Magazine Main Task Evaluation

‘Our brief was to create a new music magazine with a minimum of 4 original

images consisting of front cover, contents and a double page spread’

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

SimilaritiesDirect eye contactwith reader, eyes in upper middle

Direct eye contactwith reader, eyes in upper middle.

Straplines with information about artists relevant to genre

Straplines with information about artists relevant to genre

BarcodeBarcodeConsistent and basic house style (blue)

Consistent and basic house style

Differences

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

Photo is a close up, could be unconventional and risky with music magazine as it is harder to distinguish what genre it is without props

Masthead covers width of magazine instead of upper left, also overlaps part of the forehead but is transparent.

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

Summary of the Question

My magazine was largely a result of experimentation loosely worked around my initial drafts. This means I took a few risks and a few accidental things I did I ended up liking.

This was achieved through the Darken and Overlay effect on the FX panel. It started off as an accident after looking and mixing different effects.

The same goes for the Gradient effect on my coverlines, it took a fair bit of tinkering to put them into a position where the gradient didn’t make the words unreadable.

2. How does your media product represent particular social

groups?

The clubbing sceneGood representative of most

extrovertedadolescents. Dance/trance

music tends to feature in not only UK clubs but abroad in

places such as Ayia Napa and Ibiza.

2. How does your media product represent particular social

groups? My magazine does not have a cub-culture as such other than

mainstream apart from those who are regular clubbers. I did this because

social cliques such as hoodies/skaters/emos are known to ‘die out’ when teens get into their

18+ years. I showed this by having my model wear non stereotype specific

clothes and also including other ethnicities

I focused specifically on 18+ year olds as they are most likely to be able to dispose their income that’s set aside

for socialisation on clubbing. Therefore the magazine falls within

their interest as consumers.

2. How does your media product represent particular social

groups? Using my questionnaire I found out that; 18-25 year olds - characterised by high street going

out fashions - affordable, on trend

This helped me decide:

•What to dress my model in • If I were to price my magazine (low, as people from this demographic are likely to be low paid or part time jobs whilst juggling university etc). This means that spending their income on magazines will be a relatively low priority.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media

product and why?I considered 3 major media institutions to distribute my media product. These were IPC, Bauer and FuturePLC.

Bauer Media Group is a multinational media company headquartered in Germany which operates in 15 countries worldwide

Future plc is a media company; in 2006, it was the sixth-largest in the United Kingdom. It publishes more than 150 magazines in fields such as video games, technology, automotive, cycling, films and photography

IPC Media is a magazine and digital publisher in the UK, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media

product and why?

Bauer Media Group

IPC Media

Future plc

Pros Cons

International value

Only 1 existing music magazineNMENME sales continuing even after50 years

Future plc

No known music magazines

Has many music magazines

Not as large or as well established as IPC or Bauer

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

IPC Media would be a good candidate to distribute my magazine as:

• They do not distribute a magazine that is centred around trance/dance/club music. This means it will have a different audience to NME, and any risk of sales being split is non existent

• One music magazine they currently distribute is NME, which house style contrasts Sonar’s (red and blue are diagonal opposites on the colour chart) – visually appealing when on a shelf.

.

Demographics

4. Who would the audience be for your

media product?

17-25 year old males but can expand to femalesWorking classMixed ethnicity – music that is modern is more likely to appeal to all cultures instead of just one.College/University students

Psychographics As well as looking at social subcultures, I also took into account the psychographic traits I would want to take into account and target. My target audience are mostly 17-24 year old males who enjoy clubbing and socialising. This would mean they have psychographic traits of being extroverted aspirers (outgoing and interested in status ‘exclusive’). For this reason I included as many opportunities to interact with my magazine by increasing it’s synergy as well as including aspects of my audience’s life outside of music. For example:

• Due to being extroverted adolescents, social networking devices will be important to them for maintaining their communications with friends and also current events. It also has the dual effect of making my magazine more well known.

• Directly including aspects of their lifestyle like the chance to be on club guestlists, gives my audience more incentive to spend more money on my magazine and thus increase my profit. Again the option to find the magazine online and on Twitter is included. Connotations of VIP give them a sense of being important and being a part of the magazine (important for aspirers

• Language used to address my readers is sensory, as both auditory (the music) and visual (the look of the artists and conventions associated with dance music) mean that the senses are of importance to my readers. This short phrase is direct and short, whilst being an image they can easily envisage in their inner eye.

4. Who would the audience be for your

media product?

Choice of clubs (high end) – appeals to aspirers

5. How did you attract/address your

audience?Appealing factors of my magazine to 17-25 year olds are:Choice of musical genre – for example it would not have been wise to pick classical music, as it does not rank highly in popularity amongst this age range.

Choice of colour – I didn’t want to overload my magazine with too many colours, so I kept with blue. Lots of colours I find are often associated with magazines aimed at younger teens (such as top of the pops for young teenage girls)

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of

constructing this product?

I used Adobe Photoshop to make my magazine front cover.It was an effective piece of software to use and I managed to achieve many effects using the fx bar and by using it’s extensive range of editing tools on my pictures.

I used Prezi, Slideshare and Powerpoint as well as pen and paper to plan my magazine. I especially liked Prezi’s versatile layout to help me explain and show the progress of my thoughts.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of

constructing this product?

To create the stuck on effect of this photograph I used a wide amount of effects mixed together.

Using layers to manage the ‘Stroke’ tool – particularly useful for fonts

Transparency slider – used to create the transparent microphone (contents) and overlying font (double page)

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you

feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full

product?

I literally put both magazines by side to see how much I have learnt about technologies. I believe I have managed to produce a more professional and polished magazine by refining my use of editing tools. I asked for advice on how to clear a background rather than using virtual rubbers. I have also learnt to plan more effectively and to be proactive about taking my pictures, and also to be as flexible and as open-minded as possible whilst working close to my drafts.