Ways in which my Media Product has used, developed and challenged forms of real media products

JACK HUDSON

My Product; AMPLIFY Magazine

What is Amplify Magazine?AMPLIFY Magazine is an indie

rock magazine, focusing on the newer, upcoming indie rock bands and artists. AMPLIFY takes its inspirations from other indie magazines, such as NME, but also from rock and metal magazines, such as Kerrang! Magazine.

Front Cover

The front cover of my magazine is made to look as effective as possible. I made the front cover rather simple, to help portray what's inside AMPLIFY to the potential reader.

FRONT COVER BREAKDOWN: MASTHEAD

For my masthead, I chose something that would appeal to the Indie Rock audience. For my

research, I decided to look at an article from NME Magazine, and pick out words that would appeal to

an Indie audience. I went through the whole article, picking out individual words, but the best 3 I chose were "Riff", "Rebel" and my final choice of

"Amplify". These words all have connotations of Indie, for example "Riff" being a part of song,

usually involving guitars (another part of Indie). One of the most famous riffs for example is in

"Brianstorm" by one of Indie's biggest bands, the Arctic Monkeys. I chose "Amplify" because it

shares the connotations of both words, as Amplify has connotations of gigs and concerts, things that

the original indie fans would "Rebel" to attend. This uses and develops the conventions of real

media products as this, by using the word “AMPLIFY”, uses the same style of connecting with the audience as magazines such as NME and Q

FRONT COVER BREAKDOWN: SLOGAN

The slogan, the small line below the masthead, I chose was “The Finest of Indie Music”. The

reason I chose this is because it conveys the high quality of the magazine. The

research I did for my slogan was taken by looking at other music magazines and their slogans. The music magazines I examined

were Q, Billboard and VIBE. All of these had slogans which were very positive, and

almost cocky. They showed their confidence and how they show how good their

magazine is. Some magazines don’t include a slogan, but I decided to use one as its a

short and memorable phrase visible to the reader of the magazine. This uses the same conventions of Q Magazine, connecting with the audience in the same way as they both

are slightly over-confident slogans, but both work as they aren’t completely over the top

FRONT COVER BREAKDOWN: main coverline

I added the main coverline across the bottom right hand corner of the page. The masthead covers a lot of the

bottom part of the page, which draws a lot of attention to the main front cover, and in particular the cover model; it intrigues the reader to want to know what and who "Matt

D" is and about. My research for the placement and choice of words for the coverline was again done by

looking at other magazines, such as NME. The first coverline I chose was much larger than the final

coverline, which draws more attention to the artist than AMPLIFY Magazine itself, so I made the size of the

coverline smaller. The pull quote of “Time for a new leader” was chosen because indie artists and lead singers

are usually quite outlandish and over-confident, such as Matty Healy from The 1975 and Morrissey from the

Smiths, so this quote was chosen as it would connect with the indie audience. This challenges the conventions of

magazines as the coverline is nowhere near as big as the coverlines placed onto magazines like Billboard. This is

because Billboard is an established music magazine, and doesn’t need to show off the name of the magazine to

sell copies. AMPLIFY however has to as it is a new magazine trying to establish itself in the magazine world.

Front Cover Breakdown: Secondary Coverline

The next thing I added was the secondary coverlines. The symbol of "+" symbolises

extra information in the magazine, and also that the magazine is not just only

focused on the main cover star, as that would make for bad reading for the reader. The secondary coverlines of

"Massive New Albums for 2017, Foals, The 1975, The Courteeners, Jaws and Circa

Waves " shows that there is a wide range of articles and stories in the magazine, not

just giving the large acts, such as Foals and The 1975, the entire focus; the

magazine will focus on the smaller acts of the indie genre, such as Circa Waves, and the unsigned Jaws. This is using the same

conventions as Billboard Magazine. Billboard also uses the plus symbol as it

wants to show how much information there is inside the magazine, the same as

AMPLIFY is doing.

Front Cover Breakdown: COMPETITION COVERLINE

The competition coverline, "WIN! V.I.P Courteeners & Blossoms tickets“ helps to also grab the attention of the reader as they see an opportunity to win some free tickets to see one of indie's biggest

acts in The Courteeners, and furthermore one of indie's biggest

newcomers in Blossoms. This will help grab the potential reader's attention,

and make them possibly want to purchase "Amplify" Magazine. This was

originally placed in a puff (Pictured left), but I decided to change it to another

coverline as the puff looked rather unprofessional. This challenged the

conventions of magazines such as MOJO. Instead of using a puff, I created another

coverline instead, challenging the conventions of other magazines.

CONTENTS PAGEThis is my contents page.

As shown, there is a lot of information placed

on the page, which shows how much is

inside the magazine. The page has been split

into 3 main parts: The masthead and title at

the top, The subheadings placed on

the left hand side of the page, and then the

images of this week’s main articles.

CONTENTS PAGE: MASTHEAD, WEBSITE AND TITLE

I added the masthead at the top, along with "Contents". The reason I decided to use the

word "Contents" instead of "This Week" or "Inside This Week", is because AMPLIFY is

not a well enough established magazine to be able to use things like that. NME or

Billboard, for example, can do this as they're very well established in the music magazine world, and people know what to expect from them. Amplify however, has to use the word

"Contents". I also added the masthead above the word contents, and changed it to

white text colour, and the "Contents" to a Cyan blue, sticking with the same colour

scheme that I used on the front cover of the magazine. I finally added a website into the

space below the masthead. I added this because it will show the reader that there

will be more information on the website, and it shows them where to find it. This uses the

same conventions as Q Magazine, stating that its the “Contents”, but also challenges

the conventions of NME, as AMPLIFY has used the more simplistic and clear

“Contents” instead of “Inside this week”

CONTENTS PAGE: SUBHEADINGS

The next thing I added was the subheadings on the left hand side of the

contents page. I split these into sections; “THIS WEEK IN INDIE”, a small page about the goings on in the worlds of

indie. Also, I added “NEWCOMERS”, “GIG WATCH”, “ALBUMS” & “COMPETITIONS”. I placed these into sections because it will make it easier for the reader to find what

it is that they want to find in Amplify magazine. Furthermore, it will show the reader how much information there is in

the magazine, and it could intrigue the reader more to want to purchase the

magazine. This uses the same conventions as NME Magazine, as

AMPLIFY and NME both use sections to make it easier for the reader to find what

it is they’re after in the magazine.

CONTENTS PAGE: IMAGE ONE

The next thing I added was another image of Matt D, on the right hand side of the page. This will make it clear to the reader who this week's main focus is, and will also show that there will

be a large bit of information about Matt D. I also placed a coverline over the image, and I

placed it in the Cyan Blue again, continuing on the colour scheme. Furthermore, also another

small kicker of "'Cheshire's Finest' New Indie Chart Topper Speaks about Inspirations for

his Number 1 Album" underneath to let the reader know what the interview is about. This

uses the same conventions as Kerrang! Magazine’s contents page, with the large

image showing who the main focus of this week’s magazine is.

CONTENTS PAGE: IMAGE TWOI then added another image onto the page, an

image of a new, young and  upcoming Indie Rock band called The Continental Phase. The text

placed onto the image of "The Continental Phase“. This was then put into the cyan colour,

and then I added a small kicker below of "Manchester's freshest band talks about their

upcoming UK & Europe tour" which was placed into a white colour, sticking with the same

graphology as the rest of the contents page, making it come together. This was placed below

the image of Matt D, in a space that was left empty for a while as I was unsure whether to use

the same conventions as Q or Kerrang!, as they place an Editor’s Note, or competition below the main image. However I decided to challenge the

convention, and add the image of The Continental Phase below the image of Matt, as this shows the

reader that there is more than just the main article of Matt D in the magazine, but also makes the contents page unique to that of Q or Kerrang!

DOUBLE PAGE SPREADFor the double page spread, I decided to

make my cover model Matt a stereotypical indie rock act, such as

Morrissey from The Smiths and Matty Healy from The 1975; brash, outlandish and rather cocky from the outside view.

But, if Matt wasn't this character, he would not have made his name in the

indie world so quickly, which is what the interview is mainly about; Matt D's amazing rise thanks to his new album, titled "Nostalgia Trip". This album title

fits in with the front cover of the magazine as the car used behind Matt

was released around about the same time that Indie was beginning, and the

title "Nostalgia Trip" is saying that Indie has changed, and it needs to go back

to the original roots, which is what I am trying to achieve here.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD: BACKGROUND IMAGE

The first thing I had to do was choose the correct and suitable image for my

double page spread .This is the image I chose, taken from my first shoot. I

chose this because Matt is represented as indie by his hairstyle and his

clothing. Also, the fade to black on the left hand side looked like a good place

to place my main headline and text, as they would stand out a lot against the

black background. I cropped the image slightly to apply with the Rule of Thirds,

so Matt was moved over to the right hand side of the page. This uses the

same conventions as Q Magazine, as I have placed the background image of Matt onto one of the pages, and then placed the text onto the other page.

Double Page Spread: Pull Quote Headline

The next thing I did was add in the headline at the top left hand side of the page. The

headline reads "Indie has been Crying Out For A New Leader", which is a pull quote taken from the interview with Matt D, when he is

stating how Indie has "lost it's original touch" and the new leader role is a role that Matt

states he "has to fulfil". The change of colour, from the white to red, especially on the words

"crying out“, shows the importance of the newcomer Matt D, and the words "crying out" is almost like a call for help and saving, which

is what Matt and his new album are "here to do“. The use of a pull quote uses the same

conventions as Kerrang! Magazine, as the pull quote shows a small amount of what to expect in the interview, therefore this is why Kerrang!

And AMPLIFY have both used one; to give the reader some insight as to what to expect

Double Page Spread: Kicker

The next thing I added was the kicker. The kicker acts as the introduction to the

article, attracting the reader. The kicker I chose was "Matt D speaks about

inspirations for his new number one album 'Nostalgia Trip'". The text again

has a change of colour, which shows the importance of those words, which in

particular is the title of the new album. The red font is a classic colour of the indie genre, along with the black and

white background behind the text. This again uses the same conventions as

Kerrang! Magazine’s double page spread about rock band My Chemical

Romance. The kicker is a small introduction, adding not just another

insight to the page, but also to the aesthetics of the page

Double Page Spread: Article

The next thing I added was the text. I placed the text into columns to give it a more

professional look, but also it means I can include more into

my text, making the interview a better read for the reader. I also added a drop capital to the start of the text, to make it generally

more aesthetically better. This again uses the same conventions as the Kerrang! Magazine Double

page spread; They’ve added a drop capital to make it more

aesthetically pleasing.