Music Magazine EvaluationBy Michaela Boddy

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

The main image on the front cover is the largest and most attention-grabbing, this is to entice the readers’ attention and make the artist the main focus of the front page and the magazine. This also puts emphasis on it being an exclusive as no other artist or band appears on the front cover to detract any attention from the artist on the cover.

Cover lines, an essential and conventional part of a magazine front cover, this gives the page structure and would help to attract the reader.

My magazine uses the traditional magazine barcode which helps to make the magazine look more professional. This would make the magazine more attractive to the target audience.

The ‘buzz words’ are used to attract the attention of the reader and make them want to buy and read the magazine as they stand out on the page and make the reader want to read it.

The mast head is used to grab the attention of the reader and make them want to buy the magazine, they are usually placed at the top left hand corner of the front cover and the font I used is appropriate to my magazine genre and it stands out enough to catch the audiences attention without being too dominating.

The main artist from the front cover was also the main artist on the contents page, this was to further the audiences interest in the artist and make them want to read the main article. It also helps with the continuity of the magazine which makes it seem more professional.

The title ‘contents’ also helps with the continuity of the magazine and makes it appear more professional. It also fits in with the genre of the magazine and as it is the same font that was used on the cover of the magazine which would help the reader acknowledge that the pages are from the same magazine.

The menu strip is a traditional convention of a magazine which makes the reader aware of what is in the magazine, the contrasting font colour against the plain dark background was chosen so it would be easy to see but also to attract the eye of the reader so they would read on into the magazine.

The font used is different from that used on the front cover and contents page which gives the double page more of its own identity but the colour scheme is similar which makes the pages link together and help with the continuity of the magazine.

The pull-quote helps to draw the reader into the article and grip their attention to read further into the article.

The images on a double page spread/main article are very important as they can make or break the article and make the article appeal to the correct target audience which would make the magazine sell.

House Style

When researching house styles I found that most well established magazines had their own unique house style which made the magazine cover instantly recognisable and made the audience associate that style with that certain magazine. This made me want to have a unique house style for my magazine as this would make it more unique and make it sell better to my target audience. This is why I used the same font throughout the magazine and used a font that I had not seen on other magazines or other magazines from this genre. Also the same font was used throughout and the same style of pictures, this helps with the continuity of the magazine and makes it seem more professional. It also makes the magazine pages look like they are from the same magazine which makes the magazine look better.

2-How does your music magazine represent particular social groups?

Firstly the style of the model on the cover page instantly would make the reader relate to the magazine as they could recognise their own style and be interested in the magazine, using this would make the magazine sell more to the specific target audience.The colours used on the front cover; black orange and a pale colour were used as they contrast each other well and they stand out enough to be used on a pale background, much like the target audience for my magazine as they are the type of people who like to stand out and be ‘different’ by the choice of clothes that they wear or by the music they listen to. Also from my research I found that not many magazines used bold unusual colours such as orange as a main colour for their colour scheme, this made me want to use it to give my magazine further identity. In addition the fonts used also portray the type of person in the target audience as they seem carefree and fun – something that the reader may aspire to be.

Front cover

The simple layout of the contents page appeals to the casual laid-back approach to life of the target audience of the magazine. I kept it not cluttered or too busy so all of the attention is on the artist from the cover as promoting her is the job of the issue of the magazine. The menu strip is a traditional convention of magazines which help to make the magazine look professional and help the reader to see what is included in the magazine which would make it easier for the audience to read and make them more likely to repurchase the magazine which would help to increase the selling of the magazine. The section at the bottom with the subscription box also helps to make it look more professional as this also is a traditional convention of a magazine. The buzz words such as ‘free’ help to draw the readers attention to the page and make them more interested. The use of the contrasting orange font on the plain background helps it to stand out which makes it easier to read and links it to the front cover/house style of the magazine which makes it look more professional.

The double page spread needed to link with the house style of the magazine whilst also having its own identity and linking with the identity of the artist. To appeal to the target audience the clothes the artist wore was very important as this needed to appeal to them and be clothes that they would wear or could see themselves as wearing. During my research for the magazine this was something I focussed on to ensure that this was right as the images used can be the only thing needed for the magazine to appeal to the target audience and I discovered this in my research as I found that images were very important to the audience.

3-What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and

why?The media institution that would distribute my magazine would be IPC

media as all of their magazines in total reach 26 million UK adult readers and 14 million online readers every month. This would mean that the magazine would be projected enough to gain it’s niche readership and sell well to it’s target audience. Also as IPC media owns Time Warner they have the power and status to be further promoting the artists used in the magazine which would increase the popularity of the magazine and would mean more copies were sold. Also IPC media as a company with its divisions would be able to market and advertise the magazine with no help from any other companies as they could use their websites, their magazines, television adverts, cinema adverts etc to promote my magazine.

4-Who would be the audience for your media product?

To find out who the audience would be for my magazine I conducted a questionnaire which allowed me to find out as much as possible about my audience and who they were and what they wanted. This allowed me to base my magazine around them which ensures that they target population is them and my magazine fits this.

http://michaelasblog4848.blogspot.com/2010/10/audience-research-questionnaire.html

From my results from the questionnaire I decided that the best target population would be teenagers/young adults as this is when people find artists most influential and as the style of the person on the cover is very popular at the moment this would make the magazine sell well and make people relate to the person and recognise themselves in the person and want to buy the magazine.

5-How did you attract/address your audience?

I used the images in the magazine to attract the audience as I wanted the audience to feel they could relate to the person on the cover and relate their lifestyle or way of dressing to their own lives. The clothes worn also would help to attract the target audience as if the reader could recognise themselves in the artist then they may be more likely to buy the magazine as they want to read into the artist more. Also the bright colours used on the cover and the contrast between them would help to attract the target audience as it would attract their attention and make them buy the magazine.

In the double page spread the register of the article is very informal in the language which is used and ‘laid-bare’ which would also make the reader relate to the artist and attract their attention. Also it would make the reader feel more comfortable reading the article which would make them enjoy it more and entice them to purchase it in future.

6-What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt that by using a professional style programme such as Photoshop you can achieve a much more professional looking magazine which is better to look at and includes more traditional conventions of a magazine.

I also learnt when taking the photographs for the magazine that factors such as lighting and location are very important as it makes the photograph look more professional and ensures that the quality of the image is in keeping with the quality of the magazine and its level of professionalism.

7-Looking back at your preliminary task (the College magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the

progression from it to full product?

When completing the preliminary task I found that the writing needed to contrast more with the background so it stood out which would attract more readers and more of the target population as they would be able to easily read what articles were on the front cover.

Also my skills on Photoshop improved from making the college magazine to making the music magazine which made the pages appear more professional, especially the double page spread as by then I had had the chance to understand the way that Photoshop works and take full advantage of all of its controls.