Alex Thorne magazine evaluation

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

• Before constructing my magazine I researched into similar music magazines to the one I would make in order to find out the conventions of a music magazine. From the research I found that it is conventional for music magazines to have one artist/band on the cover as the main image and this takes up a large amount of space on the cover. I also found that the masthead was always the biggest font on the cover, this is because the logo’s/ names of the magazines are big sellers due to the their fame and so need to be instantly recognisable.

• I also found it is conventional for music magazines to use 3/4 colours on colour schemes both on the front cover and on double page spreads this is so the page doesn’t look like it has to much going on and doesn’t look distracting. I found it is conventional for the cover story to go across the bottom of the page and the other cover lines to go down either side of the cover in a smaller font. It is most common for magazines to use sans serif font (especially on the front cover) and if serif font is used it is mostly used in the stand first. Kickers are nearly always used at the first letter of an article in double page spreads.

• I have tried to use these conventions I have found in the magazine I constructed as the magazines that use them are very successful and this may help the success of my own magazine.

• On my double page spread I incorporated a kicker at the start of the article which was a convention followed in all 3 magazines I researched. I also used serif font on the stand first which was another technique I established.

• On my front cover I used one main image of a rapper as It was conventional to use one artist on the cover. I also placed cover lines down both sides of the page and made the masthead the largest most standout font on the page.

• I chose to challenge the convention of placing the cover story at the bottom of the page as it was something my target audience disliked in both questionnaires and focus groups.

• You can also see that I have used consistent colour schemes on both the front cover and double page spread limiting to 3 main colours on both of them.

Similar products I researched

I analysed front covers, double page spreads and contents pages from NME, Q magazine and rolling stone.

How does you’re media product represent particular social groups?

• before constructing my magazine I made a number of questionnaires in order to find out what my target audience would be, and found that the age group most interested was from teens to 25 (equally male & female), this showed our magazine would be aimed at a young target audience and the content needed to represent that.

• One of the similar magazines I researched into ‘NME’ aim at a similar aged target audience despite the different genre I found that there are many things I can incorporate in my magazine.

• Looking at NME I found that they target a young audience. They used swearing in the magazine, which showed it is aimed at middle class- lower class young people. It also promotes festivals and gigs which are mainly attended by younger people. There are many artists inside each issue as this is a main selling point for them and the reading difficulty of the magazine is low.

• In my magazine I included a lot of content that appeals to a younger audience such as festival and concert news, artist interviews and competitions. Due to the age of my target audience the magazine is a monthly release as young people are less likely to be able to afford a weekly issued magazine. In my magazine I used simple language and slang words which would appeal to a younger audience.

What kind of media institution would distribute you’re media product and why?• When researching similar products I fond that Bauer media

group who publish Q magazine would be suitable to publish my magazine. They are a German publishing company who also publish Kerrang!, a popular rock magazine, worldwide circulation of Bauer Media Group's magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week. This shows that the magazines are successful and that should it publish my magazine it would be successful .

• Bauer Media Group has a 50% stake in the British television company Box Television, the other half owned by Channel 4. Box Television acts as the content subsidiary that produces several popular music television channels, which include: Q TV, 4Music, Kiss TV, Kerrang! TV, The Box, Magic TV, Smash Hits TV. This is an example of cross media convergence as the magazine advertises the TV channels and the TV channels advertise the magazine.

• However with Bauer media publishing two music magazines it may not wish to release a third as they would all compete with each other for sales.

• This could mean that my magazine would not receive the same attention and effort levels the already established magazines would from the publishing company which could lead to poor sales.

• Benefits of using Bauer media group is that they would already have distribution deals in place with suppliers and so my magazine would be available to a large audience which increases chance of success.

• They currently do not have a magazine covering this genre of music which means there is a place in the market for my magazine and may receive an extra push when marketing my product.

• http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

What would be you’re audience be for you’re media product?

• I made two questionnaires two find out who my target audience for my magazine would be, from this I found that under 25’s are my target audience (both male and female) and that they are into rap/R&B.

• They would most likely be in the middle class with some lower class as well. I do not expect my magazine to be successful with the upper class social class as that is not associated with that genre of music. And some of the slang and language used in the magazine may not appeal to that social class.

• I am aiming at a vast target audience and so there is more chance for my magazine to be successful. And the genres my magazine covers is always in the charts which shows its popular and people are interested in the genre.

Initial questionnaire into target audience

• 1. What gender are you?

• 2. What age are you?

• Under 16: 16-25: 26-34: 35+:

• 3. How often do you read magazines?

• Never: weekly: monthly:

• 4. How much would you be willing to pay for a magazine?

• Under £1: £1-£2: £2.01- £3: over £3:

• 5. What genre of music do you like?

• Rap: R&B: rock: pop: indie:

• 6. What do you like in a magazine?

• Pictures: articles: other:

7. What colours do you want to see?

Bright colours (red, orange and yellow): blue: black &white: mixed:

8. What special offers would you like to see?

Tickets to gigs: free music downloads: other:

9. Do you want to see a famous celebrity on the cover?

Yes: no:

10. What do you expect to read?

Articles on artists: album reviews: artist tour dates: all of these:

How did you attract/address you’re audience?

• Because of the young audience I have tried to use bright colour schemes in my magazine to make it look more attractive. I have used lots of images in comparison with text so it doesn’t look like a lot of reading which would appeal to them more. I have also used an ordered layout which makes the magazine have a more professional look to it.

• The content of my magazine includes lots of artist interviews, concert and festival news as these are the things that they said they wish to see in my initial questionnaires.

• there's a lot of different artists as readers are particularly interested in them so I have included a lot of this and an ‘artist index’ on the contents page.

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

product?• I used a number of different technologies when constructing

my magazine. I learnt how to use adobe Photoshop which was very useful for editing images I used in my magazine. I also used apple macs instead of Microsoft windows, which was another type of technology I have now learnt how to use effectively. I also used digital cameras for the images used in my magazine and so I learnt what shots are most effective for a magazine. I also improved using Microsoft publisher, which is the best program available to publish the finished magazine on as it gives the most professional look. I will now be able to use these technologies effectively in any future projects.

Looking back at you’re preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt in it from?

• I have made many improvements since my preliminary task. Over the course of constructing my magazine I have been able to research successful music magazines which has given me a better understanding of layouts and use of cover lines ,cover stories and masthead and how to make them look professional on my product. I have learned a lot about conventions used in music magazines and tried to include some in my product. cover of my final product looks far more professional than the preliminary and one of the main differences is the fonts I used (all sans serif) which helps the magazine have a professional finish.

REAL PRODUCT

PRELIMINARY TASK