I have decided to use Q magazine for my research. I have chosen this magazine because I think it is very successful and it suits the genre of my magazine, Indie Pop.Q is a magazine which is published monthly in the United Kingdom. Its first issue was in 1986 and its publisher is Bauer Media Group. The language is English and since June 2007 it has had a circulation of 130,179.Q was known for its higher standards of photography and printingThe magazine has many review sections such as, new releases , film and live concert reviews, as well as radio and television reviews. It uses a star rating system from one to five stars.Much of the magazine is devoted to interviews with popular musical artists.The magazine is well known for compiling lists. It has created many, ranging from "The 100 Greatest albums" to the "100 Greatest '100 Greatest' Lists". The most famous of these is the classic "50 bands to see before you die"

Also, I have decided to use NME for my research as I also think this is a successful magazine and suits the genre of my magazine, indie pop.NME, formally known as The New Musical Express is a popular music magazine which is published weekly since the 7th March 1952. NME has a circulation of 40. 948 since June 2009

Bauer media group, a large German publishing company based in Hamburg was founded in 1875 and has been privately owned and under management by the Bauer family. Bauer also operates in 15 countries worldwide. Bauer produces and distributes many popular magazines such as Q , Mojo and Kerrang!Worldwide circulation of Bauer Media Group's magazine titles amount to 38 million magazines a week

IPC Media, formerly known as International Publishing Company UK Ltd is one of the leading magazine and digital publishers in the United Kingdom

Extremely strong and eye catching imagesBright, strong, eye catching coloursColour co-coordinatedBusy front coverBold textOften a picture of an artist/celebrity/band etcMastheadTaglinesLeft thirdCover linesBar codesImage bleed Eye catching cover linesSplashes

To look for inspiration for my front cover to my music magazine I have researched into Q magazine. I have chosen Q over NME magazine as I particularly like their style and would like to include similar conventions into my own work.I think the image used on the cover is very effective. The images colours works well with the rest of the cover. The image also portrays women as being, sexy, confident and fully in control of themselves. It portrays this because she is looking directly at the camera, licking her lips and is wearing dark eye make up and red lipstick. Also the clenched fist suggests a more masculine role. I want my magazine to also portray this view on women

This image shows a magazine front cover of a past issue of “More” magazine, a women's fashion, beauty and celebrity gossip. As my magazine is aimed at women I need to include particular conventions of other women's magazine, as I understand that women are attracted to “pretty” and “eye catching” objects and are more likely to pick up a magazine which is visually pleasant.

The left third of this magazine makes this magazine very recognisable, due to the layering of coloured rectangles, therefore, I would like to include this into my own magazine

Here is a contents page of a past Q magazine along with the front cover.I think this contents page is very effective and works very well with the front cover.

It works well because,• a section of the contents page includes the background of the front cover. This helps the reader relate the two pages together as they have similarities• the same colour scheme is used on the front cover as well as the contents. In this case its, black, blue, white and small parts of red.Personally I think this contents page could be improved by changing the colour of the Q on the contents page to red so it matches the cover and helps the audience to relate even more.

For my double feature page I would like to include a large “C” on the left page. When writing my own feature I plan to not include as much writing as the picture shown here. I have chosen to do this because I believe it will keep the reader more interested

This picture to the left shows the outcome of my feature after planning

Also, I plan to use other forms of the layout such as the “cheryl COLE” at the top of the image

I plan that the final outcome of my music magazine will relate to existing magazines such as Q magazine. My magazine will use certain conventions of Q such as the style, layouts and colours and will share the genre of the music and the way in which it is presented to their audience.Although, my music magazine will challenge other magazines on the market, and forms of conventions of Q, as my magazine is a music magazine targeted at women. To help make my magazine appeal to women I have researched women's weekly magazines such as More. This has not really been done before by other magazines so I feel that there is a gap in the market.

I plan that my magazine will represent young women aged 17 – 25.I want the representations in my magazine to be positive unlike many representations of young women in media today.My magazine will represent women as being strong, independent, sexy and confident. I will portray this view with pictures throughout the magazine and quotations in my feature.

As I am using Q magazine for inspiration I have looked into what media institution publishes them, The Bauer Media Group. As my magazine will have many similar conventions of Q magazine I am pretty confident that Bauer Media Group will be interested in distributing my magazine.

My new music magazine will be aimed at women aged 17 – 25 who enjoy the music Indie-Pop. also, young women who enjoy reading features on female Indie-Pop artists who represent women with a positive outlook.

I will attract my audience visually by using bright colours, attractive pictures and bold lettering throughout the magazine. I will also make sure that colours are consistent throughout my magazine.On my front cover I will have a strong, eye catching picture of my model.On the contents page I will keep the writing as simple as I can and use various pictures to keep my audience’s interest.On my feature page I will include a large picture and not too much writing so I can interest the reader as best as I can.After doing all this, I am sure that my target audience will be attracted to this magazine and it will appeal to them.

The first thing I had to decide on was the name of my magazine and I decided to call it Supremacy. I have chosen this name because it is aimed at mainly women who are strong, independent and could be described as feminists and I want them to feel they have an importance.Secondly, I had to decide if my magazine was going to be sold nationally or global. I have chosen it to be national so it will only include British bands, artists and also I think it will be easier to advertise and make it more appealing to British people as I understand the British culture very wellNext, I had to decide on the price I was going to sell my magazine at. From looking at other professional music magazines I can the prices range from around £2 to £6. I have chosen to sell my magazine at the price of £2.90. I have chosen this price as I think it is a reasonable price and this is a very important factor that will influence people into buying my magazine.Afterwards, I created a draft of my front cover, which outlined how my cover was going to be set out. I decided from the start that the colours of my magazine were going to be red, white and black. Throughout the process of making my magazine I changed many things and felt that my final outcome was very much improved

I propose to produce the magazine called Supremacy, a new Indie Pop Magazine, published monthly and aimed at young women aged 17-25 who enjoy reading about strong, independent women. My magazine will be published by Bauer Media Group as they publish similar magazines to mine such as Q.My magazine will represent women as being confident and sexy and fully in control of themselves. This could represent a social group of feminism.I will attract my target audience by using strong, attractive images and strong, bold colours. The price of my magazine will be £2.90 as I believe this is a reasonable price for my magazine. My magazine will have 174 pages and will have a width of 220mm and a length of 285mm.The style of my magazine will be informal and fun. I have chosen this style because it is aimed at women aged 17-25 and as I am within this age range, this is what I’d look for in a music magazine.My product uses similar conventions from Q magazine but in very different ways as my target audience is more of a niche market to Q’s target audience.My unique selling point of my magazine is the style of my magazine and the way it represents women. The media is full of false representations of women and I feel my magazine will challenge this.

Four key characteristics of stereotyping1. They involve both categorising and an

evaluation of a group being stereotyped.2. They usually emphasise some easily grasped

features of the group and suggest that these are the cause of the groups position.

3. The evaluation of the group is often, though not always, a negative one.

4. Stereotypes often try to insist on absolute differences and boundaries where the idea of a spectrum of difference is more appropriate.

Representations of women across all media tend to highlight the following:beauty size/physiquesexuality emotional dealings relationships (not much independence or freedom)

Feminism has existed for more than thirty years now and the changes that have taken place in the roles in western society have been outstanding. Yet media many negative representations of women remain.

I want my music magazine to represent women as being strong, independent and more dominant. I want to do this with my magazine as I feel new, positive portrays of women are needed and also I believe there is a gap in the market for this kind of product.

The image here is from a past Q issue. It includes a feature on Cheryl Cole along with the contents page and front cover

This double feature page works well becauseFrom looking at all three images I can see that the colour scheme is constant and works very well. This helps the reader relate this feature with other aspects of the magazine such as the front cover and contents pageThe feature is written in columns and the size of text looks about a size 10 which I think is a suitable size

• There is quite a lot of writing which is complimented with a medium sized picture and also a bigger picture which fills the page. This helps the feature work as not only are they attractive, they interest the reader, and make them want to carry on readingOn the left page of the feature there is a large red “C” spread across the page. This is used to represent the name of Cheryl Cole, this works extremely well because it is red, which is part of the constant colour scheme used and also it is very eye catching and decorates the page. A magazine would not get many people reading their features if they were dull looking and boring

On my front cover I would like to use a mid shot to a close up of my model as I want my model to be the main focus of the front cover.My model will look directly into the camera as this gives the audience a sense of power and suggests confidenceI will take my front cover photos on a plain background either a dark or light colour as this will also make my model the centre of attentionI will take a number of pictures using flash on and off and then decide which setting works bestMy model will wear heavy make up on the eyes and lipslike the picture shown here.

A mid shot to a close upModel looking directly into the cameraA plain background either light or darkDark eye make up and red lip stickDay lighting

For my feature page I plan to take one long shot like the photo on the left from Q magazine. I plan to use a white background and for my model to stand in a similar pose to Cheryl Cole

My own photo on the right is the outcome of my plan MY PHOTO

PHOTO FROM Q MAGAZINE

For my contents page I plan to use a variety of shots such as, close ups, mid shots and long shots. Also, I will use different models in my photos to attract my target audienceeven more.

Photos I have taken for contents page

This image is for my feature page and this is how the image was before making any changes to it on Photoshop

I didn’t want to change the first image drastically so I decided to make slight changes.Firstly I cropped the image, cutting out things that weren't relevant such as the plugs and to make it fit better.Secondly, I went onto image, adjustments and chose auto levels, auto contrast and auto levels

This is the photo after being edited in Photoshop and this is what I will use in my feature

The left third – makes the magazine easy to recognise in shops

Drop shadow gives a more professional finnish

Strapline – this is a smaller headline which sums up Supremacy magazine.Font is Times

Masthead – the main headline/title of the magazine. Including the date and price of the magazine. The font used on the masthead is “Lucida Handwriting”, I chosen this font because I think it appeals to women

Strong image. Used to attract my audience. Also, the model is the main focus as she is the main feature in the magazine

3 smaller images to advertise other features in the magazine

An advertisement to try and persuade people into subscribing to Supremacy. I have used this so my magazine can attract more customers.

A mix of lower and upper case letters. Creates a good effect and attracts my audience

The red strip going down the left of the page makes it stand out and relates to the front cover

A variety of different pictures and models will make the reader want to read the magazine further

I decided to include an editors letter because I think it works well if the editor themselves speaks to their audience. It makes the reader feel they have an importance and magazine can receive feedback

Head line – shows the reader what or who the feature is about.I decided to use black, bold writing in lower and upper case as I think this really stands out to the reader, especially on a white background

Byline – shows the reader the journalist who has written the feature and the photographer who has taken the photos

A large, eye-catching photo which takes up the page makes the feature very visually pleasant

Quotations to show the reader what the person in the feature has said. Also, if the reader reads the quote first, it may interest them and make them read further

The large “C” makes the feature attractive and will catch the readers eye

1. Firstly I asked what target audience they thought my magazine was aimed at.90% said women aged 17 – 25 the other 10% said men aged 17 -25

After I had printed my final front cover, contents and feature page I asked 100 women and 100 men aged 17 – 25 what they thought of my magazine

2. Secondly I asked the 100 women if they would buy Supremacy magazine

85% said “I definitely would7% said “probably would”5% said “probably not”3% said “I definitely wouldn’t” WOMEN

Also, I asked what could be done to improve my magazine.

40% said if I had a wider range of models in my photos it would have improved it. The other 60% said the range worked well as it is30% percent said my front cover could of been more busy and had more cover lines on it. The other 70% percent said the front cover was fine how it was

95% liked the colour scheme and thought it was very consistent. The other 5% thought it should have been a colour which is more aimed at young women, such as pink.90% percent liked the photos I had on the front cover and said they were eye catching and very effective. The other 10% said a different shot may have worked better

Finally, I asked what they liked about my magazine

The target audience for my music magazine is young women aged 17 to 25 years old who like the genre of music, indie, pop. Typically, other music magazines within this genre are usually aimed at the British, white race. My magazine however is aimed at British white or black. Also, women who enjoy reading features on strong independent artists which portray women in a positive way.

When starting AS Media I had no knowledge, or experience with the program InDesign or Photoshop neither had I worked on producing a magazine before. I have learnt it takes a great deal of time and effort to put a magazine together.I have learnt that with InDesign you can create many different layouts for your magazine. Indesign has probably helped me the most because without it I would not be able to of created my magazine.I have found Photoshop very useful when editing my photos. I've learnt that using Photoshop doesn’t mean you have to change your images drastically. Without it my images would not make any statement what so ever