Magazine Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My magazine uses conventions such as the title block. The masthead in most magazine’s is bold and also the largest font on the front cover and I have done this on my magazine. I have used the Title ‘Electric’ because it links to the instrument of an Electric guitar which is usually featured in Rock bands and Indie etc. So it gives an idea that my magazine is based on the Rock Genre. Especially using a colour such as black to help it stand out on a plain white/black gradient background.My Central image is of a teenage female using a direct mode of address, so she is looking into the reader’s eye. Her body language is a feminine position, with her hand under her face to reveal a flower to introduce purity towards a rock magazine. Her hair is curly, and she’s wearing a different style of make-up that the particular teenager who is interested in Rock would wear, gentle natural make-up instead of bold eye-liner and dark lipstick. So I am developing typical conventions just not for a distinctive Rock magazine.The anchorage text reads ‘Burning Dreams’ which is the name of the band in my feature article. The font is similar to the title to create a house style for the magazine, using similar fonts help link the magazine pages all together. It is placed on the female’s torso, across her chest to show that it is part of the central image’s article. I also have a slogan used at the top of my page that reads – The newest, bestest and most electrifying rock magazine yet. Words such as ‘electrifying’ are very attractive and obviously suit the Masthead.
I have placed a barcode on the right bottom corner which includes the price and website of my magazine. It also tells the audience that this magazine is Issue 1 and lets the audience know the date the magazine was released – January 2011. The price tells a lot about the magazine, being only £1.50 every two weeks is a reasonable price. I have placed the price in a yellow puff next to my title on my front cover to stand out so the audience can know the price straight away and not struggle to search through the page. I’ve used many puffs around the page to attract the human eye using my three main colours of Black/Yellow/Red.
My magazine gives away a freebie on my first issue as many magazines do a free poster of a new artist.
I challenge forms and conventions by making my target audience mainly towards females even though it’s a Rock Magazine which usually attracts males. Overall my magazine uses the usual layout that most Music magazines use. My magazine contents page doesn’t use typical conventions as the information is splattered other the page, and most magazines have their information organized. I thought that having my contents page a little different would attract a different audience that most Rock magazines wouldn’t. Also making the information all over the page and not placed in stanzas could attract teenagers easier as the look is more interesting, whereas adults would prefer a much more organized layout. There are plenty of images around the page of females with one featuring a young male, to attract some male audience. I used the same colour scheme and house style (same fonts) as the front cover to show how the pages link together, used black/white/red.My article pages use typical conventions of most magazines as they layout is organized and looks identical to most magazine articles. An image, which is similar to the front cover image, takes up the first page of the article including a quote introducing the artist easily. She looks feminine once again, in the same costume as the front cover to show that this is the main feature article inside the magazine. The quotes are neatly positioned around the page breaking up the paragraphs. I did this so that the audience could notice what part of the paragraph was most important. On the second page of my article I used the exact same house style from the double-page spread. Four images placed next together to attract the reader break up the paragraphs (also the quotes do the same). All pages of the article use a lighting background attraction which helps link to the masthead ‘Electric’ which some magazines do.


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

The way I have represented females in a rock magazine challenges the usual look from other Rock magazines. My magazine represents young females with an interest in Rock, Emo/Punk/Indie girls in a different way but in a different way using all the points below.My media product represents mostly young females in a different way than they are usually stereotyped. The quote from the article, which links to the Anchorage text, says – “My sister has taken over my band”. This represents women in a way of them being in control and being the more powerful gender (which is usually represented as males). The image looks innocent and by transforming the image into black and white brings emotion into the image. Especially as the girl uses a feminine body position, and clothing. Her feminine hair and make-up represents women in a nice way. These are points are focusing on the Front cover page of my magazine.
The contents page from my magazine represents young females in the same way. ‘Rock chicks’ are represented as feminine once again. There are seven images placed on the page all including females. Both main artists (Roxy Phillips and Daisy Hamlyn) are wearing outfits that consider a Rock-ish look. The artist in the top right corner of my contents page is wearing a black and white dress in all three images which are colours that the stereotypical girl interested in Rock would wear daily. The other artist in the bottom left corner is wearing a dress featuring the word ‘Rock’ on, which is also quite stereotypical. But as both outfits include glitter, stiletto’s, make up and the uncharacteristic hairstyle of a typical indie/Emo/punk teenager it brings back the identity of femininity on the page. The last image on the page is featuring ‘The Weasles’ which sounds like more of an Indie band. The girl in this image is represented differently than the other two artists which is one of the reasons I made this the smallest image on the page as it isn’t as significant to the magazine as the two female artists. The boy who is featured in this image has his arm behind the female, showing she has power over the two of them (once again challenging the stereotype of males being the strongest gender). He wears red and grey which suggest Rock, especially as he is holding a guitar, and the female wears nerdy glasses which contrasts well with their band name ‘Weasles’.
My media product represents one particular Social group which is C1/C2 socio-economic group, as my product is aimed at middle class and some working class students of secondary school, college, and maybe some elder teenagers attending university. Teenagers would use their pocket money or EMA, also some who work on weekends etc. could use this money to spend £1.50 every fortnight as this is a reasonable price for a music magazine. Most Rock magazine’s that are aimed at a wider audience are usually quite expensive. Most young teenage girls attended school and college are a little confused about how they want to be seen to others, and what groups they would like to be placed in. Which is one of the reasons I have used attractive images of females in nice outfits featured in my magazine. Most girls search for magazines including beauty products and fashion so if my magazine includes nice-looking images will get plenty more females interested in the Rock genre.


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

The type of media institution I would like to distribute my media product to would be Development Hell. The reason being is that my magazine would be closer to being a Niche type magazine and Development Hell has published two Niche magazines such as Mixmag and The Word. I would like to distribute my media product with them to help them succeed in the future. Development Hell is a growing company and if they distribute more magazines (such as mine) they could grow bigger. They have provided consultancy to the IPC Media, which would be great for me as I am going to try and battle with the opposite magazine of mine, NME. NME is a magazine distributed by IPC Media which is a Rock magazine mainly aimed at a male audience as I searched the NME reader profile and most images used are aimed at men. Snickers chocolate advert (with a slogan of ‘get some nuts), converses advertisement, K-Swiss trainers, Fred Perry, Top man etc. The magazine uses an audience of the same age group as mine (but also older). As my magazine uses the rock genre and so does NME, however we have a difference in audience gender. I looked up on the percentage of NME’s audience, and it is proved that the male audience dominated the readership with 74% females just 26%. Also the median for the age group of NME were 23 year olds, proving that it is aimed at College and University students, similar to my Electric magazine. There are many readers who belong to the C1 socio-economic group which is the group I would aspect mine to reach.
All these similarities gave me the idea to create NME as Electric’s enemy, battle of the genders.

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

The audience for my media product is teenage females from the age group of 14-19. I am challenging the usual conventions and going against the typical market. These young females will be placed in the socio-economic group of C1/C2, roughly middle class students attending School, College and University. The price of my media product is £1.50 which is a sensible price for the style and also considering it only comes out once every two weeks. This proves that Students could use work money/pocket money to buy the product.I have chosen this audience as most magazines aimed at this particular audience are focused on beauty, fashion and boys. Music magazines that are attractive to teenage females around the age of 14-19 would usually be R n B or Pop magazines. I’m challenging the gender by spotlighting on the females interests in Rock; using attractive images of Women helped me do this.


5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I will attract my audience in an obvious way, using female images. Using attractive images of females with fashionable outfits on, and wearing make-up helps attract most teenage girls. Using a direct mode of address in my Central image, on my front cover, helps attract the reader’s eye. I give away a free poster of a new artist which is a good way of attracting young teenagers with an interest of Rock. The stereotypical rock image of a teenager surround their bedroom walls so including a freebie is a great way to attract the audience of 14-19.


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

With technology items such as Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, I have learnt many useful techniques on how to develop a professional look to my magazine. Using brightness and contrast tools to make the image look darker/lighter and using sharper edges gives a specialized image making it look suitable for a real-life magazine product. Using filtering tools and magic tools which I have never understood before, but now have realised how to make a bland image look great. I have also learnt how to create a blog. Place information and images onto my blogger. I can now find my way round blogger.com much easier, and sort it out in organized matter. The blog helped me with my coursework, as I could view my teacher’s work quicker and also find out what I have to do next faster than other ways of teaching. I have never used Survey Monkey before and as a result I have now found out a simpler way to create a questionnaire. It is easy to link to my blog, creating an effortless way to answer my questionnaire from my audience. The benefits of creating the questionnaire on Survey Monkey was so it looked much more impressive/professional and easier to use, also easier to gather up the answers.

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

I have learnt a lot of skills and techniques from computer products in the time of creating my media product. Looking back at my preliminary task I have developed many new skills and made very good progression throughout. I have learnt many new techniques using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. My image in my preliminary task was very simple; I only used brightness and contrast tools on the image, to help the orange colour scheme stand out. Whereas in my final image I used a black and white tool, and many filtering tools to help the image look smoother/sharper edges. I cut out the background parts of my final front cover image to make it look like a newspaper; however my preliminary front cover image is a boxed image.My preliminary contents page was extremely plain. I only used one image on my preliminary contents page on the side with the writing next to it, so its uses a very plain layout. From contents pages I have learnt that there is usually two sections: features and reviews. Most use the page order of:

· Feedback/Emails/Letters
· News Articles
· Artists/Introducing New Band
· Live Reviews
· Articles (features/main article) with Posters featured in-between.
· Album Reviews
· Gig Listings
· Quizzes and games.

So I used this layout for my final media product contents page so that it is similar to other magazines, whereas my Preliminary task contents page has random information on random page numbers. Researching target audiences for magazines such a NME help me develop a specific target audience for my genre of magazine. I didn’t research any audiences for my preliminary task, so I have learnt a lot about different ages/genders/ethnicities etc. that have an interest in different styles of magazines.
All these things will help me in the future to develop many more skills throughout the years. As I continue Media A Level into the A2 Level, the skills I have learnt will grow stronger and get higher. So all the skills I have learnt in my AS Level will help for future references.

Final Draft of Magazine

Page Order

Conventional

1. Feedback/Emails/Letters
2. News Articles
3. Artists/Introducing New Bands
4. Live Reviews
5. Articles (features/main article) with Posters inbetween.
6. Album Reviews
7. Gig Listings
8. Quizzes and games.

Information for Contents Page

1st Draft Contents Page

1st Draft Article Page 2

1st Draft Article Page 1

1st Draft Magazine Cover

My first draft of my front cover of my Rock Music magazine Electric.

My Music Magazine Fonts

Font 1 :

Font 2:

Font 3:

Font 4:

Font 5:

Images I'm Using For My Magazine

Other Images that are inside the magazine (small front cover images and contents page)

Images I'm Using For My Magazine

This is the front cover image I have chosen. It has a direct mode of address which helps attract the audience easier. It also links well to the main image for my article :





















These two images challenge the sterotype of a Rock music genre magazine.


Smaller Images I'm using for my main Article:

Planning The Photoshoot

For my media magazine I have sorted a time and place for my photo shoot and emailed a few people to meet me there. The purpose of planning this is to show how I gathered my participants and obviously to show where the images have been taken.

Editing My Images In Photoshop

With my images for my magazine I used Adobe Photoshop to make the images clearer and more expressive. I developed my skills well, and now find Photoshop much easier to use.

I used skills such as Brightness/Contrast so that my image would look clearer and more proffessional towards the audience.

I used the Magic Wand tool to delete any background (of course placing the image on a transparent background at first). This tool allows me to place the image on any background of my choice. As you can see the background of me image is white, which was easy for the Magic Wand tool to delete.

I used a Filter tool to sharpen the edges of my image, as my image wasn't perfectly compatible at first but looked much more impressive once the edges were sharpened.

On my first draft of my magazine, I used the Delete box tool to take bits off of the background to create a newspaper effect around the edges which ended up looking very effective, and suited the genre of my magazine :

Contact Sheet 3

Contact Sheet 2

Contact Sheet

Ideal Reader Profile

This is one of the people that would most probably purchase my magazine. For reasons such as the way she looks, dresses and also my magazine aims mostly at women and older teenage girls as the main image on my front cover is a fashionable girl.

Because of the look of my magazine suggests rock (from the colours, the title, images and features that are inside) a woman with an interest of rock, punk etc. would definitely be interested in this magazine. This woman looks interested in Rock music as I am making a stereotypical judgement of her appearance. Funky pink hair and a tattoo suggest that her interests interact with Rock.

Proposal for My Magazine

The main point of making the proposal about my Magazine ‘ELECTRIC’ is so I can decide who my audience will be from the appearance and features of my magazine. Such as gender, age etc.
I have chosen to use Rock as my music genre for my Magazine because Rock magazines have succeeded well in the past and present, such as Kerrang and Q. I am going to use young people in my images which helps attract a younger audience (teenagers) also most images I will be using would be of young girls, to attract more of a female audience. This is because most Rock magazines mainly attract teenage boys (only some girls) so I’d like to challenge this and make a Rock magazine for mainly girls only. This will most probably attract young female adults too, bringing a range from 14-24 year olds to my magazine. I am aiming this magazine for C1-D socio economic scale, as the magazine is £1.50 every fortnight, which isn’t very expensive. It will be released in the UK so mostly British ethnicity will purchase this magazine.

Planning Of Page Layouts

Front Cover Plan :

Contents Plan:

Double Page Article:

2nd Page of Article:

Analysing a Title Block

Analysing a title block: VIBE

Denotation – The title block has big bold writing, in the colour red which is a good attraction. Also the word ‘VIBE’ is short and sweet so that the audience can read it quickly. The main colours are red, black and white.

Connotation – The word VIBE is a slang word for Vibration which could specify that it may be in the music genre. Also vibration could lead to the vibrations of the strings on a guitar which could symbolize rock.

Colour – Red, black and white. Colours that most Rock magazines use. These three colours are contrasting that work very well together.

Font Style – The font of the word ‘VIBE’ is similar to bold Arial. Which is quite simple, but the bold accessory helps make the font more important, also the capitals.

Suggested image – The colours and the capital, bold letters of the Title Block help the audience realise that this magazine is a Rock genre.

Analysing a title block: The Source

Denotation – The title block has bold writing in capitals so that its stands out on the page. ‘The’ makes the reader realise there is a gap of breathe before ‘Source’ making it a word of waiting. The main colours are yellow and black.

Connotation – The word ‘Source’ means where you get something from, evidence. Suggesting this magazine has a lot of gossip like information. 

Colour – The colour of the Title block is yellow with a black background. Which don’t work very well together so they help understand that the music may be confusing etc.

Font Style – The font style if Bold Arial. Which is simple but capitals in bold show its significance to the front cover of the magazine.

Suggested image – This title block suggests that the type of music genre is grunge, metal rock. This maybe because the writing is bold, suggesting rock but because both colours (yellow and black) don’t work together may bring in the idea of grunge rock.

Analysing a title block: Q

Denotation – The title block for ‘Q’ is extremely quick, short and sweet. The letter is bold in the colour white which stands out well to the audience on a red background. ‘Q’ looks more like a logo for the magazine other than a title block.

Connotation – The letter ‘Q’ is an acronym. It is short for a male name Quinten Richardson who is the former creator of Q magazine.

Colour – The colours Red and white work well together and suggest rock from the colour red. White is quite a simple colour but shows well on a bold background.

Font Style – The font style of the title block ‘Q’ is a serif font, similar to an italic look. This makes the title block look professional and quite posh with the flick on the Q.

Suggested image – This title block suggests that it could be a rock magazine because of the colour red, but a sophisticated one because of the way the font is used.

Analysing a title block: NME

Denotation – The title block is in block capitals in the colour red with a white outline, which stands out well on its black background.

Connotation – ‘NME’ stands for n  m  e

Colour – The colours red, white and black work well suggesting a rock-ish kind of music genre magazine. Red stands out the most in extreme bold writing.

Font Style – The font style is simple, maybe bold Arial. Making it look professional and straightforward.

Suggested image – The magazine I suggest this Title Block would be a Rock music genre. This is because of the colours used and the simple bold font.

Web Magazine Hyperlinks

Bauer – http://www.bauer.co.uk/
Mainstream publisher, produce mainstream magazines that cater to the working class audience. Largest privately owned publisher in Europe, owned by private individuals trying to make money.

IPC Media – http://www.ipcmedia.com/
IPC Media produces over 85 iconic media brands which produce classic types of magazines that have a precise style, which construct mainstream magazines such as now which are reaching almost two thirds of the UK women and 44% of UK men – almost 27 million UK adults.

BBC magazines – http://www.bbcmagazines.com/
The BBC produce mainstream magazines as they produce and own magazines that are popular such as ‘Top gear’ and ‘Top of the Pops’ and caters to both men and women. And caters for all tastes and interests not just for one social group which makes it have mass readers.

Development Hell – http://www.developmenthell.co.uk/
This magazine company is a Niche company as they aim and cater to an underground audience not mainstream so not many shops sell them; specialist shops sell them such as in Soho who cater people who work in media would but the magazine.

Questionnaire For My Magazine Results

What title sounds suitable for a rock genre magazine?

What Sub-genre from the music genre Rock would you like to read about the most?

What colours work the best for a Rock music magazine?

Should I use a band on the front cover of my magazine, or a solo artist?

What content would you find more interesting in this magazine?

How often would you like the magazine to be released?

Is £1.50 suitable for this magazine

What should the main instrument from a Rock genre, should this magazine be based on?

With these results, I am going to take board on what the audience has answered and use the answers that were the most popular. However if something the audience has chosen doesn't work very well in my magazine as I create it I will change it and use my own idea for that specific thing.