AS Media Studies Evaluation

Eadaoin Nugentwww.enugentmediastudies.pbworks.com

Inspiration

I have been using the Magazine Billboard as Inspiration because it is a well respected Music Magazine and the oldest in it’s trade however even though Billboard Magazine is devoted to the whole music industry and I am aiming my magazine towards the RnB genre I still feel it is a safe choice to use this as inspiration. When working on this project, and with this magazine I decided that I would use the same conventions in this magazine in my own magazine.

Billboard

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

Mast Head I have followed the strongly used conventions of a

masthead in my media product, I have kept my masthead at the top of my front cover down to the fact that this is where the audience are used to seeing the title, it is the norm for my potential audience. On an added note, if my masthead wasn’t at the top of my front cover the title of my magazine will not be seen when they are stacked up in a shop.

Only a small percentage of the magazines are at the front of the shelf, those behind rely on their strong masthead to draw attention.

I noticed in a lot of Music Magazines that their Masthead was very detailed but I felt that they were very Over the Top and distracting and rely on over sized mast heads to attract readers and I feel that the Masthead should not be the most important feature of a Magazine but the content as that’s what the readers want. So I decided that I would keep my Masthead plain but appealing also to the readers. Also I have been using the Music Magazine

My magazine may get criticised for this approach but I feel that it helps keep my magazines style constant.

Cover Stories

I have used a relatively large number of cover stories on my front cover - this goes with all the conventions of many music magazines for example Kerrang music magazine would also have a large number of cover stories on it’s front cover. It shows many cover stories lined at the top and bottom of the page, filling the front page. My magazine I feel also has a lot of cover stories. I feel the cover stories help make the front cover appear more organised and professional.

This allows the potential readers to acknowledge that my magazine is offering relevant and interesting stories for the fans of the RnB music genre.This convention is used well in issues of Billboard and I felt that this would be safe to use this as Billboard is a very popular magazine internationally.

Cover Stories

7 Cover Stories

6 Cover Stories

Font

I have used the same font through out my project as I thought that it was going towards the style I was looking for in my magazine, I used the Font Century Gothic and I was cosistant the whole way through my project I also used three different font colours in my project light purple, light pink and a light brown I chose these because they adheres to the conventions of my colour scheme.

Colour Scheme

I chose my colour scheme of Black and Pink because in my ideal reader questionnaire the participants responded that they would like to see these colours in my Magazine cover. I also chose them because I feel that these colours are girly and that is the target audience I am aiming towards.

Images

I have used an average amount of images on my front cover, however unlike traditional music magazine front covers I have not incorporated a massive, overpowering main image used in any other magazine. I have decided not to do this mainly because it shows too much focus on one artist or band - a music magazine I feel should be based on the whole scene of music and should show a balanced approach to artists However, I have used one main image of a solo artist named Connie McGeeney, but I have not used a over sized image of her. It allows my magazine to focus on the other features of my magazine cover. The image I used however I feel helped promote the music genre that my magazine focuses on and I feel it also helps promote a focused and friendly singer.

This I feel is essential in promoting a magazine, the happy faces and peaceful approach to my photos help draw in potential readers.

Main Images I have used

For my photographs I have used Photoshop to edit them and make them suitable for my magazine here are the outcomes…

Images

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I feel that I have used a typical approach to representing my Target Audience. The stereotypical ‘celebrity’ is never used in my magazine by this I mean many people would think celebrities are ‘stuck up’ or ‘attention seekers’. In my magazine I have tried to extinguish these steriotypes so my target audience could relate to my main artist. In my double page spread I emphasised that my main artist Connie McGeeney is just an everyday girl the only difference a lot of people are aware of who she is. However I also made sure that in my images that I had emphasised her style which is I feel out there and fiesty however you would see the clothes she wears are all in the high street and not designer which would give my target audience the impression that she is stuck up. I feel the the way I have portrayed my main artist relates to my aimed target audience and their social groups which I hope will make them like her. Also my media product shares very little stereotypical conventions - it helps represent the everyday music fan. In many music magazines this isn’t done due to the exaggerated nature of many music artists my magazine I feel helps goes against this stereotype.

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

 For my media product I believe that e5 Global Media, the publishers of Billbord Magazine would be interested in distribution of my magazine. They already have a strong circulation that places them strongly in the music magazine industry, however I feel I should be aiming for a company that has speciallzed in one genre magazines espicially in the RnB Genre. Publishers such as Bauer and NatMag have already become figure heads in the music magazine industry, and becoming publishers of a new RnB magazine would be a good way for the distributors to widen their range and draw in more fans.  

Who would be the audience for your media product?

As I decided to go for a RnB magazine I aimed My magazine towards towards fans of the RnB music Genre, so I am aiming for an audience with a lot of disposable income like teenagers. However I want my magazine to be aimed towards those who like the same fashion styles and music so I can write cover stories that can address them all.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I believe I attracted my target audience by the use of my cover stories and my feature artists I research the most popular artists at the moment and I got results of Beyonce, Lady GaGa, Jason De Rulo and Ke$ha so I made sure they where featured on my cover with stories about them which would encourage my readers to buy the magazine. I also used my questionnaires to help me with my magazine but when I was looking at them I would only use the information that the people who responded RnB as there favourite Music Genre.

I also made sure that my media product had attractive colours on it that appealed to my readers.

I also feel that my main photo attracted readers as it is unusual to be seen on a music magazine cover and it just looks like an everyday normal girl.

What feedback have you recieved from your audience about your product and how did this affect your creation of the product?

I recieved a small amount of feedback from my audience on ways to improve my magazine, which can only be a good thing. The main feedback was based on my masthead, I decided not to take change my masthead from this feedback - this was due to the majority of my target audience liked the mast head. The negative feedback I did get was from a minority, this is why I didnt make the title stand out more.The one piece of feedback I did take was to make the white box that holds my barcode and dateline in line with the left hand side of the page this was because I had it at the top right hand side of my magazine and people felt this was unattractive to readers. I moved the barcode and date to the bottom left corner of my magazine and made my front cover look much more professional. This feedback helped me make my music magazine much more professional and look finished.

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

I have used a small amount of computer programs to create my music magazine, I used Adobe Photoshop to create my magazine. I already know a fair amount on how to use Photoshop, however, by doing my music magazine I have enhanced my skills using this program. Before this work I have never really used photo editing skills and page layout tools, this was a learning experience. I used the tools that I have used to create images that I have created in the past in my spare time, and put them to use in my music magazine.

I have learnt from constructing my music magazine that computer programs are not reliable, in the transition from photoshop files to jpeg files so that I could work on the work from my emails I lost a large amount special font that I used. I also lost my memory stick near the end of the project and had to redo both my cover page and my contents page. Originally the title used a shadowy, bevelled font that I edited on photoshop - this was lost when I made the switch to a smaller jpeg file. In the end I can look at this as a help more than a hinderence, it enabled me to see the title as an original font that worked well.

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

From creating my preliminary task of a school magazine I have made a vast amount of improvement, not in the the ways of creating a magazine front cover, but in the ways of making it look more professional. My target audience believed that my preliminary task work was too unprofessional looking also my target audience mentioned that the front cover didn’t use enough powerful puffs. From hearing this constructive critisicm I made sure that my music magazine was brightly coloured and used many interesting things to draw the eye. Very unlike my preliminary task, I used one large main image on my front cover, this wasn’t mentioned in the feedback from my target audience when looking at my school magazine - however I was suprised at this and made sure the one main image was there.

The contents page for my music magazine has taken on board many different pieces of constructive critisicm from my preliminary task. My school magazine’s contents page had no structure, no set guidelines to place all of the information within - making it look both messy and unprofessional. I made sure when I was planning my contents page that my music magazine contents page had strong borders when it came to layout. I also made sure with my music magazine contents page that it used effective colouring to a more efficient level. This was a piece of constructive critisicm that was repeated widely within my preliminary task feedback - I have made sure that my music magazine contents page uses contrasting colours to identify page numbers and information. I have made sure that it looks professional.

During this Project I have learnt more about the Music Industry and how it operates and all Media in general. With this project I got the opportunity to research many existing Music Magazines and got to see first hand how difficult is is to create a music magazine.