By Danielle Annenberg

My Music Magazine Evaluation

Question 1In what ways does your media product use,

develop or challenge the conventions of a real media product?

Here is a variety of different KERRANG front covers that I have looked at on Google, these helped me to choose a theme and layout for Pulse magazine.

The Conventions of a music magazine front

cover

Cover imageThe cover image is conventional as it is placed over the masthead, this is not a problem as most will be able to associate the magazine regardless of the sight of the title. The model is looking directly into the camera to attract people to the magazine.

The ButtonThe button is unconventional for most magazines but is often used by kerrang and other rock magazines

The Barcode and DateThe barcode is conventional to be on the front cover in all music magazines it will also display the price in the currency according to whether the magazine is sold, a date may also be presented on to the barcode.

The MastheadThe masthead is conventional as the cover image is a layer above the text this is very common for magazines. The text is in white over a black background to make it stand out.

TypographyOn this cover of Kerrang’s magazine there is just one font in different sizes and colours this is not very conventional for a rock music magazine as they usually tend to be rebellious with different fonts.

The EyebrowThe eyebrow is very conventional for magazines as it show some of the topics shown inside to draw the reader to the magazine

The Cover LineThe cover line is in the largest font on the pain to show the audience what the main topic is about it his magazine issue

Other Cover Lines and ArticlesThese tell the reader what other articles are in the magazine

The Conventions of Pulses’ Magazine Front Cover

The EyebrowThe Eyebrow is very conventional for magazines as it show some of the topics shown inside. I have chosen articles which are extremely recent such as the Brits because I feel my target audience will be very interested in recent articles.

The MastheadThe masthead is un conventional as the cover image is a layer behind the text, I decided this because my magazine is unknown and so I wanted to make sure my masthead was prominent this challenges the conventions of Kerrang. I choose red text as it symbolises a pulse. The masthead stands out and is spread across the majority of the page to attract attention.

The Barcode and priceThe barcode is conventional to be on the front cover in all music magazines including Kerrang.

The Cover LinesI have followed KERRANGS conventions of having the main articles cover line as the biggest text on the page, it is very conventional for Kerrang to have this in the middle of the page.

The TypographyI have used a limited amount of fonts this is challenging the conventions of most music magazines, I choose this because the fonts I feel these fonts are modern and this is how I wanted my magazine.

The Cover ImageThe cover image is unconventional as it is placed under the masthead. The model is looking directly into the camera to attract people to the magazine this is a normal convention of all magazines.

I choose to use red, yellow and black because these colours are bold, represent loud music and are also unisex colours. This follows the conventions of the kerrang magazine cover that I choose to base my cover on although many other kerrang front covers vary in different colours depending on the issue.

Other cover images I have chosen to challenge the conventions of this particular Kerrang cover but develop the ideas of other kKerrang covers by choosing to insert pictures from other articles.

Analysis of Kerrang and Pulse’ Front Cover and how the develop and challenge conventions

Kerrang’s and Pulse’s front cover consists of various different conventions. Kerrang’s magazine front covers tend to slightly vary in design although all of their magazines have the same look to them this develops the conventions of a indie magazine. The magazine that I looked at has an eyebrow and ears which is then followed by a masthead that is wide enough to fill out the width space on top of the page this follows the conventions of a Kerrang magazines and most indie rock magazines. Its central image lays on top of the masthead, the main colour themes are black and red. Pulse and Kerrang have many similarities in their front covers although I feel for that Pulse’s stands out more due to the bolder colours.

Mastheads

Develop?I have kept the bold text that Kerrang adopts although I decided to change the colour and keep it simple because I wanted my masthead to stand out without any special effects as my magazine is new in the market, I wanted the name to be remembered and clear.

Challenge?I have challenged the conventions of Kerrang by choosing a bright red colour, I choose red because a blood pulse is red. Pulse is also a very bold colour.

The Conventions of Kerrang’s Double Page SpreadThe HeadlineThe headline is very conventional to be prominent in an article, this informs the reader what the article is about. It is very conventional for the headline to be on the right facing page.

TextKerrang keeps to the conventional rule of thirds in columns with gutters, with the start of each paragraph starting in bold keeping the article organised.

Pull QuotesExtracts from the text have been taken out of the article to draw the reader to read it.

The Stand firstThe stand first is conventional to be in a bold or capital font, it is an introduction to the article.

The Article ImageThe article image is usually big and takes up a whole page so it does not bore the reader, it is full bleed this is especially in magazines that are based on a younger target audience.

The Conventions of Pulse’s Double Page Spread The Headline

The headline is very conventional to be prominent I have kept tot this convention as I though this was necessary to keep my article clear and organised.

The TextPulse here keeps to the conventional rule of thirds in columns with gutters, this keeps the article organised.

The Article imageMy article image is full bleed as I thought this was the best choice for a younger audience. The ‘thumbs up’ gesture and strong eye contacting is as though ‘Hayley’ is ‘spudding’ the audience. I have covered the fact that ‘Hayley’ is nude showing that I have taken into account my male and female readers are covered, making it sexy for males but not to explicit for females.

The Pull Quotes Extracts from the text have been take out the text to draw the reader to the article

The DropcapThis is conventional for Kerrang and is eye drawing for the reader to read the article

The Stand first I’ve used an extremely similar unconventional stand first to Kerrangs.

The Footer Footer this shows the page number and has the name of the magazine, very conventional for music magazines.

Kerrang’s and Pulse’s Double Page Spread Analysis

Both Pulse and Kerrang’s double page spread tends to follow the conventions of most music magazines; the stand-first, headline and article image all follow the conventions. The double page spreads follows the rule of thirds and is pleasing to the eye. The double page spread I looked at had a full size image on the right side and text on the left so this is the convention I followed. I decided that on my double page spread I would make it look as though ‘Hayley’ my model was nude, although in this current period of time most magazines wouldn’t block it out, because my magazine is for males and females I didn’t want to scare away the female readers but wanted it to be relatively sexy for my male readers.

Conventions of a magazine Contents pageKerrang uses sections to separate the different pages and make it easy for the reader to be able to direct themselves to the pages they wish to specifically read.

Here Kerrang have inserted a advertising subscription box for readers to choose if they wish to reguarly buy the magazine.

The Front cover masthead as been carried through to the contents page to keep the same theme throughout the magazine, this will lead to the reader creating an immediate connection with the magazine.

Here, Kerrang have made an interaction with the audience and an introduction to this issue.

Kerrang have inserted an eye catching photograph which is very relevant for this genre of magazine.

Conventions of Pulse magazines Contents Page

HeadlineI used a large header as I wanted to reinforce the name of my new magazine, following the conventions of Kerrang magazine.

SectionsFollowing the conventions of kerrang I choose to divide my magazine into different headers to ensure it is easy for my readers to navigate through the magazine.

Other Images I decided to insert other article images as I decided that it would attract my audience to my magazine more

I followed Music magazines conventions by adding the issue number and cover date to make it clear for the readers to know which issue they are reading and if they’ve missed any.

Main imageI kept the main image my main article to keep the ‘Hayley Williams’ theme throughout my magazine.

Here I have added an introduction to my magazine I though this was crucial for a new magazine, to have some connection with readers

Conventions of Kerrangs and Pulse’s contents page

I made my contents page similar to Kerrang's as I felt the layout was relaxed, young, easy to read and easily to use as a navigator it was a very conventional type of contents page as it followed the conventions of a clear layout picture and other pictures for different articles.. A picture on the left with the content on the right hand side is conventional in most magazines. I decided to use circle shapes to make the main articles page number stand out. This again is conventional for contents pages.

Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Who is my target audience?

My target audience is aimed at people within the age of 16-25 years old with an interest in indie and rock music. My product is aimed at both genders and all cultures and ethnicities. My target audience is of a C2-C3 class although with indie rock this can vary as many fans can be of a lower class with others being a rebellious rich upper class due to the type of fashion and expense in raves such as cable and fabric.

Photograph RepresentationAs my target audience is based on a younger age I had to choose a model who looked in this age range and posed suitably for this requirement even though my model also had to represent a indie rock artist in this case, Hayley Williams. My model, Ellie represented Hayley by her messy/red rock hairstyle and standout clothes range I feel that my model looked similar to Hayley and represented her well.

Representation is a way of sharing certain ideas through media products such as music magazines as they deliver certain messages to their targeted audience.

Mise en scene is an expression used to describe the design aspects of production, which essentially tells a story, this could be through props, lighting, backing, costume etc..

I designed my model Ellie to look like Hayley Williams even going to the extent where I decided to dye her hair.

PoseI got my model to pose in a way that I thought was appropriate for an indie rock magazine. Simple and not forced. ’Hayley’ poses with a thumbs up to her fans as though she is ‘spudding’ them

ClothingHere is my model, I have dressed her in clothes similar to Hayley Williams. This will attract my target audience of 16-22 both men and women.

TextThrough-out my magazine I have tried to use a variety of different texts without making my magazine look too complicated.. I made this decision as this is how a 16-22 year olds rock magazine should look. A magazine with a variety of fonts gives the magazine a rebellious, rock look which is exactly how I wanted my magazine to look. Another reason why I choose a variety of fonts is because the results of my questionnaires revealed that boys liked a magazine messy rather than neat Although my magazine is for both genders and the females respondents argued that they preferred a neat magazine, my magazine is more likely to be predominently male, as there are more male rock fans than female. I choose to use informal text because of my target audience, I feel that being at the age of a student my audience will be bored of reading formal information and when reading a rock magazine they will want some rebellious and simple text.

From her flawless pale complexion and sexy red hair, Hayley is definitely an eye catching, young lady. The talented Hayley Nichole Williams is the soul and longest reigning member of the indie rock band, Paramore. Christmas baby, born on December 27th 1988 she is just 24 years old. Hailing from Meridan, Mississippi the American beauty lived there until 2002, when at 13, Hayley moved to Tennessee due to the divorce of her parents. Surprisingly, the outrageous confident vocal artist claims that she was bullied as a teen and was very timid whilst growing up. She certainly isn’t timid now!

Here is an extract from my double page spread this shows the type of language I used through my magazine

Design I choose to use colours that I thought would suit my target audience. The colours are predominantly red black and yellow, this suits both genders and are unisex colours which also again follow the conventions of Kerrang magazine and is then favourable for both males and females. I choose not to include a cover mount as I feel due to technology today, CD’s are out of date and I want my magazine to be current, additionally to this when doing my market research I revealed that a cover mount was not necessary for a magazine and only a small percentage overall said a cover mount would attract them to a magazine. Due to the large rise in social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram and photo editors like photoshop etc.. There has been a huge interest in photos therefore I have chosen to base my magazine on a ratio 50:50 for copy and text.

Question 3What kind of media institution might publish your product and

why?

Future PublisherFuture creates high-quality multi-media products which reaches audiences’ online, on mobile and in print. Future is a magazine and internet publisher which was founded in 1985. Future publishes magazines to the United Kingdom, America and Australia. In 2006, future was the sixth-largest in the United Kingdom. It publishes more than 150 magazines in fields such as video games, technology, automotive, sport, music and creative. Future is the biggest guitar and music making publisher in the UK. Magazines that Future publish are; Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Total guitar and Rhythm. Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Revolver are still largely expanding. Future is the UK’s number one licensor of magazine contents. Future publishes over 100 special editions every year generating newsstand revenues of over £4.5 million with a huge amount of high-quality content to choose. Based on this research I decided to choose Future as the publisher for my magazine. Future publishes various magazines of different fields including the music field. Future has proven to be successful in its publishing of magazines in particular music magazines and publishes over a range of countries and so is a good publisher too look into for publishing my indie rock magazine. The fact that Future publishes Classic rock could be seen as a positive as it is clear that future is successful in producing similar magazines on rock although the similarity would not affect sales as there is still a dramatic difference between classic and indie rock.

Introducing one of Futures magazines..

The Official Xbox magazine is clearly aimed at Xbox lovers. Future is an amazing publisher for a magazine with a specific genre as it knows how to market specialist magazines.

Where could your media product be sold?

My magazine would most likely be stored in retailers such as Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsburys etc… WHSmith is a large news and book store and would be perfect to sell my magazine because there are many other magazines which are sold there. My magazine is a music magazine so would be ideal to be sold in stores like HMV.

How much is PULSE and why?I have priced my magazine at the small retail price of £2.45 due to the class and age group of my magazine. I have also decided that my magazine will be printed on to glossy paper , because this gives a magazine a much more superior feel to it as well as making it look more professional. I have decided that my magazine would be sold internationally but mainly to America as I feel that this America had a keen interest in indie music similarly to the UK audience.

My magazine only contains 66 pages and so compared to Uncut who uses matt paper and contains 132 pages it is affordable. I therefore have ensured that to cover production costs a large number of advertisement pages are inserted into my magazine. This will enable me to be able to make a profit regardless of the cheaper price. Advertising will be about 45% on my magazine.

Question 4How did you attract/address your audience?

Target audience

My target audience for Pulse is males and females aged 16-25 years old. I found through looking at my research that the shots for the cover images of Kerrang are generally half shots/ three quarter body shots, therefore I decided to take shots of my model according to this requirement. The models on the front cover of Kerrang generally have a ‘messy’ look to them, although posed they tend not to have the ‘studio look’, although being a magazine which had an audience of men and women it is predominantly male so I decided my model dressed in a ‘feminine rocky way’.

How did I attract/address my audience to my front cover?

I used unisex colours to attract males and females, bold colours help my magazine to stand out and a woman on the front cover also makes the magazine attractive to women as well as attractive to men. This makes it easier for women to relate to the cover. I have tried to make it clear on the cover that there is women articles as well as men articles.

How did I attract/address my audience to my double page spread?

I attracted my magazine through my layout and design. My double page spread has a full bleed image because my target audience will be more attracted to copy than they would text this is supported by my market research. I kept text formative but short (around 800 words) because I feel that readers like to read minimal amounts of information when in the age range of 16-25. I used words like ‘fav’ and commented on the article for example ‘she definitely gets our vote’ when talking about Hayley being voted the sexiest woman, this keeps the article ‘young and modern’. I attracted my audience to my double page spread by Hayley having an explicit block across her chest making it look as though she was nude to attract males and give the double page spread a sex appeal but covering her chest us so that it doesn’t put my female readers off.

How did I attract/address my audience to my contents page?

I attracted my audience to my contents page by using an extremely similar layout to Kerrang, I used my audience’s preferred colours and texts and made sure that my layout was simple and easily to read. My contents page has a small amount of copy to ensure that my main article was the main feature on the page. I feel as though the fonts I have used are ‘young looking’ and suit my target audience of 16-22 years old.

Question 5

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Who are my audience?My target audience are likely to dress in an ‘indie’ way. I believe that their favourite shop would be Topshop this is because of the indie fashion that Topshop sell. I also believe this as when asking people who liked the look of my music magazine where they shopped they indeed said Topshop. Most Paramore/ Hayley Williams fans are great indie fans.

What career will my audience have?As my target audience is based at 16-25 years old this means that it is more than likely that they will be students and in education whether that being college or university. Therefore there is great opportunities for adverts on education; eg; UCAS adverts. If not in education the audience may be interested in a music career so this gives an opportunity for instrument adverts.

What would my target audience look like?

As you can see my audience has a look of ‘freewill’ and have a very distinct fashion, this fashion is the craze of most teenagers now which is why I think an indie magazine is so appropriate at the time of its peak.

‘Ravers’

According to Kerrang their readers are the heaviest music consumers purchasing over 6 albums per month on average(53% more than the national average) and 8 times more likely to spend over £200 a year on albums. This is why I have heavily researched Kerrang magazine because of their great success.Due to Kerrang having such a great success rate I decided that I would base a large proportion of my magazine on them, although create an indie rock genre for my magazine as this is far more modern and the audience for this music is growing due to the rise In ‘raving’ rather than ‘clubbing’.

FABRIC CABLE

These are the questions I used to analyse my magazine

Front cover- 1. Who do you think the target audience is for this magazine? 2. What do you like about my front cover? 3. What stands out to you about the cover, would you choose this magazine yourself? 4. What genre would you say this magazine was? 5. What would you say could be improved on my front cover, do you think it works?

Contents page- 6. What do you think about the layout of my Contents page? 7. Do you think it is keeping with the style of the front cover? 8. Would you find this easily to navigate around? 9. What do you dislike about the contents page and if so how would you change this?

Double page spread- 10. Does this article appeal to you, if so what attracts you to it? 11. Do you think this carries on theme of the front cover and contents page? 12. What do you dislike about the double page spread and what would you change Overall- 13. What do you think of the product overall?

The Results from my surveyMy questionnaire after my magazine production meant that I was able to gather results to find out about what my audience thought of my magazine here are my overall results.

Front Cover1. 16-24 year olds 100%

2. THE IMAGE 50 %THE MAIN ARTICLE LAYOUT 50%

3.YES THE COLOURS 100%

4.100% INDIE ROCK

5.BACK COLOUR 50%LARGER FONTS 50%

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD10. YES, it is current (25%)YES, I love Paramore (25%)YES,Hayley is fit (38%)NO, don’t know who Paramore are. (12%)

11.YES, the colours are the same throughout as wel as similar fonts 100%

12. Maybe more pull quotes 10%Nothing 90%

CONTENTS PAGE6.EASY TO NAVIGATE (25%)CLEAR (25%)MODERN (25%)ATTRACTIVE (25%)

7.YES (100%)

8.YES (100%)

9.Too neat (40%)Nothing (60%)

Overall my audience said that their favourite thing about my magazine was the picture in my double page spread as it was sexy for males and yet not too off putting for females.

Audience feedbackIn order to find out about my target audiences views on my magazine I decided to do a voice recording on my phone as an audio note to record the answers for my questions. This helped me to find out whether my magazine is specific to my target audience and think about some of the changes that I could have made. These are loaded on to my blog in the evaulation section.

Question 6

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

The technology that I used throughout the production

• Word press• Adobe Photoshop Cs5• Adobe InDesign• SLR Camera• Social networking sites – Facebook, Twitter

Using WordpressWord press is a free blog production website which enables you to create a blog on the internet. This was the first time that I had ever created my own blog so I had to look at existing blogs to understand what my blog should look like. Once I had understood how to make a post and create categories the additional work was easy. Creating the categories was a challenge at first because I had to ensure that I had subheadings within headings. I struggled with displaying files onto my blog so they are displayed on the posts without having to click onto the link, some would not display but some did.

Adobe InDesign

InDesign is the next tool that I used to produce my product. This is where I created my masthead, front cover, contents and double page spread. InDesign was hard for me to use at first as I struggled with the different tools that InDesign possess but my preliminary task meant that I had background knowledge and this helped me dramatically and saved me a lot of time in the long run.

Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is widely used within the media industry and in the production of magazines etc… Photoshop is used to edit photographs, I used this tool to edit all the photos that I had taken for my magazine- ‘Pulse’. I found this document the hardest to use. During the editorial of my photographs I needed to crop out the background of my photos, this proved to be tricky because of the similarity between my model and the background. Cropping around my models hair also proved to be an extremely hard task. For my double page spread the hair was so hard to cut around that I decided to leave the background, this was not an easy decision because the picture that I had taken displayed a shadow. I hard to therefore blend the colour of the background and fill the shadow in this colour. This proved to be a very difficult task but I feel the finished product is better this way than cutting around the hair which left the photograph looking messy.

SLR Camera

I used an SLR Camera and tripod which I rented from college to take my shots. I found the camera easy to use and did not struggle with taking the photos. I had to make sure the camera was in focus and that I was not chopping any part of the picture out.

The Internet - Social Networking Sites And Google

Lastly I used social networking sites to contact models for my photo-shoot. I also used Facebook and twitter to look at friends photos to see who had a similar appearance to my artist, Hayley Williams. Once I had chosen who I wanted to be my model I then had to contact them through my mobile phone both calling and texting to arrange a time and date to take photos. I regularly used Google in the production of my media magazine because it helped me to research into my artist and also helped me to look at previously taken photographs of my model, Hayley Williams.

Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

My ProgressionI have learnt, developed and progressed my skills by using a variety of different design programmes.

At the start of my coursework I had never used Adobe Photoshop nor had I used Adobe InDesign, My knowledge using computer documents and design programme was very limited and was only what I had left behind before GCSE level. I only had experience in using programmes such as word, PowerPoint, excel etc.. I feel from my preliminary task I have made a huge improvement. My first attempt at a magazine was extremely simplistic and I designed both my front cover and contents page in a very amateur way. I am now extremely happy with my product and feel I have created and designed it to the best of my ability. My front cover and contents page in my preliminary task has one layer and the design and layout has no specific structure whereas now my magazines front cover, double page spread and content page has various layers and a good structure.

What have I learnt about publishers?

Media is one of if not the largest publisher in the UK. Their print copies reaches almost 75% of all women and 42% of all men in the UK. The main audience that IPC focus on are clearly women usually working to upper class.. IPC is part of a international corporation.

My Final Pieces Of Work..

The Media’s Manipulation On The Public

I feel now that I have a decent amount of knowledge of how to use Photoshop which came with practice and persistence, I have now realised how easy it is to change the appearance of a photograph. The media uses software like Photoshop to edit pictures to potray ‘a look’ to the public. The pictures that we see in magazines etc.. are highly edited and do not look like this in reality. Representation throughout the media gives an impression that we should all look a certain way when in fact no one looks the way media manipulates photos.