My music magazine evaluation.

Lucy Egleton.

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

• My music magazine does use many forms and conventions of real media products, such as a badge, WOB, tag lines and cover lines.

• Most of the ideas I used came from inspiration from other music magazines, for example, Q and Rolling Stone.

• It develops them by expanding on what would normally be used and making it in to something different and newer, appropriate for my magazine. This can be seen through my use of minimalism on the page, creating a more mature looking magazine.

• For example, my front cover shows the main picture – taking up the whole of the magazine, this intends to portray exactly who the main stories are about and immediately focuses on a certain age generation, appealing to a younger (teenage) age range.

– My front cover also promotes chances to win albums, using the usual conventions of badges, competitions and games for the reader to take interest in. This is also evident through the use of the picture.

• Example:

This badge promotes the new album (promoted by the picture) which can be very popular among many teenagers. However, this does not just apply to teenagers as families or couples may also be interested. This then, aims my magazine slightly at families/ people living on their own and teenagers making it available and interesting for all generations.

Your chance to

WIN the new

album!!

 

http://www.saskschools.ca/~ischool/media20/unit_1/codescon.htm (codes and conventions of music magazines)

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents different social groups as it creates many different interests as it has various options;

• To win new albums• promotion of fashion tips and general news.• `Hot gossip` for those who wish to find out about the celebrity world and stories related.• WORLD EXCLUSIVE – interviews from the newest artists around today.• Event information – i.e festivals, concerts etc.

this represents different social groups as it holds many different varieties within the magazine and has different promotional reasons to buy the magazine which would become common among the younger population due to use of different features.

Hot New Fashion Tips..

Backstage gossipWORLD

EXCLUSIVE!

WIN THE

NEW

ALBUM!

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

• My magazine would be published by successful magazine companies, e.g. Bauer, NatMags. • It would be mainstream and sold in shops worldwide for publication in lots of countries. • This is because the information inside it would be up to date news and have the latest pictures within, this

would boost the sales and then become more popular around the world. • This magazine would also be published bi-weekly in order to obtain the most relevant news and also to

gather information over two weeks so it would be more interesting to read and have better facts inside.

An example of a bi-weekly sold music magazine.

http://www.bauer.co.uk/ - Bauer’s main website page.

www.natmags.co.uk – Natmag’s official website homepage. (short for National Magazine Company Ltd.)

Who would be the audience for your product?

•For my product, I have aimed it at an audience of mostly older teenagers as I have involved things that

have been noted from the results of my questionnaire, answered mainly by my peers.• To get a better idea of what a younger generation may want to find in a new music magazine I asked my

peers and took a wide range of ideas from many other people, including people who are above the age I was requiring. To complete this I used a simple questionnaire and also involved an older audience in order to get a wider knowledge of how to include things that other people may find interesting (such as event information)

• By doing this I hoped to create a new music magazine that does not just aim at one particular audience but can involve many different social groups.

• I have also involved many up to date music interests and events that are popular today.

QUESTION

NAIRE

Age

Gender Musical

interests

Subscriptions

News

Features

Reviews

How did you attract/ address your audience?

• I addressed my audience by getting a genuine opinion of what certain age ranges want/ expect to find in a new music magazine.

• I attracted my audience by using up to date news ideas and I expanded on recent features in order to obtain the most up to date kind of magazine possible, in hope of it looking to attract a similar audience to other music magazines such as NME or Q.

• I also researched into real stories (such as a double page spread) in order to understand the basic conventions and how they work in order to attract audiences, a good example of this would be using pull quotes.

• I also used certain imagery and camera work in order to obtain and interest a certain age group.

An example of a double page spread from the music magazine NME.

http://www.nme.com/home NME’s homepage

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

• During the time in which I was to produce my music magazine, I learnt a lot about different technologies involved.

• I researched many different media institutions and read into how and why they worked and became successful and therefore gained an understanding of how to produce a music magazine.

• In my research, I also watched short films about the media institution which gave me a better understanding of the magazine world.

• I feel I have learnt a lot about computer programmes as well as the media industry due to using Photoshop in my project to fix my photos also helped me gain a better knowledge of how to work with photo manipulating programmes.

• I believe I have learnt a lot during this project about many different aspects of the media world and also how to plan my work in order to cope well with deadlines.

• From my first attempt at my own music magazine I was able to highlight areas of weakness and pick up on things I could have included, the feedback from peers and teachers helped me do this and now, I am able to cover the areas noted and produce a different, more up to date music magazine, in turn being more attractive to the intended audience.

http://top40.about.com/od/top10lists/tp/musicmagazines.htm - this hyperlink opens the page of the top 10 most successful music magazines on shelves today.

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

• When I did my preliminary task, being my school magazine, I was a little unsure of how to go about making a popular looking school magazine that would attract the audience but also put across important information.

• In this project I did not use methods such as questionnaires or feedback, instead I took ideas from our current school magazine in order to help me decide on what to put in my own.

• This helped me in my main task of creating a music magazine as I was able to plan it better – using questionnaire methods and the use of more detailed research (into the industries as well.)

• The research I did do was of other schools’ magazines and their layout. This helped me understand the differences in magazines but also how to plan out my own. E.g. Rydeian – from Ryde Private.

• Looking back at my preliminary task I feel I have gained a better understanding of not only the aesthetic challenge of making my magazine look good and the layouts, but also how to attract certain audiences – this is why I believe the production of my music magazine is better than my school magazine.

School Mag masthead

Music Mag masthead

Analysis of Front Cover:

The Beatles - MOJO

My Final ProductionInsight - School Magazine - Front cover

My Final ProductionInsight - School Magazine - Contents page

My Final ProductionMUSIC -Music magazine-Front cover

My Final Production MUSIC -Music magazine-Contents page

My Final ProductionMUSIC – Music magazine – Double page spread.