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Pulse evaluation completed 27032013
- 1. My Music Magazine Evaluation By Danielle Annenberg
- 2. Question 1 Inwhat ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of a real media product?
- 3. Here is avariety of different KERRANG front covers that I have looked at on Google, these helped me to choose a theme and layout for Pulse magazine.
- 4. The Eyebrow The Conventionsof a The eyebrow is very conventional for magazines The Masthead The masthead is conventional as the music magazine front as it show some of the topics shown inside to draw cover image is a layer above the text this is very common for magazines. cover the reader to the magazine The text is in white over a black background to make it stand out. The Button Other Cover Lines and The button is Articles unconventional for most These tell the reader magazines but is often what other articles are used by kerrang and other in the magazine rock magazines Cover image The Cover Line The cover image is conventional The cover line is as it is placed over the in the largest masthead, this is not a problem font on the pain as most will be able to associate to show the the magazine regardless of the audience what sight of the title. The model is the main topic is looking directly into the camera about it his to attract people to the magazine issue magazine. The Barcode and Date Typography The barcode is conventional to be on the front On this cover of Kerrang’s magazine there is cover in all music magazines it will also just one font in different sizes and colours this display the price in the currency according to is not very conventional for a rock music whether the magazine is sold, a date may also magazine as they usually tend to be rebellious be presented on to the barcode. with different fonts.
- 5. The Conventions ofPulses’ Magazine The Masthead The Eyebrow The masthead is un Front Cover conventional as the cover image is a layer behind the text, I decided this because my The Eyebrow is very conventional for magazines as it show some of the topics shown magazine is unknown and so I inside. I have chosen articles wanted to make sure my which are extremely recent such masthead was prominent this as the Brits because I feel my challenges the conventions of target audience will be very Kerrang. I choose red text as it interested in recent articles. symbolises a pulse. The masthead stands out and is The Typography spread across the majority of I have used a limited amount of the page to attract attention. fonts this is challenging the conventions of most music The Cover Lines magazines, I choose this because the I have followed KERRANGS fonts I feel these fonts are modern conventions of having the and this is how I wanted my main articles cover line as the magazine. biggest text on the page, it is The Barcode and price very conventional for Kerrang The barcode is conventional to be on the to have this in the middle of front cover in all music magazines the page. including Kerrang. The Cover Image Other cover images The cover image is unconventional I have chosen to challenge the as it is placed under the conventions of this particular masthead. The model is looking Kerrang cover but develop the directly into the camera to attract ideas of other k people to the magazine this is a Kerrang covers by choosing to normal convention of all insert pictures from other magazines. articles. I choose to use red, yellow and black because these colours are bold, represent loud music and are also unisex colours. This follows the conventions of the kerrang magazine cover that I choose to base my cover on although many other kerrang front covers vary in different colours depending on the issue.
- 6. Analysis of Kerrangand Pulse’ Front Cover and how the develop and challenge conventions Kerrang’s and Pulse’s front cover consists of various different conventions. Kerrang’s magazine front covers tend to slightly vary in design although all of their magazines have the same look to them this develops the conventions of a indie magazine. The magazine that I looked at has an eyebrow and ears which is then followed by a masthead that is wide enough to fill out the width space on top of the page this follows the conventions of a Kerrang magazines and most indie rock magazines. Its central image lays on top of the masthead, the main colour themes are black and red. Pulse and Kerrang have many similarities in their front covers although I feel for that Pulse’s stands out more due to the bolder colours.
- 7. Mastheads Develop? I have keptthe bold text that Kerrang adopts although I decided to change the colour and keep it simple because I wanted my masthead to stand out without any special effects as my magazine is new in the market, I wanted the name to be remembered and clear. Challenge? I have challenged the conventions of Kerrang by choosing a bright red colour, I choose red because a blood pulse is red. Pulse is also a very bold colour.
- 8. The Conventions ofKerrang’s Double The Stand first The stand first is Page Spread The Headline The headline is very conventional to be conventional to be prominent in an article, this in a bold or capital informs the reader what the font, it is an article is about. It is very introduction to conventional for the the article. headline to be on the right facing page. Text Kerrang keeps to the conventional rule of thirds in The Article Image columns with gutters, with the The article image is start of each paragraph starting usually big and takes in bold keeping the article up a whole page so it does not bore the organised. reader, it is full bleed this is especially in magazines that are based on a younger Pull Quotes target audience. Extracts from the text have been taken out of the article to draw the reader to read it.
- 9. The Conventions ofPulse’s Double Page Spread The Dropcap The Headline This is The headline is very conventional to be prominent I conventional for have kept tot this convention Kerrang and is as I though this was necessary eye drawing for to keep my article clear and the reader to organised. read the article The Stand first I’ve used an extremely similar unconventional stand first to Kerrangs. The Article image My article image is full bleed as I thought this was The Text the best choice Pulse here keeps for a younger to the audience. The conventional rule ‘thumbs up’ of thirds in gesture and columns with strong eye gutters, this keeps contacting is as the article though ‘Hayley’ organised. is ‘spudding’ the audience. The Footer The Pull Quotes Footer this shows the page number and Extracts from the text have been take out the text to has the name of the magazine, very draw the reader to the article conventional for music magazines.
- 10. Kerrang’s and Pulse’sDouble Page Spread Analysis Both Pulse and Kerrang’s double page spread tends to follow the conventions of most music magazines; the stand- first, headline and article image all follow the conventions. The double page spreads follows the rule of thirds and is pleasing to the eye. The double page spread I looked at had a full size image on the right side and text on the left so this is the convention I followed.
- 11. Conventions of amagazine Contents page The Front cover masthead as been carried through to the contents page to keep the same theme throughout the Kerrang uses sections to separate the magazine, this will lead to the reader creating an immediate different connection with the magazine. pages and make it easy for the reader Kerrang have to be able to inserted an eye direct catching themselves to photograph which the pages they is very relevant for this genre of wish to magazine. specifically read. Here Kerrang have inserted a advertising subscription box for readers to choose if they wish to reguarly buy the magazine. Here, Kerrang have made an interaction with the audience and an introduction to this issue.
- 12. Conventions of Pulsemagazines Contents Page I followed Music magazines conventions by adding the issue number and cover date to make it Headline clear for the readers to know I used a large which issue they are reading and if header as I they’ve missed any. wanted to reinforce the name of my new Sections magazine, Following the following the conventions of kerrang conventions of I choose to divide my Kerrang magazine into different magazine. headers to ensure it is easy for my readers to navigate through the magazine. Other Images I decided to insert other Main image article images I kept the main image my main article as I decided to keep the ‘Hayley Williams’ theme that it would throughout my magazine. attract my audience to my magazine more Here I have added an introduction to my magazine I though this was crucial for a new magazine, to have some connection with readers
- 13. Conventions of Kerrangsand Pulse’s contents page I made my contents page similar to Kerrang's as I felt the layout was relaxed, young, easy to read and easily to use as a navigator it was a very conventional type of contents page as it followed the conventions of a clear layout picture and other pictures for different articles.. A picture on the left with the content on the right hand side is conventional in most magazines. I decided to use circle shapes to make the main articles page number stand out. This again is conventional for contents pages.
- 14. Question 2 How doesyour media product represent particular social groups?
- 15. Who is mytarget audience? My target audience is aimed at people within the age of 16-25 years old with an interest in indie and rock music. My product is aimed at both genders and all cultures and ethnicities. My target audience is of a C2-C3 class although with indie rock this can vary as many fans can be of a lower class with others being a rebellious rich upper class due to the type of fashion and expense in raves such as cable and fabric.
- 16. What does Representationmean? Representation is a way of sharing certain ideas through media products such as music magazines as they deliver certain messages to their targeted audience. Mise en scene is an expression used to describe the design aspects of production, which essentially tells a story, this could be through props, lighting, backing, costume etc.. I designed my model Ellie to look like Hayley Williams even going to the extent where I decided to dye her hair. Clothing Pose Here is my model, I I got my model to have dressed her in pose in a way that I clothes similar to thought was Hayley Williams. appropriate for an This will attract my indie rock magazine. target audience of Simple and not 16-22 both men forced. ’Hayley’ and women. poses with a thumbs up to her fans as though she is ‘spudding’ them.
- 17. Photograph Representation As mytarget audience is based on a younger age I had to choose a model who looked in this age range and posed suitably for this requirement even though my model also had to represent a indie rock artist in this case, Hayley Williams. My model, Ellie represented Hayley by her messy/red rock hairstyle and standout clothes range I feel that my model looked similar to Hayley and represented her well.
- 18. Through-out my magazineI have tried to Text use a variety of different texts without making my magazine look too complicated.. I made this decision as this From her flawless pale complexion and sexy red is how a 16-22 year olds rock magazine hair, Hayley is definitely an eye catching, young lady. The should look. A magazine with a variety of talented Hayley Nichole Williams is the soul and longest fonts gives the magazine a reigning member of the indie rock band, Paramore. rebellious, rock look which is exactly how Christmas baby, born on December 27th 1988 she is just 24 I wanted my magazine to look. Another years old. Hailing from Meridan, Mississippi the American reason why I choose a variety of fonts is beauty lived there until 2002, when at 13, Hayley moved to because the results of my questionnaires Tennessee due to the divorce of her parents. revealed that boys liked a magazine Surprisingly, the outrageous confident vocal artist claims messy rather than neat Although my that she was bullied as a teen and was very timid whilst magazine is for both genders and the growing up. She certainly isn’t timid now! females respondents argued that they preferred a neat magazine, my magazine is more likely to be predominently male, as there are more male rock fans than female. I choose to use informal text because of my target audience, I feel that being at the age of a student my Here is an extract from my double audience will be bored of reading formal information and when reading a rock page spread this shows the type of magazine they will want some rebellious language I used through my and simple text. magazine
- 19. Design I choose touse colours that I thought would suit my target audience. The colours are predominantly red black and yellow, this suits both genders and are unisex colours which also again follow the conventions of Kerrang magazine and is then favourable for both males and females. I choose not to include a cover mount as I feel due to technology today, CD’s are out of date and I want my magazine to be current, additionally to this when doing my market research I revealed that a cover mount was not necessary for a magazine and only a small percentage overall said a cover mount would attract them to a magazine. Due to the large rise in social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram and photo editors like photoshop etc.. There has been a huge interest in photos therefore I have chosen to base my magazine on a ratio 50:50 for copy and text.
- 20. Question 3 What kindof media institution might publish your product and why?
- 21. Future Publisher Future createshigh-quality multi-media products which reaches audiences’ online, on mobile and in print. Future is a magazine and internet publisher which was founded in 1985. Future publishes magazines to the United Kingdom, America and Australia. In 2006, future was the sixth-largest in the United Kingdom. It publishes more than 150 magazines in fields such as video games, technology, automotive, sport, music and creative. Future is the biggest guitar and music making publisher in the UK. Magazines that Future publish are; Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Total guitar and Rhythm. Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Revolver are still largely expanding. Future is the UK’s number one licensor of magazine contents. Future publishes over 100 special editions every year generating newsstand revenues of over £4.5 million with a huge amount of high-quality content to choose. Based on this research I decided to choose Future as the publisher for my magazine. Future publishes various magazines of different fields including the music field. Future has proven to be successful in its publishing of magazines in particular music magazines and publishes over a range of countries and so is a good publisher too look into for publishing my indie rock magazine. The fact that Future publishes Classic rock could be seen as a positive as it is clear that future is successful in producing similar magazines on rock although the similarity would not affect sales as there is still a dramatic difference between classic and indie rock.
- 22. Introducing one ofFutures magazines.. The Official Xbox magazine is clearly aimed at Xbox lovers. Future is an amazing publisher for a magazine with a specific genre as it knows how to market specialist magazines.
- 23. Where could yourmedia product be sold? My magazine would most likely be stored in retailers such as Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsburys etc… WHSmith is a large news and book store and would be perfect to sell my magazine because there are many other magazines which are sold there. My magazine is a music magazine so would be ideal to be sold in stores like HMV.
- 24. How much isPULSE and why? I have priced my magazine at the small retail price of £2.45 due to the class and age group of my magazine. I have also decided that my magazine will be printed on to glossy paper , because this gives a magazine a much more superior feel to it as well as making it look more professional. I have decided that my magazine would be sold internationally but mainly to America as I feel that this America had a keen interest in indie music similarly to the UK audience. My magazine only contains 66 pages and so compared to Uncut who uses matt paper and contains 132 pages it is affordable. I therefore have ensured that to cover production costs a large number of advertisement pages are inserted into my magazine. This will enable me to be able to make a profit regardless of the cheaper price. Advertising will be about 45% on my magazine.
- 25. Question 4 How didyou attract/address your audience?
- 26. Target audience My targetaudience for Pulse is males and females aged 16-25 years old. I found through looking at my research that the shots for the cover images of Kerrang are generally half shots/ three quarter body shots, therefore I decided to take shots of my model according to this requirement. The models on the front cover of Kerrang generally have a ‘messy’ look to them, although posed they tend not to have the ‘studio look’, although being a magazine which had an audience of men and women it is predominantly male so I decided my model dressed in a ‘feminine rocky way’.
- 27. How did Iattract/address my audience to my front cover? I used unisex colours to attract males and females, bold colours help my magazine to stand out and a woman on the front cover also makes the magazine attractive to women as well as attractive to men. This makes it easier for women to relate to the cover. I have tried to make it clear on the cover that there is women articles as well as men articles.
- 28. How did Iattract/address my audience to my double page spread? I attracted my magazine through my layout and design. My double page spread has a full bleed image because my target audience will be more attracted to copy than they would text this is supported by my market research. I kept text formative but short (around 800 words) because I feel that readers like to read minimal amounts of information when in the age range of 16-25. I used words like ‘fav’ and commented on the article for example ‘she definitely gets our vote’ when talking about Hayley being voted the sexiest woman, this keeps the article ‘young and modern’.
- 29. How did Iattract/address my audience to my contents page? I attracted my audience to my contents page by using an extremely similar layout to Kerrang, I used my audience’s preferred colours and texts and made sure that my layout was simple and easily to read. My contents page has a small amount of copy to ensure that my main article was the main feature on the page. I feel as though the fonts I have used are ‘young looking’ and suit my target audience of 16-22 years old.
- 30. Question 5 Who wouldbe the audience for your media product?
- 31. Who are myaudience? My target audience are likely to dress in an ‘indie’ way. I believe that their favourite shop would be Topshop this is because of the indie fashion that Topshop sell. I also believe this as when asking people who liked the look of my music magazine where they shopped they indeed said Topshop. Most Paramore/ Hayley Williams fans are great indie fans. What career will my audience have? As my target audience is based at 16-25 years old this means that it is more than likely that they will be students and in education whether that being college or university. Therefore there is great opportunities for adverts on education; eg; UCAS adverts. If not in education the audience may be interested in a music career so this gives an opportunity for instrument adverts.
- 32. What would mytarget audience look like? As you can see my audience has a look of ‘freewill’ and have a very distinct fashion, this fashion is the craze of most teenagers now which is why I think an indie magazine is so appropriate at the time of its peak.
- 33. FABRIC ‘Ravers’ CABLE According to Kerrang their readers are the heaviest music consumers purchasing over 6 albums per month on average(53% more than the national average) and 8 times more likely to spend over £200 a year on albums. This is why I have heavily researched Kerrang magazine because of their great success.Due to Kerrang having such a great success rate I decided that I would base a large proportion of my magazine on them, although create an indie rock genre for my magazine as this is far more modern and the audience for this music is growing due to the rise In ‘raving’ rather than ‘clubbing’.
- 34. These are thequestions I used to analyse my magazine Front cover- 1. Who do you think the target audience is for this magazine? 2. What do you like about my front cover? 3. What stands out to you about the cover, would you choose this magazine yourself? 4. What genre would you say this magazine was? 5. What would you say could be improved on my front cover, do you think it works? Contents page- 6. What do you think about the layout of my Contents page? 7. Do you think it is keeping with the style of the front cover? 8. Would you find this easily to navigate around? 9. What do you dislike about the contents page and if so how would you change this? Double page spread- 10. Does this article appeal to you, if so what attracts you to it? 11. Do you think this carries on theme of the front cover and contents page? 12. What do you dislike about the double page spread and what would you change Overall- 13. What do you think of the product overall?
- 35. Audience feedback In orderto find out about my target audiences views on my magazine I decided to do a voice recording on my phone as an audio note to record the answers for my questions. This will then help me to find out whether my magazine is specific to my target audience and whether I could think about some changes.
- 36. Question 6 What haveyou learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
- 37. The technology thatI used throughout the production • Word press • Adobe Photoshop Cs5 • Adobe InDesign • SLR Camera • Social networking sites – Facebook, Twitter
- 38. Using Wordpress Word pressis a free blog production website which enables you to create a blog on the internet. This was the first time that I had ever created my own blog so I had to look at existing blogs to understand what my blog should look like. Once I had understood how to make a post and create categories the additional work was easy. Creating the categories was a challenge at first because I had to ensure that I had subheadings within headings. I struggled with displaying files onto my blog so they are displayed on the posts without having to click onto the link, some would not display but some did.
- 39. Adobe InDesign InDesign isthe next tool that I used to produce my product. This is where I created my masthead, front cover, contents and double page spread. InDesign was hard for me to use at first as I struggled with the different tools that InDesign possess but my preliminary task meant that I had background knowledge and this helped me dramatically and saved me a lot of time in the long run.
- 40. Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshopis widely used within the media industry and in the production of magazines etc… Photoshop is used to edit photographs, I used this tool to edit all the photos that I had taken for my magazine- ‘Pulse’. I found this document the hardest to use. During the editorial of my photographs I needed to crop out the background of my photos, this proved to be tricky because of the similarity between my model and the background. Cropping around my models hair also proved to be an extremely hard task. For my double page spread the hair was so hard to cut around that I decided to leave the background, this was not an easy decision because the picture that I had taken displayed a shadow. I hard to therefore blend the colour of the background and fill the shadow in this colour. This proved to be a very difficult task but I feel the finished product is better this way than cutting around the hair which left the photograph looking messy.
- 41. SLR Camera I usedan SLR Camera and tripod which I rented from college to take my shots. I found the camera easy to use and did not struggle with taking the photos. I had to make sure the camera was in focus and that I was not chopping any part of the picture out.
- 42. The Internet -Social Networking Sites And Google Lastly I used social networking sites to contact models for my photo-shoot. I also used Facebook and twitter to look at friends photos to see who had a similar appearance to my artist, Hayley Williams. Once I had chosen who I wanted to be my model I then had to contact them through my mobile phone both calling and texting to arrange a time and date to take photos. I regularly used Google in the production of my media magazine because it helped me to research into my artist and also helped me to look at previously taken photographs of my model, Hayley Williams.
- 43. Question 7 Looking backat your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
- 44. My Progression I havelearnt, developed and progressed my skills by using a variety of different design programmes. At the start of my coursework I had never used Adobe Photoshop nor had I used Adobe InDesign, My knowledge using computer documents and design programme was very limited and was only what I had left behind before GCSE level. I only had experience in using programmes such as word, PowerPoint, excel etc.. I feel from my preliminary task I have made a huge improvement. My first attempt at a magazine was extremely simplistic and I designed both my front cover and contents page in a very amateur way. I am now extremely happy with my product and feel I have created and designed it to the best of my ability. My front cover and contents page in my preliminary task has one layer and the design and layout has no specific structure whereas now my magazines front cover and content page has various layers and a good structure.
- 45. What have Ilearnt about publishers? IPC Media is one of if not the largest publisher in the UK. Their print copies reaches almost 75% of all women and 42% of all men in the UK. The main audience that IPC focus on are clearly women usually working to upperclass.. IPC is part of a international corporation.
- 46. My Final PiecesOf Work..
- 47. The Media’s ManipulationOn The Public I feel now that I have a decent amount of knowledge of how to use Photoshop which came with practice and persistence, I have now realised how easy it is to change the appearance of a photograph. The media uses software like Photoshop to edit pictures to potray ‘a look’ to the public. The pictures that we see in magazines etc.. are highly edited and do not look like this in reality. Representation throughout the media gives an impression that we should all look a certain way when in fact no one looks the way media manipulates photos.