Media Evaluation

The front cover of my magazine follows the common conventions of a typical music magazine such as NME or Rolling Stone. It starts off with the masthead in the in the top left hand of the corner and follows through to the end of the page, this happens in Rolling stone magazine as well as Kerrang! NME however due to its short title is as long. With the rest of the layout of my front cover it has similarities with a front cover of NME, where the sell-lines are distributed on each side of the front cover to make it appear more full, leading to the target audience feel the magazine has plenty to read about. My front cover displays the main sell-line close to the bottom of the page but not directly in the middle of the page as it adds a more casual vibe to the page; this is much like what NME commonly does as well as Rolling stone but not as much. In most magazines you will not find the main sell line anywhere in the top part of the front cover, it will mainly be put on the bottom half as that is where the readerships eye will first fall too. In NME and Rolling Stone the main image is found for the eyes of the image to be in the middle of the page to give a more direct magazine-to-audience relationship, also the image will be a close-up of the model. My front cover follows these conventions as my image is a close up, and my model looks directly into the camera with her eyes more or less in the middle of the page, or in a structured place where the readerships attention will be brought to. However, my magazine does invert the conventions of magazines; for example the strapline of my front cover is found at

the bottom of the page, where it is more commonly found at the top of the page lying on the masthead such as in Kerrang! Another invert would be that my magazine does not have a puff, however although NME does commonly have one on some issues it does not. A puff on my magazine I feel would take the masculine

feel away from it. ***PLACE MY MAG FRONT COVER

My contents page however was based and inspired by NME’s contents page; I enjoyed the layout and the style that NME had to offer and for the target audience I felt it was appropriate and as my Target Audience was aimed at the same as NME’s I styled mine similarly. In most magazines contents, there is a type of chart/list that is used to tell the readership what the magazine contains (this is typically called “the contents”) in this chart has the page numbers where the readers can find what they are looking for as well as being able to see

what else is in the magazine that wasn’t shown on the front cover; this is always portrayed on the either the left hand or the right hand side of the page and is boxed off this is a technique I used in my contents page, it allow the magazine to look more structured and sophisticated as well as the magazine adding its own style to suit the genre, by styling my contents page in such a way shows that I have followed this convention that magazines have created. Magazines such as NME, Rolling Stone, Kerrang all have a section of their contents page where information about subscribing to the magazine is featured, significantly in all of these magazines primary and bright eye catching colours are used to draw the audience’s attention to the advertisement, I did so in my magazine by using striking blue and red on a black canvas to make it hard to miss, which is the same technique that the other successful magazines have created, as well as providing a small cut out image of the magazines front cover to further draw them in. By having a few feature article images scattered over the contents page further entices the readers into buying the magazine as they will always be the more “crazy” and “out-there” images to add promise in the contents of the magazine, in my magazine I have pictures of a solo female artist then two of an up-coming band. I made sure that my images were “out-there” by the female throwing a crazy look into the camera with the impression of not caring what others think of her, for the boy band I had one image of a serious picture to show their potential of being a successful indie rock band then another of a more “laddish” type to show their fun and rock behaviour. In

NME’s contents a band is more than likely always featured as it reinforces the genre of the magazine, which is what I tried to do with my magazine contents page by featuring the boy band wearing what would be considered as “indie rock” clothing.

The last piece of practical work that I had to do was a double-page spread. For most magazines every double page spread is altered and changed until they are all unique yet carry the same brand identity and conventions for their magazine. A convention I followed in my magazine would be the main and large image I used that covered up the whole page so as my text was based on top of the picture, this can be found in some magazine such as NME, or Rolling Stone. By the main image taking up all the two pages it adds a more manly and unstructured feel to the double page spread as this magazine does represent “rock’n’roll” so by doing this it reinforces the mise-en-scene for the magazine.

Another convention would be to have a small piece of text that is bigger in size than any other part of the text, this is usually the introduction into the article or interview that the magazine provides; I have done this in my magazine to grab the audience’s attention, by having bold and large writing gives the impression of someone raising their voice or trying to get the audience to concentrate, so that is exactly what I did for my double page spread, as well as using white coloured text to allow it to stand out more and make it more easier to read on the mixed coloured background. The layout of my double page spread however is different and is a style that wasn’t inspired by any other magazine. I felt, by putting the heading right at the bottom of the page in the direct middle enthuses Delilah’s youth and shows she “has the world at her feet”, also by having the text surrounding her name represents her being on stage and being surrounded by people who love her and want to be her, which is why I chose an interview as it shows people want to hear what she has to say and she is an interest in the public and the readership of my magazine. No feature article photos have been featured in my double page spread as I feel it takes the focus off of the main text and distracts the audience from what they are reading about, by getting straight to the point and making the double page spread as interesting as it can be it can substitute for it, this is a convention that I haven’t followed however there are some magazine double page spread that don’t always have feature article photos.

*PLACE MY DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD HERE

Through my Front cover I used very basic but bold primary colours, such as red and white. These stand out and lack a feminine quality to show that my magazine is directed at the male readership. Men are typically known to like basic qualities and are perhaps more interested in the content of the magazine rather than how it is designed; however that is something a woman would be the opposite of. By having an attractive female on the front cover would also bring in male readers, although she isn’t portrayed in a “sex object” pose, she is still represented as feisty and “new on the scene”, she is also looking direct into the lens of the camera making you feel as if she is staring right into your eyes, this will attract male audiences as they will like the intensity of the picture. Although my magazine is multi-cultural it is slightly more directed towards more “British” readers, through the colouring of my writing this is represented, by the red and white colours which are consistent represent the English flag, as well as the artists who are commonly mentioned such as;

Oasis, Arctic Monkeys the men who feature in these bands are considered “Lads” this is the type of men who will be reading my magazines and these will be the representation of these bands. The background of my front cover image also represents “Britain” with the street lights on show in the background and the night time, it’s a typical background many other British bands have used themselves. Higher class magazine readers may not be the type of audience Roll With It tend to cater for, more middle class will be the type of audience. Roll With It is not a glamorous “image-obsessed” magazine and focuses more on the passion of music its readers have and their love for their favourite artists/bands. The same style is shown throughout my magazine; my contents page shows the same colours and “dark” style like my front cover, this also represents and backs up male readership that Roll With It attracts. My contents page is also very simplistic; it gives the readers exactly what they want, a small introduction with images and page numbers to where they can find specific articles. The contents page doesn’t look busy and over crowded, which would most likely scare off a male reader. It has been styled to look similar to a newspaper, which is shown through the actual contents side, with the black and white colouring and the bold font will make male readers feel like they are reading a “mans” magazine. By having a preview of a new male band adds to the interest of the male readership. As my magazine is directed at indie rock music it reflects the fact that indie rock is typically a male’s choice of music genre.

My magazine will be owned and distributed by IPC Media. International Publishing Corporation is a British Institution that publishes different formats of magazines. IPC publish well-known brands such as Soap Life, Now and also the extremely successful music magazine NME. To be publishing such a well-established magazine shows IPC is a well achieved publish corporation. By IPC already publishing a music magazine it is useful as it has the experience and knowledge to publish Roll With It, allowing it to be the best that it can be as well as being a commonly known magazine. IPC does have a male target audience as they publish magazines such as Nuts and World Soccer, by working with IPC Roll With It will be able to engage with the male readers effectively. IPC is a British institute this reinforces the “British” theme that my magazine creates.

Roll With It’s Target audience will be males from the ages of 17-29 which allows a very wide age group showing my magazine is suitable for a long period of time. These readers will have a passion for indie rock music, some even being involved in music by being in a band, but all of them will enjoy gigging out on the weekends with their friends who also enjoy indie rock. The readers are all very out-going and allow music to be a part of their everyday life, however they don’t let it consume them, and they make time for work and other aspects such as women. The males who read Roll With It will have a certain charm that works excellent with the women. The artists who will be appearing in my magazine as well as the songs and albums discussed will be of significant interest, this is why my magazine is perfect for them as it allows them to sit back and enjoy reading about artists who they want to be hearing about; this will be done through interviews and articles as well as endless reviews on albums and singles dedicated to giving the male readership exactly what they want to find out. The readers are always interested in finding out what their role models are up

to and want to be the first to know who has released a new album and what Roll With It think about it. Aspiring musicians reading the magazine will want to know how to make It big; there will be a section of my magazine designed to show how unsigned acts managed to make it big after starting out with nothing. This is why the readers will want to read Roll With It it provides them with confidence and support that no other magazine will, it caters to their readers needs and wants which all adds to the success of Roll With It. If ever in doubt or they want an updated before the next issue of Roll With It has been released the readers always have the option of going online where they can click on different tabs and options to give them daily updates on their favourite artists.

My music magazine has been styled similarly to NME’s as we share the same target audience expectations. NME is a extremely successful magazine so by basing my magazines appearance similarly but adding a unique look allows my target audience to find it appealing. Roll With It provides its readers with a range of things to read about; from live gig reviews and articles on their favourite artists and role models every aspect of Roll With It has been altered and designed to be everything that the target audience wants and expects from my magazine. Readers don’t want to, they feel the need to read Roll With It they see it as their “fix” due to how much it relates to their lives. Roll With It focuses on being what its readers need it to be like a type of support/friend system, the more friendly my magazine appears to the audience the more likely they are to continue buying it again and again. I did

post production research through questionnaires completed by Indie Rock fans to ensure that what I was doing would attract and appeal to my target audience. This ensures me that all of my readers will be 100% satisfied with what I am providing them with as the magazines ideas was based around what the target audience themselves like and want in a magazine.

Before doing my three practical pieces I have an average knowledge on the use of Adobe Photoshop, I was able to do simple tasks, and if I was unaware I would explore and figure it out eventually. However, after doing my three practical pieces I can confidently say that my skills have most definitely improved significantly, not only have my skills of Photoshop improved but so have my designing skills, as I had to sit and do mock-ups and sketches of how my magazine can appeal to the target audience and how to make it attractive to create an interest in the readers. Through this assignment I was also introduced to blogger for the first time; as id never created a blog of any sort before, this created an interest for me as it allowed me to learn something new which was involved with social

networking, also the idea of putting my work online instead of writing was a lot more appealing and exciting. I struggled at first with blogger, learning how to get onto my blog, who to design it and upload posts, however from help of my peers and using my own initiative my skills on this have also significantly improved; id now feel confident creating another blog on my own without any help from anyone else. As a teenager I had familiarities with using a digital camera; however I was quite unskilful when it came to taking photos professionally; however this soon wasn’t a problem. From talking to my teachers and through practice I learnt how to take professional shots, I learn all about positioning, structure and poses, this was all important as I was the one in charge of the models I used. Since finishing this media product my skills in using a camera are allot more efficient.

When looking at my preliminary task and now this task the evidence is clear on how my work has improved. I have learnt what makes a high quality magazine and I’ve learnt about the importance of codes and conventions when creating a new magazine and how to put them into practice. When it comes to my skills of technology I have most definitely improved, I now feel confident using Adobe and blogger as well as learning new things that I didn’t know when using a digital camera. By creating a music magazine in general is

proof that this task has improved my ability to work hard and put time management to use when assignments must be due at specific times. All of my final pieces are a lot better than my preliminary task, which shows that I have learnt many new skills in order for them to be better as well as finding the motivation for my final pieces to be significantly better than my preliminary ones. My final pieces aren’t perfect and there is room for improvement, I know this and I know what I can do to make these better from the skills that I have learnt. By observing my work I can make constructive criticism for myself for next time as well as applauding myself when needs be.