1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (Evaluation)

Eval 1 presentation

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In many ways, my magazine follows the typical conventions of music magazines such as Q. The front cover of the magazine is very typical of this magazine. I used a very large, bold Masthead which would attract attention. I then used a editorial style mid shot photograph of a girl, and superimposed it onto the masthead as this is conventional, and suggests the artist is important. The photograph is of a convetionally attractive girl, making eye contact with the camera and confident body language - which is conventional. For the main coverline about the photograph, i used really large bold font which splashed across the page with a topic sentence underneath. The overall layout of the front cover is similar to those of Q or Rolling Stone. I desaturated the photograph so it is mostly black and white however i left the orange lips of the model bright orange. I used this as the centre of my housestyle and used splashes of orange in text etc. I used typical music magazine language for the sell lines, strapline and plugs on the front cover.


I used a consistant housestyle throughout the magazines - the main colours being black, white. orange and purple. My feature article is quite conventional, in an interview style article with a brief introduction. I used one of the pages as a photograph, like a poster. The title for the article is in bold and attention grabbing font, with appropriate language used throughout the article. The name of my magazine - CLASH - is conventional as musically sounding works are often used.


My contents page is moreso in the style of NME magazine, the layout is busier than the simpler styles I chose for the cover and article. I done this because, in my research, I looked at all aspects of many music magazines and preferred the busy contents pages of NME, and so I suppose in this way my magazine is not conventional - it mixes two types of style.

The main way in which my magazine challenges conventions of music magazines is the target audience - I aimed to make a music magazine which included more aspects of fashion and female artists that female readers would be interested in. I think this worked, as I used more fashion style photography to attract these readers, and wrote my feature article on a female musician. I do think that men would be able to be attracted to this magazine also.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? (Evaluation)

My magazine represents a particular subculture which is that of adolescents and under 30s who are very interested in music and the lifestyle that comes with it. Other types of media that interest this social group, such as festivals and gigs, were advertised and discussed in my magazine so that the magazine represents other things they are interested in too. Below is part of my contents page showing how I included this:


I also used costume to represent this music culture as fashion is a huge part of it. The outfit Giselle wears in her photoshoots are fashionable, and a female reader would appreciate the outfit while males would be attracted to her wearing it. My male models also had their costumes matched on musicians of an appropriate genre, and their fans who dress very similarly to them (the music culture I am aiming at)
This picture shows how I addressed fashion tastes of this culture:



To represent this particular culture, I also used the sytle of my fonts and graphics. I used font which is cracked and looked bold and edgy - this could represent the lively, rebellious nature of indie music and its fans. I represented the fact that the indie music culture has females and males by using models of both genders.

These are examples of people included in this music subculture (people at reading festival):

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

If my magazine were to be published, the company that would be most suitable would probably be Bauer Media. They are a leading company in magazine publishing who publishing the magazines Kerrang and Q. I would aim for my magazine to be similar to Kerrang and Q due to the massive popularity and the conventional styles of the magazines. Bauer Media would be an appropriate company to publish my magazine as huge, successful companies have the funds and manpower to make it as successful as possible and reach the highest potential number of customers. It would also be useful as the company would have knowledge of music magazines and how they are advertised differently to those of other magazines, like fashion magazines. This company could also help to employ the best photographers, journalists and editors.



Distribution would be handled by this company, distributing the magazines to all the main supermarkets (to attract as many readers as possible), and shops. It is also useful to think of advertising when creating a magazine. I would advertise in places where my target readers are likely to see it, such as music festivals (Download festival/ Leeds festival) and gigs. Music shops such as HMV would also be a suitable place to advertise and sell a music magazine. Television adverts would not really be appropriate on channels such as BBC, but to advertise the magazine on a music channel would be apropriate as you would be reaching your target audience. I would advertise my magazine on a channel such as NME, though it is expensive.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product? (Evaluation)

Above: An example of someone included in my target audience at the prospect of buying my magazine

Above: An example of someone who is not included in my target audience at the prospect of buying my magazine!


4. Who would be the audience for your media product?



My target audience was mainly young adult readers, university students, and adults very interested in music. The socio-economic groups targeted could be anything from C1 to E, as I personally feel that this grouping system can sometimes mislead, and people fom any socio economic background who is interested in music may buy this magazine. The most likely socio economic status, however, are C1 to E as most young people (my target audience) are classified as these groups.

My target audience is a British Audience, as I have created the magazine through my thorough understanding of this British musical culture and youth culture. Also, the distribution company I identified as most suitable is a British company.

In order to attract this target audience, I carried out research on this particular group and also adapted my magazine as much as possible to suit the general 'likes' of this group. I will explain how I attracted my target audience in a different post.

In order to find out whether my product was successful and would attract my target audience, I showed a number of 16 - 25 year old my finished contents page, front cover and feature article, and asked them to write some comments in order to recieve audience feedback and understand the postives aspects of my magazine and also those which could be improved. I used a volunteer sample for this research, by posting a status on Facebook asking whether anyone would mind looking at my magazine and commenting. This method was advantageous as it was quick, free and only used voluntary paticipants.

Here are photographs of some of the people who looked at my magazine, along with some comments. These are all in the group I would target my product at:



Danny: I don't read magazines very often, but this does look realistic.
Conor: I read NME all the time, and the layouts of your mag looks quite similar to theirs.
On the front cover, there are loads of my favourite bands!

Tom: Your magazine looks good, the cover is perhaps a bit 'girly' for me though.
I'd buy it for the chance to win the festy tickets!


Jade: I like the house style and general appearance of the magazine. I like the style; it appeals to me more than the ones like Kerrang because it looks quite fashionable aswell.
Giselle looks lovely here! (Note: this participants knows the model)

Stephen: I read through the article and I liked the conversational sound of the interview. The way The Headliners' songs were described, I wish they existed so I could give them a listen! I can't really afford to buy magazines a lot because of my student lifestyle.


Ben: The fonts you used are wicked, where did you get them?
It looks like you know how to use the editing software really well.
Maybe some more photos in the article, or some live pictures.

Alex: You mention good music. I love the girl's make up and outfit, and I would buy this. It looks professional. I would prefer it a bit cheaper, but all music magazines are this price are more I suppose.



Giselle (the model): I might be a bit biased cause i'm on the cover lol. The way you've written about the 'musician' me it sounds like I really exist, you've put a lot of though into the character and the questions and answers. I think you could have put pictures of intstruments or something to make it seem a bit more like a music magazine.

From this feedback I have learned about the positives and negatives of my magazine. Many people have said that it looks quite realistic! Listening to the feedback, perhaps I could have put more photographs on the cover, however I do personally love the simplistic design.

5. How did you attract / address your audience? (Evaluation)

Understanding a target audience is essential when creating a product.

Audience reception theory, which is based on Stuart Hall’s model of the relationship between a text and its audience, influenced how I targeted my audience. This theory suggests that the producer of texts encodes meanings into it and the audience decodes it. The decoding could be completely different from the encoding, therefore highlighting how important it is to understand your target audience. Every person could destruct the magazine in a different way, so knowing my target audience’s preferences and lifestyles etc, was very necessary.

As part of the youth / culture I am aiming my magazine at, I think I had a good insight to what would be popular and what would not be, but I carried out audience research in order to make sure and further my knowledge. I created a questionnaire and handed it out to a number of people, of both genders and mainly the ages of my target audience. This primary research is beneficial as it is more reliable, coming from the original source. It was also free and I used a volunteer sample in which people were very willing to answer the questionnaire for me. I created graphs of these results for easier analysis and then read the results closely, allowing me to plan to include the features that were most popular on the results. I also manipulated every feature of my magazine to suit my audience as appropriately as possible:

· Images – I included images of both males and females in order to attract both genders. Even though the cover shot is of a women, and women customers may buy it out of admiration of the musician, men may be attracted to this also due to the beauty of the cover model. The ideal self / partner comes into play here; using images of a person who is the audience would like to be like, is attracted to, is very useful. In my images, fashion was an important feature. I used fashionable make up, clothing and shoes to ensure that the magazine looks very modern and in touch with the music culture today – I included costume such as military style boots, which are popular with people who are interested in ‘indie/rock’ music. The model also portrayed a confident and careless attitude well, as I asked, which is a common feature of this genre of music and subculture.

· Language and writing style – I wrote a question & answer style article as this proved very popular in my questionnaire results. This also allowed me to use a conversational, informal tone to my article, allowing my target audience to identify with the musician well. I appealed to the lively, careless side of this music subculture with language such as “mayhem”, “notorious” and “backstage passes”. I included topics such as a rift between band members, alcohol preferences and music preferences, which my target audience may identify with. On the cover, I featured many different musical acts in order to attract as many of these fans as possible. I created strap lines with a bold, noticeable name such as Oasis, then included a short, curiosity provoking line underneath hoping that my audience would wonder what it is about and want to read the article. I also featured A LOT of musical acts on my contents page, to suggest to my audience that my magazine is packed full of content with a range of music from some different genres.

· House style – My bold fonts with cracked graphics are conventional of music magazines and suggest that the magazine is slightly edgier and more honest than some others. It also represents the rebellion side of some youth cultures very well and could attract this type of audience. The main colours of black, white, orange and purple worked well together and also ensured that they were not aimed at one particular gender (no pink!). I used bold headlines, interesting fonts and language all aimed at appealing to my target audience.

· Plugs – On the cover I wrote that buying the magazine would give the audience a chance to win tickets to V festival. As V festival features a number of genres of music, many which may appear in my magazine, this is an effective way of persuading the potential customers to buy the product. I also small images of the free posters that could be won in my contents page.

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

Presentation new technologies

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

Since completing my preliminary task, I have learned a lot about the codes and conventions of music magazines, the magazine industry, how to complete successful audience research, photography, using technologies and time management.

From the above photograph, you can clearly see how far my photo editing skills have improved since I began the project. The photographs I took for the school magazine were less effective, with less control over costume, setting, variety of camera shots and quantity. The photo shoot for my main task involved many different camera shots, locations, costumes, models and generally looked much more professional!

The editing on my preliminary task is quite basic. I did edit out the background to create a plain white background, inserted a logo and text however the overall effect is not very professional or realistic. My main task on the other hand, involved a lot of editing! This involved resizing images, cropping images, adjusting colour settings (hue, saturation, contrast,brightness), creating new layers, using magnetic selection tools and magic selection tool, replacing colour and airbrushing! The house style and general presenation of my main task is much more professional! The language and cover lines I used are also much more effective.

I also have learned alot about magazines; the ways they are distributed, the codes and conventions, the differences of different magazines genres and the many conventional features included in a magazine! I think the writing style of my article is also better, due to the music magazine articles I read in order to become familiar with this area of the media.

I learned the skills of time management, due to a long planning process, sometimes difficult photoshoots and time consuming editing. No matter how frustrating the project could be at times, deadlines are always there and so I learned to work more efficiently and learned the importance of deadlines. Creating a call sheet and schedule helped me to do this.

I have learned about many technologies that I did not previously know - such as Slideshare and Photobucket, both of which will help me in the future with documenting work. Some other skills and knowledge I have acquired / improved are:

• Communication skills - Taking photographs of people could be frustrating if communication was not effective, therefore my skills in this area have improved after many photo shoots!
• Blogging skills - I now find it easier to blog regularly instead of leaving things until the last minute.
• A passion for photography and magazine editing!