Jil Chitsa

Introduction

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

Why use conventions of a magazine?

• Even Vogue has to follow conventions of a magazine to make it look professional and

believable!

• For any magazine to be successful and sell to their audience, they 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.

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 yours!

• After looking at my initial ideas, I decided to create a Christian

music magazine targeted to 16-25 year olds. Finding out that this

genre was in the niche market, my decision was to create a mixed

music genre magazine what was aimed to sell to Christian teens that listened to Christian music!

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 it invite the reader in

but also creates a relationship them.The colour scheme creates a 'house

style' and becomes appealing to the audience.

Price, barcode and a web addressStars and Celebrities related to the

genre of the magazine/ theme. Aspiring people sell magazines!

CCM: a popular Christian music magazine targeted to 16-25 year olds

Conventions of a Front Cover

MY VERSION

Title/Header (brand image)

FRONT COVER

Subheadings

Straplines

Leading caption

Slogan

Main image, medium shot with MOD

Date, price, barcode and web address

Conventions of a Contents PageTitle/header

usually at the top of the page

Images dominate the text to allow ‘grazing’

Page references

Slogan (also seen on front cover)

Extra Info on publisher

etc

Colourful and bright to

encourage readers to read

on

Simple black & white colour

palette

List of contents

MY VERSIONR.A.D Magazine

Conventions of a Feature Article

MY VERSION CCM

Headlines and sub-heading 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 etc. Artists don’t appear

in magazines unless they have something to sell

Images are used to break up text and keep article interesting. Therefore, images should dominate the pages

Text grabs/ anecdotes are used to add humour and controversy

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

By using a different range of social groups: a black female, Arabian male, Caucasian male

and a 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.

By choosing Mimi, my leading star, as an artist who is associated with Indie/Pop stars

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

Christian music and mainstream music itself because of the individuality my artists

would have.

Q3: Media InstitutionFor 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 music

magazine to be at it's 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 high competition with other music magazines.

Q4: AudienceMy target audience are 16-25, both genders and no preferential

race, who listen to Christian music.

In the C2-A socio-Economic scale with a psychographic profiling of aspirers and

reformers would be a good choice, because I feel 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 groups'' because Christianity is the most popular religion with

people coming from different classes, countries and backgrounds. So why would I

want to specifically target my music magazine to 'WASP's or 'KIPPERS', when I can have them

all?

From my audience I received feedback from a 18 year old Caucasian boy saying: “The target audience for this music magazines can be anywhere from 12 to 30, I really can see no issues in the attraction of your magazine towards people of those ages"

Q5: Addressing your AudienceSelecting a name associated with

Christian beliefs/thoughts

From my audience feedback I asked what this title

suggested to them. An answer I received was "The

title suggests to me that God is a revelation"

The artist on my front page is edgy and on trend: lace dress and layered bob haircut. This will attract female readers, suggesting that she could be a new fashion icon. For males, using a female for your front cover can add sex appeal (without even trying)

From my audience feedback, an answer I

received from a male, 21 years old: “ and plus she

loos smokin’ hot!!!”

Describing Mimi as a ‘new sensation’:

attracts the audience to find out more about this ‘exclusive’ artist

Aiming to make my pages look professional with the constant colour schemes, edited images and creative layouts.

A 17 year old girl said: “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”

FRONT COVER

CONTENTS PAGE

Creating headings that will make your

audience read on A 19 year old boy said: “the little bits under the headings are interesting and intriguing, like the one about

prison, gangs drugs...Christ"

Well edited images allow the audience to

graze and find the contents page more

interesting than informing

A 16 year old girl said: “entertains due to the good use of pictures

and word art"

On the other hand, the contents page should not

be too busy and distracting

From my audience feedback, 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"

The overall presentation of the contents page should

entice the audience. It should give a good first

impression

A 16 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"

Too much text scares readers away: 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 A 16 year old girl said: “The layout is good because the

text is in small blocks making it easy to

read”

Hyperbolic language, an exciting heading or snappy

tagline will make the reader fascinated

An 18 year old boy said “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"

A good piece of journalism flows, relates

to the audience and keeps them entertained

A 21 year old girl 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" FEATURE ARTICLE

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 editing images for my entire 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.

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

By using various equipment and technology, it enables my music magazine to look 'professional' like any other

music magazine on the market.

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!

Using facebook for both my questionnaire and audience feedback was easier than giving my

target audience hard copies, it meant that I could ask my Christian friends in London and my cousin

in Rome!

Using a search engine like Google helps you track down all the research you

need. For example, Google helped me find Salem Publishing and Christian music

magazines currently on the market.

Preliminary VS. Final Product

Colours are too bright and contrasting

Image is not cut out properly: lack

or precision

Image is in high key lighting, well edited

and airbrushed

Sub-headings are positioned in a slanted angle to give it a more ‘edgy’ look

Image is under-worked with hard lighting

No straplines

ConclusionOverall I think that my final product is successful. With the use of well

composed layouts on all my pages, edited images that look professional as well as establishing a new artist, I could actually see this music magazine on

the market.

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