The document discusses a student's AS media coursework where they created a magazine targeted towards 35-45 year old middle class men interested in classical rock music. The student analyzed conventions of real classical rock magazines and both followed and challenged conventions in the design of their magazine's front cover, contents page, and double page spread layout, images, and stylistic elements. They also represented the target audience and discussed how a company like Bauer Media or IPC Media may be suited to distribute a magazine like theirs.

1. Rabbeah Ahmed AS Media Coursework For my AS Media Studies coursework I chose to create a magazine with the genre Classical Rock. After careful thought and research into Classical Rock magazines I decided to target my magazine towards 35 to 45 year old Middle classed men.

3. Conventions of a Front Cover Masthead: This masthead is bold and unique which makes it stand out. This magazine also illustrates what the genre of the magazine is. Classic Rock’s masthead is always situated at the top of the page and in the centre. Eyebrows : Classic Rock magazine normally has an eyebrow on top of the masthead. Central Image: This is always in the middle of the page . The person in the image is always facing the camera. Cover Line : As this is a special edition that came from a cardboard package, there is only one cover line. Barcode: Every magazine has this somewhere on their front cover. In this magazine the barcode is at the bottom of the front cover.

4. Masthead: Just like Classic Rock magazine my front cover has an eyebrow on top of the masthead. Central Image: My front cover also has a central image facing the camera, due to the fact that I was following Classic Rock magazines convention. This would be much more appealing and grab the target audience’s attention, as the eye would get the attention of the reader instantly. Eyebrow: Classic Rock magazine normally has an eyebrow on top of the masthead and this is exactly what I did for my front cover. Cover line: As this is a special edition that came from a cardboard package, there is only one cover line. I chose to do this as I was following the conventions of Classic Rock magazine. Barcode: The barcode for my front cover is layed out in the same way as Classic Rock’s barcode. The Colours: I choose to use black , blue and a bronze and white colour in the masthead. This is because the audience is elderly males.

5. The masthead of my magazine is bold , outstanding and unique just like Classic Rock magazines masthead. I followed this convention. However, to challenge the conventions of Classic Rock magazines masthead, I added bronze to my masthead and changed the style of it. The colours used in the masthead are gold and white . This is mainly because the audience of the magazine is men, and so therefore feminine colours are not used such as pink. Also, I did not use bright colours as my magazine is related to a audience between the ages of 35 and 45 so in this case bright colours would not fit in with the magazine. Similarly, Classic Rock does not use feminine colours and just keeps it simple with a white colour. As seen when I conducted my research, Classic Rock magazine uses a variety of fonts. Due to the fact that I was following some of the conventions of Classic Rock magazine, I used many different font styles for my front cover, contents page and double page spread. This made my magazine look like a professional and real media product.

7. Headline: This is shown in a bold and swirly font. It also gives the page number on which the cover story will be in the magazine. Features: Shows the page numbers and a brief description of what would be included in the pages. Image: Is showing what the cover story is based on. Winning Offer: Grabs the readers attention by making them aware that they could win something . Special Offer: Another way to get the readers attention and make them want to read on.

8. Features: J ust like Classic Rock magazine, I also decided to have a features section layed out in a similar way. Image: I have placed an image of what my cover story is going to be based on, as I was following the conventions of Classic Rock magazines contents page on this.

9. Unlike Classic Rock magazines contents page, I did not include a special and winning offer on my one. This is because I feel that a free gift coming with my magazine is enough to get the readers attention. This is one way in which I challenged the conventions of Classic Rock magazines contents page. I followed the conventions of Classic Rock magazine on their contents page layout of the page numbers, and the brief descriptions on what is on each page in the magazine.

10. Main Image: This is placed on the right hand side of the page and is a full bleed image. Headline: This is placed at the top of the left hand side page in a fancy font. The reason why this font is used is so the reader is aware that the article is about that. Pull Quote: These are genuinely used to grab the reader’s eye and persuade them to read the article. Box Out: This is another way that the attention of the audience is caught. Stand first: This is a convention of all magazines, which gives a brief description on what the article is about. Columns: There are normally 2-3 columns in a double page spread in Classic Rock magazines. By line: This says the name of the person who wrote the article Drop Cap: These are the big letters at the beginning of an article.

11. Headline: This is placed at the top of the left hand side page in a fancy font. The reason why this font is used is so the reader is aware that the article is about that. Drop Cap: Big letter at the beginning of an article. Pull Quote: These are genuinely used to grab the reader’s eye and persuade them to read the article. Footer Header Standfirst: This is a convention of all magazines, which gives a brief description on what the article is about . By Line: This says the name of the person who wrote the article.

15. The way her hair is presented in a scruffy look represents the look of Blondie who always has untidy hair in her images. My magazine is shown to be a classical rock magazine as the copy shows this. Also, the clothing in a way suggests that the magazine is a classical rock one as they are dark colours and quite baggy. On top of this, the red lipstick is also another typical Blondie feature, as she is seen with red lipstick in her images on many occasions. The way my model is posing demonstrates that she is a singer considering she has a microphone in her hand. Also, her hands are on her hips to make her look more ‘sexy’. This pose also connects back to the fact that Blondie is not only a singer but she also had acting roles . In order to create my front cover image in such a way, I used a black backdrop because I wanted a black background to my front cover image. I also used lighting so the tone of the model of Blondie would come out right. My front cover, contents page and double page spread all target a specific social class group . This is shown by mise-en-scene which is every element that is placed inside the scene to be captured by the camera: lighting, costumes, props, set, performance.

24. To listen to my audio clip go to the section of my blog named ‘audience feedback’ The person I interviewed is 45 and is a middle classed man that listens to classical rock, as well as other genres. Therefore, this person is the target audience for my magazine.

29. Word Press One of the pieces of technologies I have learnt about from the process of constructing this product is wordpress.com I learnt how to create a blog. Also learnt how to create categories on my blog and put them on a menu. These categories consist of: Home page, Preliminary exercise, Research and planning, Construction and Evaluation . I also learnt how to create posts and how to move these posts into the categories. To visit Word Press’s website click on http://wordpress.com/

32. In order to take the pictures for my music magazine I booked the studio, which is situated in the college, and a digital camera like the one in the image. Before taking my photographs I made sure there was a black back drop, as I wanted my images to have a black background. From this experience, I learnt how to take professional photos in a studio with a camera. In the studio that I booked there were also lights available which I used in order to make sure my images would come out the way I wanted them to. From using these lights I learnt how they should be set up etc which I was not aware of before.

36. My preliminary contents page, which is shown on the right hand side, looks very boring and the image does not stand out much. Also, the colour scheme is not eye-grabbing. However, the contents page for my music magazine, which is shown on the left hand side , has an image that stands out. Also, there is a colour scheme that connects to the front cover of the magazine. There is also more use of different fonts, which altogether makes the page look better.

39. Bauer.. publishes many magazines but mainly targeting females around the ages of 24 to 55. They reach over 19 million UK adults and have eight successful media brands with some including: heat, GRAZIA, Closer etc. To visit Bauer’s website click on http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/