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AS MEDIA STUDIES

Print Coursework Evaluation By

Lucinda Kate Hurst

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Music MagazineEvaluation.

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Contents1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real media?

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

3. What kind of media institution might dispute your media product and why?

4. Who would be the audience of your media product?

5. How did you attract/address your audience?* separate video.

6. What have you learnt about technologies a from the process of constricting this product?

7. Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

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Q1.In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media?I designed my masthead around Esquire and Billboards. The use of the informal, brushed font reflects the young target audience and appears trendy like Esquire. The brightly coloured filled letters, similar to Billboard’s add continuity to the colour scheme and draw attention. It is shown in front of the model like Billboard’s as it wasn’t clear enough behind. The idea to change to colour of the filled letters issue to issue to Match the colour scheme works asshown by esquire as it’s Recognisable as long as the textstays the same.

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Q1. A barcode on the cover of a magazine is convention

necessary for the sale of a magazine. As shown in many examples such as Q and Vibe, the

barcode is featured in the right hand corner. I also displayed the price alongside it.

Magazines like NME often have multiple issues on the cover including bands and poster previews. NME covers appear thrown together and busy. As my magazine is targeted at female students, I wanted a more organised and classy cover and so I used only one large image. The image of my model shows her looking directly into the camera to create eye contact with theaudience and to create a rapport. This is a convention used in many popular magazines.

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Q1. In the style of magazines such as Q, I have displayed the artists name as the second largest item of text, after the masthead, to attract the readers and show who my cover star is. I used a stoke on my text to make it stand out form the background image. The juxtaposition of the bright colours and sizes attracts attention.

A convention that most magazines use is the inclusion of the magazine website, the date and the issue number. I included all three of these on my cover and the date on my contents page. This is useful for readers to indentify issues if they need a reference to order a previous issue. A subscription offer is another popular convention as it attracts readers to block purchase magazines. This is better for the magazine as it doesn’t depend on readers going out each week to purchase it yet allows the reader to make a saving.

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Q1. I decided to use an image from the studio for my cover that

doesn’t reference music. I used an attractive, photogenic model to attract an audience that aren’t necessarily musicians but are interested in listening to the music and finding out about the actual artists. This technique is used by magazines like NME though I used a variety of images on the double page spread to reflect her career in music.

In the images, my model is wearing black and white clothes which reflect the indie genre. This juxtaposes with her red lips and brightly coloured bracelets which add the pop element. I used minimal propsin most photos (e.g. a guitar) but the live photos show balloons on stage which reflect the pop-indie subgenre.

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Q1. I’ve used sign posting, for example my use of subheadings, to

direct the reader to different sections (cover stories, feature articles, reviews and live gigs). This is frequently used in NME. I have also used a band index to show all the bands included in the magazines that fit the indie-pop sub genre of my magazine. This is another feature used in magazines such as NME. I also included an editors letter to add a more personal element to my magazine.

I used a consistent colour scheme throughout and kept to three fonts to keep a professional appearance to the magazine.

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Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?Social groups - My magazine represents pop and indie musicians and fans. This is through the acoustic and electro musicians and the look of my models. My magazine is aimed at female students aged 16-18 and so the cover artist is shown as part of my target audience.

Gender – Though this industry is quite male dominated, I wanted to use a female cover artist to reflect the female target audience. There is a balance of male and females from the bands used and the ‘editor’ is a male.

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Q2. Age – The artists featured in my magazine are all young, currant artists as the pop/indie music scene is widely dominated by young musicians. I reference older artists such as Bruce Springsteen in my double page spread as emerging artists are often inspired by influential, existing musicians. Race – My models are all White British which is an ethnic majority in my local area and of the music industry for the pop/indie sub-genre.

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Q3. What kind of media institution might dispute your media product and why?

An ideal distributor for my magazine would be IPC Mediaor Bauer. IPC Media distribute a wide variety of magazines including NME. As my magazine is more ofan alternative genre, I think it would be ideal for this company as they only distribute one music magazine. ‘FANATIC’ would work well alongside NME as the pop/indie sub-genre would appeal to a more niche audience. IPC Media also own Time Warner Inc. which could offer connections to musicians advertising through music videos created by them. Bauer distribute magazines such as MOJO, Q and Kerrang so I feel it could benefit from an alternative music magazine. As Bauer also has TV and Radio branches, I could used horizontal integration to promote my magazine.

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Q4. Who would be the audience of your media product? The genre of my magazine is pop/indie making it an alternative to

magazines such as NME and Q. I used bands like Flamboyant Bella and singers for example Marina and the Diamonds to base my magazine around. Targeting at female students aged 16-18, I found this genre was popular amongst them. My ‘editor’ and the artists I used are a similar age to my target audience, with my main model fitting into the target audience exactly. She was styled similar to Alexa Chung, an ambassador for this type of music and presenter of T4. Many students follow a particular ‘scene’ with what music they listen to and how they dress, so I used models that the target audience would be able to relate with.

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Q4.My magazine is targeted at intelligent ,female students aged 16-18,

with a part time job and willing to spend £2.30 per week on a music magazine. Below is an image of Natalie. She is a 17 year old student at Winstanley College, studying English, Media and Film Studies. She has a keen interest in fashion and music and enjoys hobbies such as singing and performing. She has a part time job in a restaurant and uses a percentage of her wages to purchase magazines such as NME and Look (a fashion magazine produced by IPC Media). She

also uses her wages to purchase tickets to gigs such as Florence and the Machine (of the pop-indie sub genre). When shown my magazine, Natalie said “This is a magazine I would be interested in buying as it is an alternative to the usual music magazines you see. It hosts bands and artists form my favourite genre and it visually aesthetically pleasing. The article was enjoyable to read and I think it really suits the target audience.”

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Q6. What have you learnt about technologies a from the process of constricting this product?

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Q6. This was my first opportunity to use Photoshop, excluding the preliminary print task. I cropped the image

to create a close-up of my model. I used the clone tool so cover up the gap in her hair and the healing brush to cover any blemishes. I added more make up such as glitter to her eyes and gloss on her lips using paint brush and clone tool.

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• Q6. For the images on my duble page spread I used textures layered over my original images at a different opacity to create a more aesthetically pleasing overall view. I used Blogger to document my progress and research on existing pop/ indie/ alternative magazines.

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Q6. The studio lighting that I used allowed me to control the amount of light and shadows in my images. I used a key light which has the most influence over the scene. I placed it one side of my model, creating a well lit side and shadow on the other. I used a fill light on the opposite side which I used to fill the shadows created by the stronger key light.

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Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from

it to the full product? The image on the front cover of my final piece is much

more suited to a cover with a close-up of the star where as on the prelim cover I used a long shot which would be more suited to a double page spread. The title of the prelim doesn’t match the college magazine content. The Photoshop techniques I used in my final piece were more advanced such as creating the peeled back sticker.

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Q7. My contents page for my prelim is quite empty and difficult to read where as my in my final piece the layout is clear and more images are used. I’ve shown a better understanding of conventions of popular music magazines including an editors letter, subscription box and band index.

I’ve included the magazine title on my final piece to link back to the cover and used the same fonts and colour scheme where this varies on my prelim and looks unprofessional.