The document summarizes a student's media studies project where they created a print music magazine. The magazine follows conventions of real music magazines, targeting 12-16 year old females. It includes a front cover, contents page, and feature article on a fictional pop girl group. The student conducted research showing pop was the most popular genre. Their magazine combines elements of lifestyle and music magazines, representing their target audience and popular music stars/celebrities. The student believes IPC Media would be a good media institution to produce and distribute the magazine due to their large reach.

1. MEDIA STUDIES AS: FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO Project Evaluation ABBIE TAYLOR

2. For my project I chose to do a print product in form of a music magazine. In this project I had to create a front cover, contents page and feature article featuring a band. This included the help from four girls to pose as a pop girl group called ‘The Revivals’.

3. Q1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS? All magazines that are in the market follow the same rules when it comes to magazine conventions. They all have to include the following: Image and logo/header Mode of address Celebrities/ famous people/ stars etc Front cover with sub headings catchy titles Contents page- bright and colourful with text grabs and images. Colour scheme ‘house style’ Feature Article- images, text and enlarged quotes Without conventions of the magazine genre it cannot become successful with making profits or even selling. Therefore I wanted to produce a music magazine with conventions of the magazine genre pop, to meet the standards and expectations of the target audience for it to become successful Example of a conventional fashion and lifestyle magazine Vogue is an international selling magazine that is very successful because it follows the typical conventions of the magazine genre.

4. I wanted to produce a unique, fresh and new music magazine, to do this I chose the genre pop. I chose this particular genre as I think it is the most popular. I found this out from previous research; Audience questionnaire- most popular genre for a new magazine was pop. Top 40uk charts had majority of pop charts. Overall, this shows that there is a missing gap for a music magazine with the genre pop as it is most popular and there are currently no magazines of this genre on the market. This gave me the perfect opportunity to produce a magazine following the conventions of a music genre. These magazines ‘Billboard’ and ‘Sugar’ are magazines with conventions that I needed to follow as they both have special features that I wanted to include. Enlarged headings and subheadings that catch the reader’s attention are used. Also both have colourful colour schemes that stand out and images using direct address that follow their individual genre. They are both very well known and successful; this shows they follow conventions of the magazine genre. Billboard is a music magazine that focuses on a genre of what ever is top in the charts whereas Sugar is a magazine for teenage girls that is based on boys, real life stories and fashion. I wanted to create a magazine that includes special features from both magazines put together in one. Examples of music magazines with conventions I needed to follow...

5. USP My magazine will be unique from the rest of the magazines that are already out on the market for music magazines as it will be creative, bright and eye catchy. After browsing through the top 40UK it clearly shows that pop is one of the main biggest interests in types of music and is lacking this type of music magazine for a certain age. My music magazine will feature a front cover, contents page and double page spread. I will base my target audience on an age of 12-16 years old. My unique selling point was to combine a fashion/lifestyle magazine and a music magazine together for a female teenager audience. This is certainly different as there is no other magazine similar to this on the market. Although this keeps to the conventions of a magazine with music genre. It will include the latest music charts, fashion, real life stories and based on a girl teenage target audience that all include conventions of the magazine genre. Fashion Celebrity Gossip Music Girl teenage audience + + +

6. HOW MY MUSIC MAGAZINE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS FRONT COVER MY MUSIC MAGAZINE TYPICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE (SUGAR ) Straplines Big catchy title, stands out. Medium close-up, direct address. Both female pop group icons. Sub titles, coloured fonts. Barcode and price of magazine. Busy layout, attention grabbing colour schemes. Female dominated, developing music magazines that do not have pop magazines on the market

7. CONTENTS PAGE MY MUSIC MAGAZINE TYPICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE (NME) Subtitles and text grabbing the readers attention Variety of images and bright colours that stand out. Competitions and offers to attract more readers Editors letter, appeals more to the female population, Informal text drawing specific attention to certain articles. Fun colourful shapes to make it more appealing to younger readers. Although my music magazine is based on a pop genre and the other typical music magazine (NME) is genre of rock they do have similar conventions. There are no other pop music magazines to compare for my magazine, which makes it very different and unique. Main image and focus point that attracts the readers attention. Numbers to make it easier to follow page numbers and to attract main articles

8. MY MUSIC MAGAZINE TYPICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE FEATURE ARTICLE Pop group name, bold, stands out from the rest, different font, eye catchy. One main exclusive enlarged image- draws attention. Develops the convention a typical music magazine as it has more text than images. This may be because the font is bigger making it easier for the younger age group to read it is also interesting, more to read about, fun and different to a normal magazine making it better for younger ages as well. Colour themed, different use of fonts and colours. Coloured background

9. AUDIENCE FEEDBACK After I had finished producing my final product I wanted to create a questionnaire to find out research on whether my choices and different genre worked efficiently for my audience. I asked my target audience specific questions to find out whether my music magazine would also be successful in selling. I asked 10 people from my target audience what was the specific genre of my music magazine and whether I had met the conventions of a music magazine with a pop genre. 8- POP 1- ROCK 1- INDIE

10. Q2. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS? Social groups are often portrayed as stereotypes through any type of media. In my magazine I represent two main particular social groups: Music stars/ celebrities Young females The group that my music magazine mainly represents are pop girls that are interested in fashion. Overall I believe the stereotypes I have chosen are associated with the music industry. Pop girls are often stereotyped as the type of young, fun, and happy sort of people. They are interested in fashion, follow the latest trends, their up to date with all the latest music and know all gossip there is to know.

11. MUSIC STARS/ CELEBRITIES My front cover of my music magazine features a enlarged medium close-up image of a female four girl pop group that I made up named ‘The Revivals’. Details that specifically construct the idea of a pop group representation: Costume The four girls have their own unique outfit that fits their personality. Hayley- Wearing black and white dress accompanied by high black heels. The cute one out of the group she will be looked at as the fashion icon. Jess- Wearing black leather skirt and blouse. Patterned tights and black high shoes will also be worn. Accessories will be earings and a bracelet. Jess is the loud character and also the lead singer. Danielle- Wearing short playsuit with short ankle socks and heels. The funny one who is always laughing. Vicc- She will be wearing white/black floaty dress with knee high length socks and high heels. The pretty one.

12. Appearance The members of the girl pop band all have make up done and look like celebrities that follows the pop group representation. Their pose on the front cover image shows they are posed in that position and look like fashion icons that many girls will look up to! This is good as most celebrities are posed on front covers which shows their following the pop group representation. For example, the spice girls. Speech For my double page spread I made questions up to ask the four girls. There speech were informal which made the interview appropriate for my target audience to read. Their answers given were chatty and lively which will appeal to my target audience to make them want to read it.

13. YOUNG FEMALES Throughout my front cover, double page spread and contents page I have tried to make it appropriate for my target audience and representation of young females. Brightly coloured themed. Interesting information about boys and fashion that represent you females. Enlarged image, less text to read. Represents young females as they prefer to look more at images than text

14. Weekly competitions to get the readers involved and give them chance to take part is special events or win prizes. Represent young females as they would be interested in this. I believe that in my magazine I have represented young females as it is aimed at things they like. E.g. fashion, boys, celebrities and music. The bright colours and images represent young females as it is very female dominated using girlie colours e.g. pink and images of girls. Fancy fonts and enlarged text making it clearer and easier to read. Love heart shapes and pretty colours are used to appeal to the young female audience.

15. Q3. WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY? A media institution is an established, often-profit based organization, that deal in the creation and distribution of advertising, entertainment and information services. A magazine has to be supported by a media institution in order to be successful. A media institution helps produce and distribute copies of the magazine. Here are some examples of media institutions.

16. IPC Media produces over 60 iconic media brands, with print alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men – almost 26 million UK adults. I think that IPC would be the best option to produce and distribute my music magazine because they already produce well known products for example, NME music magazine. I believe they would be interested in a pop music magazine as it would be a very popular product but also different from what they do already which would interest them. It would become as big as some of the leading magazines today because of its uniqueness and different from what's being produced today. However, i have not chosen EMAP because I do not feel they would produce and distribute my product of a pop genre music magazine as well as IPC could.

17. Q4. WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT? After researching a lot into target audiences and their preferences, I have come to conclusion of what age to base my music magazine on. A lot of my important research has come from my questionnaire i did previously. Audience questionnaire and identifying target audience I produced a questionnaire asking six questions to seven different people to find out further research to help produce my music magazine. 1. Are you male or female? Male: Female: ||||||| 2. What age are you? 14:||| 15:| 16:||| 17: 3.How much do you usually spend on a music magazine? I dont buy them: ||| £1-£2:|| £2-£4:| £4-£6:|

18. 4. What type of music genre do you like best? pop: |||| indie: rock:| r&b:|| 5. What attracts you to buy a magazine? bright colours:|| celebs:||| music: fashion: music & fashion:|| 6. Does direct address make the magazine front cover appeal more to you? yes:||||||| no: My researched showed that from all seven females aged from 14-16 years old their interested in more pop genre but a lot do not buy music magazines. This suggests that they do not buy music magazines because there is nothing to buy for them in the pop genre. Question 5 'what attracts you to buy a magazine' had a few popular answers for example, bright colours, celebrities and music& fashion. This research has made me come to the conclusion that i will create my music magazine to be bright and colourful with a use of music and fashion as well. Direct address was the most common answer, therefore i will use direct address on the front cover of my music magazine. This questionnaire has helped me to establish my target audience and produce the best for my music magazine.

19. Demographic Profiling: For my target audience i have placed them in two C bands, C1 and C2. To put my target audience into demographic profiling i have to chose a band. I have chosen C band because the SEC will most probably depend on the readers parents as most of the buyers are too young, students or do not have jobs. Therefore depend on parents which is why i chose C band. Although if some of the readers are employed they will most likely to be in segment D, but the majority of the readers this may not apply to them. Psychographic Profiling: I have decided that the audience for my magazines are a mixture of Aspirers and Mainstreamers because research has proven that the genre pop is the most popular. This suggests that some will buy well known brand names and others will follow the trend buying high brand names to achieve a status and maintain popularity. G ender: Female R ace: All races A g e: 12-16 SEC ( S ocio Economic S tatus): Student

20. Q5. How did you attract/ address your audience? I chose the title LOUD for my magazine because it represent some connotations from the word music. It stands out, and is short and sweet memorable title. The font helps to create it to look 3 dimensional like its popping out. Its big, bright and colourful making it appeal to young audience which shows it will be successful. The key image on the front cover is enlarged and fits most of the front cover. The pose features four girls all smiling close together showing a close relationship and friendly atmosphere making the photograph look professional. It is a medium close-up and uses direct address. Their hair, make-up, and outfits all look professional creating a band image that attracts the audience. He use of storylines have shapes to stand out more for example, hearts and circles. Celebrity gossip is used to interest the target audience. Feature articles, exclusive pictures and popular artists are featured on the front page to encourage the readers to buy and want to read inside. Starring the girl band ‘The Revivals’ using outlines, text boxes, fonts, and colour themes to appeal to the female audience.

21. The editors letter on the contents page uses informal language and a tone to appeal to a younger audience. It makes the letter interesting to read using not too much writing to bore the reader. Enlarged subtitle, with fancy font and two bright colours, draws attention to the text and attracts the audience. Bring colours, stands out and catches the audiences eye. Feature articles that will interest the reader. Images used to make the page look more eye catchy and interesting. Large image to brighten the page up and support main article.

22. Headline in a funky font emphasising on the pop genre with a fuchsia pink colour appealing to a female audience. Brightened image of the girl pop group. Using direct address the four girls pose in the image that has been edited and cropped. The background has been erased for it to look professional. The image has been lightened to stand out more. The article itself has a total of ten questions. Informal language is used to make the article fun to read for the specific target audience. Coloured theme is used of pink, black and grey, this is to create is simple but stylish. The page is kept to a simple layout using text that is easy to read without using to much and just one enlarged image that relates to the article making it attract the target audience.

23. Ideologies I feel that my product represents celebrities positively. The audience will respond to these and see them as icons to aspire up to. The images and article show their lifestyle is fun and the girls themselves are down to earth, intelligent and dedicated to their career in pop music.

24. Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? I have used different technology and software to help me with my research and produce my product throughout the whole project. Research and planning During my research and planning I have used the following: Internet- I used the internet a lot in my research planning and production! The main advantage is that it is very fast and easy to find specific research you are looking for. I found a lot more useful websites through the internet. Magazines- I bought a music magazine and young girls fashion magazine to combine specific features from both to combine them and change them to make them different to help me find out what would be needed to make my product. Blogger- I used this to keep track and up to date with my blog. This was a very efficient and helpful source as I could edit up load and look back on my work. It helped me to produce organised, well presented work with clear writing and a use of images. Google During production I have used the following: Camera Internet Lighting Studio Indesign Photoshop Dafont Microsoft word USB

25. Evaluation I used different technology such as printer, questionnaires to hand out to people, camera, USB and photocopier to help produce research for my planning. For example I used the printer to produce questionnaires for people to fill in. I used the USB to move photos from my camera to the computer to upload them produce my product. Technology has been a very efficient and very reliable, useful source that has helped me through out my planning research and production.

26. Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? As you can see, there is a massive difference from when I first began learning to use the software and attempting to create a front cover of a school magazine to creating my front cover for my music magazine. Although, I made my preliminary task very quickly in a short period of time I did not know how to use the tools in Photoshop and Indesign to create a better one. Overall, you can see I have learnt a lot through out the progression of my project, I have learnt many new skills and developed my knowledge in many ways. Fonts and text boxes have been developed to look more professional Photography and use of lighting has changed completely Colour themes and fonts have made big progression as I developed skills to produce a better quality The logo in this front cover is very dull, boring Front cover is boring, not interesting and plain colours Looks more professional, more fun and interesting to read for my target audience.

27. Conclusion Overall, I believe my final product has been produced to the best of my ability and I am happy with it. At the start of creating it I worried I would not be able to produce a successful product but through the progression I learnt new skills and developed my knowledge quite a lot. Strengths during my product are that I have gained skills in working with Indesign and Photoshop. I have learnt how to edit, crop and airbrush photos in Photoshop. I have learnt how to create different features on my front cover, contents page and feature article to make it a better quality using fonts, text boxes and help to keep to coloured theme through out my pages. The different images on each page use direct address and have been edited to look like photographs out of your typical magazines. I tried to make the product appeal to my target audience as much as possible using features that will appeal to them for example, bright colours, heart shapes and girl dominated images. I am pleased with how my contents page turned out, and feel it appeals to my female target audience using storylines that would appeal to them. I am glad my magazine feature article turned out as good as I hoped, I feel it is fun, interesting page to read. I also feel that the genre of pop was well shown throughout each page In some way or other. If I could change anything within producing my music magazine I would try and use my time more efficiently.