BY GEORGE HOWARD

MEDIA STUDIES EVALUATIONpart 1

“ I n what ways does you r med ia p roduc t use , deve lop o r cha l l enge fo rms and conven t ions o f rea l med ia p roduc ts?”

Colour scheme

“Black and white colour scheme, but with bits of red like NME/Uncut/Rolling Stone, the covers I have

looked at. The colour would change depending on the main artist – because of Will’s jumper being red,

I have included hints of red in the black and white colour scheme. This is similar to the way NME adapt

the colours of their front covers to fit within a set colour scheme for that issue alone.”

Mastheads

“I have used a masthead to show the title of the magazine on the front cover at the top of the page.

This fits within the conventions of the music magazine because all of the magazines I studied

have the title of the magazine in this position. I have put the masthead in a clear space, above the picture on the front cover, and I have not crowded this area

with other information. This positioning of the masthead is traditional throughout most magazines,

not just the style of magazine I am producing, so it definitely seems to be the obvious place for a

masthead, for all styles of magazine.”

Consistent layout

“As I mentioned before, I picture the magazine’s colour scheme changing slightly with each issue, to

fit with the style of the main artist featured that week. However within each issue I would be trying

to stick to this artist-specific colour scheme and layout in a consistent manner, as I think too many colours or design styles can confuse the audience,

and this would lead to different pages jarring presentation-wise when looked at as a whole

product. While each page has a slightly different style, the colours of black, white and red are used on

my front cover, contents page and double page spread.”

(Above) Despite the differences in colour schemes to fit with the artists, there are consistencies throughout, for example the colour of the masthead, the red and yellow colour scheme etc.

(Right) The colour scheme is obviously very distinctly black, white and red, with the red being the ‘colour of the week’ so to speak. Originally I intended to only use black and white, but this made the magazine’s pages look boring.

Detailing the contents page

“I have tried to make my contents page more realistic by including pictures of many different people,

instead of only using the artist my article was about. I also tried to give my contents page depth by listing

a full magazine’s worth of content. Even though I was only going to be developing a double page spread, not the whole magazine, I wanted the

contents page to feel real so I felt that the best way to do this was to fill the page with features, articles,

and page numbers.”

The contents pages on the left are from real magazines, so they gave me a good idea of how to begin creating my contents page. The aim of a contents page is to provide a guide for readers wanting to know what the magazine holds. I have explained the contents of almost every page in my magazine, for added depth. The contents page on the right is from my magazine.

“How does your med ia p roduc t rep resen t pa r t i cu la r soc ia l g roups?”

Clothing

“The clothing worn by Will in the pictures of him will appeal to a certain audience; it is a branded hoodie

which obviously will not appeal to lower class people as brands and fashion are normally worn by either

middle class or upper class people. The clothes that someone wears also gives an idea of their interests, albeit a limited idea, so people may be able to relate

to the sort of person Will is by looking at what he wears.”

Gothic, scary clothing has connotations to rock/ heavy metal music

Bandanna, jewellery, and a shaved head suggests that Eminem is a hip-hop artist

Branded clothing – higher classLonger hair than average – Indie

musicianHoodie – A relaxed sort of person

Ethnicity of target audience

“The indie music is primarily made by white musicians, as evidenced by simply looking at the popular

musicians within the genre. By using a white male on the front cover I have stuck to featuring pictures

of people within the social groups that I think will be interested in reading my magazine.”

Age of musicians in the magazine

“I have used pictures throughout my magazine of teenagers/young adults because this seems to be the

common age of most upcoming musicians, and also teenagers and young adults are my target market, because they will probably find interest in reading

about the upcoming artists of their generation.”

My image

Gender

“I have included pictures of both males and females so that the magazine will not be exclusively appealing

only to male readers, although male musicians are a lot more common within the genre my magazine

aims for, so I have used mainly images of teenage boys.”

My images

Magazines will feature artists like Bjork to avoid having gender specific appeal

Range of styles

“Will is wearing a hoodie and jeans in the pictures of him on the front cover, contents page and double

page spread, which is a relaxed style, whereas other teenagers are wearing shirts and jumpers. In one

image a boy is wearing a t-shirt, and the girl in the contents page is wearing a shirt and a cardigan. I think all of these images reflect different styles to

the rest, as I want this magazine to not only appeal to people who follow a certain style of clothing, but people who are interested in a wide range of music,

which is why I needed to show a wide range of people in the pictures.”

On the left: Hoodie, photo shoot setting, clean polished look

On the right: urban setting, naturalistic pose, grainier image

“What k ind o f med ia i n s t i tu t i on m igh t d i s t r i bu te your med ia p roduc t and why?”

About the publisher

“I think that IPC Media would be a good media institution to distribute my product, because they

are a large company that boast very impressive figures – over 60 media brands and sales of over 350

million magazines every year, reaching almost 26 million UK adults and with websites that get viewed

by more than 20 million users every month. These figures suggest that IPC Media is a successful and professional media institution, who would greatly

support the magazine and it’s successful production.”

Range of magazines

“IPC Media publishes a wide range of magazines of every type, from photography to kitchenware to

cycling, so I think they would definitely be open to the idea of adding another magazine to their already expansive range of products. Also it seems apparent from the excessive amount of magazines IPC Media

publishes that they are a very popular and professional distributor. I think my magazine would

definitely benefit from this sort of professionalism because to introduce another music magazine into the world may seem unnecessary to some people,

but with IPC Media publishing the magazine I think the audience will be open to the idea.”IPC Media boasts

an impressive range of publisher credits across many types of magazine

Target audience

“IPC Media already publishes NME, so they already have impressive credentials in the music magazine

department. NME has a similar target market to my magazine, but my magazine is more of a mature and

better magazine that will, if anything, attract more people than NME because of its more universal

style. If IPC Media were to distribute my magazine I would be very grateful to have a publisher that obviously knows how to reach out to the target

audience I want to appeal to.”

The cool, unassuming, unpretentious target audience of my music magazine

Advantages and disadvantages for me

“The advantages that would come with IPC Media for me are obvious, as they are a large company capable

of distributing to a wide target audience. The disadvantages would maybe be that, with the company already having one music magazine

(NME), they might not put their full attention into promoting my magazine. Another downside may be

the comparison people may draw between my magazine and NME, because I would not want

anyone to think the magazines were anything like each other, despite the apparent similarities at a

glance.”NME’s audience The sort of

intelligent adult who would read my magazine

Advantages and disadvantages for the publisher

“The advantage of having another music magazine to publish would be that IPC Media are already

knowledgeable on how to market a music magazine, as evidenced by the success of NME. The

disadvantage would be that the two magazines would probably be in competition against each other,

so it may seem like a bad idea to have two music magazines being distributed by the same publisher.

However as IPC Media would be making the same amount of money whichever magazine it was from, it

may be in their interest to publish my magazine if only to keep it away from other publishers who

might make money from it.”

“Who wou ld be the aud ience fo r you r med ia p roduc t?”

END OF PART 1

MEDIA STUDIES EVALUATION