OCR Media Studies – AS Level

Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media

Preliminary Task, Log Book and Evaluation

Name: Chloe BonnerCandidate Number: 6377 Center Name: St. Paul’s Catholic CollegeCenter Number: 64770

Set Brief - Print

Music Magazine – Production

Preliminary Task Progression, Log Book and Evaluation

Introduction

This is my log book power point. It contains all of the planning and research that I completed before making my music magazine. Also, it

contains the preliminary task I completed which was a school magazine. The type of planning and research pages that it contains are; Q magazine

research, publisher research, established magazine for my research, conventions of a music magazine and my questionnaire. Additionally, the preliminary task pages that are included in this power point are my front

cover and contents page. I analysed step by step what I did to complete my preliminary task.

Preliminary Task Progression–Evidence

Front CoverStep-by-step

Step One:

I started my front cover by

inserting my background picture

and creating my masthead.

Step Two:

I then inserted some lines to

make my masthead stand out.

Step Three:

Then, I added the school badge

to show which school it was and

then added the schools website

and the magazines website.

Step Four:

After that, I added all of my

headlines to the page.

Step Five:

I added all of the social media to my

page, this included: a picture of the

facebook and twitter logos and the

links to each page.

Preliminary Task Progression–Evidence

Front CoverStep-by-step

Step Six:

I added my barcode to the

bottom of the page

Preliminary Task Progression–Evidence

Contents PageStep-by-step

Step One:

I started creating my contents page by

adding my masthead, the title of the

page and a ‘features’ section.

Step Two:

I added pictures to my contents page;

the main picture goes with my main

story and the st pauls logo to show

which school it’s from.

Step Three:

I added the month and year and which

issue of the magazine it is.

Preliminary Task Progression–Evidence

Contents PageStep-by-step

Step Four:

I added my page numbers and next to

them I wrote each story and also a

subheading underneath the story to

summarise what it’s about.

Step Five:

I wrote an editorial which welcomes

everyone to the magazine and is a

short summary of what the magazine

is about with a signature, contact

details and an editors picture

Step Six:

To complete my contents page I had to

add all of the social media links such

as facebook and twitter, and also a link

to the magazines website.

Section 1) – Log Book

Music Magazine

NAMES

Base

Vibe

Rhythm

The Zone/Zone

Mix

Music Magazine

STORIES

Interview with Ed

Sheeran

Indie events that

are coming upLatest indie songs

Fan pages

ONE

The name ‘zone’ connotes that people can be in thezone when reading this magazine. Additionally, itrelates to how people are in the ‘zone’ when they arelistening to indie music, which is the music that thismagazine focuses on.

The main colour which I have used is red becausethis was the main colour for my magazine ofinspiration. The colour red connotes the passionfor the music which this magazine focuses on andthat we are passionate about making sure thatzone is successful. Additionally, I have kept thiscolour consistent throughout all of my pages inmy magazine as it can help to catch the readerseye and create ‘brand awareness’ for the reader.

The tilted Z connotes the edgy musicwhich this magazine is going to bedealing with and creates an edgy lookfor the magazine, which can help toattract the young indie audience whichI am aiming for.

The font style which I have used for mymasthead is very big and bold whichcan help to catch the readers eye.

Target Audience:The target audience for Q magazine can be denoted as males, between the ages of 15-44 years old (Hartley’s) as statistics have shown that 68.3% of their readers are males. This is because they write about the kind of music that males of these age ranges will be interested in, therefore they can personally identify themselves with the articles (Katz). As they have such a wide age range, this connotes that Q magazine has the ability to appeal to a lot of people. Social Climbers (Maslow’s) are most likely to read this magazine as it is about music artists and celebrities, therefore these people will want to be just like the people in the magazine because of the lives that they have. Also, social climbers will want to read this magazine because they feel as if they are being forced to improve their status within society. Overall, I think that the audience of Q magazine fit into the ‘B’ and ‘C1’ category of the socio-economic needs, which means that Q magazine are able to make their magazine more expensive as people in these groups will be able to afford the magazine.

USP:I think the USP of the magazine is the pictures as they stand out and relate to the stories. They are the USP because they tell the story to the reader and can make the reader interested in wanting to read more into the story. Also, I think another USP of the magazine is the masthead as it is very bright as they have used the colour red to make it stand out more. By the masthead standing out, it means that it will be the first thing that the consumer will see and they will then pick up that magazine and the masthead is used for every issue that is created. Additionally, another USP of the magazine is the main articles that they create because they can have exclusive interviews that no other magazine has, which can interest the reader because they will want to find out what is in those exclusive interview.

Established Magazine for my ResearchMain Image

The main image for this front cover is of Adele. As Adele is a top selling artist, this means that they might sell more copies of this magazine

because fans of Adele will be interested to see what the story of

her is about. This main image is very big so it stands out most out of

everything else on the page.

Main HeadlineThe main headline gives people a short piece of information on what the main

story is going to be about. If it is something that the audience are

interested in then they will buy the magazine because they want to read the

story. The text that has been used for the main headline is very big and bold

so that it stands out when the audience first see the magazine.

Barcode

Headlines

Slogan

MastheadThe masthead is the boldest thingon the page and is used on every

issue of Q magazine. The audiencecan identify what magazine they’re

reading by looking at the masthead, as it is the main thing that stands out on

the page.

This magazines front cover could’ve included a puff for the audience to get involved in and they also could’ve included social media and website links to allow the audience to get more information about the magazine. This magazine has inspired me for my magazine as I have used the same kind of masthead as ‘Q’ magazine and repeated (Steve Neale) it for my magazine, ‘Zone’ by having the red background and the white font.

Publisher research

http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/Q

This data denotes that 68.3% of Q’s audience are males and only 31.7% are females. This means that the magazine interests more males as there is 137,000 more men who read the magazine compared to the amount of women that read the magazine. As the majority of their readers are males, this connotes that they must be putting more masculine things within the magazine that can interest these readers, like male singers/bands and more competitions that men would be interested in. Also, as the main age range of readers is 15-24, this means that Q are also adding a ‘younger’ aspect to their magazines and are using more singers that are recent and could possibly be in the charts so that their stories are more up to date and can interest people of these age groups, rather than having old singers that the older generation would be interested in.

Sources:

Conventions of a Music Magazine

Small images which relate to

the articles

Main Image –denotes ‘star appeal’ (Richard Dyer)

Main Headline

CoverlineBarcode

Puff

Masthead

Target Audience:The target audience for NME magazine can be denoted as males between the ages of 17-30 (Hartley) as statistics show that 73% of NME’s readers are males and only 27% of their readers are females. As NME try to appeal to men, they try to add a masculine effect to the magazine by putting male artists in their articles, like ‘Jake Bugg’ on the front cover on the NME issue that I’ve chosen. The target audience for NME can personally identify (Katz) themselves with the articles in the magazine and the other consumers who read the magazine because they all listen to and are interested in the same kind of music, therefore they can relate to eachother/personally identify themselves with eachother. Also, the audience of this magazine are social climbers (Maslow) because the magazine has articles on celebrities and what these celebrities are into. Therefore, consumers can see things that their favorite artist/celebrity has said and will want to be like them and do the things that they do. Many people want to raise their status in society so that they can end up like their favorite celebrity, therefore they’re social climbers. Additionally, I think the target audience of this magazine can be denoted as the C1-C2 category of the social economic needs as the magazine isn’t very sophisticated and expensive, therefore these kind of people would be interested in the magazine.

USP:From the research completed into this media product, I think the USP is the masthead as it is very big and bright and stands out most on the page and people can identify what magazine that it is as soon as they see the masthead. Also, I think the main headline and the stories that they use are the USP of the magazine because they are very big and stand out to everyone. Also, they are the USP because they are about celebrities that people might be interested in and will want to read about, therefore if the consumer is interested in the artist they’ve used then they will pick up the magazine so that they can read about that person.

This question; ‘How much would you usually spend on a music magazine?’ is asking people whether they spend a little amount of money on a music magazine or if they buy expensive music magazines. This helps me to know how expensive I needed to make my magazine. The majority of people answered the £1.01-£2.00 section, therefore I need to make my magazine within that price range.

The second question; ‘What do you think should stand out most on a Music Magazine front cover?’ is asking people what they notice most about a music magazines front cover. The majority of people said that they were attracted by the main image on the front cover that included ‘Star Appeal’ (Richard Dyer) as they would see their favorite celebrity on the front cover and it will make them buy the magazine so that they can read the story that has been written about their favorite celebrity. Therefore, I would have to create a front cover that has a celebrity in the main image.

The third question asks people what type of music magazine they most enjoy reading. The majority of people said that they most enjoy reading R&B magazines. However, I haven’t created an R&B magazine, I created an Indie magazine which is the ‘different’ (Steve Neale) to what my target audience want to read and what they expect to read for a music magazine.

The fourth question is asking people how old they are so that I know how old my target audience are which will help me to aim my magazine at people of these age ranges. The only age range that was selected was ’16-24’, therefore my target audience should be 16-24 year olds and I have to make sure that my magazine fits around people of these ages.

The fifth question is ‘are you male or female?’ this is to help me know which gender I should aim my magazine towards. Therefore, as the only gender that was selected was ‘female’ this means that I will have to make my magazine attract women. This could be done by adding the colourpink to my magazine or making stories that relate to women. However, I wanted my magazine to fit around both genders, so I have made it a unisex magazine.

The sixth question was ‘do you listen to indie music?’ This is to help me see whether my target audience actually listen to the type of music that I want to base my magazine around. However, as everyone selected the ‘no’ option this implies that it might be a bad idea to make an Indie magazine because my target audience probably wouldn’t be interested in it.

The seventh question in my questionnaire is ‘what do you expect to be in a front cover of a magazine?’. This will tell me what conventions I definitely need to put on my front cover as I will know what the audience expects to see mostly in a magazine. As most people said that I will need to add a main headline and a main image, that means that I need to add both of these into my front cover. The main headline and the main image also need to relate. For example, my main story has to include the person who is in the main image on my front cover.

Lastly, the eighth question in my questionnaire is ‘Do you expect ‘repetition’ (Steve Neale) from other music magazines?’. This will tell me whether I should repeat other conventions that different music magazines have and put those conventions into my music magazine. Everyone said yes, therefore I need to repeat the conventions from other music magazines.

Conclusion

Each of my pages contain the planning and research that I have carried out throughout my coursework. I have analysed each step that I have made for my coursework and given a detailed description on each page. With all of

this planning and research, I can create my magazine as I know exactly what my target audience want and expect from a music magazine and how I can add these expectations into my own magazine to interest my target audience. It will also allow me to ‘repeat’ (Steve Neale) other conventions

that I have found in other music magazines.