The document discusses how the media product, a music magazine, represents particular social groups through its imagery and content. Images used throughout the magazine depict musicians and fans from various backgrounds to appeal to a wide audience. Teenagers and young adults are the main target demographic since they are interested in new artists. Both male and female musicians are featured to avoid an exclusively gendered appeal. The magazine aims to distribute through IPC Media, a large publisher with experience in the music magazine genre through titles like NME. IPC's wide reach would help the new magazine succeed while bringing both advantages and disadvantages to the publisher.

1. MEDIA STUDIES EVALUATION
part 1
BY GEORGE HOWARD

2. “In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?”

3. Colour scheme
“Black and white colour scheme, but with bits of red like
NME/Uncut/Rolling Stone, the covers I have looked at. The
colour would change depending on the main artist – because
of Will‟s jumper being red, I have included hints of red in the
black and white colour scheme. This is similar to the way
NME adapt the colours of their front covers to fit within a set
colour scheme for that issue alone.”

4. Mastheads
“I have used a masthead to show the title of the magazine on
the front cover at the top of the page. This fits within the
conventions of the music magazine because all of the
magazines I studied have the title of the magazine in this
position. I have put the masthead in a clear space, above the
picture on the front cover, and I have not crowded this area
with other information. This positioning of the masthead is
traditional throughout most magazines, not just the style of
magazine I am producing, so it definitely seems to be the
obvious place for a masthead, for all styles of magazine.”

5. Consistent layout
“As I mentioned before, I picture the magazine‟s colour scheme
changing slightly with each issue, to fit with the style of the
main artist featured that week. However within each issue I
would be trying to stick to this artist-specific colour scheme
and layout in a consistent manner, as I think too many
colours or design styles can confuse the audience, and this
would lead to different pages jarring presentation-wise when
looked at as a whole product. While each page has a slightly
different style, the colours of black, white and red are used
on my front cover, contents page and double page spread.”
(Right) The colour scheme is
obviously very distinctly
black, white and red, with the red
being the „colour of the week‟ so to
speak. Originally I intended to only
use black and white, but this made
the magazine‟s pages look boring.
(Above) Despite the differences in colour schemes to fit with the
artists, there are consistencies throughout, for example the colour of
the masthead, the red and yellow colour scheme etc.

6. Detailing the contents page
“I have tried to make my contents page more realistic by
including pictures of many different people, instead of only
using the artist my article was about. I also tried to give my
contents page depth by listing a full magazine‟s worth of
content. Even though I was only going to be developing a
double page spread, not the whole magazine, I wanted the
contents page to feel real so I felt that the best way to do this
was to fill the page with features, articles, and page numbers.”
The contents pages on the
left are from real
magazines, so they gave me a
good idea of how to begin
creating my contents page.
The aim of a contents page is
to provide a guide for readers
wanting to know what the
magazine holds. I have
explained the contents of
almost every page in my
magazine, for added depth.
The contents page on the
right is from my magazine.

7. “How does your media product represent
particular social groups?”

8. Clothing
“The clothing worn by Will in the pictures of him will appeal to a
certain audience; it is a branded hoodie which obviously will
not appeal to lower class people as brands and fashion are
normally worn by either middle class or upper class people.
The clothes that someone wears also gives an idea of their
interests, albeit a limited idea, so people may be able to relate
to the sort of person Will is by looking at what he wears.”
Gothic, scary Bandanna, jeweller
clothing has y, and a shaved
connotations head suggests that
to rock/ heavy Eminem is a hip-
metal music hop artist
Branded clothing – higher class
Longer hair than average – Indie musician
Hoodie – A relaxed sort of person

9. Ethnicity of target audience
“The indie music is primarily made by white musicians, as
evidenced by simply looking at the popular musicians within
the genre. By using a white male on the front cover I have
stuck to featuring pictures of people within the social groups
that I think will be interested in reading my magazine.”

10. Age of musicians in the magazine
“I have used pictures throughout my magazine of
teenagers/young adults because this seems to be the
common age of most upcoming musicians, and also
teenagers and young adults are my target market, because
they will probably find interest in reading about the
upcoming artists of their generation.”
My image

11. Gender
“I have included pictures of both males and females so that the
magazine will not be exclusively appealing only to male
readers, although male musicians are a lot more common
within the genre my magazine aims for, so I have used
mainly images of teenage boys.”
My images
Magazines will
feature artists like
Bjork to avoid having
gender specific
appeal

12. Range of styles
“Will is wearing a hoodie and jeans in the pictures of him on the
front cover, contents page and double page spread, which is a
relaxed style, whereas other teenagers are wearing shirts and
jumpers. In one image a boy is wearing a t-shirt, and the girl
in the contents page is wearing a shirt and a cardigan. I think
all of these images reflect different styles to the rest, as I want
this magazine to not only appeal to people who follow a
certain style of clothing, but people who are interested in a
wide range of music, which is why I needed to show a wide
range of people in the pictures.”
On the left:
Hoodie, photo
shoot
setting, clean
polished look
On the right:
urban
setting, naturalis
tic pose, grainier
image

13. “What kind of media institution might distribute
your media product and why?”

14. About the publisher
“I think that IPC Media would be a good media institution to
distribute my product, because they are a large company that
boast very impressive figures – over 60 media brands and
sales of over 350 million magazines every year, reaching
almost 26 million UK adults and with websites that get
viewed by more than 20 million users every month. These
figures suggest that IPC Media is a successful and
professional media institution, who would greatly support
the magazine and it‟s successful production.”

15. Range of magazines
“IPC Media publishes a wide range of magazines of every
type, from photography to kitchenware to cycling, so I think
they would definitely be open to the idea of adding another
magazine to their already expansive range of products. Also it
seems apparent from the excessive amount of magazines IPC
Media publishes that they are a very popular and
professional distributor. I think my magazine would
definitely benefit from this sort of professionalism because to
introduce another music magazine into the world may seem
unnecessary to some people, but with IPC Media publishing
the magazine I think the audience will be open to the idea.”
IPC Media boasts an
impressive range of
publisher credits
across many types of
magazine

16. Target audience
“IPC Media already publishes NME, so they already have
impressive credentials in the music magazine department.
NME has a similar target market to my magazine, but my
magazine is more of a mature and better magazine that
will, if anything, attract more people than NME because of its
more universal style. If IPC Media were to distribute my
magazine I would be very grateful to have a publisher that
obviously knows how to reach out to the target audience I
want to appeal to.”
The
cool, unassuming, unpr
etentious target
audience of my music
magazine

17. Advantages and disadvantages for me
“The advantages that would come with IPC Media for me are
obvious, as they are a large company capable of distributing
to a wide target audience. The disadvantages would maybe be
that, with the company already having one music magazine
(NME), they might not put their full attention into promoting
my magazine. Another downside may be the comparison
people may draw between my magazine and NME, because I
would not want anyone to think the magazines were anything
like each other, despite the apparent similarities at a glance.”
NME‟s
audience The sort of
intelligent
adult who
would read
my magazine

18. Advantages and disadvantages for the publisher
“The advantage of having another music magazine to publish
would be that IPC Media are already knowledgeable on how
to market a music magazine, as evidenced by the success of
NME. The disadvantage would be that the two magazines
would probably be in competition against each other, so it
may seem like a bad idea to have two music magazines being
distributed by the same publisher. However as IPC Media
would be making the same amount of money whichever
magazine it was from, it may be in their interest to publish
my magazine if only to keep it away from other publishers
who might make money from it.”

19. “Who would be the audience for your media
product?”

20. MEDIA STUDIES EVALUATION
END OF PART 1