AS MEDIA STUDIES EVALUATIONBy Talia Gaye

QUESTION 1

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

QUESTION 1 – Use, develop or challenge forms and conventions.

Front cover

Throughout my magazine I have tried to include generic conventions. I had learnt about these conventions during my conventions task which I had completed at the start of year 12. http://taliagaye.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/blog-post_20.html

During this task, I had chosen a magazine called ‘Classic rock’ and begin to make an analysis of all the codes and conventions which had been used on the front cover of the magazine. I had chosen this particular magazine as at this time I already had an idea of what genre of music I was going to choose (Indie/rock). This task enabled me to identify generic conventions which were used in magazines and particularly in Indie/Rock magazines so that I could quickly become familiar with the way in which a magazines presentation works.

After completing this task, I then tried to put these conventions into context myself. I had used four magazine templates from existing magazines as a basis for my work. I then added myself various conventions I had learnt about such as main cover lines, cover lines, left thirds etc. http://taliagaye.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/codes-and-conventions-of-magazine-task.html

These tasks helped me to quickly gain knowledge into generic conventions of music magazines but also the way in which I should apply them when creating my own magazine.

QUESTION 1 – Use, develop or challenge forms and conventions.

As a result of the two tasks I had gained a clear understanding into generic conventions and the layout of a front cover as shown below in my own magazines front cover.

I took into consideration how each convention should be typically displayed and followed the rules of conventions within a music magazine. I had used the left third rule for my masthead. I also used a cover line within the left third of my magazine so that I was following the conventions. I also made sure that the main cover line took over the attention compared to the cover lines.I decided to merge the URL and date line together with the masthead to add to the design of the magazine further giving the cove more interest into the design. I had also added other important conventions such as the barcode and price in a familiar way on my cover featuring them both together.

QUESTION 1 – Use, develop or challenge forms and conventions.

Challenges and developmentsSome of the conventions I learnt about a music magazine I had challenged and added my own ideas so that I achieve my own identity for my magazine.

Unlike most Indie/rock magazines which I had researched such as NME, Kerrang and Q, I choose for the front cover of my magazine to be plain. I found that with the magazines which I made research into, their front covers often featured more than one piece of original photography. The front cover of these magazines commonly had a main imagine and also photography within cover lines etc to promote what was inside of the magazine. Where as with my magazine I has chosen to only use one piece of original photography challenging the typical codes and conventions of an Indie/rock magazine. I did this as I wanted the target audience to focus on the main cover line which had relation to my main imagine of my main artist. I think that for my magazine this worked well for promoting my main article within the magazine itself.

QUESTION 1 – Use develop or challenge forms and conventions.

Challenges and developments

On the front cover of my magazine, I have also choose to add my own identity into the conventions through the main cover line. I had chosen to underline and write in Italic font the artists name. This isn’t something which is normally used on a magazine cover and from my research I hadn’t seen it been used in any of the Indie/rock magazines I researched either. This feature in the main cover line gives a uniqueness about my magazine as well as providing an emphasis on the main cover line in relation to the main image of the artist behind it.

QUESTION 1 – Use develop or challenge forms and conventions.

InfluencesThe choice of layout for my magazine came from a number of influences including Q, NME and Kerrang. I had chosen these magazines for influence as it matched the genre of music which I had chosen for my own magazine and they helped me to develop my own ideas of now I wanted my own magazine to look like.

Using the influence of NME’s and Kerrang’s masthead I came up with how mine was going to be designed. For both magazines I liked how the masthead was in white font. I thought that the colour stood out over both backgrounds of

the magazines drawing in the readers attention. This is exactly what I wanted for my magazine. I also liked the fact that NME had a short masthead on the left hand side of the magazine. I also took inspiration from this for my magazine as I thought it made magazine sound catchy and it didn’t look too ‘in your face’. This is a feature I wanted my magazine to also have.

QUESTION 1 – Use develop or challenge forms and conventions.

InfluencesAnother influence I got from NME was their style of cover lines.

When looking at this NME magazine, the cover lines really stood out to me. I liked how the had backgrounds which contrasted well with the overall colour scheme of the front cover. I was influenced by the way that they designed their cover lines and therefore inherited in within my own work. I purposely made sure that the colour scheme of the text with the background all matchedthe conventions of my magazine so that the colours were consistent and the magazine

stood out.

QUESTION 1 – Use develop or challenge forms and conventions.

InfluencesQ magazine influenced me into the positioning of my cover lines. I liked the way the cover lines were positioned Were positioned around the out side of the cover

making the magazine look professional and not taking too much attention off the main image. I decided to also only position my cover lines around the outside of the cover. I also liked the use of direct address from the cover star used on the front page. This provides a relationship between the cover star and the audience. The backgrounds of both of the magazines are plain

using a single colour. I also did this within my magazine as I thought it gave emphasis to my cover lines and main cover line as they stood out over the background. I also decided to do this throughout the whole magazine making it a part of my colour scheme.

QUESTION 1 – Use develop or challenge forms and conventions.

ContentsThe layout of my magazines contents page was inspired by some aspects of Q magazine and NME. Then began to draft my contents page using these inspirations.http://taliagaye.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/magazine-layout-draft.html The use of images relating on the contents page with page numbers over them in Q magazine inspired me into using this in my own magazine. I liked the way they had done this as it looked different. I also found it a lot more eye catching seeing familiar artists rather then reading a familiar artists

name on the page. I also liked the fact that in both magazines they had used the colour scheme of white, red and black which had which I had later on adapted into my own magazine. I found that the variation betweenbetween images, the sizes of them and the text made my magazine a lot more stimulating and attractive. I also decided to include the same features within my own magazine.

QUESTION 1 – Use develop or challenge forms and conventions.

Purposely I chose to carry on the colour scheme of my front cover to my contents of Red, Black and white. I chose to do this as I noticed that in many of the Indie/Rock magazines I had researched their colour schemes were kept consistent. I think this was important to me as it gave my magazine an identity and professionalism which I wanted to be able to stick to. I also chose to carry on the cover star and story into my contents page. This enabled my magazine to have consistency and make it clear that this was the main article of my magazine. In the magazines which had influenced me, their contents pages featured advertisements. This is what made my magazine slightly unique compared to my influences. The use of the magazines name ‘ROIT’ was also featured on my magazines contents page. This was inspiration which I had taken from both Q magazine and NME. I thought that it was important that the magazines identity was carried through to the contents page.

QUESTION 1 – Use develop or challenge forms and conventions.

Double page spreadMy first influences for my double page spread were NME and Q magazine. http://taliagaye.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/research-and-planning-of-double-page.html

I planned for my double page spreads to looks similar to these as I liked the layout of the pictures alongside the text.

I was also inspired by these particular magazines as they were from the same genre music as I planned my magazine to be. I took inspiration from the way they looked and wanted to add these ideas eventually into my own magazine.

QUESTION 1 – Use develop or challenge forms and conventions.

My main influence was the NME double page spread. As with this double page spread I also decided to use a quote for my main focus of the title for the article. I thought the way that the text was presented stood out on the page and immediately grabbed the audiences attention. I wanted to be able to created this same effect within my own magazine. I was also influenced by the artist which was featured on the right hand side of the page.I thought that it fitted in well with the articleon the left hand side and gave a nice relationship between the title, main artist and article. I also decided to keep the colours of red,white and black consistent throughout the whole of my magazine. I did this as I thoughtthat it brought together the front page, contents page and double page spread nicely.

QUESTION 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

QUESTION 2 – Representing particular social groups.

My magazine was mainly aimed at teenagers, old and young, who like Indie/rock music. For me I found that NME and Q magazine helped me into forming this identity for my own magazine. They also helped me into understanding how to fit this genre of music into my magazine as well as appealing to the correct target audience. Cover starThe cover star ‘Aubry Banks’ in her original photography demonstrates someone who doesn’t give away a lot about herself based on her appearance. She looked very ‘straight faced’ which is what I wanted to be able to portray for my cover star. I did this because as a part of my artists background I explained how she had been a victim of bullying andhow she always expressed herself through her music. The fact my artist was shown in such an straight faced way was to portray this background which she had that from the outside she looked normal and kept all her problems inside. Music was the way she got rid of all her problems which is talked about within the interview. I thought it was important that I gave this representation as it also portrayed my typical target market of teenagers.

QUESTION 2 – Representing particular social groups.

Teenagers typically are seen as having ‘problems’ within their lives but keeping them bottled up. This was the same image I wanted to be able to portray through my cover star so that my target audience would be able to relate to the article within my magazine.

Other photos used in my magazine also gave my magazine a ‘cheeky, rebellious, youthful’ trend which comes from the

Indie/Rock genre. The two boys represent this trend as they were both captured laughing which reflects the genre of music as again being ‘mischievous’. Indie/rock is also represented through the band photo on the stairs. The emotions in all of the artists face reflects typical teenagers. On the left hand side, the boy pulling a face represents them as being ‘silly’. The girl in the middle shows a representation of ‘seriousness’ and the boy on the right looking away being ‘care free’ all representing traits of a teenager but also representation of the genre of music itself.

QUESTION 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and

why?

QUESTION 3 – Media institutionThe genre and audience of ROIT magazine is very similar to NME’s and Q magazine which are major distribution companies. I can see ROIT working well as a major distributor as it is a fresh type of magazine displaying a lot of new faces. It is also a similar magazine to both Q and NME, therefore a top seller. I researched into major distribution companies including Bauer media. http://taliagaye.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/planning_13.html

I found that may popular music magazines had been produced by them. These magazine including Kerrang, Q magazine and Mojo.

They were also involved in a range of media such as TV, radio, internet, phones, magazines etc. However, even though the company was involved in a number of magazines I didn't’ feel as though it was the right one for my own particular magazine.

QUESTION 3 – Media institutionThe distributor I had chosen instead for my magazine was IPC media - http://www.ipcmedia.com/

I have chosen them as my distributors based on their range of magazines which also includes NME, a big inspiration of my own magazine. They also have a variety of ways in which to advertise on different platforms including websites, printing and modern technology such as mobile phones and tablets. I think that ROIT magazine will be able to merge well with this modern company as a new magazine for young music lovers.

QUESTION 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

QUESTION 4 – The audience for your media product.

My magazine is aimed at teenagers and young adults from ages of around 16 – 21.

I had created a questionnaire for my target audience to complete based on the content of my magazine.

http://taliagaye.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/questionnaire-on-content-of-my-magazine.html

This helped me to find out what my target audience wanted to see in my magazine so that I knew what it was I needed to include to make it relevant for my target audience. I recorded this information and then presented it in the form of pie graphs.

http://taliagaye.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/female-questionnaire-analysis-for.html

The result of this helped me to develop my magazine so that it will suit my target audience. NME also has a similar target audience as my magazine as their audience ranges from around teenagers to the age of around 21.

QUESTION 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

QUESTION 5 – Attract/address your audience

MastheadI think that the name of my magazine is very catchy. The name ‘ROIT’ reminds me of ‘riot’ which references noise and banging. This is also a similar way of describing the genre of Indie/Rock music as it is sometimes very loud and heavy. I think this is good for my magazine as the name has reference to the genre of music advertised within the magazine and gives the magazine meaning. I think that the simplicity of the name also works well for my target audience as it is easy to remember in teenagers hectic lives. The use of CAPTIALS within the name and the white font makes the magazine stand out to the audience.I think that my choice of colour for the magazines name is also a good feature as it is easy to work with in terms as making it match the front covers background in future issues. The magazine name is catchy but also looks eye catching for the audience because of the use of fonts and colours I have used.

QUESTION 5 – Attract/address your audience

Colours

From the research I had made into magazines, I had came up with a colour scheme for my own magazine before beginning to design it. http://taliagaye.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/planning_22.html

Similarly to NME and Rolling stone magazine, the colours I have chosenFor my magazine suit my target audience because of their clarity, Contrasts and uses. For a Rock magazine, Black provides a dark ‘sinister’ meaning to my magazine.White gives a purity as well as a nice base colour. Red can also be used for text needing special attention plus to give a sense of romance or even warning.

QUESTION 5 – Attract/address your audience

Cover lines The cover lines are used to draw in further my audiences attention.

Quotes from artists have been used such as “OUR FANS ARE AWSOME” to draw in my targets audience attention to the magazine. I displayed a quote on the front of the magazine as I knew it would be a point of interest for the artists fans. It also leaves the audience interested to what is inside of the magazine.

I have also gave emphasis to certain words on my magazine such as ‘Aubry Banks’. I chose to use italic, bold white font so that out of all the fonts it stood out on the page. The fact that it was the main cover line also supported this to be most noticeable to my audience.

The language I have chosen to use on the magazine also fits with my target audience being easy to read and a down to earth tone which is easy and enjoyable to read.

QUESTION 5 – Attract/address your audience

ImagesMost of the images used throughout the magazine of my cover star look strong, proud and confident. They can also relate to the fact that she isn’t giving too much away about her emotions through her straight facial expressions relating to her childhood when she was bullied and kept everything bottled up.

I made sure that my cover star was making eye contact with the audience in every photo to build a relationship with the audience. However I also did it to relate to the fact that she is over her bulling from a child and now releasing her music to the world.

Other images used in my magazine such as the support artists I tried to portray them in a cheeky, fun way so that it appealed to my target audience and in some ways to the genre of music.

QUESTION 6

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

product?

QUESTION 6 – CHANGE DIS