Peter Meadows Media Music Magazine Evaluation

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

The media products that I have created, follows the codes and conventions that are formed by other magazines within the industry, meaning that I use features and techniques that are standard for magazines to adopt. One example where I have followed codes and conventions of magazines is by including a primary image for my magazine front cover, this primary images usually contains a cover star that is covered in article inside the magazine, furthermore the primary image is usually accompanied by a main cover line that gives a brief synopsis and title in a large font, this clearly shows that I have developed a front cover that follows the conventions of real media products as I have included a main cover line saying ‘Rising Stars’ this title is one of the largest fonts on the page and overlaps the primary image, implying that the two things are related, showing that I have evidently followed codes and conventions of real magazines. Additionally the model on my magazine is looking directly into the camera creating direct eyesight between themselves and the audience, making the readers feel that the cover star is looking right at them and making them want to buy the magazine as they feel they have a relationship together. This is a common feature used in real magazines, once again showing I have followed codes and conventions. I have also included a free incentive banner at the top of the magazine containing the buzzword ‘WIN!’ which persuades the reader into buying the magazine has they feel they have the chance to win free tickets. Further techniques that I developed my front cover with is the use of a slogan under the masthead, in small sized font as the slogan stating ‘essential’ this makes the audience feel the magazine is a must have so persuades them to buy it, I also included a number of cover lines that give a summary of articles inside, which is a vital part to a front cover because it informs the audience what type of articles are inside.

Another convention that I have included on my front cover is the use of a masthead, it’s the largest font on the page and is placed at the top of the page, the font is large so it grabs the audiences attention and stands out off the page and is placed at the top as people usually start reading from the top of the page so the first thing they see is the title of the magazine showing I have followed the codes and conventions of real magazines. On the other hand my masthead also shows an example where I have challenged codes and conventions set by real magazines – being the colour scheme, usually real magazines will have a title with one solid colour, however I have challenged this convention as in my title the ‘REC’ is in red and the rest of the title in black, I did this as the red ‘REC’ is meant to symbolise and reflect the icon that appears when something is being recorded – which is associated to the music industry showing that the different colour has been done for a reason but also shows that even though I have challenged the codes and conventions its not to extreme so the readers will still recognize the product as a magazine, and act like a pun relevant to the music industry. Further codes and conventions that I have followed is including a puff that includes a cover line which should interest most people so is put inside the circle puff to make it stand out so that the audience can clearly see and read it and should be persuaded to buy the magazine. I have also included a plus banner at the which quickly and vaguely gives a outline of articles within the magazine. Also throughout my magazine there is a colour scheme of red, black, white and blue which creates an organised feeling the magazine.

I have also followed codes and conventions usual to contents pages, one example of this is a features banner which gives the title of articles, brief synopsis and page number in the magazine – its clearly shown that I followed this convention as I have included a features banner at the side of my magazine, which also sticks to the colour scheme of my magazine. Another convention that I have followed is the use of images, my contents page contains two images – both with their own corresponding heading related to their article, the image at the top of the page has a small column to the left of the image, Its headed in a large font ‘Jason Shader’ this is done to grab the readers attention and if they fit the magazines target market they should be interested by the name as they would most likely know who the artist and could be a fan persuading them to read the article. Also under the large ‘Jason Shader’ title is a brief article that acts as a blurb and gives the readers a taster of the article and should encourage them to read on. This technique of including a small article next to an image isn't exactly a convention for real magazines, however has been featured in magazines such as NME, this shows that I have pushed the boundaries of conventions by including this feature in my own magazine as its not as widely used technique. The image also includes the model wearing headphones which show the image relates to the genre of music. The second image of the girl at the bottom of magazine is supported by a quote, the quote is designed to leave the readers in suspense and should force them to want to read on and answer the questions – this is a fairly common technique used for contents pages, and the model is looking at the quote to indicate that she is actually thinking and saying this quote in her head. Furthermore the two images stick to the colour scheme of the magazine like the red scarf and blue jumper, this creates organisation and keeps the theme running through the magazine.

Similar to the magazines front cover the contents page also includes a masthead, shown to the left, the masthead titles the page so people can easily see it’s the contents page and creates clarity, the masthead also includes the magazines issue number – a common convention to contents page, simply just to inform the readers of the magazines issue number. The masthead again sticks to the colour theme running through the magazine, colour themes are a huge convention and are included in most real magazines.

Another convention I followed when designing my contents page is the use of numbers to simply indicate the page number of the corresponding image and article. By placing the number in the box makes it clear to see for the readers and by making the box overlap the image it indicates to the readers that the number relates to that image. Including page numbers is vital to contents pages as it informs the readers to which article is on which page which is the exact purpose of a contents page and therefore is an imperative convention to follow.

As also showed to the left are my images background, behind my images is a box which they overlap, the box has been intentionally made to be shorter than the image so the model overhangs – this creates the affect of the model jumping off the page and popping out this is done to grab the audiences attention and to make the page look nicer and more aesthetically pleasing to look at by giving the page more depth and looks more lively, instead of a flat image.

Another convention I followed when producing my double page spread was including a category text, this can be found at the top right of the page and purely states ‘exclusive interview’ the word exclusive was used to show the reader the article can only be found in this magazine, so the audience will feel more intrigued to read it as they feel it’s a one off and more prestigious and the word interview is simply just to inform the audience the article is an interview. Another convention that I followed when designing my double page spread was including a caption, this the small box found next to the model – this is used to give extra detail to the image and explain what the person is doing in the picture. Another convention I followed was to include the page numbers, the can be found in both bottom corners and basically inform the reader what page the article is on, done to add organisation to the magazine. An evident feature that I included for the double page spread was to include the article – the article is divided into columns, a common convention for articles, this is to make it easier to read and look more organised, stopping the article taking up too much of image as there are gutter spaces in-between the columns.

When designing my double page spread, I had a number of codes and conventions to follow that are common to professional magazines, for example at the top of the page is the header, this acts as the title to the double page spread – it’s the largest font on the page so it stands out to grab the audiences attention and simply states ‘Jason Shader’ this is a buzzword so my target market should see the name and should instantly know the artist and would be interested to read about him. Underneath the header is the kicker – this adds extra information to the header, giving more of an insight to what the article is actually about, I stated that the artist is a ‘king’ I did this to try and persuade the audience to read on and find out why he is a king, it’s the second biggest font on the page to also grab the audiences attention by standing out.

A convention that I chose to follow when producing my double page spread was including a drop caption to the article. This can be shown to the left and is basically the large ‘C’ in the word ‘Crowned’ – a drop cap is when the first letter of the first word in the article is made larger than the rest of the word and articles font size that follow, they are used to enhance the article and make the text look more attractive to read as it stands out brings in attention, and also indicates where the article begins.

I chose to make the articles font white, as I did for the header, kicker and category text – I opted to do this as the picture of the double page spread is fairly dark so by using a white colour the font stands out from the background, grabbing attention and making it easier to read. The article also contains a pull quote, this is part of the article that is a quote and is separated and made bigger than the rest of the article so it stands out, its done to tease the audience persuading them to read the article and find out what the quote is about. Another feature I included to the double page spread was the use of a feature image, this is simply the image that takes up the whole double page. The use of a feature is that of a convention – however in a way I have challenged the convention by forcing the picture to take up the whole of the page, this technique has been used before by magazines such as NME, however isn't a frequent occurrence, I chose to do this so it creates the feeling the image is essentially the double page spread and the audiences attention is constantly on the image and feel they are there with the artist. In the actual image the model is inside an editing studio, this is related to the article as the interview was conducted at the studio and also the artist gave a sample of his new album – showing the image and article correspond. In the image the artist is wearing headphones they are associated with the music industry and therefore show the images relevance to the actual magazine, and when the audience see the headphones they should be interested because they associate them with the particular genre of music of dance. The studio creates a setting for the article and the use of props such as including the microphone and headphones will show the audience the article is about music and the genre of dance – immediately this should interest my audience as they should be fans of this type of music and will want to read on.

The image includes the popular artist as he, incidentally looks into the text. Firstly by choosing to include a popular artist my audience should immediately recognize him and want to read on because they’ll be more interested if they know who the article is talking about. Also the image to the left shows the artist looking straight at the text, this both suggests to the audience that the article is coming from the model, but also creates a feeling that he is also reading the article with the audience – this creates a relationship and bond between the audience and him as they feel they are both reading together and should feel more involved with the actual magazine.

How does your media product represent particular social groups

My products are shown to mainly represent young people, this is because they don’t include any older people, this shows that the magazine really only represents the youth, in terms of age, as they are the only ones included within the magazine. The magazine also represents particular genders, the magazine includes only one female this shows that women are only represented through one person which may result in an unfair representation as the readers perception on women can only be displayed through the one woman featured. However in terms of males they are fairly dominant within my magazine as they are featured more and given the bigger and more key articles, my market research into the music magazine industry showed that more males read music magazines than women so by representing males more predominately it could appeal to males more as they would feel its their type of magazine to read. I have also represented social groups within the magazine, most predominately are ‘indies’ and a hip-hop/urban scene, this type of music is popular within the youth and were the two highest rated in my market research, so by representing this particular social group I am reaching a higher pool of people as there is a higher demand from that social group and they are more likely to buy the magazine as their favourite genre is the dominant feature in the magazine.

What kind of media institution will publish your products and why

The magazine industry is full of potential publishers and institutions that could be willing to publish my music magazine products. One of these institutions could be Bauer Media group, a German company that is widely successful, they currently publish music magazines Kerrang!, Q and mojo – this shows that the production company already have experience in this type of magazine, that even appear to be fairly similar for example all three magazines claim their primary audience is males – just like my products, and as a result should be more likely to publish my work as we share a similar audience in addition the magazines are fairly similar so they don’t have to adapt too much as they already have experience with this type of magazine. Bauer are likely to publish and distribute my magazine and sell it in particular places, such as shops that share a similar audience like music stores such as HMV to maximise its reach to potential buyers. Another way the company could help distribute the magazine is by using their own existing magazines to advertise my products – as we share a similar target market the audience could be interested in buying the magazine, and if they are reading the magazine is most likely evident they are already willing to buy a music magazine. Furthermore the company will have an understanding of where their magazines already sell well, so could also sell my work their, such as in airports where people – especially teenagers, my products target market, are looking for things to read on the plane journey and my be intrigued into purchasing the magazine. Bauer will also be willing to publish the magazine as it would help boost their collection of magazines and fill a gap in their portfolio, because even though the demographic between our magazines are similar – my magazine is still aimed at ‘indies’ so therefore I am adding to Bauer's reach as my magazine brings in a whole new social group.

Who would the audience be for your product?

My magazine is aimed at people who like the music genre of rock/indie and hip hop, as shown by the picture to the right, this variety of music was the most popular genre of music so there would more chance of people being attracted towards the magazine because more people like this genre than any other. My intended audience would be people aged between 15-20, during my market research I found that people aged 16 were most likely to buy music magazines as where students, that’s why I chose to aim the magazine at this age group. My intended audience should mainly consist of students, as I believe students are more interested in music, especially modern music, and as a result would want to buy the magazine to keep up to date with latest events and are therefore more likely to be more loyal readers so there is more chance of them buying the magazine more regularly. I used an informal and colloquial type of language style when writing my magazine to attract the younger age more and create a feeling that the readers and magazine are just having a normal conversation, creating a stronger relationship between the two, on the contrary certain words within the articles may require better knowledge but given the context that my magazine is aimed at students education shouldn’t be a problem and therefore my magazines articles wont be restricted to using simple and boring words – so consequently I would expect my target audience to have a good education – more likely to be found within students. My magazine would include modern and fresh music and figures so I feel that the audience for the magazine should be fairly fashionable and be up-to-date. I would expect a majority my target audience to have some sort of hobby within music, like playing an instrument, this is because if they have a strong interest in music then they are more likely to buy my magazine to help keep them up-to-date with the latest news and gossip and would be more interested in the articles featured.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I aimed to attract my audience through a number of techniques, the first way I tried to attract my audience towards the magazine was the front cover star, the cover star on my magazines front cover is wearing clothes that are subject to my audience so once they see the model wearing these clothes on the front cover they would be drawn towards the magazine as they recognize and have a connection with this style of fashion and will most likely know and enjoy the genre of music associated to that style of fashion. Additionally the audience are certainly going to recognize the actual cover star - as he is famous to the particular genre of music that my magazine represents, so when they see him on the front cover their eyes are automatically pulled in towards the front cover and should leave them craving to purchase the magazine. Likewise the cover lines on the front page should also do the same job in attracting the audience, as the cover lines include buzzwords customary to the genres of music my magazine represents, for instance using an artistsname, as shown by the picture to the right, I have used a DJ’s name‘Jason Shader’ by using the DJ’s name people who know and enjoy the genreOf music he makes, my audience, will recognize the name and as result should beattracted towards the magazine as they can see this artist is featured in the magazine.Similarly the other cover lines also feature buzzwords such as ‘exclusive’ because if theaudience see this word they will understand that the interview is only available in thismagazine – so they have to buy my magazine or cant read it at all. The cover lines act asa magnet and lure the audience toward the magazine because they can see articles andartists that they want to read about - leaving them hungry for the magazine. This isespecially in the case of the main cover line as in big bold red letters sprung acrossthe page is the title ‘rising stars’ this should straight away grab the audiences attentionas they will be engrossed to find out who the title is talking about, and once they see the A-list band ‘lost exotic’ the audience should be attracted into

reading the magazine because it would be a name my target audience should be familiar with.

Another way I addressed my audience was by including a free incentive, popular to the magazine industry free incentive require the magazine to give something to the reader, I have included winning tickets(shown above) as my free incentive to try and persuade the audience to buy the magazine – as they feel they are earning more for there money if they have the chance to win tickets, and the word ‘win!’ being in a big bold font should make it stand out, especially with the white font against the blue background leaping of the page and dragging the audiences attention to the magazine. Overall I tried to make my magazine aesthetically pleasing towards my audience, I stuck to a solid colour scheme that makes the page look organised and nice to look – so people aren't put off by disjointed colours and a disorderly layout. The cover star of the magazine is looking directly into the camera, which I did intentionally to create eye contact between them and the audience so they feel engaged and involved with the magazine, as if the cover star was addressing the audience personally. I also used a number of quotes that can be found within my contents page and double page spread, that comprise of a-list celebrities giving direct quotes – this should involve the reader as they will feel the celebrity is closer to them and is actually just speaking to them – which shows how I have addressed the reader through using quotes. I also attracted my audience by using a fairly informal and colloquial style of language, so they aren't put off by complex words, but instead just feel like they are having a chat with someone resulting in the audience feeling more addressed directly, this can be shown in my double page spread where made sure to write an article that involved the audience, for example “you the people felt Jason” this is a direct quote from my double page spread article and the word ‘you’ shows that my style of language has actually addressed my audience involving them more with the article and bringing them closer to the magazine so they feel more attracted to read the magazine because they feel they have a connection with the magazine and aren't just a third-party spectator.

What have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing these products?

I used a number of technologies, both hardware and software to construct my products. For the construction of the product's I used the photo editing software Photoshop, I feel my knowledge with the software has greatly expanded since creating the magazine – for the front cover and the contents page I had to delete the background using a number of tools such as the magic wand, the rectangle tool, lasso tool and even the eraser, as shown below the original image includes a blue background that I removed to create a transparent background to place onto my magazine, so the audiences attention is just on the model. To remove the background I started by using the magic wand tool, to remove

The majority of the blue screen and then used the lasso, rectangle tool and eraser to remove the blue screen closer to the model – so I didn’t delete any of their body. After removing the blue screen I then used the blur and smudge tool – to make the image look more smooth and remove the pixelated edges, this was a new technique I learnt from making these products and didn’t know previously, this was a very useful in making my magazine helping make the magazine look more aesthetically pleasing and shows that by constructing these products my knowledge on using the photo editing software Photoshop was expanded. I also used edited my layers in a number of ways – for example I used drop shadows to give the image the feeling that its jumping off the page and standing out. I also used colour correction to make the images look more professional and less overexposed – this was new feature that I never previously used before and helped create a professional image for my magazine.

I also used an SLR camera to take the images for my magazine, this was new as previously I just used digital cameras, the SLR camera was successful in making my images look far more professional and I was very pleased with the way my images turned out when using the SLR camera, its auto focusing features was great in giving the images a higher definition and created a very professional feeling to the images.

When making my double page spread I also used the editing software Quark – I had no experience with the software whatsoever, so using the tools and the software itself was basically a learning experience about technologies. I used quark to mainly add text to my double page spread, as the page itself is primarily just the image so I didn’t need to add too much else. Using the software helped expand my knowledge on using editing software other than Photoshop and helped to teach me new features such as wrapping text around and columns which helped give a professional look to my image. When making my products I also used the internet, however aspects that I haven't previously used before, I made a blogger to distribute my products – creating the blog was useful as it was easily organised and showed all my work in one simple place. I also had to use YouTube to upload my market research interviews, this was something again I hadn't previously done, but by creating these media products my knowledge of technologies was expanded. By creating my magazine products my knowledge and understanding of using technologies to both create and distribute was greatly expanded, especially when helping to add a professional feeling to the product.

Looking back at the preliminary task, what have you learnt from it to the full product?

When producing my final product I conducted much better market research, this helped me when producing the magazine because I know knew what my audience wanted and what interested them more, so therefore it was easier to please them because I didn’t have to guess what would attract my audience towards my magazine. When conducting my market research I asked numerous questions such as favourite music genre and what made people buy a certain magazine – this helped as I now understood how to please my target audience because I knew the majority's favourite music genre so I knew to include these genres, furthermore asking why people bought certain magazines also greatly helped because I now understood how to attract my audience because I could work on the features they looked out for, such as a-list cover stars or free incentives, this taught me that conducting market research helps to produce the magazine, unlike my preliminary product where I didn’t conduct a great amount of market research, and especially didn’t ask the right questions, but now I understand what type of questions to ask. When it came to planning I already conducted a fair amount into the preliminary task so I knew this was going to be helpful again when it came to the final product as the plan acts like a blueprint making the product faster and easier to create, which shows I learnt the importance into planning. When taking the pictures for my preliminary task I used digital cameras, which were good enough for the preliminary project, however when it came to the final product and using the SLR camera I feel my knowledge into photography greatly expanded, the features and options to choose from taught me what goes into a professional and good looking image, moreover using industrial and professional lighting showed me the importance into lighting on an image, in the preliminary task I simply just took my photo outside – where it was well light – my image looked overexposed, washed out and colourless, however using the specialised lighting helped my knowledge towards lighting expand as I now understood how to position the lights to bring my picture to life and create a professional look. My journalism was improved after writing my double page spread, making my work sound more professional and more pleasing to read, it also taught me how to write to please certain audience, such as writing informal and colloquial. My design work and editing, I feel, vastly improved in between and after producing both my preliminary and final product. I have already stated the journey of producing my work helped expand my knowledge of image manipulation as I tried out new features and techniques and I picked up new methods into creating professional images such as using a blur tool to smooth any pixelated images after removing the background. Furthermore in between making the two products I feel I have done a greater job in editing my images and designing products. Such as using colour corrections and adjustments, and I also learnt how to use new technologies such as quark and SLR cameras – which shows my knowledge of designing work expanded.

Although I am pleased with the way my preliminary task turned out I feel that my knowledge expansion of design work really shows when my work is compared with each other, for example the main cover line on my full product, bottom image, is much more prominent and stands off the page more due to the knowledge I learnt after producing my preliminary task. Its also evident the primary image of my final work looks much better, the image looks far more lively and professional, where as the preliminary work looks fairly plane, because I learnt how to adjust an images colour the full product looks much more energetic and professional. Furthermore the text on my final product, I feel, looks much better the fonts used look much more professional and the adjustments I made make the text more open and well spaced – this is because it learnt how to add adjustments to text in Photoshop after my preliminary task and shows my advancement in knowledge towards design work, as my skills have developed into those more professional and make my products look like real conventional magazines and I much more pleased with the way my final product looks like compared to the preliminary work – due to my progression in knowledge of my image manipulation and design work.