Foundation Portfolio

Evaluation

My classmate, Poppy Saplamides, and I created two different issues of a pop music magazine. We decided to work together as we both wanted to look and research pop magazines and our ideas were similar. I created a front cover, contents page and double page spread which follow the conventions of real, existing pop music magazines such as Top of the Pops or We Love Pop. I have used these two pop music magazines as an inspiration and examples for my own designs.

The mast-heads of pop music magazines stand out and the readers eye is drawn towards it as it also relates to the genre of music represented. This makes it easier for the target audience to choose. I believe “Pop-It” is an appropriate masthead for a pop magazine as it is fun and reflects the pop genre. The cover line has a link to the artist featured on the magazine, who attracts the chosen target audience. The barcode is in a corner, at the bottom of the page and it is not eye-catching. The posters in “We Love Pop” are presented as “poster amazingness”, this inspired me to give the posters a fun, quirky name such as “wall candy”. This informal language attracts the readers. The colour scheme is girly, pink is very often used in pop magazines and I adopted this feature. The images I have used are girly and stylish therefore typical for a pop magazine. I have used We Love Pop as inspiration when creating my front cover as they tend to use this kind of images followed by sell-lines in every issue. The font type is quirky and fun and the bright colours are most likely going to attract young girls.

Front Cover

The contents page of pop music magazines include a variety of page numbers which allow the reader to find the certain articles they are looking for. They are usually in big fonts and bright colours so that they stand out. Contents pages contain subheadings which inform the audience. It also includes images of the artists featured and the attraction is driven towards the main article. Most pop magazines contents page include a fashion section, so I decided to include one in my own magazine. It is typical for a contents page to include images alongside important titles. I decided to add an “Editor’s word” section as I believe it is a great way to address to my target audience and it is quite frequent amongst pop magazines as it allows a direct contact with the reader. “Top of the Pops” introduces the contents page by using “Inside the mag…”, which inspired me to use “Inside Pop-It”. The images used are colourful and match the content of the contents page, and they reflect the genre. The content is going to attract the audience as it appeals to their needs such as fashion tips, gossip and contests. These features are often found in Pop magazines.

Contents Page

Double Page Spread

Double page spreads of pop music magazines include a range of images of the artist featured. They usually feature artists that are popular at the moment or promoting artists that are trying to get into this industry. The double page spread presents an interview which is supposed to interest and entertain the readers. The questions are fun and quirky and so are the answer, as the language used is informal and easy to understand for the target audience. This inspired me when it came to creating the questions and answers for the interview. The images used are typical for a Pop music magazine as they are girly and the model is appealing to the audience. Most Pop magazines such as We Love Pop tend to use more than one image on the double page spread, making it more visually appealing and attracting the audience.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My three pieces create a representation of young girls, who are the intended target audience. As it is a pop magazine, girls are more interested in the features included and the artists presented. Girls are the main target audience for pop magazine, therefore my presentation is conventional. “Pop-It” represents a particular age group of 14-18 years old girls, there is no specific race it is aimed at, class or region. It is also a representation of youth as it shows what this generation enjoys and their role models. The featured artists I have used are meant to appeal to my target audience as they represent Pop singers. They are effective inclusions to my magazine as they are meant to represent people the young girls can look up to and get tips from. The audience needs to see them as attractive and interesting as well as well educated. I have used a young female star as my cover star who targets my audience and perhaps inspires them to be like her and aim to self-actualisation. The fact that she is around the same age as them lets the girls relate to her and create an interest in her story. The males featured can be said to be represented as objects to be desired as audience is going to be attracted to them, this being a typical feature used by Pop magazines. This challenges stereotypes as women are more likely to be seen as objects and admired for their looks than men.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a UK-based international public-service broadcaster. It is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees, with about 23,000 staff, in total and 16,672 in public sector broadcasting. The BBC sponsors and distributes the magazine “Top of the Pops”. As this is a very successful pop music magazine amongst young teenage girls, I believe the BBC is the media institution that is most suitable for my media products. Because of its popularity, it would help my magazine grow and people would also trust buying it.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product?

• Around a quarter of BBC revenues come from its commercial arm BBC Worldwide Ltd. which sells BBC programmes and services internationally and also distributes the BBC's international 24-hour English language news services BBC World News and BBC.com, provided by BBC Global News Ltd. Because it is an old institution, it is one of the most reliable. Britain's first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mail's Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba. The Melba broadcast caught the people's imagination and marked a turning point in the British public's attitude to radio. However this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By the Autumn of 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licencing authority, the General Post Office (GPO), was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts.

• But by 1922 the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests [15] and moved to rescind its ban in the wake of a petition by 63 wireless societies with over 3000 members. Anxious to avoid the same chaotic expansion experienced in the United States the GPO proposed that it would issue a single broadcasting licence to a company jointly owned by a consortium of leading wireless receiver manufactures, to be known as the British Broadcasting Company Ltd. John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the Company made its first official broadcast.The Company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers and by a licence fee.

The development of the BBC

Top of the Pops – television programme

• Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, was a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1 January 1964 and 30 July 2006. It was traditionally shown every Thursday evening on BBC1, except for a short period on Fridays in late 1974, before being again moved to Fridays in 1996, and then to Sundays on BBC Two in 2005. Each weekly programme consisted of performances from some of that week's best-selling popular music artists, with a rundown of that week's singles chart. The magazine was a spin-off from the TV programme and already had an audience that was going to be interested in it.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

“Pop-It” targets teenage girls aged between 14-18 years old. They are girly, sociable, into pop music and one or more artists represent their role models. Because my magazine is about the pop genre, it is suitable for my target audience. The reader of “Pop-It” enjoys gossip, fashion and spending time with their friends, therefore we aim to produce the best articles which will both entertain and inform the target audience. “Pop-It” will want to reward and treat its readers and will strive to encourage them to embrace themselves. The magazine offers a fun, entertaining and informative selection of features which will appeal to girls who have similar qualities. I have chosen this target audience as Pop music mostly appeals to young girls and they are more likely to purchase magazines based around this genre. Further decisions about the magazine itself were made after carrying out a questionnaire and a focus group in my target audience.

• Focus group questionnaire :http://claudiaionescuaslevelmediastudies.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/focus-group-questionnaire.html• Target Audience questionnaire:http://claudiaionescuaslevelmediastudies.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/pop-magazine-questionnaire.html

In order to attract my target audience, I followed the codes and conventions of existing pop magazines.

• “Pop-It” includes posters, puffs and a variety of images, these features are typical.

• I have used girly colours which would appeal to my target audience as they are typically appealing to young girls.

• The masthead stands out because of the fun, quirky font and the bold, bright colours which catch the eye of the audience. This is important as the masthead is one of the first features noticed by the audience.

• I have directly addressed my audience by using “you” and “I”, this gives the magazine a friendly feel which is appropriate for the pop genre and the audience it is aimed at.

• The featured artists attract the audience through looks, style, personality as well as profession.

• The audience would also enjoy the content as its aim is to meet their needs such as tips and information that will both entertain and educate them.

• The double page spread article holds their interest as it offers an interview to which the audience can easily relate which uses direct address and informal language, making it easier to understand and read.

What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?• I have learnt a variety of new skills since the beginning of this

project. I know how to edit an image in Photoshop and manipulate it in order to obtain the product wanted. I have used Photoshop for all three pieces of work I have produced.

• I have also used blogger ( www.claudiaionescuaslevelmediastudies.blogspot.co.uk) in order to present the work I have produced. It is easy to access and public.

• www.slideshare.co.uk helped me add my products on my blog• I have mostly used PowerPoint for my presentations .• These are the main programmes used, however I have also used

YouTube and Google in order to gather information.• It is important to use software that involves blogging rather than

handwritten coursework as it is easier to express the genre and allows a lot more information to be contended and also offers skills.

• My Photoshop skills have highly improved since the beginning of this coursework, making me a more confident media studies student.

Looking back…• Looking back at my preliminary task, I

realise I developed many skills. • I am much better at working on Photoshop

now. • I am well aware of the conventions of

existing pop magazines, therefore I gathered knowledge which might be useful later on. I also acknowledge the amount of work put into creating a magazine.

• The contents of my pieces of work is the area I have improved on as they are better now than they were in the preliminary task.