FINAL DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

FINAL MUSIC MAG FRONT COVER

Evaluation Updated

AS Media Music Magazine Evaluation

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

When researching about different types of magazines I analysed NME Magazine. I decided to base my music magazine around NME, to do so I would have to use similar features and conventions to that of NME. I analysed the front cover of the May issue of NME with the Arctic Monkeys on the front. The photograph on the front of the magazine shows the entire band sat on a wall. It is centred in the middle of the page and it is in colour. All of the members are making eye contact with the viewer of the magazine. The effect on the picture gives off, quite a rustic/vintage look to the magazine. The clothes they are wearing also give off this effect. The masthead of the magazine is in a bold font, and is in red with a white outline. Red is an interesting colour to use because red connotes danger, this makes it stand out even more. Perhaps NME used this colour to give a rebellious look to the bands on their front cover. The main feature headline of this copy of NME is in a gold coloured font. This could be to show that the Arctic Monkeys are the number one band around, and are in first place, therefore why the writing is in gold. The cover lines are at the bottom of the page are in red and white. The artist who is involved is in red and information about this section is in white. This has been done to colour code with the masthead, this gives a nice flow to the magazine. I have tried to make my front cover similar to this. For example I used a bold font similar to that used in NME, I also used a similar font style and placed the masthead in the top left hand corner which is the usual convention for a masthead. I also placed my sell lines in the same place as in this copy of NME; across the picture and again in a bold font and similar font style. Also in my music magazine (MWT) I placed the barcode in the bottom right hand corner just like it is in NME Magazine. However I did change some conventions to my magazine to make it more unique. For example I changed the colour of my masthead from red to navy. I preferred the navy colour and I thought it suited my front cover a lot better than the red did. I also used a different colour for my sell lines; I used red because I felt it stood out more whereas in NME they used gold.

In contrast to my front cover my contents page challenges a number of the key conventions associated with a contents page. For example I only used one image whereas usually in a contents page you would have several. I decided to do this because I didn’t want to draw away attention from the main feature which was an article about Jake Kay. I also challenge the convention of having an editor’s letter, I felt one of these was simply not needed and it would use up vital space which I needed for important things like my image. However I did still develop some of the conventions in my contents page. For example I had an index section, page number, and also the date and the issue number.

My double page spread develops a number of the conventions, for example it has a large main image which takes up almost half of the page. It also has a drop cap and a pull quote which are also conventions of a Double Page spread. However my double page spread does also challenge some conventions like the convention of having a large headline. Mine is fairly small and I did this because I felt it was important to leave myself more room for the article itself and I didn’t need a large headline because the majority of people will purposely have turned to that page to read the article.    

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I am trying to appeal across a wide range of ethnic backgrounds with my Music Magazine. To do this I had to make my magazine suitable to all races and not try to particularly reach out to a certain ethnic background like for example some R&B magazines would do.  65% of NME readers are males so I decided that the generic type I would aim my magazine at would be the male audience. One of the ways I did this was by featuring a male artist on the front cover. This would therefore appeal to males who like the particular artist or who could perhaps relate to him in some way. Also MWT magazine is aimed more at the younger generation rather than the elder because the bands featured in my magazine are traditionally associated with younger people e.g. The Vaccines, Arctic Monkeys and Miles Kane. These bands also tell the reader the genre of my music magazine as well, which is Indie/Rock. My magazine shows this in a number of ways for example the font style I used for my masthead and the image on my front cover which shows someone smashing a guitar. Even the clothes the artist is wearing on my front cover help fit the indie/rock genre because he is wearing clothes which people of this style traditionally wear. This would immediately tell the reader that this is an Indie/Rock magazine and not say a Pop Magazine.

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

When I was creating my music magazine it was important to think about which media institution would distribute my product. Due to the fact my magazine is based around NME magazine which is produced by I.P.C Media, the obvious choice to produce my magazine would therefore be I.P.C. As well as producing Music Magazines like NME, I.P.C Media also distribute a wide range of genres of magazines, being 85 different types in total. For example sport genres like; ‘Cycling Weekly’ and ‘World Soccer’ to lad mags like ‘Nuts’ as well as fashion magazines like ‘Look’. IPC  reaches two third of UK women and 44% of men. This is almost 27 million adults. There three main audiences are men,mass market women and upmarket women. It produces 350 million copies each year which would be very useful for my magazine .However choosing IPC Media to distribute my Magazine could have potential problems. The main one being that NME would be a massive rival magazine to mine, so I.P.C would probably not want to produce two similar magazines together. So perhaps it would be a better idea to get my music magazine produced by someone like Bauer Media because at the moment they don’t currently produce any music magazines which I directly similar to mine like NME is. However Bauer Media does currently produce Kerrang, but this Music Magazine is not very similar to mine because it is a heavy rock/metal magazine so bands they feature in there magazine would not be similar to/or the same as mine. So there is certainly a gap in the market for Bauer Media to produce a music magazine like mine and I’m sure they would be willing to. Similarly to I.P.C, Bauer Media produces a wide range of magazines.  They produce genres such of things like angling e.g. ‘Angling Times’ and magazines about golf e.g. ‘Golf World’.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

When making my music magazine I felt it was important to look at the target audience so I know what kind of things to include in my magazine to fit the specific age range I aimed at. Magazines similar to mine for example NME would be aimed at people aged 16-24 years old. However people not in this age bracket still buy the magazine, especially if they like the particular band/artist featured. Similarly Kerrang’s target audience is 16-25 years old, however Kerrang is specifically aimed at heavy rock music fans unlike mine. So because NME Magazine is the most similar magazine to mine, I decided to aim my magazine at 16-24 year olds. For my magazine to attract to my target audience I had to use a number of magazine key features to address this target audience. For example the title, sell lines, colours and fonts of my magazine are all suitable to the age group my magazine is aimed at. I didn’t use boring dull colours, I decided to use brighter ones like reds and purples which would really grab a younger person’s attention and make them pick my magazine up of the shelf and buy it. The font style I used would also have a similar effect on the reader. The content in my music magazine also particularly appeals to the target audience of 16-24 year olds. The artist I used for the front cover, contents page and double page spread is the same age as my target audience (16), so a number of readers could relate to him and look up to him as a role model because they could be like him one day being featured in another copy of MWT.

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

When constructing my music magazine I used a number of different technologies and learnt a lot from them. After planning how I wanted my magazine to look like, I needed to take some pictures. The camera I used was a Canon Eos 300d. When taking the photos I used a plain white background so I wouldn’t have to crop out anything in the background. Once I’d taken the picture I edited them on Adobe Photoshop by making a background copy and working on that. On here I edited away any spots and marks on my models skin by using the ‘Spot Heeling Brush Tool’ as well as adding an effect to the image. Also on Photoshop I added things like my masthead, sell lines and the date using the ‘Text’ tool. Altogether I did about three draft copies of my music magazine before I got to the finished product. My first was not very good, it had a number of the key magazine conventions missing and my masthead was not big enough. My second draft was slightly better because I added in sell lines, a barcode and a number of other magazine conventions but it still wasn’t the finished product. The third draft was better because I added in some more things but they were in the wrong place for example the sell lines. Once I had changed the things which had gone wrong on looked at other magazines for insperation my magazine front cover was finished. To create my contents page and double spread I used Microsoft Publisher. For the contents page I set out the layout as well as adding an image and text. I did very much the same with my double page spread apart from I had to add a ‘pull quote’ and obviously the layout was different to my contents page. As well as Photoshop and Publisher I also did article drafts for my contents page using Microsoft Word. To gain access to these programmes I used a Laptop and a Dell OptiPlex 780 computer. Without these modern media technologies I could not have constructed my music magazine to the way I did, it would have had to have not up to the same standard and it would have been very time consuming.

What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When looking back at the preliminary task, which was to create a College Magazine it, is clear that I have learnt a lot since then.  I have improved a lot at using Photoshop; in my college magazine I didn’t edit my photo at all and I was generally not very confident at using the software. Whereas now I am far more confident at using it and this makes my work look a lot more professional.  Also since the preliminary task I feel that I have become a lot more aware of what the conventions of a magazine are. When creating the college magazine I hardly knew any, but now I know them all and the majority of them feature in my music magazine. Also things as simple as taking pictures I feel I have improved at. The photo for my college magazine was not very well taken; it was not very well cut and the college student featured in it wasn’t even looking at the camera properly. However when it came to taking pictures for my Music Magazine, they were all well framed and a lot better shot than the one for my college magazine and they fitted in with the style of the music magazine.

LIIAR Analysis of Mojo Double Page Spread

L: The colours used in the headline of this magazine emphasise the fact that Alex Turner and Miles Kane have the best of both worlds yet they are both stilll different and unique. This shown beause the writting on the left hand side of the spread are in an orange colour and the the words on the right are in white which shows they are both different. This is again used in the text just underneath the headline where orange and white are both used. The font used for the title is very bold and then the font changes for the text used in the article and then goes back to the same font used for the headline when it says who wrote the article.

I:  Mojo is produced by the Bauer Media Group. The Bauer Media Group are a worldwide company, and they operate in 15 different countries. They are based in Hamburg, Germany.

I: The basic idea behind this double page spread is to give the reader an article about Alex Turner and Miles Kane working together. However you get the feeling that Mojo are trying to give off the impression that Turner and Kane don’t always get on. This is shown because Alex Turner is looking away from Miles Kane this perhaps showing that they don’t always get on all that well.

A: Mojo magazine’s audience is people aged 15-24 and this is quite a mainstream audience. However the target audience is slightly older then say Kerrang which I think can be seen by the way the magazine is set out.

R: This double page spread is represented in some of the traditional ways a double page spread is represented. For example a large headline used, so is a large photo which dominates the page. However some conventions are missed out like a pull quote for example. 

LIIAR Analysis of Kerrang Double Page Spread

 L: By the language used in this Kerrang double page spread, we get the impression that the artist (Lilly Allen) gets a lot of things said about her as the pull quote which is used a headline states; ‘People think I’m an attention seeker, but i’m just honest’. By the font used it gives off the representataion that these things have been said about Lilley Allen in the newspaper. This is because the font looks like newspaper cut outs.

I: The publisher for Kerrang Magazine is the Bauer Media Group. The Bauer Media Group are a worldwide company, and they operate in 15 different countries. They are based in Hamburg, Germany.

I: The ideology of this double page spread is to give an interview or an article with Lilly Allen. I think the Kerrang producers have tried to make the spread maybe a bit controversial. This is because it’s a quite out there quote that Lilly Allen has used, and people who dislike her will disagree with the pull quote and say that she is an attention seeker. The Mise en Scene in this double page spread also helps back up the point that Kerrangs ideology has been to make this spread slightly controversial. For example Lilly’s hair is black and her eyes have black round them. Also the top she is wearing looks very casual which could be to suggest that she doesn’t care what the critic say about her.

A: The target audience for Kerrang Magazine is 15-19 year old's.

R: This double page spread is represented to the audience in most of the traditional ways a double page spread is conveyed. However some things are different, like the pull quote is used at the headline to the article/interview whereas in most double page spreads the pull quote is just placed at the side of the text and they have a totally separate headline. Over double page spread conventions have stayed the same though, for example a large image and a drop cap. 

LIIAR Analysis of NME Double Page Spread

 

L: The language features is this double page spread are very simple; the two main colour schemes are black and white. The title to the page is in a very large bold font which says ‘The Joshua Code’. This takes up the half of the one section of the page so the reader cannot miss it. The text is under this and it uses some of the traditional features of a double page spread by using a pull quote underneath the title and a drop cap.The picture used in NME’s double page spread takes up half of the page and it features the band the Arctic Monkeys. The full band are looking into the camera lens which makes it seem as if the band are making eye contact with the reader.

I:  IPC Media produce NME Magazine, this is a media production company based in the UK. It produces over 85 different magazines.

I: The ideology of this NME double page spread is simply to give the reader and interview with the Arctic Monkeys. This is done in the text underneath the title ‘The Joshua Code’. The double page spread also features a picture of the band which takes up half of the page. Not only does it give you an interview with the band it also gives the reader some additional information like they are playing at Reading and Leeds Festivals. This information is displayed in the top left hand corner of the magazine. 

A:The audience for NME is mainly males aged 17-24. 70 percent of the audience are males so that is clearly the majority. Most people who read NME have good income jobs which allows them to afford the magazine when it comes out each month.

R:  The spread is represented in the traditional way a double page spread should be. For example it uses traditional conventions like a pull quote and it uses two drop caps. A large image is also used, which is usually featured in a double page spread.

LIIAR Analysis of Mojo Contents Page

L: The two main color schemes used in this contents page are black, white and red. The title (Mojo) is in a white bold font. Similarly the titles of artists featured in the magazine are in white, however the font is a lot smaller. The page numbers are pretty much the only other thing which is in red apart from the title saying 'Contents' which tells you what the page is about. Unlike other contents pages this one doesn't have a section about subscribing to the magazine, it only has the features/contents of the magazine, Mojo's contents page is far simpler than say NME's or Kerrangs and it is not over loaded with information. The picture on this contents page is bold and it goes up all of the way up the page. The picture is quite striking because the black dress and 'Florence and the Machines' red hair stands out against the white background. Unlike the NME and Kerrang contents page, it is the only picture and also unlike NME and Kerrang the photo has been specifically taken at a photo-shoot whereas the ones in NME and Kerrang were just taken at live concerts. 

I: Similarly to Kerrang Mojo is produced by the Bauer Media group. The Bauer Media Group are a worldwide company, and they operate in 15 different countries. They are based in Hamburg, Germany.

I: The ideology of this contents page is to give off a real simplistic look to the full magazine. It does this by having a simple list down the middle of the page which states some key features of the magazine. The picture that is used has a very simplistic look to it. Florence is only wearing two different colours; black and white and then her hair colour is red, all of this links in with the colour scheme of the rest of the page.

A: Mojo magazine’s audience is people aged 15-24 and this is quite a mainstream audience. However the target audience is slightly older then say Kerrang which I think can be seen by the way the magazine is set out.

R: Mojo tries to represent the magazine in a simplistic way, by doing things like only having one picture. It also doesn’t have lots of gimmicky things to give away like free tickets and sections about subscribing to the magazine as they do in NME and Kerrang.

LIIAR Analysis of Kerrang Contenets Page

L: The language features of this Kerrang  magazine contents page are fairly simple.The colour scheme is black, yellow and white. The title ('Contents') is in yellow and so are the rest of the titles across the page for example the words 'This Week' and the 'News' and  'Gig Guide' titles. The title Kerrang is in white as this is the traditonal colour for their title. The background page colour of the contenets page is also in white. The picture used in this contenets page takes up half of the page. It is a very bold picture and it dominates the page and stands out to the reader. The picture is of a rock band playing live, and the lead singer has jumped into the crowd. The picture has not been specially shot for the magazine at a photshoot, it is just at one of their live concerts. Also dotted around the contenets page are pictures of the artists and bands which are featured in the magazine. Like the NME contenets page this Kerrang one also has a section about subscribing to Kerrang in the bottom right hand corner.

I: The publisher for Kerrang Magazine is the Bauer Media Group. The Bauer Media Group are a worldwide company, and they operate in 15 different countries. They are based in Hamburg, Germany.

I: The ideology of this contenets page is just to give off the impression that this magazine is about heavy rock music and nothing else. It doesn't try and give off any particular views or opinions about anything it just simply seems to be about the music and this copy live music as well.

A:  The target audience for Kerrang Magazine is 15-19 year old's and I think this is why they advertise a lot of live music because people of this age are going to be wanting to go out and have good time seeing these live bands. Whereas if they were aiming at an older audiance they probably wouldn't talk about live bands are more about album and singles reviews. However people older than 15-19 year olds will still buy the magazine especially if they like a particular band featured in the magazine or just like the heavy rock genre of music.

R: This Kerrang contenets page is represents what the magaine is all about and where abouts the reader can find it by telling them what page numbers certanin articles are on. This particular contnetspage is packet full of information and even includes extra things like the publishers notes and pictures of the double page spread and posters you can find inside the magazine.

LIIAR Analysis of NME Contents Page

L: The language features on this contents page are very simple. The main two colours are black, red and white. The masthead (NME) is in the traditional colours of the magazine which is red, and the title which states labels the page as the contents page is in white. The majority of the rest of the page is in a black font, including the sell line telling the reader that the section about the Arctic Monkeys is on page 45. A bold font is used for the title so it stands out to the reader and grabs their attention and then a slightly smaller font is used for the titles at the side like 'News', 'Reviews'and 'Features'. This is so the reader knows were to look to find those particular sections and they can find them quickly. The bold picture is of the Arctic Monkeys playing live and it was probably not especially taken for NME it would just have been taken at one of their concerts. It is placed in the centre of the contents page and this stands out to the reader and they will look and see what the picture is about. At the bottom of the contents page is a section advertising to the reader to subscribe to NME and they will only have to pay £1.49 for it, thus making the reader read NME every week.
I: IPC Media produce NME Magazine, this is a media production company based in the UK. It produces over 85 different magazines. For example lad mags like 'Nuts' and fashion magazines like 'Look'
I: The contents page of the magazine doesn't give off a particular ideology. It doesn't really give any  views or beliefs like rebellion or rock and roll it seems to be more just about the music and the music only. This is expressed by the picture used. It is of the Arctic Monkeys playing live and it's not a picture which had been particularly shot to give off a certain ideology. For example in other magazines there might be a picture of someone to show they are a rebel. NME is quite an independent magazine so it wouldn't have to give off any mainstream opinions or beliefs.
A:  The audience for NME is mainly males aged 17-24. 70 percent of the audience are males so that is clearly the majority. Most people who read NME have good income jobs which allows them to afford the magazine when it comes out each month.
R: The main focus of this contents page is to tell the reader what page different sections of the magazine are on. The page also advertises the article about the Arctic Monkeys and it advertises the section about subscribing to the magazine.