The student created a music magazine called "Unplugged" that uses conventions of real music magazines. She researched magazines like Billboard, Q, and Blender to inform her design choices. For the layout, she used a traditional magazine format with the masthead, central image, and sell lines. She chose a plain white background like Blender to make the cover look sophisticated. The target audience is teens to early 30s, with a mix of male and female readers attracted by the female model on the cover. Distributing through stores like WHSmith and online subscriptions, the magazine would come out every two weeks to keep up with industry changes. Through the project, the student learned skills with Photoshop, Blogger, and improved her
2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I believe that my ‘unplugged’ magazine does look like an actual music magazine but I
have used all of the features a magazine needs, for example; on the front cover of my
music magazine, I included –the date, the website, and the bar-code, the price and the
issue number. On the contents page I included the social networking sites. I think that
these little features make my magazine look more realistic and authentic. I have used
the traditionally magazine layout, with the masthead centred at the top of the page,
the central image in the middle of the page with the small sell-lines around my main
image, including the bar-code and price in the bottom corner. I think this layout stands
out the most and is very eye catching –which is why it works so well for all genres of
magazines.
After researching and analysing different magazines, I came across, Billboard, Q and
Blender. These three magazines have quite a few similarities but are still very different
at the same time. These magazines are where I got my inspiration from, to be able to
create my magazine.
I came to realise that all ‘Blender’ front covers use the traditional layout but they
always use a plain, white, transparent background –I thought this made the magazine
look a lot more sophisticated as it wasn’t full of colours, which made it much clearer
and easier to understand –Which is why I chose to keep a plain white background on
my front cover and contents page. I also liked that Blender only used 2-3 coloured text
on the front cover, to get it simple but professional at the same time.
On Q I liked how on most of the magazines, the background is the central image, and
then then the sell-lines and text is written on top of the image –I think this makes the
magazine unique and different. On Q the name of the model/celebrity as the central
image, is always in bold letters, written on top of the model, so it is obvious to the
audience that the central image and text is connected.
My music magazine genre would be pop/chart music and I think my genre is definitely
portrayed with my model for my central image as you can tell by the outfit my model is
wearing.
3. How does your media product represent particular social
groups?
I believe that most music magazines are generally address at a
young audience of early teens to early 30’s –especially the three
magazines I was analysing; Billboard, Q and Blender. I think that
would be a very similar audience to my music magazine. I do not
believe that my music magazine is gender specific as the style and
layout would attract both genders. The colour scheme of my
magazine –turquoise, black and white, definitely determines the
fact my magazine isn’t one-gender based; whereas if I had used
more feminine colours, like pinks and purples –it may have
appealed to more of a female audience. Having a female model as
my central image on my front cover, will attract a male audience
purely because of the sex appeal, whereas the female audience are
stereotypically more involved with reading; so that could be one of
the main reason, for them buying the magazine. I also believe that
on my front cover and contents page, I included real
celebrities/singers which will also attract their fans to read about
the article, therefore buy the magazine.
Also as the music genre of my magazine is pop/chart music, it will
bring in the fans who are interested in the particular genre of music
also.
Although my music magazine has a slight border of the who the
audience is targeted at, I do not believe that my magazine would
rule out anyone/social groups, for example; I don’t feel like certain
religion, class, sexuality or ethnicity groups would be offended by
my magazine and if there interest is similar to the genre of my
magazine, then they would fit my target audience perfectly.
4. What kind of media institution might distribute your media
product and why?
The publishers of my music magazine would be Prometheus Global Media
who distribute Billboard music magazine as I believe my music magazine
and Billboard are targeted at a similar class group –they are not just
targeted at an upper-class social group or either IPC who own Vibe music
magazine.
My music magazine would be available to buy in large supermarkets and
traditional newsagents such as; W.H.Smith as my magazine isn’t a high-class
magazine it wouldn’t be exclusive and only sold in certain stores. There
would also be an opportunity to subscribe monthly to an online version of
my music magazine at a slightly less expensive rate which doesn’t include all
of the exclusive content which will be in the printed magazine. My magazine
would also be available on an app, for smart phones, for my audience to
read while they’re on the go!
I decided that my music magazine would be published every two weeks. I
felt that publishing it every week, might be hard to find enough content as
there isn’t much change in the music industry every week; although I felt
that too much change happens in the music industry over the period of the
month. So, I thought that every 2 weeks would be perfect, as there would
be just the right amount of content for my magazine. There would also be
an opportunity for a subscription for my music magazine.
Statistics shows from 2013 that the percentage of circulation for indie/rock
music magazine such as; Q and NME are decreasing, which is the perfect
opportunity for a pop/charts genre music magazine to increase in
circulation, for a better chance of my magazine be sold.
5. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The intended user for my music magazine would be early teens to
early thirties 14-35 years olds. The age gap, in which my magazine
would be targeted on, is quite large but I believe the variety of
content which will be in my magazine will please most readers of
that age group. My magazine isn’t one-gender based and neither
discriminates against ethnicity, class, religion, sexuality or physical
ability and anyone from these social groups wouldn’t get offended by
any of the material in my magazine; therefore the audience for my
magazine could potentially be huge.
The social economic group which would suit my magazine best
would range from working class, skilled working class, lower middle
class, middle class and even upper middle class. I don’t believe that
my magazine is specific and limited to just one of social economic
groups.
The artists which would be featured on my magazine, would be on
the radio channels, Kiss and BBC Radio1 –this is because these two
radio channels are very diverse and play a wide range of genres on
music, especially chart music –which is the genre of my music
magazine. My artists may also appear on the Kiss TV music channels
doing interviews and speaking about their latest projects, along with
their music videos.
6. How did you attract/address your audience?
My music magazine front cover was created with the traditional
layout/structure, of the masthead centred at the top of the page, the central
image in the middle of the page, sell-lines all around the main image and the
barcode on the bottom corner. Although I used the traditional layout for the
front cover, I believe that are still some unique features included; for example
–I only kept the sell-line texts on the left hand side of my central image,
instead of placing them both sides. I also created lines, made on Microsoft
Publishers’ auto-shape, to separate each sell-line text, to make my front cover
look much clearer and much easier to understand. Having the masthead at the
top of the page, means it will be the first thing the reader will see, especially if
it’s stacked on shelves in the store, so I believe it has to stand out and be big
and bold, to draw the reader in.
As my colour scheme for my magazine was –turquoise, white and black; it isn’t
a gender specific colour scheme, therefore it would address both male and
female audiences, attracting them in, to then buy my magazine.
I also believe that because my model I used for my magazine, was a young,
pretty female, it will definitely bring in a male audience because of the sex
appeal. Also, if my model was a real singer/artist/celebrity in the real world,
the model would bring in a wider audience as she would also attract her
female/male fans to buy the magazine also.
The outfit/costume, my model was wearing in the central image, was very
bright and colourful. I think this along with my masthead, makes my magazine
stand out a lot more than if my model was to wear a plain outfit. I think the
brightness of the outfit, will draw in more readers to the magazine, to buy it.
Throughout my music magazine, I used language techniques which fitted in
with the music genre and used recognisable music terms; for example ‘new
album dropped’ or ‘new single released.’
7. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing the product?
I have learnt a huge amount about technology by constructing my music magazine,
which I can take with me in my future and use over and over again.
Photoshop: I had vaguely used Adobe Photoshop prior to creating my music
magazine, but by the time I started creating my magazine, I couldn’t remember a
thing. I always found Photoshop confusing and I never liked using it. But after
editing my images and completing my music magazine, I feel completely confident
on using Photoshop now and feel like I know the main features of the program. I
found the program quite easy to navigate around after I got the hang of using it. I
will be definitely be using Adobe Photoshop again in my future.
Blogger: Before I started AS media, I had never heard of ‘BlogSpot’ before. I knew
what a blog was and I had heard about Tumblr before, but I never really
understood the purpose of it and how to actually use it. But as blogger was such a
huge part of media AS, I realised it was vital to learn how to use it effectively. I soon
came to realise that blogger, was such an easier program to use and was very easy
to navigate around and very easy to upload photos. It is a very effective way to
record work.
Photo shoot: The first photos I took for my music magazine, which I didn’t end up
using, was done professionally, with a proper camera and in the studio. I didn’t
think the photos turned out very at all and I found the camera very confusing to
work. I didn’t feel like I knew enough about the camera prior to the photo shoot to
be able to take photos at a good quality, therefore when I re-done my photos, using
a different model, I didn’t use a proper camera, I used my Iphone5s camera; as I
felt I was wasting a lot of time trying to figure out how to use the professional
camera, when the image quality was pore. Whereas on my IPhone, the quality may
not be as good as the professional camera, but I knew how to use my camera and I
knew the photo would turn out clear and at a reasonable quality.
My Blog: http://oliviadigger.blogspot.co.uk/
8. What have you learnt about the conventions of magazine productions and
what progress have you made from the student mag?
I think the progress I have made from my college magazine and my music magazine is huge. My college
magazine was more feminine based –by the colour scheme and the image quality was very poor and I
definitely think my music magazine has progressed a lot. I believe that my image quality is much better than
it was for my college magazine and also my music magazine has a much wider audience range, as it isn’t just
on gender based. Also, on my college magazine, I didn’t include things like the barcode, the date or the
website, which gives it less of a professional look, compared to my music magazine. The editing of my images
for my music magazine is also much better and more advance than it was for my college magazine. My music
magazine still has a lot of improvements which could have been made if I was to have more time for my
project.
When I done then initial sketching and the basic page layout for my music magazine, it is completely different
to how it actually turned out. I think you when plan the pages, you never really know if it’s going to work,
until you have actually tried it out and tried out different ideas, to see what looks best and fits best.
I have definitely learnt, to manage time more effectively so I wouldn’t have felt as stressed by the massive
workload which needs to be completed for the deadline. If I was to re-do the project, I would ensure my time
management was improved drastically. I also believe that organisation is something that I obviously knew
about, but didn’t realise how organised I would have to be throughout this whole project, for example; saving
work in the correct folders as I go along, screen-shot work for evidence and updating my blog. Time
management and being organised will be the two main things I will remember in my future, for new projects,
to prevent me having loads of work to do last minute.
I also learnt a lot about the process of a magazine and the circulations and about the publisher and
distributor. I also learn what features drag the readers’ attention in and how to keep their attention fix to the
magazine.
I also learnt throughout the project, how to edit a photo properly and effectively on Adobe Photoshop –
which I had always had problems doing prior to creating my magazine. I already knew the main features of
Microsoft Publisher, but as I was going a long creating my magazine, there were some extra features that I
learnt to make my magazine and the layout, that little bit better.
Overall, I think this project tested my ability and prior knowledge to design and create a magazine and the
use of online programs and software. Everything I have learnt throughout this project will stick with me, to
use again and again in my future which will benefit me in many ways.
