favourite artist much more easily, quickly and efficiently.

How are audiences encouraged to become Prosumers?

The audience are encouraged to become prosumer by the website by offering a contact us system, this allows the audience to tell the magazine directly what content they want, and how they think the website and its content could be changed or altered in order to make there experience of it better. The website also has it Facebook page and Twitter account hyper linked and these pages also offer a form or conversation by which the same things can happen, this applies to YouTube and Instagram also. This prosumer aspect creates a great way for kerrang to understand there audience by working with them to create the best possible product.

What evidence of Synergy is there?

The evidence of synergy in the website is advertising we can see from this advertising that Kerrang is working with these companies in order to gain money for themselves and also help another cooperation. Other evidence of synergy is them working together to advertise gigs and other events that require ticket purchase with other companies. This helps the audience to keep in touch with the latest gigs organised by other companies separate to  Kerrang, and also help the audience to purchase things like merchandise from artists, when synergy is present between an artist and Kerrang.   

 How does the website converge with other media formats?

The website contains many different  social media links such as Facebook and Twitter, and they also have links to various other website to do with the Kerrang brand such as get K !mag, K! TV K! Radio, Win, Subscribe and Offers. The website also tries to encourage cross media convergence by promoting the purchase of the paper magazine issue and even has an Instagram page linked to the website too. All of this increases the number of readers Kerrang has. At the bottom of the page they also have a navigation bar which shows all the ways in which Kerrang is trying to media converge  see the example below:

Give examples of advertising and how it targets the audience?

There is many different types of advertising on the Kerrang website . Most of them are in the form of banners on the right side of the page or a banner which goes all across the page usually found near the navigation bar. Most of the advertising is within the interest of Kerrangs target audience and is also relevant to the music industry, however as the website opens up the target audience to a larger bunch there is also some adverts that are not a specific e.g. banking adverting and car advertising.  Examples of advertising within the audiences interests are Kerrang merchandise, Gig advertising and Album adverts.  The advertising is specific to these areas in order for them to make the best profit when they are placed on the website as there aim is to attract as many people as possible to buy there product so to put music advertising on a music magazine website is relevant  and would make much more revenue than a paracetamol advert as this would not be relevant to the target audiences interests or make many sales because of this.