Evaluation of data collected from questionnaires

What kinds of articles would you like to see in a college magazine?

As this way an open question, the answers I received ranged quite widely with large amounts of detail being given. Popular types of articles suggested were revision tips and features on what is happening around the college at the time. To incorporate these into my magazine I will have a regular feature of revision hints and tips, offering for students to submit their own as well as having teachers give specific tips for their subjects. I will also have a regular page of ‘upcoming events’ including both academic events and more social events, so that people will know what is coming up in and around college soon.

What are your hobbies and interests?

I included this question in order to find out what kinds of things my target audience were interested in as this may influence the types of articles they would like to read in a college magazine. Most people gave “socialising with friends” as something they liked to do, as well as many being interested in sports or arts. This has reinforced the idea to include upcoming events and things to do or places to go with friends in the magazine. I will also include information on sports events and art competitions in the magazine, as well as features on different types of sport and how people can get involved with them.

I tried to get similar amounts of boys and girls to complete my questionnaire so that I could get results from my questionnaire that would be representative of both male and female, as well as seeing if a college magazine would appeal to both.

This shows that the majority of my target audience would be interested in reading a college magazine and that I do have a large enough audience for it to be a good idea.

What subjects are you studying at college?

I included this in my questionnaire in order to find out what subjects were most popular as that may influence the types of articles featured in the college magazine. I found that English, Psychology and the sciences were all popular.

There was a clear preference for the colour scheme of blue, white and orange, with the green, blue and white scheme coming up as a close second. Because of this I will make my colour scheme blue, white and orange with maybe some green in in as well.

From this I found that the majority of my target audience were interested in celebrity gossip, and so I will try to include gossip about some celebrities that are relevant to and popular amongst college students. However, as 40% said they were not interested I will keep the celebrity gossip section quite small and maybe only have it cover one regular page per issue.

This showed me that no one was willing to pay over £2.50 for the college magazine, and that most people would only be willing to pay up to £1.50. Because of this I will probably make the magazine £1.50, so that it keeps in with students’ budgets. I will also make it a monthly magazine, so that it is not too regular and students will be able to afford it.

Do you think a college magazine would be useful or popular?

The majority of people said that they did think the magazine would be popular as there isn’t really anything like that in the college at the moment and it could be a good way of keeping up to date with what is going on around the college. They also said they thought it would be useful as long as it kept a good balance between academic features and more social or fun articles.