Magazine evaluation
Before I started:
Before I was allowed to venture onto my music magazine we were asked to create a school magazine, I felt that this was going to be an easy task. I started my planning by looking at magazines that focused on very different target audiences, and then I looked at my current school magazine. After a group talk we all felt that the magazine was too focused on what the parents want to hear so I aimed for a younger target audience, similar to American schools who have a radio station or a magazine, as their schools tend to be packed with all different types of kids. From here i went to styling the magazine to my particular audience, the club scene. I felt that I achieved this well, as at the time of the task we had a celebrity come in to do a workshop and music concert. This gave us plenty of opportunity to get pictures, and produce a cover and content page to match.
Moving on to my main task I wanted to create a music magazine that could be part of the club scene choosing music that interests me and many others around the UK. Planning started by looking at other music magazines, such as Q magazine and MixMag, the biggest rival to my intended magazine. Planning also meant I needed to venture into the club world to see the sort of music that is heard in popular clubs in the South West.
Reasons for choosing the particular magazine styles:
I was looking for something that would stand out and the only way I could do this was to use very vibrant colours; the use of green and black was the aim from the start. I wasn’t expecting such a good response from the focus groups; this meant that I didn’t have to change the formatting of the front cover so I could just focus on the content. I had to add more to this as the focus group said that it was too plain to start with, the black and green works well and using a florescent green helped me to capture the target audience. I also felt that it matched the genre I was looking to hit; the club scene is renowned for these colours.
Then I looked for the content for my middle page spread, I decided that writing about a new artist would attract more attention. I used a similar colour scheme as it worked well, I wasn’t feeling confident in getting a decent colour match so I used white on a black backing.
The content page was a bright green and this had the same effect of drawing the reader to the page to see more. I like using this technique as it allows people to spend time looking at the product.
The content in all the pages has been made to match the genre, and the pictures were all taken by myself and edits to make the pictures also look hip and cool to fit the style. I used Photoshop elements 7, using the neon and chrome. This made my pictures more attractive, using strong levels of green to match the bright neon lights in a club.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The branding of this magazine is very unique, using a black and green logo it has been very easy to attract the audience that I needed to. Semiotics is relevant here, the logo is the signifier. The brand allows you to know exactly what the magazine is showing for this reason I felt that my logo "Top Notch Tunes" is a symbolic sign, rather than a Masthead as it is a brand and won't change every issue.
Using the conventions of the real media product was important though, I followed a lot of ideas used in Q magazine. This is because I felt that the magazine was very attractive, they had used black and red as the colours for that particular issue. I have done a similar theme with black and green. On every page there is a colour scheme using mostly black and green for all three. This was good when printed, as the school has a new copier printer the ink used on the paper gave a much better glossy appearance I felt along with my focus groups a very aesthetically pleasing product.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Using the colours of the magazine I have tried representing the world of club music, using bright greens as you would find in a night club with the lasers and dark colours. The house style is very much green and black, as this is shown on every page that I have produced so far. I did try to use other colours but I felt that it didn’t have the same effect; I found it boring and not as attractive for the social group that I was aiming for. I also got away with using more slang as the social group is younger and it was more appropriate to keep the interest of the reader. It looks young and modern like the music and age group that it represents. The banner is green; the use of green is difficult and I felt that I managed to pull it off well for the particular social group that I will be introducing my magazine into.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? The institution I think that would help to produce my magazine would be Future or DMC, they make magazines of this sort and I know that they generate revenue. As part of my Business Studies A2 course I am currently writing up a business plan on producing a magazine to see the amount of money that could be made from this sort of business. Also Q magazine used a publisher that only has two main brands, Qmag and Kerrang, these are two very different magazines. The publisher’s name is Bauer media group, their headquarters are in Germany. It is the UK’s largest publishing group, with potential figures in my business plan they could be interested in this magazine.
Who would be the audience for your media production?
Looking at the population of the UK there is a over 7 Million 15-24 year olds in the country, this meant that even if I had only a 2.1% market share I would reach over 151,405.107
The reason that I have chosen this age group is the scene that I have selected to present my magazine to is the age that is mostly filtered into the club scene through events, and general nights out into town. When listening to music you may want to know more about the background of the artist, that is what my magazine will help the readers to do. This follows the ideas of Sandra Bull-Rokeach and Melvin DeFleur’s Media Dependency theory, linked to the Uses and Gratification theory, which states that an audience depends on media information to meet their needs. By providing information my music magazine will reach these needs and achieve the intended purpose. The target audience represented tend to want this feeling of achievement to continue buying this product; this means they use achievement motivation. The motivation could also be represented using Maslow’s motivation theory, having my magazine apply to the social need of a sense of belonging; with an issue covering all the topics and needs within in the genre of the magazine.
How did you attract/address your audience?
Front cover: I have used a number of different technical features on the front cover to entice and attract people to stop and look at my cover. Starting with the strap line, I used a bold white strap line. This stood out and the black backing means that your eyes are draw straight to it, “TOP SELLING NEWCOMER OF 2010” this line makes you wonder what they talk about inside. To be the best newcomer it must be good. There is a green banner on the bottom half of the page that stands out, even if the backing of the picture is green and black it still has the edge to draw your eye across the page. The cover picture is a picture that was taken using the school camera and a tripod. I chose a mid-shot because it made the image feel more dominant on the page. If I had used a close-up image it wouldn’t have had the same effect because the way in which the body is posed creates a dominant figure. It took a great deal of time to prepare my picture for editing. I decided to put the main features in white as these stood out more, the ones in back are sub features; they stand out on the green but don’t have the same presence.
Content page: I needed to do a lot of picture editing for my contents page to get it to the standard that I required. The picture editing skills that I used were cropping, reforming and adding on effects to pictures. By spending time on editing I developed a page that linked with the house style I had planned to use of green, black and white. This time the magazine name is incorporated in the picture. This meant that I have the half that isn’t in the picture as black with a green background and white with a blue background on the pictured half. This is very pleasing on the eye and makes you look at the main story about District Menis and his rise to fame. The information on the page is clear; the page is black with the page numbers standing out because they are white. I felt that the white made the page break down more, therefore making it easier to read.
Middle page spread: I felt that the middle page spread attracted the audience that I wanted to well. The representation of my target audience in this day and age is that they are lazy and don’t like to read unless they have to, so I chose to use plenty of pictures to draw the attention of the reader across the page, keeping them interested in the text. Also, by changing the font colour for a new heading or mile stone in the artist’s life makes you feel as if you have achieved something.
By putting the events on the side of the page it allows people to become more interested and investigate further into the artist. With the location of the venue and the date being given many will look into getting tickets. I felt that this advertisement was clever, it meant it might attract more readers.
Yet again I used green as this is the House colour for this particular piece and it worked well. The main heading for the double page spread was “New artist we Like”, this stood out on the black backing. Through the editing process I tried out a range of colours, white, red and blue, but the green was the most attractive. This was also preferred by the focus group so I stuck with it.
What have you learnt about technology from the process of construction this product?
From this project I have learnt a lot of skills, for example the editing software was new. I had to learn how to use all elements of the software and then incorporate my images into the program for me then to edit. This started off difficult but I felt that I quickly learnt how to use it, allowing me to spend more time on the design. I also took into consideration that when I personally look at a magazine with one coloured font I am not as attracted to it so I tried to use several colours to make the text stand out and be aesthetically pleasing.
At the start of the preliminary task we were using with basic media software such as paint, for the pictures. We had to edit how we wanted the pictures and some of the text types using paint, this wasn’t very good for managing my time. This was because the software was so basic that it became tricky to use. When we started our main task we had new software available to edit the pictures called Adobe Photo shop elements. This programme was new to me so I used about 5 hours teaching time to practice editing pictures and then started the work needed for my main task. The software was very good for what I needed and I am glad that I used it, I feel that I managed to use it effectively in my work.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it into the full product?
I feel that I have learnt a lot since I did the preliminary task, starting with the planning I did in the preliminary. I didn’t do enough planning and this resulted in poor progress early on in the task. I also used a different software package and this meant it was difficult to get pictures to edit correctly, to get the style that I wanted. However, I worked hard with what I had got and I felt that I achieved a high standard with my preliminary, I now needed to produce something spectacular for my main task. With the new software I managed to make my front cover look and seem professional. I know this because I used to work as a rep for UTR, a company that promotes club scene music. I looked through a portfolio of posters for an event and was able to compare them with my product. I showed my work to the manager and he was impressed with the style and content. He said it looked like a real magazine, I was overwhelmed. I knew that the picture editing wasn’t everything, but it gave me a good start and a template to mould my writing around.
The development from the prelim task was good, I felt that I developed the skills required to make an attractive magazine that could possibly sell on the market. I think that the main things that I have learned throughout this process are mainly to do with the software; developing my skills from using better technology.
