The document describes a student's music magazine project. The student created the magazine independently, taking all photographs and editing them for inclusion. The target audience was females aged 15+ and the magazine focused on chart music. Inspiration was drawn from Q Magazine for its similar genre and conventions like prominent cover photos. The contents page included competitions, photos and an editor's letter to engage readers. A feature article on a band splitting up used bright photos, subheadings and questions to grab attention. The student learned new skills in photography, editing and desktop publishing software to create the magazine.

1. IntroductionThe aim of my project was to create a music magazine, I created this magazine on my own. All of the photographs used were taken by me and then edited and put into the appropriate places in the magazine article, front cover or contents page

2. How is it like a real magazine?The genre of my magazine was chart music. I tried to focus on a mixture of music to make it more appealing to a wider audience, such as Females aged 15+, this would mean that my magazine would be making more sales as it is bought and read by a larger selective audience. On my front cover I used conventions such as a masthead and text grabs, these would make the audience want to read the magazine as they sound appealing and invitingI decided to use Q magazine as my inspiration for my magazine content, this is because its has a similar music genre and is widely available to buy, it is a very successful magazine which is what I would have wanted my magazine to be like. It uses conventions such as a photograph that stands out, I think the photos that my magazine and Q uses are very similar. The main story’s on the cover are stood out in a bold and different colour which means this would be what the audience instantly see

3. In my contents page I put a competition on the back page, this would encourage the reader to read through the entire magazine to get to that particular page. I also included lots of pictures to make it look fun and interesting, such as the image on the bottom right corner of the page. The page contains an editors letter which would add some informality to the magazine and would make the reader feel as though they know the editor and it makes them sound like they are your average everyday person. The editors letter makes the page more informal and friendlyThis photo adds a more interesting aspect to the page

4. Main photograph which would grab the audiences attention‘’Headlining Act’’ is a pun as it makes the magazine sound like a concert and the headlining act is the main articleImages make the page look more interactive and exciting than just simple textContents to briefly inform and interest the readerA special in the magazine on oasis which is a very popular band would mean that more people would buy this months issueAn editors letter would add some informality to the page, making the reader feel as though they are friends with them

5. In my feature article I used a subheading in a different and brighter colour to make it stand out a lot more on the page and this way they reader would be getting a brief summary of the article, this means that the reader can get an understanding of the story they are going to be reading about and it could mean that they are more likely to read on if it is persuading enough. The main thing that stands out on the page is my photograph, I think that it makes the page look very professional as it uses very vibrant colours in her clothes and the settings on the camera were set so that bright colours are brought out more on the picture. The aim of this means that the reader will look directly to the picture and seehow casual and relaxed she looks, this would create a more relaxed view on the article. As this takes up a half of the page it makes the article look like it has less writing which would be more appealing to the target audience. I used ‘’The Perfect Split?’’ as my heading because it is a very good play on words, the band were called imperfection and it is like the title is saying that the split could actually be a good thing, this sounds catchy and would stick in the readers heads.

6. A pun as a headline makes it catchy and can also have a meaning to itThis photograph brings out colour on the page which makes it look brighter and fullerThe subheading means that the reader can get a brief understanding of the story before they start to read The questions are kept brief and straight to the point to prevent the article getting off the subject matterText grabs get the readers attention instantly

7. How does it re-present/constructparticular social groups?The social group I have tried to represent is the young female celebrity. On the cover I used a medium close up shot of her, this means that the main focus is on her facial expression. She is wearing sunglasses which could be stereotypical to this type of group as celebrities are almost always pictured naturally in a magazine walking down the street with a pair of sunglasses on. As you can see the images are similarIn the feature article I dressed my model in bright clothes, this would make the page look very bright and colourful, I also chose to put some pink into her outfit because then this would match up with the subheading. I edited the photo so then it looked bright and then it would stand out on the entire page. I think the image creates a positive role model for the target audience to look up to, the colours could be a representation of her character and personality which could also be bright, cheerful and colourful. She has been constructed to look like a good person who would be ideal for people to look up to.On the content page I photographed my model with a guitar. This prop is appropriate to the magazine because it is musical, it also makes her look rockish which would make the photograph look good on the page as it relates to the style of magazine.

8. Who would publish it?Bauer media group would be a potential company to publish my magazine because they have also published Q magazine which is a similar one to mine. The company also publish Kerrang magazine which is a rock magazine, however this magazine is aimed at mainly males which is not the main aim of my magazine. I think the company would want to publish my magazine because it is different to other ones and this would mean that it has a wider audience to appeal to because it is aimed at females. There also aren’t many music magazines that are aimed specifically at females so this would be a unique selling point for them.

9. Audience profiling theoriesThe target audience of my magazine is female teenagers aged 14-18. The reader would need to have a particular interest in music especially music that is in the charts at that time. After looking at my audience feedback it has gained a lot of positive comments on the questions, there are some criticism but these can be used to improve the magazine even further.This is a good audience to target because females have a particular interest in reading magazines and finding out all the latest celebrity gossip in the music world, ‘’it suggests this magazine is about interviews and gossip between music artists’’On the left is a pie chart to show the results from a question in my audience feedback, this could help me to improve the magazine to appeal to the target audience even further as the questionnaire was completed by them

10. How did I attract the audience?I used particular colours in the magazine that would be appealing to females such as the colour pink and baby blue colours. The title would be appealing to my target audience because it is called ‘backstage’ it makes it sound like the magazine is going to be about gossip behind the scenes that other magazines wouldn’t be writing about, this makes the reader more likely to want to open the magazine and then buy it.The storyline would attract the audience because it is the only interview that the artist is doing so they would want to see what they are going to be doing with their future and how they have reacted to the split up. The article isn’t too long and this means that it looks better to ready because the reader would think it is quick to the point with all very relevant questions.

11. What have I learnt?During this piece of coursework I have learnt many new skills which include editing and taking photographs, and also learning how to use the DTP software (Adobe InDesign).Before I started this coursework I didn’t know how to use Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, this is mainly because I have never created anything like this before but now I have learnt the necessary skills in producing a magazine front cover, contents page and feature article.I have learnt new terminology whilst doing this coursework which is appropriate to the software I have been using and also the conventions of a magazine which is very important so then I can establish why my magazine has been effective in the target audience.I also learnt how to use the website www.blogger.com which is where I posted all my information about how I created my magazine and then an update on every step I did. This has acted as an online diary which is useful to look back at and see how I progressed.

12. How much have I progressed?Looking back at my preliminary task I think I have progressed a lot. The front cover has a lot more conventions in it such as text grabs, this makes it look a lot less boring than my preliminary task. The photograph has been captured in a more professional way which shows more progression. The colours that have been used are appropriate to the audience and genre of music which mean it all links in to each other quite well.The image is more interesting on the cover of my music magazine because it looks like it has been taken professionally whereas my photograph on my preliminary task has been taken like a general photograph and the editing it very obvious which make it look very unnatural whereas on the music magazine cover I did very little editing on it to make it look like a natural photograph.

13. ConclusionOverall I think my magazine has turned out very well and positive. I am please with my finished result I think it has been created to look just the way I wanted it too. Some strengths of my magazine are my photographs I think these are the main strengths as they are taken very professionally and this makes the magazine look very authentic and genuine. I think if the photographs were to be taken unprofessionally then it would make the magazine look very bad.Another strength is my article, I think it is very quick to the point which means that when people read it they aren't getting bored half way through and the questions are all very interesting and revealing which means that the reader would think they are reading about things that they shouldn’t necessarily know about.A weakness of my magazine is the brightness of the cover, I think if I were too re-draft it and change anything about the cover, I would have brightened up the photograph a little bit more to make it look bright and exciting, I think it can make the magazine cover seem a bit dull.