Evaluation

 

 

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

 

 

Whilst in the process of construction and designing my music magazine I would always look at other professional and established music magazines to get some inspiration off them and see what styles they use. There is one magazine in particular which I based the designing of mine around and this was ‘Q’ magazine. I liked this one the most because it has a really simplistic style and follows the basic conventions of a magazine. Therefore if I were to follow this then it will result in me creating a successful magazine, which looks professional.

The vast majority of magazines will include a cover model on their front page; music magazines have a famous artist who will be featured within the magazine. For my front cover I chose to have a close up of my cover model Fearghal, in the picture he is holding his guitar whilst just looking up slightly and looking directly into the camera. The reasoning for this is to attract the target audience due to the direct eye contact which will be eye catching for them and hopefully make them want to purchase the magazine.

 

Q magazine successfully uses the technique of direct eye contact and close up images of their cover model to attract their target audience. However it’s not only Q, from researching a number of magazines I have seen that all have used close ups and direct eye contact on their front cover, therefore making it a convention of music magazines. The main cover line ‘Fearghal McGlinchey’ is a quote of the artists name taken from the interview in the double page spread. This is very important as it complements the cover image of the artist himself therefore if people don’t know him by his face they also have the name. And this will be eye catching for fans of the artists music as they will see that and know he will be featured within the magazine which may lead to them purchasing it, it is in bright and bold red font which further makes it stand out and becomes even more eye catching.

 

The masthead ‘ACE’ is not directly related to music but the words meaning itself is related to something really good, the best of the best. For example the ace in a deck of cards is the highest ranked card. Therefore implying to the audience that this magazine is very good. It is also short and sweet and something the target audience can easily remember. To further emphasis the masthead and make it stand out, I have placed it in a solid red box and made the font white, I got this inspiration from the Q magazine as they also do this with their magazine and I very much liked this kind of style as it was something unique which not many magazines have done.

 

The main colour scheme of the magazine is Red, White and Black. These are extremely popular colours within a lot of magazines not just of the music genre, therefore making its general convention. I chose to follow this scheme because the colours are very rich and bright making them stand out and become eye catching. Again, Q magazine were my inspiration with this colour scheme however a number of other magazines such as NME and Rollingstones also use or a very similar scheme proving the popularity of these colours.

 

The cover lines on the front cover do not only relate to the main feature artist but also include a number of other very famous and successful indie artists such as Ed sheeran, the arctic monkeys and many more. This is crucial because as a music magazine we want to appeal to as many people possible therefore by adding a number of artists on the front cover as the first thing the audience will see, will appeal to a lot more people and fan bases of them specific artists. This will then lead to more people purchasing the magazine if they are strong fans of the genre or artist, as they will want to find out news and gossip about the artists.

 

I have used only 3 fonts consistently throughout the magazine, sometimes in bold and sometimes normal, this is just to make sure the magazine isn’t too simple and also text placed in bold font is usually something key and important therefore it will stand out. Another extremely common convention of magazines that I have followed is the date and issue number. An issue number can be a sign of success for a magazine, if they have had many issues and been running for a long period of time it shows that many people purchase the magazine which allows them to keep making new ones each week or month. And the date is a quick way of knowing which month’s magazine they’re reading and is useful for people who collect magazines as they can see which ones they have and which they don’t.

 

For my contents page I have followed the codes and conventions set by most magazines. With the title ‘contents’ being directly at the top of the page to the left hand side, this is important as it signifies to the reader what page they’re on and when they know that, they will then know this is a page where they can find out the page numbers for all other pages within the magazine. I have set it out in columns. There are 4 columns which consist of both text and images, images within contents pages are a convention and appear regularly, with large page numbers next to them indicating to the reader where they can find this article within the magazine.

 

Beside the images are other page numbers which include short sentences, these sentences are brief introductions of what that page is focusing on. This is good as it saves a lot of time for the reader as they may not want to read the whole magazine therefore they can pick out the bits they want most and flick straight to the page. I have followed the same colour scheme of red, white and black on my contents page which shows consistency of my design. This is also known as the house style. ‘Band index’ is another convention I have followed however this time I was inspired to do this by NME magazine, it is something they include in most of their contents pages and indicated to the reader what bands/artists will appear in this month’s issue.

 

Running along the very bottom of the contents page is a banner which includes the page number, magazine website and the social media account. This is a typical convention of a magazine and it informs the reader about the different digital applications the magazine runs on where readers can get even more information and news about the indie genre. On the contents page I have included a range of shots from long, mid and close up shots different artists who will appear in the magazines.

 

Normally there will be a large image of the main feature artist who also appears on the front cover then smaller images of other artists, this is to focus the attention on the main artist and make it clear they’re the main one. I have followed this convention as an image of Fearghal is the largest one on the page and takes up a whole column. To add a more realistic and natural affect to the magazine the contents page usually includes pictures which are at an out of studio location. I have followed this by one of my images being on Lois in London at night and one of the images being at a concert.

 

Commonly within articles and double page spreads the first page will include a full bleed image of the artist and an introduction in text on the other half. I have followed this convention as I have a white background photo of my cover star with a short introduction to the article on the right hand side.

 

 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 

My magazine represents my targeted social group through a number of details within the magazine, such as: Price, Language used and many more. The type of people within my targeted social group are fashionable, sociable and obviously big fans of music and in particular the indie genre and the artists within. The social class of these people is A B C1. This is because the magazine is only £3.99 and comes out only once a month, therefore it is not too expensive and those within the social classes above will have the disposable income in order to be able to afford to purchase the magazine.

 

My cover model is Fearghal McGlinchey who is in character as a 19 year old indie star who has just released his second album of the year. The images portray the personality which is very relaxed and chilled and the clothing worn is typical of unique and independent artists with the skinny jeans and denim jacket. The green demin jacket is very unique which relates to the unique genre of indie. Green has connotations of ambition which can be seen through the cover model who is an up and coming star and those reading the magazine who may be inspired by the artists.

 

In many photos he is seen wearing black coloured clothes. The black connotes maturity which is relatable to the young adult audience which is targeted. However in contrast to this he is wearing a black jumper with gold patterned sleeves, this is very typical clothing seen by those into indie music and is a unique hipster look. Furthermore his hair is in a common comb over style but also a fairly messy look which is highly relatable to males within the indie genre. This will become highly relatable for the type of audience which the magazine will be read by as they will be into similar styles, this is further emphasised by his age, a young adult. Which will be a common age of the audience reading the audience. The use of direct eye contact from the cover model throughout the magazine attracts the reader more and allows them to be more interested.

 

 

 

What kind of institution will distribute your media product and why?

 

 

The media institution which would possibly distribute my media product would be the IPC Media. I have chosen IPC as they are a well-established and successful distributer who are the distributer of many other magazines. And out of all, only one of them is a music magazine which is NME, this is beneficial for us as our magazine would be more easily accepted as they do not already do many music magazines.

 

 

Whereas Bauer media already distribute Q, Kerrang and Mojo therefore it would be much harder to gain success through them as they will already be focusing on three other music magazines.

 

 

Furthermore NME is a hugely successful magazine therefore it gives us confidence in believing that ACE could reach the same level. IPC is currently providing for 80% women and 20% men, this is good as the target audience for the magazine is both male and female. However the proportion of females could be an issue as it is much larger. They’re currently only distributing NME which is a rock genre music magazine. This is good as by distributing ACE they will now be proving audiences with a different music genre magazine and also they can attract even more consumers as indie fans will be purchasing the magazine.

 

 

IPC are a well-known distributer and distribute many magazines covering a vast amount of genres such as: fashion, sport, entertainment, lifestyle and more including big names like Woman, Instyle, Country life and many more this gives us confidence in believing the distribution of the magazine can be a success through IPC. ACE will have the chance to be promoted through multi platforms such as TV, radio and online which NME have already benefitted from.

 

 

ACE will take advantage of all new media and technology and will allow us to have a website for the magazine to be viewed online, phone apps, scanning codes for easy access to links and many more. As our target audience are those who will be up to date with new technology and using it in everyday life this will allow us to engage with a wider audience and we will be able to use sites like twitter, facebok and youtube in order to promote the magazine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

 

 

My media product has a specific media product which would be suitable for the magazine. The target audience for ACE would be 16-25 both males and females. And aimed at 40% male and 60% female. This is because the genre of the magazine is indie and this genre has a wide collection of artists both male and female with different mixed audiences. As the media product is a music magazine is solely focuses on one genre, indie. Therefore the target audience will have different demographics and psychographics to those who listen to rock.

However from research it has proved that the genre is attracted to slightly more females therefore why I’ve chosen 60% female focus. Females tend to get greater attachments with artists and want to find out more about them which they can do by purchasing the magazines. However there are still some male fans of indie artists which would be interested and willing to purchase the magazine if they see an artist they like featured. For example if Lana Del Ray were to feature males may find her attractive which may encourage them to purchase the magazine.

The majority of my target audience will be in higher education either including sixth form, college or university. These people will have a strong interest in music including listening to artists, following any gossip or news and attending music events therefore meaning they would be interested in reading a magazine solely focused on that genre. They would also be people who are very involved in new technology including the use of smart phones, social media and many more to socialise with friends.

Our audience would be individualists and aspirers this is because indie is a very unique genre and not as popular as some others. Therefore these people would most likely be unique and not mainstreamers who follow the crowd. They would fit into the A B C1 social category as they would be people with a source of income whether it be pocket money from parents or a part time job on weekends, therefore allowing them to afford to purchase the magazine for £3.99 once a month. The target audience would be reading the magazine for both information and entertainment. Some will be huge fans of artists featured and will want to find out more about them and the genre as a whole and find it easy to read as they can relate to some issues raised.

And it can also help to build personal relationships with others who have similar interests and read the magazine. The audience will have the same fashion sense as the artists featured and will be up to date with the latest trends and they will be able to see this through the attire of those artists featured and if they are aspirers they will like seeing these type of things as it allows them to aspire to be like the artists through all aspects. My magazine will be aimed at these people to satisfy their needs and include everything they want to read and only specify on the indie genre and never incorporating any others.

My media product is aimed at this specific audience as these people are most likely to know all the current news, gossip and rumours surrounding the indie genre and those artists within which will allow them to get involved in the magazine. This shows that these people are interested in finding out more about gigs, albums and general news about artists.

 

How did you attract/address your audience?

Within the magazine there are many features and aspects put in place in order to ensure that the magazine is attracted and sold to the right audience. Before the production began on my magazine I researched other successful magazines and looked at how they attracted their audiences. Magazines such as Q and NME attracted their audiences through the genre chosen, artists featured, competitions within the magazine and many more which led to people purchasing the magazine.

The following features are ways in which I tried to attract the target audience. The main artists featured/cover model is a crucial aspect of attracting your audience. If they cover model is someone very unknown then people will be less inclined to purchase the magazine as it will not seem interesting to them and will instantly put them off reading the rest of the magazine. Whereas if a very well-known artist is used then consumers will see this and instantly recognise who it is which will make them want to purchase and read the magazine especially if they’re a fan of the artist. This is why within my magazine my cover model Fearghal is playing the role of a very famous young indie artist who is about to release his second album of the year. Therefore we would have a large fan base of people who would easily recognise him and be attracted into buying the magazine if they saw him on the cover.

To further emphasise this, the use of close up and full bleed images of the cover artist and artists within are also very crucial. The reason for it being full bleed is to become more eye catching for the consumer which will encourage them to buy the product.

I have used two main fonts throughout the magazine. This is to make sure my magazine is very consistent throughout and makes it look much neater. Which then makes it become very eye catching. Also using the same house style of red black and white makes the magazine look a lot more professional and addresses both male and female audiences as they are not gender specific colours.

The images of not only the cover model but other artists who feature in other pages such as the contents page are also very important. Ways in which I used these images to communicate with the audience is the use of direct eye contact and the use of certain body language appeals more to the reader and makes them feel more involved in what they’re reading. Other images such as concert images are beneficial as they give the magazine a much more realistic feel and will attract those who attend gigs and concerts. This is also helped by the use of images outside of the studio of artists.

The articles within the magazine are a big way in attracting the audience as the articles usually contains an interview with the main cover model from that issue. Therefore by including an interview this will attract fans of that artist to buy the magazine and see what has been said and find out more about that person’s life. Also they layout is helpful as it includes many pictures of the artists to emphasise the attraction form the fan base.

Within the article the use of pull quotes makes the article more exciting and fun to read along with images therefore the artist isn’t put off by a double page of writing therefore the use of pull quotes and images make it more attractive for consumers. Furthermore the text its self is very informal and comical in some parts therefore allowing the consumer to have fun whilst reading it rather than being bored.

            With the magazine being a music based magazine focusing on one specific genre this means that the audience we’re targeting will mostly be reading it for entertainment as well as information. They would be appealed to finding out more about artists but also the genre as a whole including festivals happening and much more. Therefore the magazine is a great way of these people finding out all they need to know regarding indie music which would attract them into buying it.

The use of new media plays a big role in the attraction of the target audience. This is because the people targeted are those who are up to date with the advances in technology and therefore helping us to take advantage of this. The use of social media sites is very crucial as this allows us to promote the magazine and also allow the consumers to get involved and give us ideas which will attract the audience as they will then know that what they’re reading they have had some sort of input in.

            Overall I believe I have been very successful in attracting the magazines target audience, through the different aspects and features of the magazine and also through taking notice of the feedback of the audience survey.

 

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

During the long process of producing my media product I have learnt a lot and gained good skills of the use of many different technologies. These include: Adobe InDesign and Photoshop, Blogger, Slide share, Dafont, Prezi and Survey Monkey. Furthermore I have also been able to gain knowledge and skills of the use of professional equipment within the studio in order to get the best quality images possible for my magazine. Including SLR cameras, lighting umbrellas, spotlights and more.

At the start of the process I was already very familiar with Photoshop having had to use in within Media GCSE and the creation of a film magazine. I was taught the basics of the software such as cutting out photos from their background, spot healing tools and lighting effects. I was then able to look up more advance things on the internet to further advance my skills. Therefore when it came to this magazine I knew how to cut out images and edit them all the way I wanted until they were ready to be placed into in design. This saved lots of time as I did was not new to the software.

InDesign is the software used to actually make the magazine and design the layout and add everything you want in the final product. I was not as familiar with this as Photoshop but I had come across it a few times in GCSE and having a good knowledge of Photoshop allowed me to adapt quicker to the running of InDesign. InDesign allows you to create the layout of the magazine using different templates and pages. The software is extremely straight forward to use and I had no issues with it.

Within the article there is a vast amount of writing which could look and become very boring to read. However by using InDesign this allowed me to set out the writing in columns and have photos spread around the page to make it look more exciting. Text wrap is the tool I used in order to place text around the images used which is very beneficial as it adds attention to the images. You can also edit the distance you want the text to be from the image.

All aspects I used within InDesign have been used to help make the magazine look as professional as possible. Which can be done as proven because many top magazine companies with successful magazines use the InDesign software in the process of creating their magazines also because of its easy and simplistic approach.

Blogger has been one of the most important technologies used through the whole process of the magazine and was the first and will be the last thing I use. This is because it is a site that allows you to create your own page where you post all the work you have done, from the masthead ideas to the finished magazine. Anything can be posted here and they even have a HTML section which allows you to embed links, for example embedding a YouTube video so it will be shown on the blog. The use of labelling has allowed me to section off everything I do within my blog into four main sections: Planning, Preliminary task, Production Log and Research. Therefore making it much easier to view the magazine and go straight to where you need to be as each post is labelled to a different section.

Slide share is the next website I benefited from through the process of making my media product. Slide Share allows you to make PowerPoints then upload them to the website to be viewed as one big slide. It also allows you to then get an embedding link which can be used to then paste into software’s like blogger to show your PowerPoints on blogs as well. This is good as it allowed to have a number of variations to post with the use of PowerPoint rather than just a normal blog post.

Furthermore DaFont also helped me during the production of the magazine. This is because it is a website which allows you to choose from 1000’s of different styles of fonts to then download and use within software’s such as InDesign and Photoshop for the final magazines. I used DaFont to download my masthead font which is called freshman and is used for the word ACE. It is a very unique font and not the same as the default ones given already on the software.

Prezi is a very creative website which allows you to create presentations in a for fun and unique way, you select the different themed template you want and then add your text and images. I benefited from this as I could then create presentations and then embed them onto my blog. This also allowed for me to include different technologies within my blog posts.

Whilst getting my photos I used the Canon 550D SLR. I am very familiar with this camera as I also used the same model for my GCSE film magazine photoshoot and also have a SLR at home therefore I knew how to work the camera. This then meant I was able to get the highest quality images possible for the magazine.

 

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task it is clear that I have gained much more skills with the use of InDesign in creating the final product. The school magazine and music magazine have some similarities including common codes and conventions however the music magazine is much more professional and has been created at a much more high level.

The preliminary task looks very basic, using basic images and editing skills and does not have very high quality images and text. This is mostly due to the fact that a lot more time has been spent on the creation of the music magazine which has allowed me to gain skills along the way to further enhance the magazine and make it look better. Therefore being the reason why the images are at a much more high quality and the general layout looks a lot more professional.

The preliminary task had very little research and planning done before creation apart from a sketch of both the front cover and contents page and how I wanted them to look. We then had around a week to create the final product.

On the other hand, with the music magazine we had to do a vast amount of detailed planning and research to find out what is perfect for our magazines. This gave us the opportunity to see what the target audience would want in a magazine which we could then incorporate into the final product.

Also research was a crucial part of the music magazine. As this allowed me to research established and successful magazines and see everything they do in the production of their magazines including the artists, styles, images and many more. I could then use these as inspiration when creating my product which enhanced the chance of success as I could see what they consumers like.

As the creation of the final task was spread over a long period of time this meant I did not have to rush which allowed me to get every last detail as perfect as possible. However when producing the school magazine you weren’t able to spend that amount of time therefore meaning it couldn’t be of the same quality as not as much time can be spent on it.

When creating the school magazine I was still fairly new to using InDesign with only having used it a few times prior. Therefore the school magazine looks very unprofessional as my knowledge and skills of the software were not at the standards they’re now having finished the music magazine. When starting to create the final task I was then more confident in using the site and had watched all the necessary tutorials in order to make a sufficient magazine at a professional standard.