EvaluationEvaluation

Rina Bansal

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?conventions of real media products?

Front Cover

Masthead

Headlines

Main Image which anchors the main cover line. Also the model stares directly into the camera

Barcode, issue date & price

Cover lines

Main cover line

My front cover has included many conventions of a real music magazine cover. I have included a price tag, barcode, date and issue number, which are essential to a magazine cover. As well as this, I have used the ‘magic C’ rule for the layout of the magazine cover. I have included a flash in the corner of the magazine, which shows more advertisement. There is only one image used here, which draws more attention to the mainly focused article. The medium close-up shot of the model also is effective as it does not overcrowd the cover. Also, the model is staring directly into the camera to grab the readers attention. I have also used the ‘drop-shadow’ effect and used ‘Edwardian Script ITC’, for the main cover line to make it stand out more from the page. The title of the magazine also overlaps the main image.

Contents PageContents title

Issue date

Cover line title

Images of artists’

Page references with some information on the page

Extra information about events and more about the articles- some page references

Page reference in the image

My contents page also contains conventions of a real contents cover. I have included the issue date underneath the main title, as well as using the same font style for the contents title, to show continuity. I have included a ‘top 10 UK charts’ to portray further that this is a music magazine, but also to inform the reader of the ‘latest music hits’ that are popular- I have also categorised them. I have used only two images, which I have edited, to show that the main focused article is about the artist within the image. To anchor this idea, I have made the page reference with information on the article, in a larger font size compared to the others. I have included an extra section, which is bordered to make it stand out from the page, where is gives more insight on what else is in the magazine. It includes a competition to interest the readers. The colour scheme of the page also show continuity to the front cover, however I have added more to make it slightly different so it would not appear boring.

Double-Page SpreadMagazine logo

Main focused image overlaps the content

Grab quote

columns

Tells us who wrote the article and photographed the images

Extra advertisement

Page numbers

Main title of the article

The website of the magazine

My double-page spread is an interview with an artist. It is written in columns and includes a ‘grab quote’ of what the artist has said. The ‘grab quote’ wraps around the text and is highlighted as it is in a different font colour to make it stand out. The artists name is in a different font style and colour to make it stand out more, as well as ‘best selling acoustic single’ to show that they are the important part of the article title. The main image also overlaps the decoration of the 3 lines, and the text wraps around the bottom of the image, which makes the image more or less stand out. This image is purposely focused on as the artist is looking directly at the camera smiling, which would instantly build a relationship with the reader and gives off a positive atmosphere. Each of the 3 images have a different border, however the same effect (to show continuity), to make the page more outstanding from the others. The page numbers are also included. The colour scheme of blue, white and grey is consistent with the front colour and looks more professional.

Planning

Before I created the music magazine, I had planned out my designs and information by carefully sketching some drafts of the production along with annotations of the colour schemes and font size, style and colour.

Throughout the development of the magazine however, some of the designs had changed as these drafts were only a rough outline of the magazine. For example, the draft for the contents and double page spread, the placement of images and the layout of the page have been changed slightly.

As well as this, the article for the double-page spread had also been planned out on a Microsoft Word document. This was to ensure that it was suitable for the content. We then imported the article from the word document into the ‘InDesign’ document (which was the software I used to create the double page spread).

The Drafts:

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine represented a wide range of age and culture. It was particularly aimed towards Asian females along with many other ethnicities. I have chosen a female target audience as the results in my questionnaire showed that more females read more music magazines than males. However some of the articles included in the contents page could also be aimed towards males who are interested in the genre of the magazine: “Find out more about the Reading Music Festival…”

My magazine was mainly aimed towards teenagers and adults which range between the ages of 17-24 years.

I have represented this by included a range of music artists that teenagers and young adults are now listening to- my questionnaire had revealed that this particular age range listen to a variety of Indie Rock, RnB and Pop, therefore have chosen the genre of my magazine to be a mix of Indie Rock and RnB and have included artists such as Rihanna, Lana Del Rey, Arctic Monkeys and David Guetta.

I have included a variety of artists’ from the two chosen genres

Represents the target audience

The style represents the genres of the magazine

A variety of topics which can be aimed towards both male and female.

Have given a range of music hits which are popular in both genres Indie Rock and RnB.

Given contrasting images as the new focused artist is different from the model on the front cover.

Contrasting images from the ones on the contents page- now smiling, therefore portraying a positive connection from the celebrity to the audience.

Article conveys how she made it to the charts- portrays a positive role model figure for the audience.

Although my target audience is predominantly focused around Asian females, which are interested in Indie Rock and RnB, there is a large variety of Black and White artists/bands which support the genres of the magazine.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

IPC might be interested to distribute my media product as they particularly focus on a target female audience. The distribute many magazines which are especially for women such as: Now; Woman’s Own and Marie Claire (which are only a few of the magazines in which IPC institution produces).

IPC also produce magazines such as NME, which is an extremely popular music magazine in the UK since 1952. This particular magazine focuses on a variety of music genres, mainly Indie Rock, Rock and RnB (two of which is the main genres of my music magazine).

IPC attract the right audience for a music magazine, and by introducing a fresh music magazine which involves a mix of Indie Rock and RnB and is focused on an Asian ethnicity as well as Black and White, there could be a possibility of widening the audience as there would be a different genre, style and theme of a new music magazine. Therefore IPC would be perfect to distribute my music magazine.

Bauer would be my main rival as they also distribute their music magazines (such as Kerrang!; Q and Mojo) and have a range of music genres, some of which are similar to my music magazines genres. However, I think that Bauer’s marketing and distribution of music magazines are not as focused on a female audience, but specialize more on both male and female audiences.