Double Page Spread

My main image is a medium shot of my artist ‘Jenna B’, this photo anchors the article. It also creates Mise en Scene, as it set in a natural environment. This connotes the fact that Jenna B is finally in her natural environment as a Pop star.Both articles include grab quotes, these pick out an important part of the article which influence the audience to read the whole article not just the quotes that catch their eye first. I used Drop Caps in my article to clearly show where the article started after the stand first. My stand first gives an introduction to my article, it is in San serif font and a bright colour, to make it separate from the article. My main title is also in bright pink, to continue the colours from the front cover and contents page. Like Top of the Pops I used page numbers, for the audience to navigate themselves easily through the magazine. I put a photo credit, showing that I was the photographer at the bottom of my image. This is a typical convention of a real magazine.

After completing my magazine I asked 20 people in a focus group questions about my magazine. The first question was:

How much does my Magazine look like a real magazine?Very Similar…. Partly Similar…. Not Similar in any way….

This bar chart shows that 18 out of 20 people that I gave my questionnaire to all think that my magazine ‘Chart’ looks like a real magazine. No one said that it was not similar.

PlanningBefore creating my magazine I went through the process of planning what I wanted it to look like and who I wanted the magazine to appeal to. Therefore, I drew drafts of the cover, contents page and double page spread.This helped me see what layout would work best and where the images and text would look most attractive to the audience.

PlanningAnother stage of my planning was looking at existing music magazines and annotating the codes and conventions they had used and which ones were most effective. For example, to make my magazine look realistic I knew I had to include a barcode, the price and the date. I also recognised that I should add effects to the masthead and the cover lines, this makes a magazine look more aesthetically pleasing and more professional to the reader.

Furthermore, I also created a questionnaire. I handed the questionnaires out to a focus group of 20 people. I asked questions about their favourite genres of music, a bit about themselves and where they usually get their music information from. I used the results to help me decide which genre I would focus on and what I would include in the magazine to make my audience buy it.

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