This document evaluates a music magazine that was created. [1] The magazine effectively used conventions from real music magazines through secondary research and a consistent color scheme, layout, and model. [2] The magazine represents teenagers aged 16-19, mainly females, through its R&B/pop focused content. [3] IPC would be a suitable media institution to distribute the magazine since it currently handles NME, targeting a similar audience. The magazine's audience is teenagers, especially girls, and it aims to attract through colorful visuals, pictures, and an easy-to-read layout.
1. Evaluation
1. In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
music magazines?
I think my magazine was very much like the real music magazines that are currently in the market
as I did a lot of secondary research into magazines using, internet, questionnaires ect. So got a good
insight into what types of fonts, images, themes and layouts used in current magazines, I used a set
colour scheme to my magazine consisting of pink, black and white, I think this work well as it was
eye catching and nice to look out as all worked well together, this all linked in to the mise-en-scene,
including my images where I used plain backgrounds for some and busy of others to create a more
exciting effect which some magazine do but some I looked at didn’t so I will challenging them by
changing this in my magazine, the costumes I used on my model were linked to show what kind of
character I wanted her to come across as and the colour of clothing was used to link into the theme
of the magazine, I used the same model in all pictures as I made the whole magazine be based on
the new artist, I don't think I challenged the convent of the real music magazines very much, as I
linked and based a lot of my magazine on what real magazine were currently doing, but I think
overall my magazine worked well.
2. How does your music magazine represent particular social groups?
I think my music magazine would represent people how are into more of the r&b pop kind of music
as if features parts and articles about artists of this genre, so the artist I created I aimed to make as a
r&b sort of performer to link with the theme of the magazine, I think my magazine would be most
popular with teenagers from the ages of 16-19 year old, and mainly females I think from the stuff I
have featured and the colour schemes, lighting, images I have used.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your music magazine and why?
I think IPC would be a good music institution for me to use as it currently distributes NME
magazine which is a top magazine and is going very well also it linked to the kind of magazine I
had made, so the reader of NME would hopefully try out my magazine as it would be linked to a
well know brand they are already familiar with as my target audience are the same as the people
NME will be targeting, so would link well, so I think this would definitely be my choice of
distributor, I would not use EMPA, as they specialise in more of the home wear and middle- aged
women's magazines, so my music magazine would not link into this type of institution, I would just
pick IPC as it has years of experience in dealing with my type of magazine so would know the best
methods of promotion and how to keep my magazine up and running with the target audience and
fashions, this would be a great institution to have as my music magazine distributor.
4. Who would be the audience for your music magazine?
Teenagers will be the core buyers of my magazine as I have aimed it for their type of age group,
mostly girls will buy my magazine i think as it is quite i girly theme so may but boys off but this is
just this issue and if i carried on to make more i would create it so that it was a mixture of what the
male and female audiences are looking for in a music magazine so that i could enhance my sales.
2. From my research i found out that people mainly picked to buy a magazine once a weeks, so i
would use this as a basis to as to when i will make new issues and how often i would send them out
the distributors and what will be the best time to get maximum sells, and for teens to buy my
magazine. I think the socio-economic group that my magazine will fall into would be the D
section as they will be young teens so only just learning skills ect. I think that the
Psychographic profiling it would fit into would be..• Explorer: Someone desiring discovery,
challenge and new experiences, as they are young and looking for the latest fashions, gigs,
artists, and new music, so my target audience would fit into this context.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
I used a big colourful title to catch the eye of the audience and draw them in, i also used bright
grabbing pictures which people would want to look at more closely, i used bright colours
throughout and big bold fonts, with a easy to read and understand layout, i choose to use all
of this so that it looks inviting and interesting and so that my audience would want to pick up
and read my magazine.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this
product?
In my magazine i used, digital cameras, in design, blogger, slide share, Photoshop and PowerPoint, i
think they were all really useful in helping me to complete my magazine, they were all pretty easy
to use, indesign and Photoshop being the harder ones as they was a lot to remember and do on them,
but they help loads to create a great look, i used indesign to make my front cover, and then
Photoshop to edit my photos and make them more appealing and eye-catching, blogger and slide
share were very easy to use and were a great help as i could always keep on top of what i had done
and all my work was kept well together and was not lost. I think it was a good way to gain
experience in all these programmes and so i will be able to use them in the future, i think all these
programmes were good in helping me create my magazine and i know have experience for further
use in the future.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progres-
sion from it to the full product?
3. From this task a have gained a wide insight into the media institutions and distributors, the way in
which they work and how they decide how to create there magazines and what people currently
want, i found out how much research they would have to put into doing this and how long it could
take to create the perfect magazine that everyone would want to read and would get the most sales
from the public from meeting their needs and wants. I also have learnt how to use in design and
Photoshop a lot better so that I can continue to use these programmes in my further work and tasks.
I have learnt how to link pictures in with my theme and what i wanted to create, using all of the
mise-en-scene, to create an appropriate image to use in my magazine i cropped and changed so that
they would fit into the theme and the image i was trying to create for the magazine; overall I think
this all helped me a lot and will help me with further task in the future.