8. Found images draft

8. Layout draft

7. Initial ideas

6.

Music Magazine Price

My magazine will be published once a fortnight, and the price at £3.00. I have chosen this price because it is appropriate for a number of reasons. Firstly, three pounds every two weeks is an affordable price for the target audience to afford. Secondly, the price is high enough to make a profit. For example, Q magazine is published monthly and costs £4.00. This means that a further £2.00 every month will be spent by buyers.

5.

Target Audience for My Music Magazine

The target audience for my music magazine will be for males and females, primarily around the 16 to 35 age range. Slightly younger and older people are the secondary audience as the generation of music in the magazine will be of people who are that age. The magazine will appeal to a more mainstream audience, and therefor the age range is perfect for the magazine.

Demographics

Gender and age: Male and female, Primary 16-35

S.E.G.: C1, C2, D and E

Psychographics

VALS (value life styles): any, less on groups driven by needs

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: Self actualisation, esteem, social

NME Magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread LIIAR analysis

                       Front cover                                       Contents

                                             

 Double page spread

Masthead: Firstly, the masthead is short, memorable and acts as an ident, making it highly noticeable and easy to remember. Secondly, it is large and bold. The masthead therefor acts as the logo and makes the magazine unique and easily recognisable. However, it is not completely dominant, as the image and title of The Vaccines is the main subject. Nevertheless, it being large and bold, and located at the top left of the page, makes it obvious and outstanding. The colour of the masthead has overall positive connotations and is a primary colour.

The main image: The main image is dominant, and therefor attracts the initial attention straight away along with the accompanied title. The photo is in medium long shot from the waste upwards and clearly shows their facial expressions and spatial relation to each other. It is also in very high quality, showing that this is a professional photo taking. The main image has strong anchorage because the reader can tell from the image that it’s about The Vaccines, and that the band are either feeling or going through something energetic and/or wild.  

House style: The front cover stylistics is different from the other pages. Firstly, the front cover includes allot of blue, and the font is different on the the whole of the front cover opposed to the rest of the magazine. This magazine is presented in a newspaper style; with typical newspaper layout and colour choices. NME is a music news and information magazine mainly, so the newspaper style fits into the genre. The front cover is more bright and exuberant to attract the audience. The deck for each headline is similar throughout, and therefor makes the pages look even and tidy. It also uses skylines in consistent size and fonts to further keep maintain the tidy and professional looking layout.

Articles: The articles are appropriate and clear. On the contents page, there are also captions accompanying the articles. They are easy to understand and clearly shows were they are, there for not causing any inconvenience for the audience. The articles like ‘win Kasabian New Year’s Eve tickets’ and ‘inside their weirdest gig ever’ for example are clearly stated and straightforward.

Anchorage: The images especially fix the anchorage. The main image shows the band looking like they are shouting and getting blasted by water. This emphasises energy and excitement, there for directing the reader to the rock ‘n’ roll genre.

Price and barcode: The price and barcode is located at the bottom right of the front cover

Free gifts and competitions: There is a free poster sign on the front cover. The free gift is to further give the audience a reason to buy to the magazine.

Message/moral values: The magazine is about being interested about music, and the magazine may reach out to people, who don’t particularly like alternative music, and tell them to be more open minded.

Target audience: The target audience is male and females, mainly in their teens or twenties, and so appeals to a mainstream audience.

Demographics

S.E.G.: C1, C2, D and E

Psychographics

VALS (value life styles): any, less on groups driven by needs

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: Self actualisation, esteem, social

Representation: This magazine represents the people involved and featured magazine, alternative music and its fans. It represents them realistically as it is a news magazine based allot on real facts and stories.

Q Magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread LIIAR analysis

Masthead: It is located at the top right and is very distinctive, and also is very prominent on newsstands and shelves. The red square contrasts well with the white Q sign. It is the universal logo for Q Magazine. Like the NME, it is short and memorable, and even more so as it is only one letter. It dominates the corner of the page but not completely, with the main image being in front of it. Magazines mainly do that because as long as the logo is in clear view, it is recognisable, but the main headline is the main focus and the main image need to be outstanding and in the readers face.

The main image: The main image is completely dominant as it is the main focus of the magazine. It is large and contrasts with the white space, giving it a 3-D look. The shot is a MLS and shows practically nearly all of their bodies. The band members are dressed fairly rebelliously, which suggests that they are still in a ‘fighting talk’ spirit. They are facing the audience all but one of them, who is looking at Bono. This could mean that the band have a direct link with the audience, but Bono is the main focus.

House style: The contents pages and front cover has a consistency in colour, but the structure and layout is patchy and looks different in different places. The double page spread is different from the rest. The colour red is apparent in lots of places. This is a primary colour and could possibly connotate passion, and that Q is passionate about music. The magazine uses a couple of fonts, and so the same couple is used all the time. But each font isn’t used specifically, and so is used seemingly at random.

Articles: The articles are all described and are clear to understand, allot of the time, with a main headline in bold, and title underneath it in bold and then the article. This makes it easy for the reader to scan through pages and quickly know what the article is about. However, the contents and the order of them are confusing and out of order, with the higher pages coming before the lower ones, and some pages completely missed out. I personally found it hard to find certain parts of the magazine because of the lack of structure.

Anchorage: It is clear and fixed because the images and articles and titles all fir within the indie rock/alternative scene. All the images are large and stand out, so you can see all the artists involved, the reader knows what kind of artists are discussed; especially U2 on the front cover indicates straight away it is an alternative magazine.

Price and barcode: It is on the bottom right, and is £4.50, but also comes with an extra booklet, and this edition a CD. It is published monthly and so the price is definitely affordable for most people, in contrast with NME which a month will cost about twice as much.

Message/moral values: The magazine is about being interested about music, and the magazine may reach out to people, who don’t particularly like alternative music, and tell them to be more open minded.

Target audience: The target audience is male and females, mainly in their teens or twenties, and so appeals to a mainstream audience.

Demographics

S.E.G.: C1, C2, D and E

Psychographics

VALS (value life styles): any, less on groups driven by needs

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: Self actualisation, esteem, social

Representation: This magazine represents alternative music and its fans positively and factually.

 

3.

Music Magazine Genre

The primary genre I will be basing my magazine on will be alternative rock. This will be mainly present day bands, but also a range from the early nineties period to the present day. As this is an alternative magazine, it will not focus on genres like heavy metal or pop, but rather focus more on mainstream rock. Some examples of music in my magazine are:

Coldplay

                          Nirvana                                                      Red Hot Chili Peppers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuFI5KSPAt4&ob=av2e   Red hot chili peppers-Snow (hey oh)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G4isv_Fylg                     Coldplay-Paradise 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6P0SitRwy8                   Nirvana-Heart shaped box

2.

What my product need to contain:

Front cover:

Masthead

Main image

Bright, clear and consistent house style

Thumbnail images that illustrate other articles

Anchorage

Price and barcode

Teasing contents along the bottom

Competitions and free gifts

Main article/feature advertised must relate to the main image

Contents page:

List of appropriate contents

Descriptions of contents

Bright, clear and consistent house style

Thumbnail images that illustrate other articles

Double page spread:

Introduction to magazine

Main headline full story

Other article(s)

Image(s) to illustrate story(s)

I could either produce my own fictional magazine based on my own original ideas or inspired ideas. However, I could pretend to produce a magazine for existing publishers with something in common with mine e.g. NME, Q, and Rolling stone.

The magazine I am going to create isn’t going to really express any morals, but rather be an information and entertainment magazine. On the other hand, as it will include a mixture of genres of alternative music, its values may be for people to be more open and educated about music.

The target audience will be anyone interested in the types of music, of both genders and generally people from early teens to the middle aged area.

I intend the subject matters of the magazine and its fans to be represented positively. It will express the opinions and interests of music fans and artists.

1.

Music Magazine brief

Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine (if done as a group task, each member of the group to produce an individual edition of the magazine, following the same house style).

Evaluation

 Evaluation of My Product

I have completed and am pleased with my final product. The final product is different from some of my planning and drafts. The layout is slightly different, I changed the title of the magazine, my original main image I thought was to close up so I changed it, and I expanded the target audience of my magazine.

In making this product, I have learnt the process of planning and creating a media product, and the codes and conventions included in a magazine. I have also learnt to use Photoshop extensively.

My media product uses typical codes and conventions of real media products. Primarily gossip, TV and music magazines. I have used a Masthead, banner headline backed with main image in the centre and headlines and captions all in a familiar layout to these types of magazines. I develop these conventions to create a certain type of style. The magazine covers subjects from sports to studying, but I have tried not to make the magazine look either to fun or childish, or to serious, giving connotations of an intellectual product. I tried to make the lead as outstanding as possible. I used the typical layout and style as TV, gossip and music magazines. I believe the anchorage is solid. The signifiers portray to the reader a certain type of theme through then fonts and names of the titles. The masthead ‘Wyke Life and Leisure Magazine’ was originally ‘Wyke Life Magazine’. However, I added leisure into the masthead because ‘life and leisure’ reflects the subject matters of the magazine. My original main image was from the shoulders upwards. I decided to discard this image because I looked to large on the page and left limited space for the background and any writing on the page. Basically, it would look too cluttered. The picture I chose instead looks more like it fits. The magazines house style I have kept consistent. The main colours I have used are blue, purple and white (with the exception of image colours). I have also used only two fonts throughout, Showcard Gothic and Comic Sans MS. I chose them because they reflect the moods of the magazine. They look fun but at the same time tidy. Furthermore, some text boxes and images are in a certain style of box, to make them stand out and look similar.

The media institution to distribute this magazine would be Wyke, through print, the internet and word of mouth. Wyke would be the distributer because to target audience is primarily students and any person involved with Wyke, so it would only be distributed within the college.

The morals and values this magazine gives is to be active and involved, and also to show an interest in college. The purpose is to encourage students to do these things, and give students and anyone else interested into an insight of Wyke College. The audience primarily is students. The target audience for my magazine will be for male and females, primarily around the 16 to 19 age range, but generally any slightly younger persons (considering joining Wyke) and even parents or jobseekers looking to see what Wyke has to offer e.g. P.E. job. The 16-19 people would read the magazine to find out more about subjects, leisure activities and college events. Mainly, the bottom three section of the S.E.G. table. Additionally, the audience would be mainly outer-directed people looking to achieve and join clubs for example. Firstly, I attracted my audience with the headlines. Headlines such as ‘Clubs and Chaos’, ‘Chess Tournament’, netball news and parts to do with subjects, all appeal to students with hobbies, who play sports and wish to achieve high. These appeals to Niche audiences of different types. Secondly, I think the layout is appropriate because it doesn’t look bland or boring, so students might be attracted to the fact that it looks like a fun magazine. Furthermore, the title ‘Life and Leisure’ also backs the anchorage and connotates the subjects discussed.

This product represents students in general, and the College itself. The magazine is accurate and represents the students positively. I have tried to make it as realistic as possible, deriving the attitudes from truth, and basing the stories on some real events. Also, the stories and content convey to the audience that Wyke is a thriving college and the students are active and involved. The magazine doesn’t stereotype students, but show them in a realistic manner. The denotations point the audience in the right direction. For example, ‘Life and Leisure’ and ‘Ex-sport student talks about his struggle’ show that this a activity based magazine about news and gossip about sport for example.

In conclusion, I believe I have used the appropriate codes and conventions of magazines, represented the college and students accurately and positively, and appealed to my target audience. Next time, I would spend more time on the graphics, and try to include features like intertextuality.

Evaluation of My Product

I have completed and am pleased with my final product. The final product is different from some of my planning and drafts. The layout is slightly different, I changed the title of the magazine, my original main image I thought was to close up so I changed it, and I expanded the target audience of my magazine.

My media product uses typical codes and conventions of real media products. Primarily gossip, TV and music magazines. I have used a Masthead, banner headline backed with main image in the centre and headlines and captions all in a familiar layout to these types of magazines. I develop these conventions to create a certain type of style. The magazine covers subjects from sports to studying, but I have tried not to make the magazine look either to fun or childish, or to serious, giving connotations of an intellectual product. I believe the anchorage is solid. The signifiers portray to the reader a certain type of theme through then fonts and names of the titles. The masthead ‘Wyke Life and Leisure Magazine’ was originally ‘Wyke Life Magazine’. However, I added leisure into the masthead because ‘life and leisure’ reflects the subject matters of the magazine. My original main image was from the shoulders upwards. I decided to discard this image because I looked to large on the page and left limited space for the background and any writing on the page. Basically, it would look too cluttered. The picture I chose instead looks more like it fits. The magazines house style I have kept consistent. The main colours I have used are blue, purple and white (with the exception of image colours). I have also used only two fonts throughout, Showcard Gothic and Comic Sans MS. I chose them because they reflect the moods of the magazine. They look fun but at the same time tidy. Furthermore, some text boxes and images are in a certain style of box, to make them stand out and look similar.

The media institution to distribute this magazine would be Wyke, through print, the internet and word of mouth. Wyke would be the distributer because to target audience is primarily students and any person involved with Wyke, so it would only be distributed within the college.

14.

Ideas for online version

My online version would include and differ from the print version by the following:

·       The front page of each issue would be shown on the website before the physical release

·       The website would include a general overview of the magazine e.g. what matters it discusses, behind the scenes and information

·       Include and audience feedback section

12.

Magazine launch Promotion on the Internet

There are a number of ways that my magazine could be promoted on the internet. Firstly, the magazine could be promoted and shown on the official Wyke College Website with a link on the website to a page all about the magazine. Additionally, the same could be done on Wyke Moodle. Secondly, a website could be created dedicated to the magazine and all about the general subjects discussed in it, the people who produce the magazine etc. Furthermore, emails on the college email system and blogger could be sent to students telling of the magazine and with links to information pages/website.

Print versions and online version of the magazine would be very different. The print version would be at a price, and contain all of the contents, while the website would only contain a general overview of the magazine, samples and the front page of every issue when they are released. This is to avoid accessing the whole thing for free and finding out for example what will the front cover of next week’s issue be so the reader can know what to expect.

11. Final Products

10. Drafts

 Contents page feedback: 
' The text boxes and fonts are the same so the house style is consistent. But I think there should be an image or faded colour in the background of the contents part to make it look more full and less bland', Ryan.

Front cover feedback: 'I think this is good because the stories match with the magazine, the writing is all the same the image in the background is a good shot of college coridoors. However, I think the image looks out of place and quite un-professional because it is too bright.' Adam