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Evaluation

This document analyzes how the author's media product uses and challenges conventions of real music magazines. The author follows conventions like including a masthead and using coverlines, but challenges stereotypes with the front cover image. Female representation on the cover challenges portrayals as appealing to the "male gaze." Layout, colors, and images used also reference magazines like NME and Kerrang! while tailored for the author's target audience. The contents page maximizes images over text for engagement. Double page spreads employ large central images, pull quotes, and a mix of photos and columns of text. Page design draws from examples but adapts them. Throughout, the author considers representation of age, gender and social groups

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Evaluation By Anna Malpas
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Front cover
Masthead One example where I have followed conventions of a music magazine is by including a masthead at the top of the front page, this is to establish the name of the magazine and to make it recognizable to the audience. A masthead is what you would find in any magazine and it is the largest and boldest piece of text on the page so it grabs the audience’s attention and stands out the most. The style of my masthead was influenced by NME and Kerrang!’s. I made mine using a bold font that stands out and made it black. I followed the common convention of sticking the main cover image over the masthead to show how the audience seeing the main image is more important than them seeing the name of the magazine.
Main image The main image front cover is the most important because its what the reader usually sees first and it shows what it will feature and tells the audience the genre of the magazine. I used a medium shot of my model for my front cover looking straight at the camera making eye contact with the reader, as the two other artists are as well, as I think this engages the reader and draws them in. I used a female on the front cover of my magazine which breaks the conventions of a stereotypical rock or alternative magazine. When you see a female on a front cover of a magazine, they are normally trying to inspire female readers to be like them and be appealing to the Male Gaze, by exposing cleavage or using provocative body language or smiling and trying to entice the reader to buy the magazine. The girl on my front cover challenges this stereotype by not revealing anything but she still shows some femininity with her volumised hair. She is fully clothed and wearing a leather jacket which makes her appear edgy and fierce. Her body language is solid and straight in front of the camera and instead of enticing the reader, she seems almost threatening and challenges the audience to read the magazine.
Colour scheme For the colour scheme I have chosen to use 3 main colours: black, red and yellow. I have taken inspiration from magazines like Kerrang! and NME. These magazines show the conventional rock magazine colours and I wanted my magazine to follow the same conventions to represent the genre of my magazine. I also did not use just a plain white background, I kept my background colour grey as this was the lighting I took the main image photo in because I wanted some clashing colours, which is a convention in rock magazines. The colour scheme also reveals to the audience what type of music genre the magazine is about.
Coverlines I followed the magazine convention of using coverlines on my front cover that will help to sell my product. Coverlines give the reader hints about what is featured inside and state the essential articles so that they will know if it appeals to them or not. I also used different colours, and made the information that will grab the audience’s attention big, and placed the information below in smaller text. This gave some dimension to my magazine and was again influenced by NME and Kerrang. My mag NME Kerrang!
Banners I added a banner at the bottom of my front cover as this is a convention I have seen used in a lot of magazines. I have advertised posters and included images of which posters are inside because this might appeal to the reader and convince them to buy it. It is clearly advertised, just like the examples from NME and Kerrang. The banner can be placed at the very top, but I wanted mine at the bottom because the reader would have read everything on the page so the banner would be the last thing they see, so this can be used to sell my magazine if the reader hasn’t decided to buy it already. In my magazine survey, the majority of people said that they would subscribe to a magazine, so in my banner I advertised that you can subscribe to get it monthly, and I included the price.
Barcode I followed the convention of placing my bar code in the bottom right corner, as it is not the most important thing for the reader to see because it normally goes unnoticed when a reader is skimming over the front cover. I added this to give my magazine a professional touch because it is scanned when being sold by the retailer.
Contents
Masthead & title I followed the popular convention of putting my magazine masthead in the contents page so the audience is always aware of the brand of the magazine. I placed it in the top left corner as this is the first thing the reader sees. I chose to write “This Week” underneath it instead of “Contents” because I wanted to challenge this convention as I’ve seen it in many magazines. This is also used in NME and also Kerrang, but it is not used as the title. I chose to take inspiration from this because it emphasizes to the reader that there is something new featured in my magazine every week, and will encourage them to buy it if they see something they want to read about so they don’t miss out. I used a font for the title that is easy to read and in black so its clear to see against the white background.
Images My contents page is mainly taken up by pictures rather than text because the audience might think they are more interesting to look at. I have followed the convention of making the biggest image on the page related to the main article featured in the magazine, as this is what usually what the reader looks at first, so this will help to attract the audience. I have taken photos of artists in different angles and took them in different locations to make the page more appealing and exciting because there is variety, and this will show there are a mixture of people that are featured, not just the same kind of artist doing a photoshoot in the studio. Each image shows a certain mood, such as happy, joyful, powerful, and there is also an aspect of freedom in the outdoors photo with the nature and leaves, which ties in with music representing being free. Instruments such as guitars and drums are included in some images to emphasize that it is a music magazine, which is also used in NME magazine. This also suggests the genre of music the magazine is based on.
Layout For the layout of my contents page I decided to use a greater ratio of images to text because my audience will prefer to look at images rather than text because they will be more attracted to pictures of artists that will be featured instead of reading about them, and since my magazine is aimed at 16-25 year olds they may not want to do a lot of reading. Therefore I have followed the conventions used by NME and Kerrang of using more images than text. I stuck with the convention of using my bold masthead and the title at the top so the reader knows what the page is about. The contents page of NME uses one column on the right hand side and headers so the reader knows where to look when they want to find something specific. Kerrang! displays its contents in 4 columns on the bottom half of the page. For my magazine, I chose to use one column because it is easier to read because it goes straight down, making it easier to follow. All the contents are listed in red boxes because it immediately draws your eye to it. The text on top of it is white, making it easy to read and there are page numbers next to them so the reader can quickly skip to a page if something interests them. The main image on the page is from the exclusive interview in the magazine so this tells the audience that it is the main feature, which will attract them to read it. There are several images underneath to show the audience what else is included. Above the column of contents, I added a box with social media icons, which are very recognizable to the audience, telling them that they can follow Fuse magazine on these platforms, and I also included the magazine website where they can go for more information.
Page numbers I have used page numbers on my contents page, just as magazines like NME and Kerrang. They are placed in the corners of my images and in the contents column so they are easy to see. This is a useful convention because the reader can easily look at a number and quickly flick to a page if they want to read about something that interested them.
Double page spread
Headline My headline is at the top of the page is this is the first thing the audience is drawn to. My Headline is ‘Who’s That Girl?’ because the interview is with a breakthrough artist who isn’t too well known. This challenges the headline used in NME as it says the name of the band the article is focused on because they are well known, therefore it is used to attract people who are fans of The Vaccines. This also challenges Kerrang! which uses a quote from the article as their headline, as I placed my quotes in different places on the page.
Colour scheme With the colour scheme for my double page spread, I decided to keep it simple by using green as a staple colour and also black and white. I used black, white, yellow and red for my front cover and contents page, but I decided to switch to green for the double page to make my magazine appear more interesting. I didn’t want to use too many colours because i thought this would fit better with my target audience. I kept my background white, just like the example from NME, and I chose green and black for my text colours as they are the easiest to read. The NME magazine also keeps it simple by using minimal colour and only using blue as a staple colour to show that it is aimed at a sophisticated target audience.
Images The photos of my model for my double page were shot outdoors, which creates a free and relaxed mood with the natural surroundings. The main prop in the images is the guitar, which shows the type of music the artist creates. I used different shots and angles taking these photos, such as close ups, medium shots and long shots. My target audience is teenagers so I made sure I had a range of photos I could add to my double page to keep them interested, as they might prefer looking at images than reading the text.
Layout In a lot of magazines, I noticed that there is a bigger ratio of images to text so I used this convention while making my double page spread. I used one big main image on one half of the double page to show the musician the article is centred around. This is also done in the examples above from NME and Kerrang. On top of my main image I used a pull quote from the interview to attract the audience to read the text on the first page, as they will look at the images before reading the text. I added more pictures to the page with the text on because younger audiences would find looking at photos more appealing. The interview text is in 3 small columns as I thought this would be the neatest way to display it, and I coloured the interviewer’s questions in green, and the musicians answers in black to clearly distinguish who was saying what. I added another pull quote to the middle of the page so the interview didn’t look like one block of boring text.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Age The people I have photographed for my magazine are teens aged 16-17. The media has a huge effect on society and it influences peoples opinions and views on youths today. Media represents teenagers in a very conventional way as they are stereotyped by their personality, sex, and appearance, and a lot of the time they are portrayed in a negative way, for example, being lazy, rebellious and having low morals. However, I have challenged these stereotypes in my magazine. The girl with the guitar is a musician which shows us that she is very ambitious, which challenges the stereotype that teenagers are reckless and don’t care about setting goals for their life. She is in an outdoor setting with leaves and nature surrounding her, and the camera angle is at the side to show her looking out in front of her, which suggests a peaceful state of mind. The girl in the 2nd photo is smiling, and also has relaxed and casual body language, she is facing the camera but she is leaning to one side to show an aspect of youthfulness. This works against the stereotype of teenagers being crazy, out of control ,and rebellious characters.
Gender Images of both males and females have been used in my magazine. Females are usually portrayed stereotypically in music magazines by having to deliver society’s expectations of femininity to fit in with the theory of the Male Gaze and to want female readers to aspire to be like them. They are presented by having long styled hair, exposing skin, such as cleavage, and using provocative body language. I challenged this stereotype with one of my female models who is also on my front cover. Instead of revealing anything, she is fully clothed and wearing a leather jacket to make her appear “edgy” instead of “sexy”. Her body language is simple, she doesn’t look like she’s trying to show anything off, yet she still looks powerful. Instead of smiling, she looks quite threatening which challenges the reader to read the magazine. The male photographed is wearing casual but indie type of clothing, suggesting that he isn’t mainstream, and the type of music he is playing is indie/alternative. He is playing a guitar which shows that young males today are able to write their own songs and be successful, making them people to look up to.
What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?
IPC Media is the UK’s leading consumer magazine and digital publisher with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year and has more than 60 iconic media brands. They publish many magazines to fit a wide range of audiences, such as home and lifestyle, sporting, and beauty. It also publishes music magazines similar to mine, such as NME. NME serves an engaged audience of 16-24 year olds, and it is the longest published and most respected music weekly in the world. I think that IPC Media would be the best to distribute my magazine. Since it already distributes well know brands such as NME, so they will have already have experience and dependable consumers who may be interested in Fuse magazine. www.ipcmedia.com
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for my magazine would be similar to audiences who read: I researched the readership of these magazines to find out information about the type of people they are, for example, what hobbies they have, their average age and social class. This gave me ideas for who will be my target audience.
Target AudienceGender: My magazine would appeal to both male and female audience. Girls may be drawn to the magazine more because of the powerful female figure on the front cover, but I think it will attract anyone who wants to read about the indie/rock genre. This is reinforced by statistics shown from my research that the percentage of Kerrang! readers are 45.3% female and 54.7% are male. This tells me that both genders will enjoy Fuse magazine. Age: The age for my target audience is 16-24 year olds as my magazine uses some colour to attract the teenage audience, but isn’t overdone for the young adult audience. The model on the front cover image appears to look more mature than she is, so this will appeal to an adult audience as well as teenagers. Fuse magazine includes things a young audience would be interested in, such as news and gossip about well known bands, interviews with artists and posters because a lot of teenagers like to put posters on their walls. It also advertises social media, which is used by most people of this age. Class: My magazine is priced at £3.20 and it is released monthly so it is affordable for working class and middle class people. Hobbies/interests: My audience enjoys listening to music on iPods/phones or through medias such as Youtube and Spotify. They enjoy bands like Two Door Cinema Club, You Me at Six, Mumford & Sons, and Paramore. They like spending time with friends and going to the cinema, doing sports, and shopping. A lot of their time is spent watching films and TV shows, and finding out about new artists/bands to listen to and new shows to watch.
How did you attract/address your audience?
Images One of the ways I attracted my audience was by the use of images. The front cover image is of a teenage girl but she looks more mature due to the dark lighting used in the studio, so this appeals to an older audience. The clothes she is wearing, e.g the leather jacket has an edgy and rebellious feel to it so this would be appealing and relatable to the teenage audience. In my contents page I included pictures of people with instruments. One of the photos was from a concert, and I thought this would be appropriate for a music magazine because gigs and festivals are most popular among teenagers so this will appeal to the young audience. Since my audience are influenced by music I included an image of a teenage girl with a guitar, which suggests she writes and performs her own songs, and could inspire the reader to want to be like her.
Fonts Throughout my magazine I used fonts that are easy to read as the audience would prefer to read something if it is in a clear font. For my masthead I used a bold and clear font in black as the reader’s eye would be immediately drawn to this. The list of contents on my contents page are clearly readable against the colour of the background, I used a mix of colours because this will attract the teenage audience. The page numbers listed are clear to see so the reader can easily flick to any page if they see something they want to read about. With the interview for my double page spread, I made sure it was easy to read because there is a lot of text on that page, I also used dark colours which stands out the most against the white background.
Freebies A convention I have seen used on many magazines is a banner across the magazine advertisting free things included inside, such as posters, so I used the same idea for my magazine, and I also advertised that there are posters included on my contents page. I showed a preview of what posters are inside, so this will appeal to people that are fans of these artists. Posters would appeal most to the teenage audience because they are most likely to stick posters of bands and musicians they like on their walls.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Google Chrome is the browser I have used throughout this project. Without being able to use search engines like Google, I wouldn’t be able to complete research that I had to do when I needed to find out about magazine publishers and magazine readership. One of the websites that was an important part of this project was Slideshare. I used this to upload my PowerPoint presentations to my blog, since Blogger doesn’t support these files. It was my first time using it so I learnt how to set up an account, upload my files and embed them onto my blog using the HTML code.
Using Blogger was essential to the whole project as this is what I created my blog with to upload my magazine analysis, research, planning, final product and evalution. With everything uploaded to my blog, all my work could be viewed online to anyone. I had never created a blog, but I found Blogger easily to use as it was clear to see how to make a new post, change the titles and layout of my blog, and publish my work. Photoshop was the most important programme in this project as I wouldn’t have been able to create my magazine without it. There are similar programmes I could’ve used, such as inDesign but I thought Photoshop was the best because i’ve had a bit of previous experience with it and it gave me all the tools needed to create my magazine. I had never edited a picture on Photoshop or created such a thing like a magazine before so I learnt how to change the brightness/contrast, use the lasso tool to change the colour of something specific, the stamp tool if I wanted something to blend in, the colour picker tool to select a certain colour for something I had used elsewhere, and the text tool. I also learnt how to create a clipping mask, which was useful for resizing some of my images.
Taking photos & hardware A main part of this task was taking my own photos for my magazine, and to do this I used a DSLR camera because this allowed me to take high quality photos which are essential for my magazine to look professional. I learnt more about taking photos, and how to zoom and focus the camera, and also I learnt how to work with studio lighting. There wasn’t enough memory in my user area on the college computers to save all my large files so I had to use a memory stick to store all my work. This was much easier than emailing my work to myself, and it was handy because it meant I could transfer all my work to my home computer just by plugging it in. I used a desktop PC to do all my work at college as they included software I needed for production, like Photoshop. I used my laptop at home to catch up on work that wasn’t production.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Planning I learnt that planning is essential in a project like this and it is important for producing a good quality final product. I planned each stage up to creating my magazine so I knew which direction to take everything in. I created layout and flat plans of my magazine so I knew where I wanted to place everything in production. I changed a few of things from these plans because when I was putting everything together I could see what looked good and what didn’t. My photography planning helped me decide what kind of shots I wanted to take, e.g. Close ups, medium shots, and it let me organise things like what I wanted my models to wear, the locations, and the props. This was useful because I could get down to taking the photos straight away instead of wasting a lot of time deciding what I wanted to shoot. I did not do any planning for my College magazine so I had no idea how I wanted to structure it or what to include.
I created a Style Sheet to help me with the design of my magazine, and I planned my colour scheme and the type of fonts I wanted to use. The colour scheme planning became very helpful as I could just look at this when deciding which tones of colour worked with others. I looked at fonts online and chose the ones I thought would suit my magazine, and I got to experiment with which fonts worked well and which didn’t.
Research For the preliminary task, I already knew the audience for my college magazine would be college students which are aged 16-19 but I did no research into similar magazines or asked what things the target audience want to read about. For my project I conducted a lot of research: publisher research, reader profiles, an interview and a survey. The publisher research helped me to learn about other companies portfolios of products, and what type of markets they reach out to. I I looked at magazines similar to mine, such as NME and Kerrang! to see which conventions I should follow and what to include that would appeal to my target audience. I I created a survey using Survey Monkey and sent it out to get feedback that told me more about my audience and what I should put in my magazine to appeal to them.
Production Since my preliminary task I have improved with my skills with the photo editing software I used, Photoshop. While creating my college magazine I had little knowledge of how to use tools on Photoshop, but during the process of making magazine I have learnt how to do things such as: how to put the masthead behind the person on the front cover using the lasso tool, creating clipping masks, adding text, adding shape boxes, and being able to adjust brightness/contrast and saturation on images. Overall I believe I have progressed from the use of this software as at the beginning I wasn’t experienced with it but now I am much more confident with it, and I have been able to create a professional looking magazine using it.

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Evaluation

  • 1.
  • 2.
    In what waysdoes your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
  • 3.
  • 4.
    Masthead One example whereI have followed conventions of a music magazine is by including a masthead at the top of the front page, this is to establish the name of the magazine and to make it recognizable to the audience. A masthead is what you would find in any magazine and it is the largest and boldest piece of text on the page so it grabs the audience’s attention and stands out the most. The style of my masthead was influenced by NME and Kerrang!’s. I made mine using a bold font that stands out and made it black. I followed the common convention of sticking the main cover image over the masthead to show how the audience seeing the main image is more important than them seeing the name of the magazine.
  • 5.
    Main image The mainimage front cover is the most important because its what the reader usually sees first and it shows what it will feature and tells the audience the genre of the magazine. I used a medium shot of my model for my front cover looking straight at the camera making eye contact with the reader, as the two other artists are as well, as I think this engages the reader and draws them in. I used a female on the front cover of my magazine which breaks the conventions of a stereotypical rock or alternative magazine. When you see a female on a front cover of a magazine, they are normally trying to inspire female readers to be like them and be appealing to the Male Gaze, by exposing cleavage or using provocative body language or smiling and trying to entice the reader to buy the magazine. The girl on my front cover challenges this stereotype by not revealing anything but she still shows some femininity with her volumised hair. She is fully clothed and wearing a leather jacket which makes her appear edgy and fierce. Her body language is solid and straight in front of the camera and instead of enticing the reader, she seems almost threatening and challenges the audience to read the magazine.
  • 6.
    Colour scheme For thecolour scheme I have chosen to use 3 main colours: black, red and yellow. I have taken inspiration from magazines like Kerrang! and NME. These magazines show the conventional rock magazine colours and I wanted my magazine to follow the same conventions to represent the genre of my magazine. I also did not use just a plain white background, I kept my background colour grey as this was the lighting I took the main image photo in because I wanted some clashing colours, which is a convention in rock magazines. The colour scheme also reveals to the audience what type of music genre the magazine is about.
  • 7.
    Coverlines I followed themagazine convention of using coverlines on my front cover that will help to sell my product. Coverlines give the reader hints about what is featured inside and state the essential articles so that they will know if it appeals to them or not. I also used different colours, and made the information that will grab the audience’s attention big, and placed the information below in smaller text. This gave some dimension to my magazine and was again influenced by NME and Kerrang. My mag NME Kerrang!
  • 8.
    Banners I added abanner at the bottom of my front cover as this is a convention I have seen used in a lot of magazines. I have advertised posters and included images of which posters are inside because this might appeal to the reader and convince them to buy it. It is clearly advertised, just like the examples from NME and Kerrang. The banner can be placed at the very top, but I wanted mine at the bottom because the reader would have read everything on the page so the banner would be the last thing they see, so this can be used to sell my magazine if the reader hasn’t decided to buy it already. In my magazine survey, the majority of people said that they would subscribe to a magazine, so in my banner I advertised that you can subscribe to get it monthly, and I included the price.
  • 9.
    Barcode I followed theconvention of placing my bar code in the bottom right corner, as it is not the most important thing for the reader to see because it normally goes unnoticed when a reader is skimming over the front cover. I added this to give my magazine a professional touch because it is scanned when being sold by the retailer.
  • 10.
  • 11.
    Masthead & title Ifollowed the popular convention of putting my magazine masthead in the contents page so the audience is always aware of the brand of the magazine. I placed it in the top left corner as this is the first thing the reader sees. I chose to write “This Week” underneath it instead of “Contents” because I wanted to challenge this convention as I’ve seen it in many magazines. This is also used in NME and also Kerrang, but it is not used as the title. I chose to take inspiration from this because it emphasizes to the reader that there is something new featured in my magazine every week, and will encourage them to buy it if they see something they want to read about so they don’t miss out. I used a font for the title that is easy to read and in black so its clear to see against the white background.
  • 12.
    Images My contents pageis mainly taken up by pictures rather than text because the audience might think they are more interesting to look at. I have followed the convention of making the biggest image on the page related to the main article featured in the magazine, as this is what usually what the reader looks at first, so this will help to attract the audience. I have taken photos of artists in different angles and took them in different locations to make the page more appealing and exciting because there is variety, and this will show there are a mixture of people that are featured, not just the same kind of artist doing a photoshoot in the studio. Each image shows a certain mood, such as happy, joyful, powerful, and there is also an aspect of freedom in the outdoors photo with the nature and leaves, which ties in with music representing being free. Instruments such as guitars and drums are included in some images to emphasize that it is a music magazine, which is also used in NME magazine. This also suggests the genre of music the magazine is based on.
  • 13.
    Layout For the layoutof my contents page I decided to use a greater ratio of images to text because my audience will prefer to look at images rather than text because they will be more attracted to pictures of artists that will be featured instead of reading about them, and since my magazine is aimed at 16-25 year olds they may not want to do a lot of reading. Therefore I have followed the conventions used by NME and Kerrang of using more images than text. I stuck with the convention of using my bold masthead and the title at the top so the reader knows what the page is about. The contents page of NME uses one column on the right hand side and headers so the reader knows where to look when they want to find something specific. Kerrang! displays its contents in 4 columns on the bottom half of the page. For my magazine, I chose to use one column because it is easier to read because it goes straight down, making it easier to follow. All the contents are listed in red boxes because it immediately draws your eye to it. The text on top of it is white, making it easy to read and there are page numbers next to them so the reader can quickly skip to a page if something interests them. The main image on the page is from the exclusive interview in the magazine so this tells the audience that it is the main feature, which will attract them to read it. There are several images underneath to show the audience what else is included. Above the column of contents, I added a box with social media icons, which are very recognizable to the audience, telling them that they can follow Fuse magazine on these platforms, and I also included the magazine website where they can go for more information.
  • 14.
    Page numbers I haveused page numbers on my contents page, just as magazines like NME and Kerrang. They are placed in the corners of my images and in the contents column so they are easy to see. This is a useful convention because the reader can easily look at a number and quickly flick to a page if they want to read about something that interested them.
  • 15.
  • 16.
    Headline My headline isat the top of the page is this is the first thing the audience is drawn to. My Headline is ‘Who’s That Girl?’ because the interview is with a breakthrough artist who isn’t too well known. This challenges the headline used in NME as it says the name of the band the article is focused on because they are well known, therefore it is used to attract people who are fans of The Vaccines. This also challenges Kerrang! which uses a quote from the article as their headline, as I placed my quotes in different places on the page.
  • 17.
    Colour scheme With thecolour scheme for my double page spread, I decided to keep it simple by using green as a staple colour and also black and white. I used black, white, yellow and red for my front cover and contents page, but I decided to switch to green for the double page to make my magazine appear more interesting. I didn’t want to use too many colours because i thought this would fit better with my target audience. I kept my background white, just like the example from NME, and I chose green and black for my text colours as they are the easiest to read. The NME magazine also keeps it simple by using minimal colour and only using blue as a staple colour to show that it is aimed at a sophisticated target audience.
  • 18.
    Images The photos ofmy model for my double page were shot outdoors, which creates a free and relaxed mood with the natural surroundings. The main prop in the images is the guitar, which shows the type of music the artist creates. I used different shots and angles taking these photos, such as close ups, medium shots and long shots. My target audience is teenagers so I made sure I had a range of photos I could add to my double page to keep them interested, as they might prefer looking at images than reading the text.
  • 19.
    Layout In a lotof magazines, I noticed that there is a bigger ratio of images to text so I used this convention while making my double page spread. I used one big main image on one half of the double page to show the musician the article is centred around. This is also done in the examples above from NME and Kerrang. On top of my main image I used a pull quote from the interview to attract the audience to read the text on the first page, as they will look at the images before reading the text. I added more pictures to the page with the text on because younger audiences would find looking at photos more appealing. The interview text is in 3 small columns as I thought this would be the neatest way to display it, and I coloured the interviewer’s questions in green, and the musicians answers in black to clearly distinguish who was saying what. I added another pull quote to the middle of the page so the interview didn’t look like one block of boring text.
  • 20.
    How does yourmedia product represent particular social groups?
  • 21.
    Age The people Ihave photographed for my magazine are teens aged 16-17. The media has a huge effect on society and it influences peoples opinions and views on youths today. Media represents teenagers in a very conventional way as they are stereotyped by their personality, sex, and appearance, and a lot of the time they are portrayed in a negative way, for example, being lazy, rebellious and having low morals. However, I have challenged these stereotypes in my magazine. The girl with the guitar is a musician which shows us that she is very ambitious, which challenges the stereotype that teenagers are reckless and don’t care about setting goals for their life. She is in an outdoor setting with leaves and nature surrounding her, and the camera angle is at the side to show her looking out in front of her, which suggests a peaceful state of mind. The girl in the 2nd photo is smiling, and also has relaxed and casual body language, she is facing the camera but she is leaning to one side to show an aspect of youthfulness. This works against the stereotype of teenagers being crazy, out of control ,and rebellious characters.
  • 22.
    Gender Images of bothmales and females have been used in my magazine. Females are usually portrayed stereotypically in music magazines by having to deliver society’s expectations of femininity to fit in with the theory of the Male Gaze and to want female readers to aspire to be like them. They are presented by having long styled hair, exposing skin, such as cleavage, and using provocative body language. I challenged this stereotype with one of my female models who is also on my front cover. Instead of revealing anything, she is fully clothed and wearing a leather jacket to make her appear “edgy” instead of “sexy”. Her body language is simple, she doesn’t look like she’s trying to show anything off, yet she still looks powerful. Instead of smiling, she looks quite threatening which challenges the reader to read the magazine. The male photographed is wearing casual but indie type of clothing, suggesting that he isn’t mainstream, and the type of music he is playing is indie/alternative. He is playing a guitar which shows that young males today are able to write their own songs and be successful, making them people to look up to.
  • 23.
    What kind ofmedia institution might distribute your product and why?
  • 24.
    IPC Media isthe UK’s leading consumer magazine and digital publisher with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year and has more than 60 iconic media brands. They publish many magazines to fit a wide range of audiences, such as home and lifestyle, sporting, and beauty. It also publishes music magazines similar to mine, such as NME. NME serves an engaged audience of 16-24 year olds, and it is the longest published and most respected music weekly in the world. I think that IPC Media would be the best to distribute my magazine. Since it already distributes well know brands such as NME, so they will have already have experience and dependable consumers who may be interested in Fuse magazine. www.ipcmedia.com
  • 25.
    Who would bethe audience for your media product?
  • 26.
    The target audiencefor my magazine would be similar to audiences who read: I researched the readership of these magazines to find out information about the type of people they are, for example, what hobbies they have, their average age and social class. This gave me ideas for who will be my target audience.
  • 27.
    Target AudienceGender: My magazinewould appeal to both male and female audience. Girls may be drawn to the magazine more because of the powerful female figure on the front cover, but I think it will attract anyone who wants to read about the indie/rock genre. This is reinforced by statistics shown from my research that the percentage of Kerrang! readers are 45.3% female and 54.7% are male. This tells me that both genders will enjoy Fuse magazine. Age: The age for my target audience is 16-24 year olds as my magazine uses some colour to attract the teenage audience, but isn’t overdone for the young adult audience. The model on the front cover image appears to look more mature than she is, so this will appeal to an adult audience as well as teenagers. Fuse magazine includes things a young audience would be interested in, such as news and gossip about well known bands, interviews with artists and posters because a lot of teenagers like to put posters on their walls. It also advertises social media, which is used by most people of this age. Class: My magazine is priced at £3.20 and it is released monthly so it is affordable for working class and middle class people. Hobbies/interests: My audience enjoys listening to music on iPods/phones or through medias such as Youtube and Spotify. They enjoy bands like Two Door Cinema Club, You Me at Six, Mumford & Sons, and Paramore. They like spending time with friends and going to the cinema, doing sports, and shopping. A lot of their time is spent watching films and TV shows, and finding out about new artists/bands to listen to and new shows to watch.
  • 28.
    How did youattract/address your audience?
  • 29.
    Images One of theways I attracted my audience was by the use of images. The front cover image is of a teenage girl but she looks more mature due to the dark lighting used in the studio, so this appeals to an older audience. The clothes she is wearing, e.g the leather jacket has an edgy and rebellious feel to it so this would be appealing and relatable to the teenage audience. In my contents page I included pictures of people with instruments. One of the photos was from a concert, and I thought this would be appropriate for a music magazine because gigs and festivals are most popular among teenagers so this will appeal to the young audience. Since my audience are influenced by music I included an image of a teenage girl with a guitar, which suggests she writes and performs her own songs, and could inspire the reader to want to be like her.
  • 30.
    Fonts Throughout my magazineI used fonts that are easy to read as the audience would prefer to read something if it is in a clear font. For my masthead I used a bold and clear font in black as the reader’s eye would be immediately drawn to this. The list of contents on my contents page are clearly readable against the colour of the background, I used a mix of colours because this will attract the teenage audience. The page numbers listed are clear to see so the reader can easily flick to any page if they see something they want to read about. With the interview for my double page spread, I made sure it was easy to read because there is a lot of text on that page, I also used dark colours which stands out the most against the white background.
  • 31.
    Freebies A convention Ihave seen used on many magazines is a banner across the magazine advertisting free things included inside, such as posters, so I used the same idea for my magazine, and I also advertised that there are posters included on my contents page. I showed a preview of what posters are inside, so this will appeal to people that are fans of these artists. Posters would appeal most to the teenage audience because they are most likely to stick posters of bands and musicians they like on their walls.
  • 32.
    What have youlearnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
  • 33.
    Google Chrome isthe browser I have used throughout this project. Without being able to use search engines like Google, I wouldn’t be able to complete research that I had to do when I needed to find out about magazine publishers and magazine readership. One of the websites that was an important part of this project was Slideshare. I used this to upload my PowerPoint presentations to my blog, since Blogger doesn’t support these files. It was my first time using it so I learnt how to set up an account, upload my files and embed them onto my blog using the HTML code.
  • 34.
    Using Blogger wasessential to the whole project as this is what I created my blog with to upload my magazine analysis, research, planning, final product and evalution. With everything uploaded to my blog, all my work could be viewed online to anyone. I had never created a blog, but I found Blogger easily to use as it was clear to see how to make a new post, change the titles and layout of my blog, and publish my work. Photoshop was the most important programme in this project as I wouldn’t have been able to create my magazine without it. There are similar programmes I could’ve used, such as inDesign but I thought Photoshop was the best because i’ve had a bit of previous experience with it and it gave me all the tools needed to create my magazine. I had never edited a picture on Photoshop or created such a thing like a magazine before so I learnt how to change the brightness/contrast, use the lasso tool to change the colour of something specific, the stamp tool if I wanted something to blend in, the colour picker tool to select a certain colour for something I had used elsewhere, and the text tool. I also learnt how to create a clipping mask, which was useful for resizing some of my images.
  • 35.
    Taking photos &hardware A main part of this task was taking my own photos for my magazine, and to do this I used a DSLR camera because this allowed me to take high quality photos which are essential for my magazine to look professional. I learnt more about taking photos, and how to zoom and focus the camera, and also I learnt how to work with studio lighting. There wasn’t enough memory in my user area on the college computers to save all my large files so I had to use a memory stick to store all my work. This was much easier than emailing my work to myself, and it was handy because it meant I could transfer all my work to my home computer just by plugging it in. I used a desktop PC to do all my work at college as they included software I needed for production, like Photoshop. I used my laptop at home to catch up on work that wasn’t production.
  • 36.
    Looking back atyour preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
  • 37.
    Planning I learnt thatplanning is essential in a project like this and it is important for producing a good quality final product. I planned each stage up to creating my magazine so I knew which direction to take everything in. I created layout and flat plans of my magazine so I knew where I wanted to place everything in production. I changed a few of things from these plans because when I was putting everything together I could see what looked good and what didn’t. My photography planning helped me decide what kind of shots I wanted to take, e.g. Close ups, medium shots, and it let me organise things like what I wanted my models to wear, the locations, and the props. This was useful because I could get down to taking the photos straight away instead of wasting a lot of time deciding what I wanted to shoot. I did not do any planning for my College magazine so I had no idea how I wanted to structure it or what to include.
  • 38.
    I created aStyle Sheet to help me with the design of my magazine, and I planned my colour scheme and the type of fonts I wanted to use. The colour scheme planning became very helpful as I could just look at this when deciding which tones of colour worked with others. I looked at fonts online and chose the ones I thought would suit my magazine, and I got to experiment with which fonts worked well and which didn’t.
  • 39.
    Research For the preliminarytask, I already knew the audience for my college magazine would be college students which are aged 16-19 but I did no research into similar magazines or asked what things the target audience want to read about. For my project I conducted a lot of research: publisher research, reader profiles, an interview and a survey. The publisher research helped me to learn about other companies portfolios of products, and what type of markets they reach out to. I I looked at magazines similar to mine, such as NME and Kerrang! to see which conventions I should follow and what to include that would appeal to my target audience. I I created a survey using Survey Monkey and sent it out to get feedback that told me more about my audience and what I should put in my magazine to appeal to them.
  • 40.
    Production Since my preliminarytask I have improved with my skills with the photo editing software I used, Photoshop. While creating my college magazine I had little knowledge of how to use tools on Photoshop, but during the process of making magazine I have learnt how to do things such as: how to put the masthead behind the person on the front cover using the lasso tool, creating clipping masks, adding text, adding shape boxes, and being able to adjust brightness/contrast and saturation on images. Overall I believe I have progressed from the use of this software as at the beginning I wasn’t experienced with it but now I am much more confident with it, and I have been able to create a professional looking magazine using it.