Music magazine.

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

My masthead is also a main feature of the magazine, it is fun, and clear to see, this is a recognisable image that readers will look out for when returning to buy a magazine. I have put it at the top of the page, as if it were at the bottom it would be less clear, as most other magazines have their mastheads positioned at the top.

My magazine has a barcode, price and date of issue, in the top right hand corner. I found this was similar with other magazines, like Hello!, OKAY!, KERRANG! And VIBE.

On my magazine, the main image is dominant of the page. This is similar to other magazines that I looked at, like VIBE, NME AND KERRANG!

The cover lines are laid out my own particular way, the main headlines are in boxes and the smaller features are in text down the side. This makes my magazine unique.

I have tried to entice my audience by offering a ‘freebie’. This is a popular way that magazines will attract their audience.

As I used a cover line ‘fashion best buys; you’ll look HOT this summer’ I gave my magazine a usp. It gives my readers who are buying a music magazine to also catch up on the latest trends of the music industry.

I see my magazine being printed onto the cheaper paper. By not making it a glossy magazine, it has a more disposable image. As well as that I can charge ‘pocket money prices’ which is ideal for my teenage audience, as they aren’t going to have much money to spend on magazines.

For my contents page I have followed fairly traditional layout style I found in music magazines. It is very symmetrical and is easy to look at. There are two images which offer information about the feature articles of the magazine. The rest of the articles are in boxes down the side; this offers a brief description of what they can find here. I didn’t see many magazines doing this, so thought I would take this form. I think it gives the magazine a better structure. I also included a box with a question, and space for readers to enter a competition further in the mag. I put this here as I think it will entice readers to read that article. I stuck to the house colours of red, white and black, except for on the ‘elementry’ image where I used blue. This is very eye catching and readers will be drawn to it straight away.

My double page spread (DPS) has a simple layout which includes a lot of little images. Usually in a DPS there is one large image on either the left hand, or right hand page, but I didn’t follow these conventions and used several little images, collaged together. I think this gives it a scrap book look. The title at the top looks like it has been doodled in. the article didn’t follow the usual principle of question and answer as such, as I used descriptive paragraphs in between to help the audience feel like they were there. I think as this doesn’t follow the usual form of structure it makes my magazine different.

How does your media product represent particular social

groups?

on my front cover I used a young, talented girl. In the article I talked about her as a home loving, local girl, who has found fame. I think this represents my social group of girls aged 14-19 as it is an issue girls that age would dream about and aspire to do. The colour palette I used within my magazine suggests it is contempory. The colour red isn’t used too heavily so therefore where I have used it it makes those articles stand out.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I have aimed my product towards teenage girls, between the ages of 14/19. I choose this age range as I didn’t feel there was a gender specific magazine of this genre for girls this age when doing my market research, only ‘real life magazines’, and gossip mags. I have targeted it at a large range of girls who are interested in several genres of music, instead of keeping it specific. I tried to make my magazine have an indie feel with influences from hip-hop to chart music. From my research, I found that my market were interested in a new magazine which could offer them information about new bands and artists which are coming into the music scene, and as well as that, they wanted information on festivals and tour dates for big bands or artists. I used this information to develop the headlines I included on the front cover of my magazine, as I thought this is what the audience will be looking out for as they are browsing the magazine shelves.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media

product and why?

The kind of media institution I would look at to distribute my media product is IPC media. They already have a range of best selling music magazines such as NME. I believe that as they are a mulit-national company, they have the power, and money to promote my magazine through different media platforms such as, television and the internet. They would also be able to set a website up, which could include an online version of my magazine.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Looking through magazine front covers in my research I discovered that most magazines aimed at women, used pictures of women that were stereotypically ‘beautiful’. So by using a female model that is pretty and stylish I felt it would attract the audience I am aiming my product at. As well as that, my front cover includes clear fonts so the features of my magazine stood out. I feel that the colours I used are contemporary, and popular amongst other magazines, although the way I used them on a colourful background makes it look different and unique, as most of the magazines used images which were in greyscale. I designed my masthead, so it would look like it was handwritten and was a doodle in a sketch book, I think this gives a quirky edge and denotes an in-formal style- after all my readers aren’t buying Forbes magazine. I also included a headline which read ‘fashion best buys- you’ll look HOT this summer’. Most music magazines don’t offer their readers the opportunity to see what is considered fashionable amongst the trends on the music scene, and considering my target audience are teenage girls, they are all going to be self-conscious and worried about their image, so I feel this gives them an opportunity to read about their favourite bands and artists and see what clothing is on trend currently. As I haven’t seen this before, I have used this as my USP (unique selling point).

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of

constructing this product?

Throughout the construction of my product, and preliminary task I used technologies such as Photoshop and Panasonic Lumix FS10 camera. Before I started with my final product and preliminary task, I used photoshops a couple of times and created a perfume advertisement to get me used to the controls. This gave me a basic understanding to start with the production. I have also learnt that you can never take too many photos. I took several images that were the same, just from different angles, this was to ensure that I had the right lighting and angle in every image. I have also learnt never to take a picture in black and white, as you can change it later, but if you do, you can’t change it back to colour. I used a ‘vivid’ colour setting on the camera to take the images as it enhanced the bright colours in my shots.

Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you

feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full

product?

Over the time of creating my product and preliminary task, I have learnt about more tools on Photoshop, such as the blur tool and how to merge layers to make two images intertwine. I also discovered that taking more time and effort in the initial pictures you take leaves you with a better starting point as you have more images to choose from. Symmetry within the magazine gives a more professional look and keeps it consistent, as well as that it is important to keep the house style the same throughout if you want your finished product to look more professional.