Music magazine evaluation presentation

{

Name: LucyCandidate number: 2434 Centre: 33435 Aquinas College

AS Media StudiesOCR G321: Foundation Portfolio

My magazine has a similar target audience to existing magazines Q and NME; however it specifically targets women as I feel there is a gap in the market for an indie music magazine aimed at females. This would be my unique selling point. The females I am targeting my magazine at are aged 18 - 25 and are likely to be in education (university) or work.

Q1: Who would be the audience for your media product?


I aimed my magazine

at…

18-25 year olds

Women

People who are in education (university) or work

People who shop at

Who spend money on..

People who go to gigs and festivals

People interested in indie music

People who are influenced by

Based on my audience research, I have found that my young female target audience are interested in fashion as well as indie music, so I have decided to create a niche magazine that combines the two.


NME’s target audience is specifically males aged 16-24 which is shown by the colour schemes they use. I wanted to create a magazine that covers similar contents but is aimed at women of a similar age which is why I have chosen to use purple as the main colour on my publication.


Primary audience: My primary audience is my target market of females aged

18-25 who are in education or work and who are interested in indie music and fashion.

Secondary audience: My secondary audience is people who may read my

magazine because a friend or family member has purchased it. My magazine content will still be aimed at the primary audience but this may not be the only reader.

Demographics: The demographic for my magazine would be based on

people who do not like the mainstream music that is played in the charts and who want something different from what is already available for them.

Audience idols: In my research I have been looking at which celebrities my

readers would aspire to be like and enjoy reading about; Beyoncé, Florence and the machine and Lana Del Rae are popular choices amongst my readers.

Ideal readers: My ideal readers would be people who aspire to be like the

audience idols I have included in my magazine; they would model their hair, fashion and style on them. These are the artists that have their own style and do not follow the mainstream crowd which is what my readers aspire to do.


Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?Representation Representation is how specific messages are sent to audiences but

filtering a person, group or brand. Representations aim to include the desired target audience and exclude

groups of people that would not enjoy the magazine.

Mode Of Address:By using intertextuality within my features, I have created a code that the audience of my publication would understand. By saying ‘this is who we want to be’ I have related the story to my readers attitudes because they are the type of people who want to be different and stand out.

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

Ideal Reader:My cover band represents the stereotypical band that my readers would aspire to be like. Their pose looks genuine and realistic showing that there is no gimmicks which is what my readers want. The girl in the band is who my reader would aspire to be, she is wearing a red baggy jumper with a gold spiky necklace and her hair and makeup is quite natural which contrasts to the typically female cover girl who would be completely made-up and dressed for a photo shoot. Going against the traditional look for a cover girl shows that she has a rebellious side, which is what my readers like in their idols.


In order to appeal to my target audience, my cover star needs to be an idealistic version of my reader; someone they can aspire to be. My audience want someone who is fun and different but also who is a real person just like them.

On the next slide there is two images of Beyoncé (a celebrity that my readers are interested in) showing the difference between her on stage and off stage

On the left you can see that on stage, she wears little clothing and a lot of makeup to enhance her performance which is what my readers like because she is expressing herself and being different. However in the right hand photo we see that she is more natural and wearing street-appropriate clothing because she is spending time with her family. This is how my readers aspire to be.


COVER STAR:

I tried to make my cover star represent the idealistic version of my reader, she is the same age and gender as my target audience which makes it easier for them to relate to what she talks about. In all the photographs of my star, she gives off an edgy, rebellious side which is what appeals to my readers, I feel this is created by the half-smile facial expressions she is pulling and by the spiky gold chain she is wearing in two of the images.


Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your product?

DISTRIBUTION Mike William (publisher of NME) would publish my magazine

and I intend for it to be a sister magazine to NME that focus’ on the female side of their target market

My magazine will be published weekly to keep my readers up to date with all the upcoming gig information that they require and to regularly let them know what we thought of previous gigs. The price will be £2.10 every week.


Front cover

DPS

By including the website address on the front page I am immediately telling my readers that there is another option of information for them. It is also a good way to attract new readers because they may want to look at the website to see what the magazine is about before they start buying the weekly issues.

I have also included a magazine twitter account which can be found on the double page spread, along with the twitter address of the band. This will be interesting to the readers because they can get I touch with our editors and request the content for the next issue or give feedback on what they thought of an issue.


Front cover

Contents page

On the contents page I have specified a website feature in the ‘every week’ section. I have given specific detail about the direct link between our website including the gig information and a ticket website where our readers can get the tickets they are interested in.

One of my aims was to encourage my target audience to make it a habit to come to INDIvidual for all their information and lifestyle choices, by having a direct link between my magazine’s website and a ticket sale website, my readers will no longer need to waste time looking for better or cheaper tickets.

Having this link will encourage brand loyalty meaning my readers will continue to buy my magazine, this will mean that my advertisers will continue to pay for magazine space.


DISTRIBUTION is the ways in which the audience to find your product.

Ways I have done this are: Magazine website Magazine twitter account Twitter links with celebrities Subscription

Q4: In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

Front CoverQ4: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The forms and conventions of real media products, that my magazine used are: Main image and headline – the majority of the space on the

front cover is occupied by the main image of the ‘cover star’ band which is accompanied by the main headline and pull quote describing the story. I got my inspiration form the front cover of NME, I think the dimensions of the main image are interesting to look at which is what I aimed to create with my own main image, I also got the main headline and pull quote idea from the design on the NME magazine. I also used the ‘plus’ section idea from NME but made it individual to my magazine by including secondary images to accompany the text.

Masthead – the mast head is bold and takes up the full width of the magazine at the top which draws attraction to it. I used the idea shown in billboard, where the masthead is in front of the main image, I feel that this highlights the magazines identity. For the font of the mast head I took my inspiration from Q magazine where it is a block square with the letter inside, this gave me the idea of how to highlight ‘INDI’.

Secondary stories – besides the main story there are 3 other secondary stories and a ‘plus’ section at the bottom of the page. This is to give the reader more information about what the magazine contains. I took my inspiration for the layout of the secondary stories from the Q font cover, I liked the way the were set out to the bottom left hand side of the page.

Front CoverQ4: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The forms and conventions of real media products, that my magazine developed are: Colour scheme – the usual colour scheme for an ‘indie’ based

media product is red, white and black, which can be clearly seen in the excising publications Q and NME. I used some elements of these colours in my magazine but my main colour scheme was purple. I used the colour purple because it reflected my female target audience but didn’t patronise them in a since that a bright pink colour would of done.

Banner/ pugs – I liked the simple text above the masthead of Billboard so I wanted to do something similar with my magazine. After trying out several ideas I decided that the most relevant thing to put at the top of my magazine would be the pug. I took the idea form NME to have a competition as my offer and I know my target market are very interested in Leeds festival. In contrast to the pug at the top of NME, I wanted to make sure my pug stood out but not more than the masthead so I made the text smaller but made the bow around it a darker shade of grey.

The forms and conventions of real media products, that my magazine challenged are: Target market – Q has a unisex target market but has a wider

music genre base, NME targets indie music specifically like my magazine but its main target market is males aged 16-24 and billboard is an indie-pop magazine that targets women. My target audience inspiration came from NME’s indie fan base but aimed at billboards market. I chose to make a magazine aimed directly at women aged 18-25 because I feel that there is not a publication specifically for this audience.

Contents PageQ4: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The forms and conventions of real media products, that my magazine used are: Page numbers – I used the typical idea seen in NME and Q to

have my page numbers in a different colour to the rest of the text. I did this because I feel that the page numbers are one of the most important parts of the contents page.

Sub-headings – I split my contents into 3 sub sections; every week, new features and on the cover. To make these obvious I highlighted them in a purple box which contrasted against the grey background. I took my inspiration for this from the Q contents page which is what I based my contents page on. I also made the font colour of the subheadings different from the other text, I got the idea for this from the billboard contents page.

Editor letter– although it is not shown on my magazine examples I have included an editors letter because in every magazine there is one included and I felt that this was the most appropriate place to out it as the first main page inside the magazine.

Consistent colour scheme – it is a common feature for the colour scheme of a magazine to be consistent, this can be seen in all three of my examples; Q, NME and Billboard. So I made sure that my background colour was white and any main texts or boxes were purple so that my contents page linked to my front cover. I also used black and white text on my contents page to like with the secondary images on the front cover.

Contents PageQ4: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The forms and conventions of real media products, that my magazine developed are: Layout – most contents pages use more than one image to give

the reader an incite to the contents of the magazine which can be seen on the billboard contents page. I only wanted to use the one main image like NME as I felt this highlighted the most important feature of the magazine issue. For my contents page I took my inspiration from the Q contents page but to make it my own I changed the layout round so that the image was in the bottom left hand corner and the text was above it and to the left hand side of the page.

The forms and conventions of real media products, that my magazine challenged are: Advertisements – I do not have any advertisements on my

contents page which feature in some contents pages such as the NME contents page.

Double Page SpreadQ4: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The forms and conventions of real media products, that my magazine used are:

Dropped cap – most double page spreads include a dropped cap at the start of the main text, I used the NME idea to have a slightly larger first letter but I used the Q magazine idea to keep it the same could as the rest of the front.

Band name – I included a large cold heading of the bands name to tell the reader who the band are. I took the idea for my heading from NME, I liked the bold square font and decided it looked good in the left hand corner above the main text of the article.

Subheadings – to separate the questions and answers in the interview I made the question font bold and I also used red text to highlight which band member was giving each response. I took this idea from the Billboard double page spread because I think the black and red contrast worked really well.

Double Page SpreadQ4: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The forms and conventions of real media products, that my magazine developed are: Layout – all double page spreads

include a main image but usually they are located heavily to one side on the page as seen by all of my examples hover the Billboard image does stretch partly across the middle. This inspired me to put my image right in the centre of the page enabling me to include text on both sides.

The forms and conventions of real media products, that my magazine challenged are: Twitter link – because I want to create

a link between my readers and the bands that feature in my magazine, it is a regular feature for a band/artists twitter name to appear on the page which can be found next to the bands name in this example.

Q5: How did you attract/address your audience?

The codes, conventions and features that I have used to attract my target audience are:

Bold masthead - using a play on words that appeals to the type of person I'm aiming my magazine at

Star’s eyes in top 1/3 Star’s facial expression – half smile to show that they aren't trying to

please anyone they are just being themselves, which is what my readers would want as their idols

Eye contact with audience – to engage the reader and make them think that the cover stars are talking directly to them

Banner with prize – top of magazine to catch eye of reader At least five features to convey value for money – including a plus

arrow at the bottom of the page to add more detail Price Different size text to show audience which features are most

important – ‘Next Door Girl’ is the largest cover story as it is the main interview in the magazine

Clear colour scheme and consistent fonts to create brand ID

Q5: How did you attract/address your audience?

To address my target audience: I used different shades of purple throughout my magazine which

is feminine but it not patronising and typically girly such as the colour pink.

The mode of address I have used in my magazine is informative (such as in the reviews and interviews), friendly and like an equal. This makes the reader feel relaxed and comfortable which allows them to take in all the information and enjoy the magazine.

I have used bold bubble-writing fronts to show that the magazine is relaxed and enjoyable.

From the cover band (mainly the girl in the image) I intended to give the reader a rebellious, different feel to the magazine to show that my magazine is something new and worth reading.

The girl in the band on my cover will inspire my readers because she is natural and relaxed in comparison to the typical cover girl.

Q6:What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Using Adobe Flash player I was able to edit online fonts and remover the back grounds of photos. On the next slides I will show you step by step how I did this.


Removing the background from an image

Using the magic eraser tool I was able to select and delete each section of the back ground, in order to remove any smaller sections I used the eraser tool which allowed me to pay specific attention to detail.


Changing colour of text and adding a stroke effect

Using this colour pallet I was able to change the colour of the text once I had pasted it into photo shop.

Using the stroke tool I added an effect to put a colour around the outside of the text. I also used the eraser tool to remove the back ground

Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task (Aquinas College

magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression to the full product?

Technology used: Publisher Adobe Photoshop Digital cameras

Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task (Aquinas College magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression to the full product?FRONT COVER

Pug in the top left hand corner to attract the readers attention

Bold main feature Larger font than other

cover stories Quotation marks to

show that it is speech linking to the main image

Black and white text The black text was

more effective against the grey background, whereas the white text stood out better against the image

Secondary images The secondary

images add more detail abut what is inside the magazine

FRONT COVER Fonts:

I prefer the fonts on my music magazine because they link to my genre better than the fonts on my Aquinas magazine.

Images: I included more secondary images on

my music magazine because I felt that my Aquinas magazine didn’t give enough detail as to what was inside the magazine.

Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task (Aquinas College magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression to the full product?

Pug: I didn’t like the pug that I used on my Aquinas magazine because it is to dark

and doesn’t attract the reader, in order to improve this on my music magazine I made it into a banner and used bright colours for the LEEDS button.

Main headline: My main headline on my Aquinas magazine is small and the same as the other

stories whereas my main headline on my music magazine is bold and a different colour, I like this because it shows the reader what the main focus of the magazine is.

Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task (Aquinas College magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression to the full product?PHOTOGRAPHY

The cover star has direct address which makes the reader feel engaged in the magazine, it also creates a bond between the cover star and the reader because they feel as though the star is directly talking to them.

The background of the photo is a pale grey which creates negative space and highlights the photo, making the cover star the centre of attention.

Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task (Aquinas College magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression to the full product?CHOSING A COVER PHOTO

This image made the cover star look small and as though the reader was looking down on them.

I chose the image that used direct address because I wanted to create a bond between my cover star and my readers

Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task (Aquinas College magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression to the full product?CONTENTS PAGE I anchored the

text to make it fit around the picture

The page numbers are bold to make them stand out in comparison to the other text, this is because it is the most important piece of information on the page.

I separated the contents into 5 categories to make it easier for the reader to find what they were looking for; on the cover, fashion and shopping, TV and film, music and sport.

I used sub-headings to show clearly what topics my magazine covers.

CONTENTS PAGE

Layout: I prefer the layout of my music

magazine because it is more structured; having all the features down the left hand side makes it easier to view all the information and having more information about each article adds depth to my contents page.

Images: Having more images on my music

magazine gives the reader a better idea of who or what each article is about.

Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task (Aquinas College magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression to the full product?

Page numbers: By putting the page numbers in front of the article names and by making them

purple in my music magazine, I feel I have made them more obvious to the reader where as in my Aquinas magazine they blend into the other text.

Editors letter: I prefer the placing of my editors letter in my music magazine because it is still

prominent but does not distract the reader from the main purpose of the contents page.

Date post:	05-Dec-2014
Category:	Education
Upload:	lucyhanson
View:	130 times
Download:	0 times

Music magazine evaluation presentation

Education