Design studies assignment 4

So for the 4th design studies assignment we had to practise our interviewing techniques. We were given a list of topics and asked to choose one of them to base our interviews on. I chose the topic 'How do magazines influence peopleʼs ideas of design and taste?' Below is a list of questions I asked random people.

What magazines do you read?

Do you read them occasionally or regularly?

Are you aware of the cost of the magazine/magazines you buy or do you buy them anyway?

What is it about this magazine/magazines that attracts you? Why do you choose this particular magazine/magazines? What features in this magazine/magazines do you pay most attention to and why?

Do you enjoy looking at the adverts in magazines? If so do you actually take note of what is being said? Do you ever think about it?

If a magazine has a feature on a particular item or outfit would this make you go out and buy that particular item or outfit?

Would you say your dress sense is influenced by what you see in magazines? Or are you influenced in some other way or do you prefer being more individual?

I tried to ask an equal number of women and men in order to make a comparison. The men I interviewed mostly read factual magazines such as the economist and new scientist where as the woman tended to go for gossip/fashion magazines.
What I thought was interesting was that the women said that they were aware of the cost of magazines but would buy them anyway so the cost really wasn't an issue. The men also said that they were aware of the cost but unlike the women they said that they would not buy a magazine if they thought they were too expensive.
Both the women and men I interviewed said that they didn't really pay attention to the adverts and mostly skipped them.
I was surprised however that the women I interviewed said that their style wasn't particularly influenced by the magazines they read. I thought it would have been the opposite way round. However they did say that they bought magazines for the fashion which leads me to believe that maybe they are more influenced by the fashions they see in magazines than they care to let on.
I think the results from these interviews definitely indicate that people tastes, both male and female, are influenced in some way by the magazines they read whether they realise it or not.