AS media studies- Music magazine

Monday 21 January 2013

Evaluation by Maddy Ryder

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

1. The convention of a house style is one used in every front cover of Q magazine; the dark hair, heavy eyeliner, red lipstick and white teeth of the model in the picture match the red, white & black colour scheme of the front cover, tying her in with the magazine. The model is also showing a serious, sultry expression which fits with the dark colours especially red, which is associated with passion. I have adopted this dconvention for my front cover, matching the front cover picture to the 'Halloween' style of the issue. Like the front cover of 'Q', my front cover uses three basic colours: green, purple and white. The scared expression on the models' face, and the black and white picture of a girl screaming also fits in with the 'Halloween' theme, although unlike the stereotypical, old horror movie pictures, I have defied comventions by using a younger, teenage model in modern clothing to appeal to the audience.

2. In this issue, 'Q' uses the facial expression of the model to accentuate the style of the front cover, using both the heavy makeup and the suggestive expression. I used this on my front cover to highlight the scay, 'Halloween' theme of my issue of the music magazine; the faceof my model is very expressive, clearly showing fear, which is emphasized by her body language; hands on head, cowering, etc. In this way I have differed from 'Q's conventions because I used a mid shot while their front cover shows a close up.

3. The front cover of 'Q' uses various styles and colours of font, which match the style of the front cover and add to the ariation of the front cover, making it more interesting and eye catching. I used the same conventions for my front cover, using green, purple and white font to match the house style of my magazie and using a range of font styles. I used a gothic font for the titles of the articles to match the 'Halloween' theme of the issue, but used a simpler, easier to read font for the smaller print so that the readers can easily understand the writing - since the audience I am aiming at are teenagers, some of them, especially the younger ones, would be put off by complicated/difficult text.

4. 'Q' uses a round sticker to advertise the magazine, 'selling' it my emphasizing it'a achievements/good points. The sticker is easily visible, located on the right side of the magazine, higher up so it is easily spotted even if the magazine is placed on a rack behind others, making it eyecatching to potential customers in shops. I have also used this, using a purple background so it stands out easily from the black and white picture, and follows the house style. The white text, which also stands out from its background, advertises the magazine by reputation, claiming it has been voted 'best music magazine'. This is importants as, according to Target Audience Research, the majority of teenagers will buy a music magazine based on reputation.

1. In this magazine, the contents page feautures a white background with clear spaces between the text and articles. This allows the articles and pictures to stand out against the background, and the clear spacing gives a neater, simpler effect which appeals to the audience as it does not appear over complicated. I have used this in my magazine contents page as the audience I hope to attract are teenagers, who want information fast and simple, and are put off/bored by overcrowded, difficult to read pages. I have also used lines seperating the articles to give clear definition and give the layout of the page a neat, orderd look.

2. The use of pictures is an important convention as it adds a visual aid to the text, advertises the content and catches the eye of the reader. Magazines aimed at teenagers especially use a range of pictures of different sizes/styles in their contents pages to give extra information on the content of the magazine and make the page appear more interesting. Like this magazine, I have used a range of pictures in my contents page, and repeated the idea of overlapping two main pictures to add variety and make them the main focus of the page.

3. The contents page for this magazine uses a range of font styles and colours. This adds variety to the page, making it visually interesting and catching the readers eye. This is particularly important to a younger/teenage audience as they may quickly become bored with plain backgrounds/text. I have used this in my magazine because the audience I am aiming to attract are teenagers. I have decided to only use a few different font styles, as too much variety may cause the page to be overcomplicated/confusing. For a teenage audience, especially younger teenagers, it is important to find a balance, so the page is not too boring, but not over complicated either.

4. My contents page, as most other contents pages, features a colour scheme consistent with that of the front cover and DPS. The consistent colour scheme allows the magazine to be easily recognisable - fans of the magazine will see it in the shops and immediately know the magazine without having to read it. The colour scheme features the most popular colours from my Target Audience research, and the colours are bright, making it appealing to the teenage audience.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

http://www.slideshare.net/MagpieJones/how-does-your-media-product-represent-particular-social-16289125

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I would like Bauer Media as producers for my music magazine because I aim to produce a none genre specific magazine, which follows the ideals of the company as Bauer said “genre is dead”.

Bauer Media also has business in magazines, radio, and many other franchises – having such a strong presence behind my magazine will give it a good reputation which according to my Target Audience Research is important to potential buyers.

I would also consider ICP as it is also a very influential producer responsible for popular magazines such as Teen Now, which is aimed at teenage girls and focuses mainly around pop . ICP does not produce magazines like mine, so it may be interested in the magazine as competition to Bauer media.

Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

How did you attract/address your audience?

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation by Lucy Barker

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

1 - The masthead of the magazine 'we love pop' is placed in the left hand third and is very eye-catching and creates a logo and an association with the magazine, this is a convention used in all issues of ‘we love pop’
I have also used the same convention of left hand thirds, all the information is placed to the left in order for it to be seen when displayed. However I have challenged the conventions of having the mast-head as a symbol or logo to represent the magazine because the only feature that makes it look like a ast-head is the size of the font. I did this because I wanted to make my magazine look more mature however I think I should have kept more elements of pictures (for example shapes) like other similar product front covers in order to make it look more eye catching.
2- Other magazines (such as we love pop above) aimed at part of our target audience and used lots of images and photographs. This convention attracts an audience who prefer to look rather than read a lot.
I have broken the convention of having lots of photographs, because my target audience is 14 to 18 and we love pop has a TA (target audience) of 12 -14 we wanted to ensure we keep some codes of that magazine but also that we don’t have too many photos in order to get the attention of the older end of our TA.
3- Direct eye contact- when representing a pop musician most magazines used the convention of the model starring directly into the camera. This is so that when you look at the magazine it draws your attention and adds to the representation of a pop singer.
I followed the conventions of direct eye contact in the model used on my front cover to portray the representation of a pop singer, I wanted her to be recognised as a pop singer but I also broke the conventions because I included a image of a rock star so that when people first look at the magazine, the codes and conventions don't make them think it's a pop magazine, but a mixed genre magazine.
4- Freebies- 'we love pop' magazine offers weekly freebies in attempt to attract their target audience. Because I have a similar target audience I wanted to offer the same but because mine are slightly older I wanted the freebies to be more mature than sweets. I chose to offer a free poster with my magazine and it is advertised on the front cover as it is conventionally on 'we love pop' and other magazines targeted at the same audience.

1- Mast-head- I have kept to conventions in keeping my logo at the top in a big font so it is clear to see on my contents page. I have also followed the conventions of this magazine by adding in a title in a banner, although I have changed it slightly by having my magazine name included in the banner too. This makes the layout look easier on the eye because it gives it structure. I have also kept with conventions by using lots of images, these are used to promote the pages just like in the 'we love pop' magazine.

2- The colour scheme used on my contents page is the same as my front cover. This links together the two pages. This convention is also used in 'we love pop' even if the colour scheme changes from issue to issue, this is the difference between the magazines, mine sticks to the colours as part of its house style but 'we love pop' switches colours depending on whose in it and the season. I think using the same colours each issue is a better because it becomes like a code and represents the magazine and associate with it.

3- I used more photographs in my contents page compared with my front cover because although I do want my magazine to appeal to 12, 13 and 14 year olds I still want to sustain the interest of 15 – 18 year olds.

4- I broke conventions by not having any plugs or puffs on my contents page because I used a restricted amount of these conventions and I put them all on my front cover, in order to make the layout look easier and more structured to maintain sophistication.

1- The article in 'we love pop' is aligned right and placed in transparent boxes so it stands out from the background and follows forms and conventions, my article is also aligned left and looks like an article, it looks sophisticated but still interesting because of the shape.

I have challenged conventions by having my tittle aligned left, it still looks like a title because of the boldness and size but because it isn't aligned centrally but because of the bright colours against the dark background it still stands out enough.

3- The double page spread from 'We love Pop' looks like what you would expect from a double page spread, there is no white space and plenty to look at which would attract the younger familiar target audience that I and this magazine have, I have also used this idea but have used darker colours rather than bright colours to represent a different genre, indie.

How does your media product represent different social groups?

http://www.slideshare.net/lucybarker/representation-question-16098486

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I originally intended to use Bauer media and ICP media because Bauer media has the same principles as our magazine (believing 'genre is dead') shown below, however magazine companies usually don’t publish similar magazines to the ones they already sell so ICP which concentrates its magazines on one set genre throughout the whole magazine such as Uncut would offer good competition becuase our magazine would be so different to their others. ICP also publishes for our age range, which is good because they specialise in it this is something Beauer doesn't do, targteting its media, including radio stations and music channels (e.g 4music and kiss radio) at older audiances.

Who would be the audience for your media product and why? How did you attract/address your audience?

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Through making my music magazine I've learnt to use the websites blogspot and flickr.

Before the start of this course I didn't know what blogspot was, now that using blogspot I can attatch videos, pictures and links to my blog posts. I've found it easier to edit my research and add to it and found it helpful that other people can comment on my posts to help me with what to improve.

I also didn't know how to use flickr until I was introduced to it, it helped me select photos from my photoshoot by putting them on show to my target audiance who told me what worked and what didn't I could also recieve comments on how to improve my photography.

The above video shows how I added text and the affects I could do with it. Using adobe photoshop elements I could change the colour, font and by simplifying the layer with the text on it I can use the rubber tool to make it look as though the persons head is appearing in front of the text. I noticed this affect being used on more successful magazines who were more well known because the audience didn't need to see the full tittle to know which music magazine it was. This can also be used on pictures, not just text, I used this on my contents page to make images look like part of the page using the same technique of simplifying and rubbing out. Also, to make the text stand out more against it's background I added a 'stroke outline' affect to the text. I did this by selecting edit and then stroke outline selection, it then gave me the options to make it thicker so it stands out, I could also change the colour of the outline.

The lighting tool helped me particularly with the photo shown in the screen film clip above, the background was very dark and didn't fit in with the representation of the musicians so I manipulated the lighting by controlling shadows, contrast, highlights and brightness so that the background doesn't affect the foreground by making it too dark.