Music Magazine Evaluation

Maria Ellis

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

The main image on my front cover is the most dominant image on the magazine, I have made this artist the dominant image to show the power of the artist as he is one of the main stories in the magazine. Having a dominant image on the front cover is a magazine code and convention. Having Nick Butler as my main image may draw in more audience as they might like Nick as an artist and want to know more about him.

Cover lines are very important on a magazine cover. Cover lines are a convention code. I have developed my cover lines to fit into the style of my magazine. Cover lines are a main thing on the magazine which helps draw the audience in so I have made my cover lines very clear and easy to read. Having cover lines on my magazine lets the readers know what my magazine contains.

I have placed a barcode on my magazine to make the end product look more professional.

I have used a strap line to interest my audience. Telling them the exclusive stories that my magazine consists of. Using strap lines work really well with my layout on the front cover as it makes it look more real and professional. My strap lines help the magazine come together.

Through out my magazine I have used the same colour scheme to make it look more organised and easy to read, I have used 2 simple colour's red, black and yellow which makes it a lot easier to read. Using a white background makes the red writing stand out a lot more making it more eye catching.

Placing my logo on each page of my magazine gives my magazine its own layout style. I have named my magazine ‘Nexus’ as my magazine is about all genres and not just one. So I thought the name ‘Nexus’ will be a good way to describe my magazine as it means bringing everything together.

Using a plug draws in the audience as it is featuring a competition to win festival tickets. Having a competition to win festival tickets brings in readers a lot more as festivals are very popular

Mastheads are for drawing in your audience and engaging them. I have made my masthead very big and eye catching. I have placed it on the left hand side, I have done this because when magazines are stacked up on shop shelves you tend to only see the left side of the magazine. This makes the masthead the first thing the audience sees. I have made the ‘X’ a lot bigger then the rest of the writing to make it more eye catching and engaging.

For my two main articles in my magazine I have made them both two main headlines. I have made the text a lot bigger then the rest of the text on the front cover so the headlines will stand out a lot more than the other text I have also used a different style of giving the black text a red outline helping it stand out a lot more and making it eye catching. I have also placed them in two different places I have placed one on the left side as this will be the first thing the reader will see when my magazine is on a shelf, I have then placed the other on the right side.

For my main image on my double page spread I have placed it in the middle of the page with the text flowing around it which makes the picture stand out a lot more I have placed a black boarder round it making it look more professional.

I have made my heading stand out and eye catching by using a different style of font and giving each individual letter a black background. I have made each word separate making ‘Drugs’ and ‘Botox’ smaller than ‘Alcohol’ I have done this to make it look more effective and engaging.

Introductory text is for hooking the reader. ‘Eleanor welsh has been the worlds sensation of 2011, she has hit the top 10 many time this year but had she spoilt her career?’ I have used a rhetorical question in my introductory text, using a rhetorical question hooks the reader because it makes them want to find out if ‘Eleanor welsh’ has spoilt her career.

I have placed quotes within the text making the quotes a lot bigger and bold compared to the rest of the text this makes the reader read the quotes first. After reading the quotes the reader will want to find out more about the article so it will hook them and make the reader read the rest of the article.

On the side of the article I have advertised ‘Eleanor Welsh’s’ album. Giving more information to the reader about her new album coming out.

I have used the same style layout as my front cover. Giving my double page spread boarder lines at the top and bottom the page which look a bit like the strap lines on my front cover I have done this so the layout of my magazine flows through my magazine and doesn’t look odd.

My main heading is very eye catching using two different styles of text and doing the word ‘the’ in lower case and the word ‘week’ in capitals. This makes the heading standout a lot more than the rest of the page.

I have placed my contents strip on the right hand side making my page look organised and readable. I have three headings splitting up my contents into ‘news’, ’top music’ and ‘exclusive interviews’.

I have made a main article bigger than the rest of the article as it is more important. Having a main article in the middle of the page makes this the first thing the audience is drawn to. I have made the image a large image filling up a lot of the room. Within this article I have used a rhetorical question making the reader want to turn to the page of the article and read it.

I have placed some less important articles down the left hand side using images of the artist the article’s are about. I have placed the images about the titles of the articles making it easier to read and more professional. I have made the page numbers a lot larger then the text as the page numbers are more important for the reader to know.

In the bottom left corner I have advertised a deal when you subscribe this will also bring in the reader as they might subscribe knowing they will get their first 3 magazines free if the subscribe to the magazine. I have made this stand out a lot different to the rest of the content's as this is not articles the magazine contains. I have used a grey background and black boarder making it look very dominant.

I have used a flash within my contents to bring the audience more telling them we review the top ten albums of the month, I have made the text of the flash stand out by using black font and a red box behind it this makes it stand out a lot because it is the only text on the page which has a bright background making it very eye catching. Above my flash I have also included 3 images of 3 albums which are in the top 10

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I decided that my target audience for my magazine would be teenagers as teenagers tend to change their choice in music a lot, so my music magazines involves a lot of different artists ranging from rock artists and pop artists. This makes my magazine approachable for all teenagers and not just one certain group.

Because my magazine isn’t based on just one social group as my music magazine is about different types on genres within the music industry. The main social groups my magazine is aiming to draw in is Indie as I have articles about artist such as Ed Sheeran. I also aim to hook the social group rockers because my magazine includes ‘The rolling stones’ and ‘Nine inch nails’. My magazine also includes pop music including artist such as ‘Katy Perry’ and ‘Rihanna’.My magazine includes stories which bring two artist’s together such as the latest story which has been in the news about Katy Perry getting help off Rihanna with her recent marriage split with Russell Brand. http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2012/01/katy-perry-leaning-rihanna-over-russell-brand-split

In my magazine I also have articles bring two social groups together for example in the news recently Ed Sheeran who is within the Indie social group has teamed up with P. Money who is within the gangster social group to produce the song ‘The A Team’ which has recently been in the top 10. This story is bringing two types of social groups together.www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTubr6nCYo8

IndieIndie people tend to wear clothing such as then trainers vans and skinny jeans. The music they tend to be into is people such as Ed Sheeran, Maroon 5, The wombats, The killers and Kings of Leon.

Rock

People which are into rock tend to have wacky hair such as boy’s tend to either have long messy hair or Mohicans, girl’s tend to have brightly coloured hair or dreadlocks. They like to wear clothing with lots of metal studs on and like to wear long black coats. A lot of rock people like to have lots of tattoos. There are lots of different type of rock music there is Classic Rock which many of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones songs come under. There is also Indie Rock which Mark Ronson and The Zutons come under. Punk Rock which My chemical Romance and Sex Pistols come under, then there is Rock which Bon Jovi, Biffy Clyro, Bloc Party, The Clash Foo Fighters and Guns And Roses and many more come under.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

• The publisher that i would use to publish my music magazine would be IPC media. I would choose IPC media because they publish ‘NME’ and my magazine is a lot like ‘NME’. IPC media are a well known publishing company and very large because of this IPC media will have lots of advertisement options helping my magazine become bigger and popular. I know IPC media would do a good job publishing my magazine as around 27 million people in the UK read a magazine published by IPC media so I know they will do a good job.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

• My target audience would be 16-19 year olds. My magazine will hopefully attract all social groups as it is about different genres of music.

• My magazine will be for people who are interested in knowing the latest news, fashion and what's going on in celebrities life's.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

• To attract my audience i made sure i made it appealing to not just one social group i done this by having different types of articles on the front cover. I also made sure the layout was more appealing to the young audience. Using a plane background with bright text makes my front cover more eye catching to my audience. Another way i have attracted the young audience is by advertising a competition to win festival tickets this attracts people between the ages 17-19 as these are people who are more interested in going to festivals.

• Throughout my magazine the colours were persistent making my magazine more attractive.

• The text in my magazine is written to relate to the youth in the way they speak.

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

• During my time constructing my media product I have learned how to use blogger as this is something I have never used before. I found blogger very interesting and easy to use.

• I also used Photoshop which I have used previously for other work but during my time constructing my media product I have learnt new tools on Photoshop which I didn’t know I could do.

• Indesign is another software i learnt to use which i found very helpful putting my magazine together as it offered a wide range of tools to make my magazine look professional. I learnt how to transfer an image from Photoshop, resize an image and add effects to text.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the College magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression

from it to full product?

• During my time constructing my music magazine I have learnt to make it look more professional. Using a lot more photography and editing them to a professional standard using Photoshop. Comparing it with my college magazine my music magazine is more professional using the same colours throughout the magazine.

• Constructing my music magazine on InDesign I have learnt how to use more tools making my magazine more appealing.

• The fonts on my music magazine are a lot more appealing then the ones on my college magazine using www.dafont.com for my music magazine.

• I learnt how to target an audience using colours which will appeal to the youth and the language I used.

• My music magazine includes plug’s and strap lines which catch the readers eyes where as my college magazine is just a simple layout with no eye catching graphics.