The Importance of Interactivity

Interactivity in magazines is very important. It keeps the readers and the fans of the magazine wanting more and therefore buying the magazine on a more regular basis. Reasons for interactivity and how it is important can come from Blulmer and Katz theory and how it forms personal relationships.

Having interactivity creates these personal relationships as it allows the audience to respond to what the magazine has said and it also allows for the readers to talk among themselves. This make the reader enjoy the magazine more as it gives a chance to make new friends and common ground between friends and also more social interaction for them on something they like. From social interaction this helps spread the magazine further to wider audiences and expands the business of it. This is good for the magazine to build a stronger audience and to gain readers which ultimately means it is bringing in more money.

There is more opportunity of interactivity in magazine websites rather than the actual magazine however it is still possible and it is extremely important to make sure that there is still that opportunity in the magazine. For example interactivity in the magazine could come from competitions, but also, the referencing of social networking sites such as Fceook and Tw!tter and their own websites which will also have social networking links on them too. A common one would be YouTbe as it can allow people to view music videos and listen to music with a rating and comment system that can be used for interaction. Not to mention the view count feature which counts how many views each video has got.

Interaction has changed over time due to the internet, had that not been in place, postage would be the way to go for interactivity between the readers and the magazine to allow them to get in contact with the magazine, as well as over the phone. However, as there is internet allowing emails to be sent and received and social interaction opportunities by social networking sites which also allow for readers to interact with their idols. Social networking will help the magazine in numerous ways so it is important that the magazine will reference such sites. It will help by reaching their target audience, commonly the age of users on social networking sites. Also, it makes it a far faster way for the magazine to get more popular gaining in numbers as it may go ‘viral’. It gets more people talking about it, more people reading the magazine and getting involved with it and the music industry.