Young girls aged 11 – 17

• Variety of music interests

• No particular social class

• Affordable: £2.50

• Writing style informal

• Use photos and colours that

appeal to age group

Anticipated uses

• In class

• At break/lunch

• Before bed

Aims

• Interesting

• Informative

• Relaxing

• Easy to

read/understand

With my music magazine I am trying to target young girls aged 11 – 17, that have an

interest in a variety of music. I am not really aiming for any particular social class, as I

do not believe that your wealth or social standing would stop you liking or disliking a

magazine. But because my target audience would be aged between 11 – 17 I would

need to make it affordable for them, which is why I decided to price my magazine at

£2.50 as this is roughly the same price as the ‘Top of the Pops’ magazine, which I

have been basing most of my research on. As I am trying to target a younger audience

I made sure that the way I had written it was appropriate for the reading age, and after

asking some of the younger people I know aged between 9 and 12 I have concluded

that my magazine has a reading age of 11. From my research it is clear that

magazines aimed at a younger audience tend to have more pictures and fewer words,

but because I am aiming for a young and young adult audience I wanted to make my

magazine more literate but still use lots of pictures because this way I would be

catering for both age groups.

Due to the age I am trying to target I imagine they would be reading it in class, at

home or whenever they are bored at break, lunch etc. My aim is to make my magazine

interesting for them so it can be read as a way of relaxing them, and after asking some

people about where they are most likely to read a magazine I was told just before they

go to sleep, so I think this is a good feature of my magazine. Also because it is easy to

read and understand I think it is suitable to read at any venue.

Context

• Things that interest me

• Slightly exaggerated

• Dramatic

• Would attract my audience

Main colours used

• Black

• Red

• White

• Pink

Intentions

• Eye-catching

• Bold

• Colourful

• Easy to read

To make sure that my magazine would attract girls aged between 11 – 17 I wrote

about things that interest me and people of similar age groups, because if these are

the people I am trying to target, it makes sense to write about things and use colours

that appeal to them. This is why in my contents page I wrote things that would

immediately interest the reader; for example ‘Pink’s Breakdown Who Knew’, ‘Fergie

might be pregnant but Big Girls Don’t Cry’ etc. These titles though slightly exaggerated

compared to your typical magazine, are dramatic and would force you to read it, so

other than the design of my music magazine it’s content would definitely attract my

audience. But before they would see it’s content it would have to stand out to them and

be eye-catching. This is why I chose to use black, red, white and pink as my main

colours because my research supports this and these are typical colours for a girl

magazine, and therefore would appeal to most young girls. My chosen fonts, their

colour and the way I have outlined them are supported by my research, as they are

both bold, colourful, eye – catching and easy to read, and personally the latter is more

important than how they look because if they are illegible there is no point to them.

The main reasons for my colour choices and the way I have outlined all the main words

on each page, is because again it is supported by my research but mainly because it

will make them stand out and the bolder they are the more likely a potential buyer is to

read it, and if they are suddenly interested in a story being described on the front

cover the may choose to buy my magazine.

Target Audience

• Younger generation

• Want reality

• Want drama

• Want variety of music

• Want shopping

• Want competitions

• Want to think for themselves

• Modern teenage girl

Decisions

• Cheap Glamour

• Audience connect

with model

• Angry Model

• Real life Model

• No designer

clothes

• Fake diamonds

• Don’t airbrush

photos

Personally I believe that in order to connect to a particular social group through media, you would need to

create things that they are interested in and voice their opinions. For example like most professional

magazines mine targets a wide range of people and therefore social groups, because if a magazine is

targeted for only one type of social group the distributer is not likely to make much money if not enough

people within this social group buy the magazine. These are the following social group/people I am trying to

represent and therefore target as an audience:-

• People who enjoy a wide variety of music.

• People who want reality and real life models on the front page, and not skinny, airbrushed celebrities with

no real life problems, and who we can not actually connect with.

• People who love bold colours.

• People who love drama, and dramatic stories written in a conversational and sisterly way. For example

media speak, as this gave my writing a style of it’s own and although I wrote quite a bit it was not written

as if it were a formal essay.

• People who do not want to shy away from reality, but want the facts given to them.

• The younger generation.

• Girls who love shopping and competitions.

• People who are looking for support and answers in the problems answered interviews.

• People who can come to their own conclusions

Some of the above people I am trying to target affected the way I took my photos. For example I previously

said that I was trying to target people who want reality and real life people, and this affected my choice of

Beth's clothes. I did not want her in designer gear, covered in make up and with a perfect smile on her face

(and you can see I went quite the opposite and picked a picture for the front cover that made her look

angry), and although she is wearing diamonds which to an extent opposes my aim I made sure that the

jewellery I gave her was cheap but still had a look of glamour about it, which is why I decided upon fake

diamonds.

Want to avoid

• Telling audience

• Turning audience into

celebrities

• Formal Language

• Celebrity airbrushed

models

• Perfection

• Being Fake

Aims

• Inform audience

but let them decide

• Unique

• Contemporary

• Write about reality

• Challenge

conventional music

magazines

• Allow audience to

be who they want to

without being told

Although I have used many aspects of my research in my final designs (such as the

layout of the writing and pictures, the colours I have used, the way I have outlined

some of the smaller photos and my magazine content etc), I still believe that although

it has a contemporary design, it does challenge other forms and conventions of music

magazines that are already on sale. My reasons for thinking this are because most

magazines especially ones targeted for a younger age group, almost try to turn you

into a celebrity (for example in my double page spread research I used an example

from a ‘Top of the Pops’ magazine and it’s title was ‘You can look like Mollie!’)

Although this is perhaps not an obvious difference between my magazine and ones that

are already available to buy, I do think it is important and something that will appeal to

readers because hopefully through my magazine I am giving them reality and allowing

them to be who they want to, rather than what media institutions tell them to. This is

why I think my magazine is unique because it allows the reader to come to their own

conclusions rather than being told what to think, for example on my double page

spread when I am writing about an interview with Beth, I am stating Beth’s opinions

and what she personally would do (and not telling the reader what they should do in

order to solve this problem. In this sense I am meeting the needs of my target

audience because I am trying to target people that think for themselves and want the

facts.

Distributing my magazine

• Variety of ways

• Flexible

• Suitable for everyone

to access

• Hardcopy

• Website

• Links to website

• Subscriptions

• Phone apps

Reasons for more choice

• Accessible

regardless of

circumstances

• Easy

• Less people buying

hardcopies

• Technological

advances

• More likely to read it

Due to media institutions having to be flexible in the modern day, in the way that their

audiences accesses their media product. I think my magazine could be distributed to it’s

audience in a variety of ways, for example:-

• As a hardcopy in newsagents and large supermarket chains (especially ones near

secondary schools as this is where most of the people I am trying to target would be

near, due to their age).

• An online website where you can access my magazine for free.

• Links on some of the more popular websites for my age groups (such as YouTube and

games websites).

• Phone apps as these are becoming more popular.

• Emailed subscriptions of my magazine.

My main reasons for wanting to allow my audience to access my magazine in any of the

above ways that they choose is because the more choice they have the more likely people are

to read it. For example if some people do not have a computer or a phone with an internet

connection they can still buy the hard copy at the shops, and vice-versa if someone has a

computer but no money they can go on the website and access the magazine for free. This is

why in recent years newspapers have had to think of other ways their audience can access

the news because less and less people are choosing to buy a hardcopy from the shops, due

to the drastic technological advances that have taken place in the last twenty years and

allowed the public to access media with the click of button.

Technology I used

• Blogger

• Adobe InDesign

• Adobe Photoshop

• A Professional Cannon camera

• Picassion.com

• Slideboom.com

• Professional photography equipment (such as

lights, white sheet, tripod etc)

At the start of this media course, although I knew a little about Photoshop and photography I had

no idea of how to make the photos I took look professional, and how to edit them. Over the last

seven months I have used and seen a drastic improvement in my use of all of the following

equipment and technology:-

• Blogger

• Adobe InDesign

• Adobe Photoshop

• A Professional Cannon camera

• Picassion.com

• Slideboom.com

• Professional lighting equipment (such as the white sheet and adjustable lights)

Near the end of my first year of Media A-Level I have learnt about all the above and proved that I

am able to take a photo that looks professional, edit it to a good standard, create a blog and

upload a number of different items to it whilst using a range of media. As I have gradually been

improving with my use of technology in this course I have also improved in my decision making

and sense of design. For example the first photo shoot I took for my school magazine I did not tell

my model what I wanted them to wear because at this point I did not see this as an important

factor. But now I am aware of the importance of this decision, and have had detailed discussions

with Beth as to what we should choose for her to wear, and we experimented with different choices

of heels, jewellery and makeup once we had made a decision regarding her clothes, as this way we

would be able to see what would be the best look for my magazine and I think this really paid off.

What are the main things I have learnt

• How to make a blog

• How to use Photoshop

• How to use InDesign

• How to use professional photography equipment

• That all decisions made will effect the finished

product

• That the correct lighting is extremely important

when taking photos

• How to edit a photo so it looks professional

• About the media world in general

When I first started my Media A-Level and started to create my blog and

school magazine, I was worried about how much ICT was involved and

this has never really been my strong point. But between when I started

this course and where I am now there is an evident improvement in my

use of computer programmes (such as Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop

etc), and I do feel that there has been a drastic improvement in my

photography skills, and at the bottom of this page I have picked the best

photos I have taken from each photo shoot and ordered them from my

first to last photo shoot to show how I have improved.

At either side of this page I have also got a copy of my school magazine

(on the left) and music magazine (on the right) front cover, and

personally I feel that there is a marked contrast in the quality. However I

do not regret making the mistakes I did as it enabled me to learn from

them and improve my final music magazine design, and now I feel more

confident about taking A2 Media next year as I feel that regardless of

where I started with my abilities within media at the start of the year I

have now got to a standard that I am proud of and feel that I have

progressed massively since I started in September.FIRST PHOTO

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LAST PHOTO

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