By Joe Westall

Music magazine evaluation

In what ways does your media product use,

develop or challenge forms and conventions of

a real magazine? My music magazine does follow most of the conventions that you will see in today's

magazines, I have tried to make it look as professional as I possible could through research of other magazines.

One of the main conventions of a music magazine is the masthead, this instantly identifies the magazine, and just by looking at the masthead you can immediately see the magazine type the target audience and the genre. With my masthead I wanted it to give off a classic feel, and really give people the thought of old school rock, I spent a while looking for a suitable font but this font looked really good and I was happy with the way it looked. It is very important to not over complicate your masthead as it needs to be easy to read and at the same time look good, the font i have used is called 'little Rickey nf' I chose this because it was clean and looked good whilst being very easy to read. One other main convention that music magazines tend to follow is that they will have a really eye catching colour scheme or house style, A lot of the time/in a lot of magazines, the house style uses red as it a very eye catching colour such as the rolling stone magazine, this is why I chose red as my house style, to capture the attention of the audience, also it stands out against the darker background.

Here is an example of an NME magazine

using the red masthead against the black

and white picture, similar to my magazine,

it really catches your eye and looks really

effective, I have found a lot of magazines

use the colour red in their house theme.

Another main convention that I have

followed is the 'plus' sign seen on many

front covers of magazines, as you can see

in my magazine and the NME example I

have got, both have a plus sign to show

more content within the magazine, it

makes the magazine look like there is a lot

more going on and draws the reader in to

want to find out more.

One convention that i have challenged in

my magazine is the idea that most

magazines have all there cover lines and

lures in the same place or on one side of

the magazine whilst I have them fairly

spaced out and on each side of my front

cover.

Here is another example of an NME magazine as an example, this shows how I have challenged magazine conventions, as you can see most the cover lines of this magazine are shown on the left side, I have some on both sides.

My main image on my magazine is in black and white with some colour, this makes it look moody and effective, this was the look I was going for with the whole moody looking band with the lighter, to show that they are rebellious, this effect is used a lot in magazines, to do this I used Adobe Photoshop cs5 and edited my image to look how I wanted, I did this with the Quick select tool and the image adjustment tool, I then modified it to look how I wanted.

For my contents page, I stuck to the conventions of a normal music magazine, most of the magazines I researched had plenty of pictures and an area where they actually said what was in the magazines with the page numbers. Also another thing I kept the same is in most magazines they have a section that appears in every issue, this is why I have the 'regulars' section. Another convention that I have in my contents is the pictures coming out of the box they are in, this really catches your eye and looks really professional, this is seen in many music magazines. Also I have kept my house colours/style the same with the blue and red, this is because I want the theme of this magazine to be set colours. Another thing I have done that follows conventions of real music magazines is I have made it easy to read and easy to find what you want to read, as you can see with the clear numbers next to the articles/pictures.

Here is an example of a NME music magazine contents page, I have tried to base my own contents page off this magazine with the big pictures and page numbers on the pictures, also as you can see, on each picture, they have a short sentence introducing what it is, I have done this with my music magazine as I have introduced each Picture. Also, as you can see from this picture, there is a section that says 'plus' this has what is in the magazine, I have also got something similar to this on my contents page with the 'features section' and the 'Regulars section.'

I feel that my double page spread has used

the conventions of a real magazine with

this double page spread. From the

research I did i found that many of the

double page spreads within music

magazines have columns of question and

answers, these inspired me to do the same

with my own double page spread, I decided

to my questions in yellow and my answers

would match the colours of the band

members you an see in the picture. Also I

found a rolling stone magazine that had the

black eyed peas on the double page

spread, I have analysed this magazine and

they have the band members in slightly

different colours so I did that with mine,

although, this could be said to be a

challenge to normal conventions because

although on the rolling stone magazine the

people are in slightly different colours, they

are not completely in different colours, this

is a way that I challenged normal

conventions of real magazines. Although,

one convention I did stick to was the way

my main image is on the left with the title

and masthead of the page also on the left, I

have found this in many magazines.

Here is some examples of double page spreads from the rolling stone magazine, as you can see, in the Kings of Leon magazine, there is columns of questions and answers, this is what my magazine is like, so I have followed a convention of a real magazine. Also as you can see in the black eyed peas one, he image is on the left similar to mine and the titles and mastheads are also on the left, my double page spread is very similar to this one, also as you can see the main man in this magazine is a different colour to the others, this is where I got the inspiration for my own picture on my double page spread. Another convention I followed was the fact that my questions are in a different colour to the answers, just like the Kings of Leon magazine only in this one the text is bold instead of a different colour.

How does your media product represent particular social groups? My music magazine represents certain social groups in a way that

does not generalise against any group. My magazine represents my

target audience and social group in a good way, it shows off that they

are into old music and like to find out about all what is going on within

there interests. Although some may say that I was representing my

social group in a negative way with my moody looking colours and

pictures and with the almost rebellious look to my main image, I did

want to show the sinister side of classic rock so I represented this

with my dark colour scheme and eye catching images. I still think I

have shown my target audience in a good way though as with my

different font types I have shown that there can be a variety of people

who are within my target audience, for the mast head I have fancy

classic looking font yet for my main cover line I have font that makes

it seem more of a heavy rock magazine. This shows that I am

keeping my target audience open for a wider variety of people and

not slimming it down to a certain group. The image I gave across

from my front cover was that it was aimed at an older audience which

is correct as my magazine would contain strong language and adult

humour. I have my models dressed in old school, 'cool' looking

clothes which portrays my social group as fairly fashionable and into

their old school trends, I had a lot of inspiration from the 60's when

there were 'mods' about, these were the likes of The Who and the

Kinks, this is what i wanted my target audience to be like. Also I think

i have represented my social group as a middle/working class group

as on my magazine I have a bit of bad language and in a upper class

society this would be seen as outrageous, another thing I have done

is not overwhelmed people with information on the front cover, I have

kept it neat looking and clean this is so it is easy to read, this could

represent my target group as individuals who like to get straight to

them point of things they are looking for instead of pointless

information that doesn't need to be there.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product

and why?

The type of media institution that would

distribute my media product would be a

magazine/online publisher such 'imagine

publishing' this is one the leading magazine

publishers in the UK that own a variety of

different magazines and smaller publishing

companies. Another publishing company that is

very big within the UK is IPC media, who own

and publish more than 60 well known media

brands. Although there my be online publishers

that would be interested in publishing this

magazine. The reason they would publish my

magazine would be to extent their empire of

ownership, in other words to say they own

another magazine which will make them gain

more profit from more and more people buying

a magazine that they own. If they choose to

buy a magazine and it becomes popular, not

only will it make the company much more profit

but it would significantly raise their popularity

leading to more publishing deals and once

again more profit, they would only choose to

publish my magazine if they knew it would be

successful.

Who would be the audience of your media

product? The audience for my media product would be older people

age from about 18-40, the reason my audience would be so old is because, as my magazine is a classic rock magazine, most of the what is in the magazine will be music and bands from older generations such as the who and the Beatles, most younger people would not like these bands now a days, if they have even heard of them at all. I wanted my target audience to be able to appreciate the music in my magazines rather than hem thinking it was dated and not good, this is why I wanted my Audience to be older rather than younger because they would recognise the music and bands. This does not however mean that some younger people would not like my magazine as there are a lot of younger people today who actually like classic rock much more than new music of today, like myself for example, I much rather prefer older music like the Kinks and the Doors rather than any new stuff. My magazine would be slightly leaning towards the male side of things with the humour and language used but it is not completely biased and would be appropriate for all genders if they are into this type of genre. Although my magazine would be aimed at an older audience, it would however be up to date with the latest trends and modern culture so people who are younger would actually understand and appreciate it as much as older people.

How did you attract/address your

audience? I attracted my target audience by making this magazine look and seem

rebellious, I did this by making it look really moody and the main picture shows one of my models holding a lighter, this could be seen as 'naughty' and would attract the attention of many. Also the use of bad language and eye catching quotes would of attracted my audience to think, wow this is shocking I really want to read this. I also think the bright colours in a magazine are the first thing people notice so this would also draw them in. I addressed my audience in a informative and almost friendly way but just as if it tells you what is there why and the main points, I think its best to get straight to the point so this is how I spoke in my magazine with direct easy to read responses, this would attract people as it doesn't seem like much to read and looks interesting. I think a main thing that attracts my audience is the pull quotes used on my front cover, they are so outrageous that it just makes people want to know more, people love it when bad things happen and to see quotes like 'F*ck the establishment' or 'midgets and strippers were all over the place' really makes people want to find out what is going on, thus drawing in the audience.

What have you learnt about technologies from the

process of constructing this product?

From making my music magazine I have learnt that it takes a lot more thought and consideration

about the layout and content of the magazine, a lot of research has to be done to get it right. I have

learnt that to get the best picture you have to have a high quality camera and the lighting is very

important to make the image look the best it can. One main use of technology that I have learnt to

use from creating my music magazine is the program called Photoshop cs5, this was used to modify

and manipulate pictures and images to make them look how I wanted. I used a variety of tool whilst

using Photoshop such as the 'spot-healing brush tool,' the 'polygonal lasso tool,' the 'crop tool,' and

the 'clone stamp tool.' Before doing my magazine I had no idea about how to use Photoshop but

now I feel I am confident and good at changing pictures and editing photographs, I find this program

really fun to use and really helpful in the production of my music magazine. I have learnt that without

the use of programs such as Photoshop, it would be significantly harder to create the emotion in an

image and capture the exact look that a person is looking for, it can make a picture look so

professional and effective, I would use it on any photo to make it look better. Another thing about

what I've learnt is that it actually takes a lot of time to properly edit an image and to get it to look

good, originally I actually thought that Photoshop would be easy to use but I was mistaken, it takes a

lot of time, patience and effort to make sure it is up to the standard that you want.

Another thing I learnt about technologies from the process of making my magazine was the program

'Microsoft publisher' this program really helped me to get my magazine to be lay out correctly and

get everything in line and looking professional. Publisher really helped in the layout of the magazine

as you could put guidelines on it to make sure everything was aligned. This program really helped

me complete the task well and correctly.

Another use of technology I learnt to use was

blogger, I used this program to upload all my work

and keep it in order.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in

the progression from it to the full product?

I feel I have come a long way sine my preliminary task, as my Photoshop skills have greatly improved and my idea of what a magazine looks like has got a lot better. When I did my Preliminary task I thought that the more that was on the page meant it was better, I have found that this is not the case as magazines actually looks a lot better if they have less on and are cleaner. One major thing I have learnt is that colour schemes are very important and the colour used will make a massive difference to the magazine, it is good to get a theme and stick to it. Another main thing that I have learnt is that the picture needs to be of great quality and the best picture you can get, in my preliminary task the picture wasn't great as I don't believe I took enough pictures, this is why I learnt to take as many pictures as possible so you have more to choose from, the more the better.

Here is my final front cover and my preliminary task front cover, as you can see my final front cover looks so much better than the preliminary task, it looks a lot more professional and just miles better. The colour scheme for my preliminary task doesn't really go and it isn't set out very well at all, also the picture is not of very good quality. My final picture on the other hand looks very good and the layout is much, much better, in my final I now have a house colour of red and blue were as in my preliminary there was no real theme to it. Also from research into magazines, I found that in my preliminary task, my bar-code was not in the correct place as this is never seen in any magazines, this was fixed in my final piece.

Here is my preliminary contents page and my final contents page, for a start I have learnt how to actually make it look like a magazine, my preliminary task did not look at all like a magazine but my final does. The images are clearer on my final this is because I learnt to take my time with the pictures and make sure I got them right. Another thing that I learnt from researching magazines was that they actually have a lot more pages than I originally thought as in my preliminary task I hardly had any pages, I made sure to add many more in my final piece. Also I added a lot more picture just like in real magazines. I think I have progressed a lot since my preliminary task and i am very happy with the out come of my final piece.