1. AS Media Evaluation
1) The genre of my music magazine is R&B and I have targeted it at younger generation
ranging from 16-30 year olds. On many of the established magazine I have looked at
and am following, you would see a young black male, with very trendy clothing and
jewellery and a serious face. I followed these conventions and used a stereotypical
black male model who is wearing trendy clothing such as a ‘beanie hat’ and a
jacket, I went against the stereotype as I didn’t have him posing with a serious face
on the front page instead I made him smile a bit, however I used a picture on my
double page spread with a serious face, music magazines such as ‘kerrang’ have their
models doing more casual poses with guitars in their hands. However I made him
keep eye contact with the camera ‘angle of glaze’ as it makes the reader feel more
involved and personal. The main colours I have used are black and red throughout
the whole magazine, on the front page I used grey which is the colour of the
cardigan he has on and blue which is the same colour as his beanie. The layout of my
magazine was influenced by ‘Vibe’ magazine which was published in 2010 with T.I as
the cover. In the Vibe magazine they had T.I head covering the name of the
magazine which shows people already know the brand name, I used this and used
got my model head to cover ‘Source, by doing this it also makes the model stand out
and will attract people to read the magazine, my image is in the middle of the page
whereas many established magazine place it in the optical view, this is because when
the magazines are stacked on shelves the right side gets covered, therefore I placed
my main cover line on the left side of the page.
2) My magazine is following the very typical stereotypes with the race of the R&B
artists which is black, however I used other races in my magazine, and this widens
the audience more. My magazine represents a certain social group this is shown
through the language used, the social group I have chosen is a wide group as R&B is
a genre of music that many people, as it involved many different types of music. The
models also represents the social group my magazine is targeted at as they are part
of the same group. My magazine is aimed at both male and females as I have
included both sex models and artists, I have also included a fashion ‘Must have’
section which is in every issue this makes it available to people who may not be even
interested in music and may just want to read the fashion section. On the front page
I used many teasers this would draw the audience to read the magazine as the age
group I have aimed it at is interested in celebrity lives as it is a diversion from reality,
and is a form of surveillance.
3) My magazine would most likely be distributed my various media institutions, it
would be companies who distribute established magazines such as Vibe. Magazines
like mine and Vibe are not the type to find in a local convenient store, you would find

2. it in shops such as WHSmiths who sell a wide range of different magazines, as they
specialise in reading and office/school supplies. WHSmiths is a good distributor as
they have many stores over the UK including small shops which are based in train
station, so they would have many different groups coming in with difference
preferences.
4) My target audience is teenagers-adults, the reason I have aimed it at this is because
it is very rear to see a man in his late 40’s or 50’s reading a R&B magazine like mine,
therefore I chose to have a model who is roughly the Same age of my audience. This
would draw them to my magazine as they would want to see what is going on with
them and would act as surveillance and would be a diversion from reality. I have
used various font and sizes to attract them as it would stand out more. On my front
cover I mentioned artists song such as ‘Other Half’ and names such as ‘Rihanna’ my
target audience would understand and know what I am talking about. The mode of
address I have used is suitable for my target audience, as on my double page spread I
have used informal languages which only they would understand.
5) I attracted my audience using my cover lines by adding ‘exclusive’ in to my main
cover line, this will attract my audience as they would want to know what was said in
this interview which is exclusive. I have also used the cover line ‘DJ Khaled; proposal
was it true? This would attract a more wider range as this was the topic people were
talking about and they got to find out the truth which gives the excitement factor.
My third cover line I used is ‘Aleks tells us what we have been waiting for’ this would
be to the readers interest as they are about to find out a exclusive secret that they
have been wanting to hear. These Cover lines would make the reader want to buy
the magazine as they would be finding out 3 exclusive pieces of information and
would still have a lot more to read about such as ‘Top 50 Songs of 2013’ this would
attract a lot more readers as they would want to see what songs have been selected.
For each of my cover lines I used different colours and sizes as it would stand out
more. When placing the cover lines I used the ‘Z’ techniques to see what would be
the first thing the reader would see as this is what helps they decide what to buy.
6) Whilst constructing my music magazine I learnt that there is many different ways to
manipulate the photos, when taking the photos I discovered the best background is
the green screen and the clothing my models are wearing will not clash with the
background and would be easier when it would come to minipulatinf them and
editing the photos. Whilst I was using photoshop I realised even if the colour of the
lipsticks my model was wearing was wrong I was able to change the colour
completely this was the same for my models clothing.
7) From my preliminary task I have discovered many different techniques. I have come
a long way as the picture quality has increased, and they way I have taken the
pictures has improved. In the preliminary task I used Microsoft word to create and
edit my images which was very basic and didn’t include the main features which
were needed. In my preliminary task I didn’t follow any of the rules and guidelines

3. which made it all look very messy, in my final piece I have included thirds in to front
page, double page and contents page. In my preliminary I used very basic fonts and
didn’t change them, with my new one I downloaded my own fonts which went with
the piece of text I was writing. I was also able to create my own barcode from
scratch with Adobe Photoshop. None of my writing was aligned and straight so when
It came to printing the front page out the words got cut out, with the software I used
allowed me to place guide lines so it was all in place and straight.