Media Studies AS: Foundation Portfolio

Jil Chitsa

Introduction

For my media project, I chose to produce a print music magazine written within a period of 10 weeks!

Why use conventions of a magazine? For any magazine to be successful and sell to

their audience, they need to follow specific conventions. Although I wanted my music

magazine to have a unique edge, I still had to follow magazine conventions in order for my

chosen audience to be persuaded to purchase it.

• Even Vogue, a fashion magazine has to follow conventions

of a magazine to make it look genuine

and professional!

InnovationThe music magazine market is highly competitive,

therefore by having a unique selling point that will stand out from other magazines is vital. So by following magazine conventions and adding a

touch of individuality – your target audience will be enticed to purchase your product.

• After looking at my initial idea, I decided to create a Christian music magazine

targeted for 16-25 year olds. My research pointed out that this was a niche

market, so my decision was to create a mixed genre music genre magazine that was aimed to sell to Christian teens that

were interested in Christian music!

CCM Magazine: a popular Christian music magazine

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of conventions of real media products?

The name of the magazine must relate to the genre of the magazine.

The image of the magazine must fit the content and the target audience.

Mode of address is created when in an image the person on the cover looks straight out of the magazine, not only does this invite the reader in but also creates a relationship with them.

The colour scheme creates a ‘house style’ and eventually becomes recognisable to the audience.

Price, barcode and web address Stars and Celebrities related to the

genre of the magazine/theme should be used - aspiring people sell magazines!

Conventions of a Front Cover

Title/Header

(brand image)

Main image, medium shot with MOD

Date, price, barcode and web address

Slogan

Leading caption

Subheadings

Straplines

My Magazine

Conventions of a Contents Page

Extra Info on publishers etc Slogan (also on

front cover)

List of contents

Page referenc

es

Images dominate the text to

allow ‘grazing’

Colourful and bright to

encourage readers to read

on

Title/header usually at the top

of the page

Simple black and & white

colour palette

R.A.D Magazine My Magazine

Conventions of a Feature ArticleHeadlines and

subheadings usually containing a pun or wit, based on the artist and their life. This will catch the audiences attention

Advertising the artists new album, tour,

book, merchandise etc, Artists don’t

appear in magazines unless they have something to sellText

grabs/anecdotes are used to add

humour and controversy Images are used to break up

text and keep article interesting – images should

dominate the page

Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

By using a different range of social groups and

ethnicities: black female, Arabian male, Caucasian

male and mixed race male, this has given my magazine the opportunity to present

itself as a mixed music genre because of the

variety in races and musical interest. This offers an alternative towards the

dominant stereotypes when it comes to music genres. For example, by choosing Mimi, my leading artist to

be associated with Indie/Pop singers –

‘Florence and the Machines and The Noisettes’ it means an innovation with Christian

music and mainstream music itself because of the

individuality my artists have.

Q3: Media Institutions

For a successful magazine, it needs to be produced and distributed by a publishing

company which specialises in the field. Popular publishing companies like IPC or BMG publish music magazines such as Uncut, NME and Q

But since my music magazine is Christian based, I think that if I want my magazine to sell

at it’s highest peak, I should research publishing companies which distribute existing Christian music magazines. Therefore, I came

across Salem Publishing: produces and distributes former printed CCM magazine and

current Homecoming Faith magazine

Therefore by deciding to have Salem Publishing as my chosen institution, I don’t have to worry

about promotion and marketing to a certain extent compared to if I chose a non-Christian publishing institution because of competitive

pricing and strategies they have.

Q4: Audience

An 18 year old boy said in my audience feedback “The target audience for music magazines can be anywhere from 12 to 30, I really can see no issues in the attraction of the

magazine towards people of those ages."

My target audience is 16-25, both genders and no preferential race, who listen to

Christian music,Groups of A-C2 in the socio-Economic scale with a psychographic profiling of

aspirers, succeeders and reformers because I think as a Christian, you aspire

to be a better person whilst trying to succeed in life as well as wanting the

world to be a better place.However, I don’t think that my target audience should be in

any ‘lifestyle groupings’ because Christianity is the most

popular religion with people coming from different

backgrounds. So why would I want to specifically target my music magazine to ‘WASP’ or ‘KIPPERS’, when I can have

them all?

Q5: Addressing your Audience

Selecting a magazine name associated with

Christian beliefs/teachingsThe artist on my front

cover is stylish and on trend lace dress, striped boyfriend blazer and a

layered Bob haircut. This will attract female readers,

suggesting to them that she could be a new fashion

icon. For males, using females for your front

cover can add sex appeal (without even trying)

A 22 year old boy from my audience feedback said “ … and plus she looks

smokin’ hot!”

Describing Mimi as a

‘new sensation’

attracts the audience to

find out more about

this ‘exclusive’ new artist

Aiming to make my

pages look professional

with the constant colour

schemes, edited

images and creative layouts

The style and layout of the magazine is very

suiting in comparison to many of today's

magazines on sale. The layout is captivating

and draws in the reader.

A 17 year old girl said “ your cover model looks well styled and the font and layout is dead cool"

Creating headings that will make your audience read on

An 18 year old girl said “ the contents page makes me want to turn over and begin reading! The use

of various colours, captions under page

headings and the images used all contribute towards a sound

reading"

A 16 year old boy said “ I think the contents

tries too hard to engage the reader, it is meant to be factual but

not over powering”

Interests me in reading the rest, the little bits under the headings are interesting and intriguing, like the one about prison, gangs drugs...Christ"

A 16 year old girl said “ the contents page also entertains due to the

good use of pictures and word art"

Well edited images allow the

audience to graze and find the contents page more

interesting than informing

On the other hand, it should not be too busy and distracting

The overall presentation

of the contents

page should entice the

audience. It should give a

good first impression

Too much text scares readers away from reading article, especially a young target audience like mine, therefore, by spacing the paragraphs out and using images… it distracts the reader from the amount of text in the article

An 18 year old boy said “ the article layout really does make me want to read on, by separating the main

text with questions and short headings the page is split into

sections and helps get the facts across to the reader very quickly.” A good

piece of journalism

flows, relates to

the audience and keeps

them entertained

A 22 year old boy said “ the article helps the reader to imagine the

situation and sympathise with the

interviewee as well as feeling joyous on their behalf for the success

of the music artist"

Hyperbolic language, an

exciting heading or snappy tagline will make the reader

interested to read the article

The title of the article is superb, "the new EDGE" instantly gets me as a reader questioning as to why this new and upcoming singer/song writer is a cut above the rest"

Q6: Technology from the process of constructing my product

InDesign, for the formation and composition of the magazine. At first I really struggled using this software but

looking back at the tutorials handed out, I began to find easier solutions to text

wrap and edit page layouts.I used Photoshop for the editing of all my

images in my magazine. I actually found this very easy because I already had knowledge

on how to use it. However, trying to download fonts and paintbrushes was a

tricky issue that I eventually tackled.By using various equipment and

technology, it enables my music magazine to look professional and genuine like any other

magazine on the market

A 7.2 megapixel Samsung camera for the taking of my images and a Kodak scanner for my mood board and mock-up layouts. This helped me visualise what I wanted my preliminary and final product to look like,

Using Blogger to record my research, planning and evaluation was a good idea to

help me continually build up on my progress. On the other hand, I'm very unorganised,

therefore on occasions I would simply forget to record my development in the coursework!Using facebook for both my

questionnaire and audience feedback was easier than giving

my target audience hard copies, it meant that I could ask Christian

friends in London and my cousin in Rome!

Using a search engine like Google helps you track down all the information you need. For

example, Google helped me find Salem Publishing and Christian music magazines currently on

the market.

Preliminary VS. Final Product

Image not cut out properly: lack of precision

Image is in high key lighting, well edited and airbrushedImage is

under-worked with side lightingNo

straplines

Colours are too bright and contrasting

Subheadings are positioned in a slanted angle to give it a more ‘edgy’ look

Conclusion

• Overall, I think that my final product is successful. With the use of well composed

layouts on all my pages, edited images that look professional and establishing a new

artist, I could actually see this music magazine on the market.

• On the other hand, think that I could have improved on the colour scheme to make it

look more subtle and sophisticated.

• After 10 weeks of researching, planning and producing my final product… I am proud to say that revelation magazine was solely

created by me!