Music Magazine Evaluation

Eloise Kenton-Barnes

In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

Challenges Convention Conforms to Convention

•I used a medium shot where the artists face is not showing, instead she is looking away from the camera. This directly challenges convention. This effect is used to produce a mysterious vibe, which anchors with the story of a new artist venturing out into the music scene. This adds intrigue and could lead the reader to purchase the product.

•There is a different shadowing medium shot placed to the right of the main picture. The image is transparent and anchors the phrase ‘battling her demons’. This image complies with convention as the artist is looking straight ahead, making eye contact with the reader.

• The placing of the articles featured within the magazine are located on the left hand side of the cover page. This follows the structuring of many real media products.

• The readers attention is immediately drawn to the main image, which is placed towards the left – complying with convention.

• The text used is large in font and complies with the colour scheme of purple, white and black. it does not distract from the secondary header which is in line with convention. I have chosen to use a scheme of 3 main colours this is a feature of many real magazine products.

• The logo is large in size and located in the left hand corner of the page. This allows for easy recognition by the customer and will ensure the magazine is easily identifiable. This is a feature used by many established music magazines.•The secondary heading is white in font and is placed on a black background. This gives a striking effect and catches the readers attention. This is used by many magazines and can be seen in magazine covers in my research.

Cover Page

In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

Contents Page

Challenges Convention Conforms to Convention•My contents page has a colour scheme of purple, white and black which continues from the cover page. This supports the conventions of a real media product as stereotypically they follow a 3 colour scheme.

•The contents page is clearly labelled with the masthead at the top of the page. Featured in this masthead is the issue number, date and the magazines website. This complies with convention although the issue number is usually featured on the cover page of the magazine.

•The contents page features images from the articles within the magazine this gives extra information to the reader and enables them to locate the article with ease. This complies with convention as images are used to create intrigue and breaks up the text on the cover page.

• The images vary in shot with the use of a long shot and medium shot photos. This adds dimensions to my contents page and complies with convention.

• I developed the convention of clearly labelling the articles within my magazine from real media products. This enables the reader to effectively navigate through the articles.

• My contents challenges convention by not featuring the main artist. Instead the exclusive interview with ‘Ella Fris’ is in the ‘Features Column.

In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

Double Page Spread

Challenges Convention Conforms to Convention •My double page spread uses the forms of real media products. The topic of the article is of the artist featured on the cover page adhering to convention.

•Quotations from the interview which are deemed most shocking or interesting to the reader are shown across the star. It is of larger font and develops the convention of real media products as many magazines use this technique.

•The interview conducted is in a question and answer format and uses the convention of real media products. The question part of the interview being in a different colour to the answers given by the artist. It is important to note that not all music magazines use this technique but it is an easy way to reduce the volume of text.

•The images used on the double page spread anchor the idea of the ‘high-flying riser’ whom is new to the music industry. This adds intrigue to the article and may provoke the reader to invest in the article.

• The long shot of my artist, although large in size, does not take the main focus of my double page spread.

• The article is also shorter in length than many of those featured in the magazines I researched.

How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

• I believe my media product represents the younger generation. This is done through the:– The use of a sleek colour scheme of purple, black and white which is considered ‘fashionable’ and would represent

the younger generation.– The use of font types which are of a graffiti style, which represents the age of the artist the main article is about

whom of which is in the R’n’B industry. – The articles featured within the article also reflect the younger generation who is interested in the current events

within the music scene; such as the death of Whitney Houston.

I have chosen to directly challenge convention. This is done by using a female singer whom is not posed or clothed in a seductive way. I did this to show the female gender that you don’t need to be ‘sexy’ to get attention. This reflects the singers direction as well.

The colour scheme is bold yet stylistic

appealing to an older audience.

The inclusive of ‘on – trend’ topics represents the younger generation the

magazine aims to appeal to.

What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why? • ‘Q’ Magazine is distributed by Bauer Media group. I believe they would also distribute my product to the main

magazine retailers due to its original format of news stories within the music world. • My magazine will be released monthly enabling for the collection of news stories within the music industry to

accumulate. • It will retail at the price of £2.99 making it accessible for my target audience.

• My magazine will be distributed by the media institute to all major supermarket chains. This allows for my target audience to access the magazine.

• Newsagents will also be a location where my magazine will be distributed to. My audience will live in cities (which reflects the urban theme to my magazine) and therefore will have easy access to newsagents.

• This is a well known company and therefore stocking the magazine in their stores will give the brand ‘chant’ a reliable feel – boosting sales.

Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

• I am aiming at a teenage audience, which have a interest in the inner workings of the music industry. The raw and straight to the point articles within the magazine clearly reflect the age group of 13-19 year olds. This age range are too old for younger pop magazines and wish to invest in a product, which has a professional and more adult look to it.

• From the questionnaire I gathered that the magazine had to be:– Low cost – accessible for the younger ages whom have little/no income. – On-trend with up to date stories and exclusives.– A ‘Adult’ feel – to get away from the teenage pop theme magazines. I believe I was able to meet all of these points in the construction of my magazine.

• To appeal further to my audience the article on my double page spread is short in size. I’ve done this to ensure that the audience will stay engaged in the article and will be more likely to re-purchase the magazine.

• I feel the magazine appeals more to a female readership due to the fonts, colours and articles featured. I could improve my magazine by opening my target market to feature both genders through a change in the colour scheme, fonts used and articles featured.

What Have You Learnt About Technologies From the Process of Constructing the Product?

•I’ve been taught to use bloc backgrounds to take pictures. This enables me to remove the backgrounds in Photoshop with ease.

• I learnt the effects of lighting on my pictures, having to choose the location of my photo shoot with a clear idea of how I wanted my images to turn out.

• I used this website to access fashionable fonts.

• I chose fonts that were clear yet still stylish. This relates the magazine to my target audience but still enables for easy reading by the consumer.

• This software enabled me to present my research around the successful institutes in the music industry.

• It allows me to import images and text to allow for a full explanation of my findings and construction.

• From my preliminary task to my main task I was able to fully understand the conventions in which PowerPoint should be used.

What Have You Learnt About Technologies From the Process of Constructing the Product?

• I used Photoshop to edit the images on my magazine. I also used it to construct the magazine itself.

• I’ve learnt the process of layering a document, placing images and text on separate layers to allow for easy editing. I also learnt to alter the opacity of each layer. Which I used to create the effect of an overlooking image on my cover and contents page.

• I learnt to use the background tool. This enabled me to use a one bloc colour background with diminishing colour. This added a professional element to my magazine.

• I learnt to effectively edit my images in Photoshop with the removal of backgrounds with the ‘magic wand’ tool. I also used the ‘clone’ tool to heighten the colours in my image.

• Whilst creating my magazine I learnt of the programme Slideshare. This allowed me to upload my PowerPoint's to my blog.

•It allowed for my PowerPoint's to be viewed in a video format accessible to all.

• This allowed me to upload all of my research, planning and construction PowerPoints to one place.

•It allows for the general public to view these PowerPoints and make their own assumptions of my work.

• I have learnt that this website is a great hub to share knowledge on existing magazine creators and also how other candidates go about constructing their own music magazine.

Looking Back at your Preliminary Task, What do you Feel you Have Learnt in the Progression From it to the Full Product?

• We can see the clear progression from my preliminary task to my main task. In my preliminary task I used a simplistic font style as well as limited effects on the images and backgrounds of the cover and contents page.

• I chose to use a black background as from my research I concluded that block colours were frequently used. From my preliminary task I was able to deduce that this colour was too strong to use on a music magazine and instead opted for a ‘gradient’ style background of a light shade of purple.

• The contents of my preliminary task worked well with a banner to label the page. I decided to carry on this style to my main task.

• In my preliminary task I chose to use the logo ‘prospects’ this did not have a different colour from the background and instead made the cover page appear to look more like a poster than a magazine. I altered this in my main task using a black circle to separate the logo from the rest of the magazine, for easy recognition.

• The placements of my articles on my preliminary task in the centre of the page. This also made the cover page look like a poster. I changed this in my main task to show the articles on the left hand side of the cover page. This complies with convention.