2. Evaluation
Question 1
in what ways your media product use does, develop or challenge forms of codes and conventions
of a real media products?
Genre- for our assignment we had to create a music magazine from scratch, we also had to choose a
genre of music, I decided to go with an indie rock genre, as I found that it would be creative and
challenging to do. Also I believe it would go well as I could find a lot of bands that fit that genre. I got
my basic ideas from music magazines such as Kerrang! And NME. The reason why kerrang!Is because
it would allow me to see a wider range of rock which Kerrang! Magazine specializes in, and metal.
NME covers more of the indie side of the music world, also covering electronic, some rap, rock and
grunge. NME is most well known for its coverage of indie music, light rock and electronic. This gives
NME their well known name and popularity as people. I thought about going along the same lines as
NME, but in my magazine I’ll be covering more rock and grungy type bands with the occasional piece
of heavy/ metal.
Masthead- the title of my music magazine is called Vision Music Magazine. And I have shortened it
down to VMM, which makes it soundscatchier and it’s easier to remember. I mainly got the idea off
NME as theirs is New Musical Express = NME, NME sounds catchy and it is simple to remember so I
thought I should do the same thing. Also I got the colour scheme from NME, which they use, a
variety of colours depending on the article in the magazine. When designing my mast head I used
Photoshop, this helped me as I could choose the colour the size of my masthead which was VMM I
could add an outer layer, which was a lot more helpful than trying to create 2 separate layers and
put one on top of the other.
Images- for my music magazine I took my own photos for the front cover, contents page and
double page spread. The photos I took had to fit to my genre of music. The reason for this is because
if I had taken photos to fit my genre of indie rock, it would not make sense if I got the stereotypical
chav in my magazine. The images had different angles used with different lighting which I used to
create different looks for them; also with the different lighting it made it look more and more of a
rock magazine for the cover.
Costumes& Props- for my general costume, I asked my friends to were coats, skinny jeans and a hat,
I decided on the day of the photo shoot if they should wear a beanie, my first model I asked him to
wear a beanie, and the other one I asked him if he could style up his hair and push it back, or my
Double page spread, I got them to go into a tightly compact room, I asked one of them to hold a
clapper board as it would make it stand out in the photo and look better then adding text onto the
image.
3. Models- for my magazine I decided to choose two friends, one who was already in a band this is for
my front cover and double page spread. For my contents page I took a photo of my brother and
some more friends, for this I took simple head shots of my them which is what I needed for my
contributors side of my magazine in the contents page, I asked my brother who is the main photo in
the contents to pull an aggressive face, the reason for this is because I wanted to show why he is
pulling the aggressive face in the contents. But for my main dps and front cover, I asked them if they
could meet at a local recording studio which also does photography. I also asked them if they could
wear certain clothes such as skinny jeans, a coat, I bought the beanie and asked them both to try it
on and decided to make one wear it. I used the different rooms in the house and made them
positioned in certain points in the room, I also made them pull certain expressions to make them fit
the genre of music and the general style of the magazine.
Typography- for the general style of the font for my magazine I used a variety of different fonts and
sizes which made it look like a magazine, also I used different colours to make it look more
interesting. I used a variety of colours in my magazine such as red, yellow, black white. This makes it
not look dull and boring and gives it a good look, I got the colour scheme from NME as they use red
black and white, I thought this would look good for my magazine as it would make it look similar but
different at the same time. For the front cover I made a the sizes of the text different as it makes the
title e.g. the vaccines, stand outwhich is all in cap locks, and the information below is in lower case,
to make them differentiates.
layout- for my late out of my magazine I had to decide on where I had put all of my pictures, text,
and information for my magazine, by doing this I had to make it look as real as I could, by doing this I
looked at other magazines on where they positioned there images and text. I looked at NME and
how they positioned their images and text on the contents page, they had a band index and a couple
of photos on there to make a clear link from the text to the photos so It didn’t look like it was put
there for no reason. For my layout on the content page, I ordered things like my own band index,
which was put into alphabetical order which the layout for that doesn’t look to messy on the page, it
was not hard to follow as I managed to also section it off by using a black line. I also did the same for
my front cover, having all the text on the left to make the image clear, it also fitted the rules of
thirds, where the text is placed on the left so people can read it with ease and so the models for my
magazine are also visible, for my magazine it showed a clearly that the main article in my magazines
is about the puppets which is the band I created.
4. Question 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Target audience
for my magazine the target audience is aimed around the ages of 16- 21, it will be a aimed
towards mainly males as they tend to follow rock more than females, but at the same time
it will be aimed towards women as well. The type of class they’ll be in will either be working
or middle class, having money but not a lot, it will be affordable, also since my target group
is aimed at teenagers to young adults, they will use social media a lot so they might even
buy my magazine online. The way I aimed my target audience to my magazine was putting
big indie artists on it to show who also features in my magazine.
Comparing magazine covers
Here are the photo’s I’ve used for
my music magazine, with these I
decided what I want them to wear
to fit the genre of my music
magazine which is indie rock. From
the clothing the we can see that the
coats are not smart coats but
causal looking coats, also the one
model is wearing a beanie, which
stereotypically, people in rock bands wear hats. You will not
see in these photos but both of my models are both wearing
black skinny jeans which are most commonly seen to be worn by people in rock bands, with
this the relation with my models to the rock side of my music genre meets. Also the
expression and body language fit to the conventions of my chosen genre, the serious look
that they give off give you the ‘rock star’ feel about them.
On the left is the band ‘Bloc Party’ which the genre they come under is Indie Rock. Now
comparing the two images they both have a very serious look about them but for Bloc
5. Party’s Magazine cover it is more simple and not as complex as my cover, the reason for this
is because they have been photo shopped onto a plain background with the use of the
colours red and white, they also look like they’ve been cut out like paper. But both are still
casual, with hands in their pockets and a relaxed stance. For my magazine cover it suggests
more of the rock type of social groups, this is because the image is in a dark and a dirty
looking environment, which most rock bands are put into settings like that.
Question 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Now I am looking at who owns NME, this magazine is owned by a company called IPC
Media, which the founder of NME is Theodore Ingham, NME is classed as an indie music
magazine they also publish other magazines such as soap life, NOW, NUTS. IPC media also
owns other leading magazines such as UNCUT which are labelled as a classic rock magazine
as it covers artist from Arcade Fire- Bob Dylan. If I were to publish my music magazine I think
I would have a very small chance with NME as they already to an indie magazine which is
NME but my magazine covers indie, rock, and a little bit of grunge/ punk. It would be ideal
for them to publish my magazine as it would cover a larger audience. The only problem is
that they already do an indie music magazine so it would be silly for them to have two
magazines covering similar genres. Bauer Media Group also has a very popular music
magazine,Kerrang! Magazine which they also publish other music Magazines such as MOJO
and Q, Kerrang! Is known for doing it’s rock/ heavy metal cover for music, they also cover
music along the such as rock, Dubstep, some acoustic music.
