Ajakiri Motomaania ja tema lugeja

Date

2009

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Tartu Ülikool

Abstract

Description

The thesis describes an Estonian motorcycle magazine Motomaania and its readers’ profiles and preferences in reading the magazine. The primary question of the research was: does a magazine be more than merely a source of information for a certain group, can the magazine carry more a role of the unifier of the group more than an informer and the group members purchase and read the magazine primarily because of the belonging to the group and less for the information the magazine offers. I studied the magazine in two main methods, by content quantity analysis and magazine readers’ poll. The primary interest of the research was to compare the content of the magazine issues and the preferences of the readers. The content analyze was done about the magazines from 2004 to 2008. The poll was carried out through the internet polling. Questions to the readers were in three main blocks: what is their relation to the other automotive magazines, how they use and what they prefer to read from the Motomaania, and what their habits are in motorcycling. From the content analysis appeared that the most often printed sorties are about the maintenance issues, motorcycling sporting events and other motorcycling social events. From the poll results appeared that readers are mostly interested in stories about maintenance, equipment, riding techniques, travelling stories and home-built bikes. At the same time readers disliked most stories about motorcycling sporting events and other motorcycling social events. From the readers’ poll also appeared that the readers are not very interested in other automotive magazines but are devoted readers of the Motomaania, most of the respondents are subscribers on purchase every issue, most of them read almost every story of the magazine and most of them have seen majority of the magazine numbers ever issued. The analysis of the results of the researches showed that there’s a fundamental gap between the content of the magazine and the readers expectations but nevertheless the magazine readers are very loyal. From the comparing of the readers’ preferences of the stories and readers’ social indicators and preferences in practicing motorcycling there could be found three hypothetical groups of readers: off-road guy, city guy and countryside guy. Every group has its’ significant preferences in choosing articles to read and also distinct social and behavioral distinctions. The conclusion of the thesis is that the editors of the magazine might have to adjust the content of the magazine to the more favorable to the readers to be more successful in long term and not to loose the loyalty of the readers. The motorcycling sports stories are important to the readers group thou and if the magazine is not interested in loosing them as readers the content of the magazine must be adjusted in very thorough way. The Motomaania as the only Estonian general motorcycle magazine is definitely an important publication in the Estonian media field. The loyalty of the readers is conspicuous and therefore it would very sorry if the magazine would disappear from the scene because of the possible long term wrong decisions.

Keywords

H Social Sciences (General), bakalaureusetööd

Citation