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Media Studies Evaluation

Tadi Mutenga

In what ways does your magazine design use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real magazines?

My magazine designs use, develop and challenge forms and conventions in different ways. Firstly, in my front cover, the main image covers part of the masthead. This develops conventions as it is different from the normal magazine designs. Also the skyline challenges conventions as there are two colours, red and white.

The contents page develops conventions as the coverlines are white while the information about the article is black. We decided to do this to make our magazine stand out from other magazines.

In what ways does your magazine design use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real magazines?

For the double page spread, the masthead is tilted at a slight angle to challenge conventions. The angle is created to be different from other magazines and cause the double page spread to attract the target market that we set.

Also the main image on this page is in the middle of the page instead of taking the space of one whole page. I chose to challenge conventions in this way as we wanted the picture to be in the middle of the page and have the text around the image.

In all three of my designs, I have put in features that use, develop and challenge forms and conventions. I followed conventions by having many magazine features in the magazine. The font of the text on the front cover, contents page and double page spread is one example were my magazine uses and follows conventions.

In what ways does your magazine design use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real magazines?

My magazine designs develop conventions with the coverlines and puffs around the front cover. Also the magazine challenges conventions with the writing over the main image on the contents page and the main image being in the middle of the double page spread.

The reason we decided to challenge and develop conventions was to stand out from many magazines on the shelf. I want the magazine to be able to attract the target market that we have set, and I feel that with the conventions that have been put in place that it would be able to attract them.

How does your magazine represent particular social groups?

My magazine represents particular social groups through the language that is used within the magazine. Also the price of the magazine and the outline of the magazine is specific to certain social groups. There are five social groups, from A to E.

Social group A is the highest class, consists of bankers, lawyers and doctors. They have a busy lifestyle and are wealthy. They listen to current affairs, no time for movies or social media.

Social group B is teachers and middle management. They are fairly wealthy and can afford recognised brands i.e. House of Fraser. Can afford to go on holiday once/twice a year.

How does your magazine represent particular social groups?

Social group C have job occupations i.e nurses bank clerks, electricians and plumbers. People in this group live on a low mortgage property and receive government benefits. They own a car and might go on holiday once a year. They have time for social media and listening to music.

Social group consists of drivers, post sorters and warehouse pickers. People in this social group live on a tight budget and live in rented properties. They shop at discount shops i.e. Primark and Aldi/Lidl.

Social Group E consists of unemployed workers, students and pensioners. People in this group rely on state welfare and benefits. They shop in discount shops, also read free media e.g. Metro and Telegraph

How does your magazine represent particular social groups?

The social group that I feel my magazine would attract the most is social group C. I feel that within the magazine, there is certain language used that other social groups might not be comfortable with. The language used in my magazine might attract people from the social group B as well

All social groups should be able to afford the magazine so I made sure that I had a suitable price for all so that it can reach as much people as possible and have a lot of exposure

What kind of media institution might distribute your magazine and why?

Bauer Media – Examples IPC Media – Examples

FHM Marie Claire

Kerrang NME

Heat Now

There are a few media institutions that distribute music magazines:

Development Hall - Examples

Mixmag

What kind of media institution might distribute your magazine and why?

The media institution that I would want to distribute my music magazine is Bauer Media as it is known for having many music magazines which includes Kerrang!, Pop and Q.

This can make my music magazine more popular and it would be noticed as well.

Also my magazine is different to the ones that Bauer Media create which are mainly pop and rock, the magazine I want to create is a more urban pop/rap/grime magazine which can create a new target market for this media institutions.

Who would be the audience for your magazine?

The audience for my magazine would be at 10-20 year old males. This is the reason why I chose a certain colour scheme e.g. red, white and black as it those are the sort of colours that they like. But also we saw that black and red is also a colour that could attract females as well which means that we can expand our audience to both males and females.

I chose certain images in order to attract my target aiduence and also the font I used. These are all things that can attract your audience. Also the language is important, which is why I am thinking of not adding words that people of the age bracket might not understand and choose to go with the current themes.

How did you attract/address your audience?

In my magazine, I attracted my target audience in different ways. Firstly, through the masthead and main image. We choose a different font for the masthead that would be bold and stand out from other magazines. It has flames to represent the magazine name ‘New Flame’. The main image is an enlarged image of the artist that the main article is about. This could attract my audience as they could be fans of the his music and want to read more about him.

The colour scheme is very important in order for people to buy the magazine. I decided to use neutral colours to attract both males and females. I decided to use red, white and black in my magazine so that I am not central to only one gender. This means that more sales can be made on my magazine.

I feel like this was the best choice for the magazine to be different from the magazines that have already been released and make sure that people are buying our magazines instead.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your

magazine?

From this task, I have learnt that there are many different ways to construct magazines. Firstly is physical technology, which is where things are used to capture scenes or images. I did this by taking pictures of the artist for my magazine.

Digital technology is where computer hardware is used. In this task, I used a computer to create and edit the magazine. Digital technology is very important because if there was no digital technology, there would be no magazine.

I learned that software is also another important process as this is what is used to edit the magazine and make the magazine better. For my magazine, I used photoshop in order to edit pictures and create the whole magazine as well. Through photoshop, different effects were added to the magazine and makes the magazine look more professional.

Printing the magazine is the final process that is needed to make sure the magazine is created. I learned that there are a range of printing processes that are needed to create the magazine.

Looking at your preliminary task – what do you feel you have learnt in the progression

from it to the full product?

From my preliminary task, I learned that there are many processes and other effects in order to make my magazine look more professional. From the school magazine, I did not make the magazine look attractive and make sure that it attracts my target market. It also was not professional. In my magazine cover, I did not add certain forms and conventions i.e puffs and coverlines. I made it the full product, I had to add more articles and change the fonts so that it could attract more audiences.

With the contents page, in my school magazine, I did not add information about each article which left the contents page empty. The image could be different i.e. a different type of shot, the medium shot captures the upper body but I was challenged to choose a different shot. My final version has the information about each article but I did change the image shot. The long shot was more effective than other shots the I could have chosen. I decided to add text on top of the main image in order to challenge conventions instead of having a normal image.

Finally, with the double page spread. I had black and red with the text colour being white. I thought that my magazine would be effective with the three colours but there was no main image with the article and the font size could be decreased. With the final version, I challenged conventions by putting the main image in the middle of the double page spread, which is different from other magazines. Also the font sizes were reduced and the main coverline colour was changed to red while the red on the side of the double page spread was removed which makes the colour of the double page spread black only.