AS Media studies • Music Magazine Evaluation.• By Takomborerwa Mazarura

Who would be the audience for your media product?

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my new magazine is for the aspiring students aged from 15-26. The magazine is designed to be a relaxation tool as a break from school ect. The magazine is to be sophisticated yet casual and informal. It is supposed to be a open minded yet intriguing to young minds. This magazine is a tool to be used to inspire the reader to become all that they can be and fulfil their potential. If this magazine was real it is supposed to be the biggest selling magazine in the UK

The magazine is to be neutral to fit into all genres. I tried brainstorming on neutral mastheads and themes again to fit into most genres. I have found my own niche market which consists of people from all different types of music tribes who enjoy reading about other music genres, want to come out of their music tribes, or have an open mind. I like to call this unique niche group as perceptive strummers.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted and addressed my audience in array of different ways.One of the main ways that I attracted the audience was through the house colours. The main house colours on the front page are red and yellow. These two colours are bright and have connotations of fire. Throughout the history of life humans have had an intriguing fascination with fire and its colours especially the young people. So I thought maybe by using these colours I could apply the theory (of fascination with fire) into my magazine house colours so that they are attracted to the magazine. Another way that I attracted the audience was by the competitions that I put on the front cover and the feature articles. When I was thinking about how to attract my audience I had to think about Maslow’s hierarchy. I offered the readers of Real magazine a complete Apple package featuring almost everything Apple that you can buy. Relating to Maslow’s hierarchy people especially teenagers of today are constantly yearning for the newest fastest and best products in technology. So giving them the opportunity to win state of the arts goods is a opportunity that the reader I have targeted will Jump to. Also main article in my magazine is about money, music and girls and success. The reader I have targeted especially the males is into these sorts of things. So by having this title I have used Maslow’s hierarchy which is about when people have their basic needs met they search to meet higher needs. In this case the higher needs are money, music and girls and success so the viewer I have targeted wants these things, so they read this article for inspiration so that they may then achieve what they want.I believe that by having a low price for such a large magazine would attract the younger audience who may not receive that much money and also one might say the money conscious reader would smile with delight at the price of the magazine.

How did you attract/address your audience?

• I attracted my audience by I having free Haribos on my front cover. Most people in my target audience group either love Haribos or are obsessed with the sweets so the opportunity to have them for free from a magazine will be a heaven sent. First time buyers of this magazine in the target audience might purchase the magazine as they may say “it looks like a good magazine and there are free Haribos, so I might as well buy the magazine. also attracted my audience by having different artists on the front cover.

• I attracted the audience with a low price for the magazine. In my audience research the audience wanted a magazine with a price range between £2.00-£3.99. So I thought the price should be affordable but not so cheap to make the reader think that the magazine is filled with adverts and the picture and story line is not so good. The price was £3.20

• I attracted the audience by layering the main image above everything making the image come out hopefully making the reader say “whoa this guy must be big”

• I addressed the audience with my main image which makes eye contact with the viewer. By making eye contact with the reader the reader feels involved making them feel close to the artist.

• I attracted the audience with (I hope I am using this word in the right context) “ironic” names for articles. For example “The darkness are back in the limelight”. I also has an article saying “Hot stuff”. Hopefully this would have attracted the audience by intriguing them into thinking why this article.

• In human psychology human beings are attracted by glossy and shiny things. I used this to my own advantage by making my main articles title glossy hopefully this was eye catching.

• My main article was designed to inspire the teens and young adults to work hard at school and in all aspects of their lives and then they will succeed. So my magazine represents the particular social group that my magazine is targeted at as people who want to succeed and if they are in the ghetto or slums they want to get oust and do something with their lives like how the artist in my main article did with his life. The magazine is the thing that is supposed to be inspiring them.

How did you attract/address your audience?

How did you attract/address your audience?

• On my contents page I took the ideas from my front cover and utilized them on my contents. For example I made sure that the models made eye contact with the audience so that they feel involved. In the contents the male model is asking a question to the audience. This is one of the ways I addressed the audience and the model is looking at them.

• I attracted the audience buy not sticking to the house colours of the front cover but by changing them . The change in colours is like them as they like to mix things up and try a range of different things so by changing the colours I have attracted the audiences.

• I addressed the audience by asking them to meet “shockzz” this is like I am introducing them to the artist in person.

• In my magazine I have had articles about most of the things that my audience is attracted to fro example Money, music, girls fashion and technology and success

What Institution would institution would distribute my magazine.

• In my opinion universal music publishing are likely to be the media institution that would distribute my magazine as they handle all different types of music genres and music enterprises. They would be the most appropriate company for my magazine.

As the company handles different genres it would be great as the magazine would have links with several different artists. Universal studios handle different types of medias such as film, radio, music and television again this would help with sourcing different people for the magazine. As the magazine would be a universal product, it would promote the actual brand and its artists which would be a win win situation for the magazine and the company.

• From my research the company does not yet have a music magazine but it has a printing and publishing press so they have the facilities. A magazine would have a good business venture so it could bring them a lot of money. Also in the magazine there could be advertisements for the films that they produce from different genres.

• Most magazine would have the name of the artist or the object on the feature article on the side or below the artists image. I have challenged this layout by placing the name of the artist above the masthead to signify the power, importance and overall status that the artist and his name has. The name has a outer glow to make the name seem more majestic.

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

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

• My magazine challenges the conventions of a normal magazine as I moved the main image into the centre. Most magazines would have the image on the left or on the right. I also develop my magazine and attract the audience by s by moving the red parts of the left third which are the highlights of that particular story line, towards the model. This will make the text seem like its attracted to the image as if the image is a magnet. This will draw the readers attention to the artist and his article. I wanted the image to be predominant to context in position, pose and proxemics. Like a cover that I saw during my research period I wanted his clothes to be monotone making them seem more expensive than they really are.

I placed a "kicker" a story designed to stand out from the rest of the page by the use of a different font (typeface) and layout. The kicker is the article surrounded by a circle. As i could not find the circle tool Indesign, I imported and placed a yellow circle (keeping in tune with the house colours, also it is bright and attractive) ,from Photoshop. It has a shadow so that it stands out. The article is about "Google music" a new contender in the music download market. At the end of the kicker there is a lure saying "the war has only jus begun" hopefully this lure would attract the reader into reading on.

Most magazine would have the name of the artist or the object on the feature article on the side or below the artists image. I have challenged this layout by placing the name of the artist above the masthead to signify the power, importance and overall status that the artist and his name has. The name has a outer glow to make the name seem more majestic.

• The contents page of my magazine develops on conventional magazines aimed at both sexes. The magazine manages to be bright and vibrant whilst being masculine and feminine. The contents page and the magazine is neutral as I wanted and it is multi genres the contents page features artists from different genres such as the killers (rock/indie) and Kirk Franklin (gospel/ hip-hop / R‘N‘B). The magazine contents page also develops on conventional magazines as it is both formal and informal. You can see that the female model is wearing a formal dress and the male model is wearing a casual Adidas tracksuit. Most music magazines are normally aimed at one racial group. My magazine develops on this convention as it has all the major race colours in the UK.

• My magazine uses conventions of real media products as I have a barcode price and date. I also have a tagline for my front cover. Also I have a top and bottom strip. I also have a headline story.

• My magazine uses conventions of real media products because there I have a house colour that I have kept continuous on my front cover and on my double page article.

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

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

• I have learnt about how to use professional lighting properly. This comes under;

• · Using the right effects for the lighting

• · Using different colour filters

• · How the lenses on the professional camera work

• · How to get the correct background

• · How to find out the correct zoom

• I have learnt that by manipulating the different lights I can get rid of such things as shadows

• I also learnt about more different effects on Photoshop like the;

• · Drop shadows

• · Inner glows

• · Outer glows

• · Bevels

• · Inner shadows

• · Visibility control

• · Colour correction

• I have learnt that these technologies can help me in my magazine production as they can remove impurities such as white lines from the use of the magnetic lasso. There are many other technologies that I have used that make the magazine look more professional.

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

• I have learnt about how to use professional lighting properly. This comes under; • · Using the right effects for the lighting • · Using different colour filters • · How the lenses on the professional camera work • · How to get the correct background • · How to find out the correct zoom• I have learnt that by manipulating the different lights I can get rid of such things as shadows • I also learnt about more different effects on Photoshop like the; • · Drop shadows • · Inner glows • · Outer glows • · Bevels • · Inner shadows • · Visibility control • · Colour correction • I have learnt that these technologies can help me in my magazine production as they can

remove impurities such as white lines from the use of the magnetic lasso. There are many other technologies that I have used that make the magazine look more professional.

• I also leant about technology in the cameras and how to use them properly to get the image I desire. I leant that the focus tool can help to get the exact image that I want. This came under red eye removal, using the anti shake feature, the amount of flash I wanted in the picture and also how to change the lenses.

• I have figured out how the magnetic lasso in Photoshop works. The lasso can distinguish different colours and if you zoom in whilst using it moves towards the strongest colour in a pixel. The lasso creates fastening points but these points can changes when the colours changes. It’s difficult to explain but I have a fair idea of how it works.

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

product? • I also leant about technology in the cameras and how to use them properly to get the image I desire. I leant that

the focus tool can help to get the exact image that I want. This came under red eye removal, using the anti shake feature, the amount of flash I wanted in the picture and also how to change the lenses.

• I have figured out how the magnetic lasso in Photoshop works. The lasso can distinguish different colours and if you zoom in whilst using it moves towards the strongest colour in a pixel. The lasso creates fastening points but these points can changes when the colours changes. It’s difficult to explain but I have a fair idea of how it works.

• From using Photoshop and Indesign I think that photo shop is a lot better. I can understand why Indesign can be seen as better because it has guide lines but I think they are a distraction and when they are on they distort the view of the product unless you press the W key on the keyboard to get rid of the lines. However the typography system on Indesign is better. I learnt how to place borders on the text and you can rotate it with precision.

• Photoshop has more editing tools effects that cannot be found in Indesign. Maybe its because I am inexperienced, I could not find a tool to crop images. This was a major downside.

• I learnt how to upload screenshots onto blogger by this process;• press prints-screen• paste onto Microsoft word• copy• paste into paint• save

•Upload onto blogger.

1. 2. 3. 4.

• From using Photoshop and indesign I think that photo shop is a lot better. I can understand why indesign can be seen as better because it has guide lines but I think they are a distraction and when they are on they distort the view of the product unless you press the W key on the keyboard to get rid of the lines. However the typography system on indesign is better. I learnt how to place borders on the text and you can rotate it with precision.

• Photoshop has more editing tools effects that cannot be found in indesign. Maybe its because I am inexperienced, i could not find a tool to crop images. This was a major downside.

• I learnt how to upload screenshots onto blogger by this process;• press prints-screen • paste onto Microsoft word • copy • paste into paint • save • Upload onto blogger.

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

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• I have targeted the socio-economic social group of D- class. My magazine represents the social groups that I have targeted because they aspire to have higher social status. Which relates to the main article which was designed to inspire the teens and young adults to work hard at school and in all aspects of their lives so they may too succeed like the artist on the front cover. So my magazine represents a particular social group as it is targeted at people who want to succeed and if they are in the ghetto or slums they want to get out and do something with their lives like how the artist in my main article did with his life. The magazine is the and the role model artist are there to inspire them.

• In my magazine there is nothing but positive stories along the lines of “success, being in the light, working hard and love”. Having these stories in my magazine represents the social group that I am targeting as people who are loving and are determined fro success and as people who have a passion for music.

• My magazine represents the social group of the “perceptive strummers” as music loving people but only really care about a good beat no matter the genre as the magazine has a variety of different music genres.

• My magazine represents the my targeted social group as bright vibrant young people as the magazine has bright attractive colours and features bright and attractive stories and artists.

• I have a theory that states these perceptive strummers could use this magazine as a way to find an identity so they can mingle with a certain music tribe or they might use this magazine to find themselves.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you

have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? • I have brushed up my skills and knowledge of Photoshop and Indesign and I now know how to use these

programs work. Also In my preliminary task I have learnt how to take proper photographs considering lighting, colour and composition. In the progression from the preliminary task I have stepped up several levels in my production skills and in my knowledge of magazines.

• I have learnt all of the code and convention of a rel magzine.I now know did no

Front cover Contents page