Evaluation 2

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

In the creation of the front cover of my Indie/Rock music magazine, I attempted to base it around already existing magazine covers that are sold. The main magazines I used were NME, Q magazine and The Rolling Stones magazine. These magazines are well known for being the main Indie/Rock magazines which allowed me to use these as a template effectively. I attempted, more than other aspects, to base the aesthetics of my magazine off of the existing ones so it would be recognised as an Indie/Rock magazine when looked at. The conventions I followed were also based off of the already existing covers which helped my magazine come across to the reader as the expected genre of magazine.

This is the main image that is situated on the cover of my magazine. It features the focuses of the magazines main story which is a very common magazine convention. The image contains guitars which very much an Indie/Rock feature, as seen on NME magazine, which allows the magazine to follow the correct genre conventions.

The colours that are found on the cover of my magazine are very mixed and un specific to any genre. This is seen on many Indie/Rock magazines and could be seen as a genre convention itself. The Q magazine cover here has a main colour scheme of red and white but is also accompanied by other irrelevant colours. I have attempted to use this sort of colour scheme on my magazine cover to follow this convention.

Magazines such as Q magazine and NME have a small but easily visible masthead in the upper left-hand corner which is the initial point of reading. I have followed this convention by placing my masthead in the same place on the cover. Another feature I have used is one on the above Q magazine cover which is the quote that relates to the main story. I have used this same feature and have also made it relevant to my main story which features on the cover.

In the making of my magazine I have attempted to develop some of the following features from the previously mentioned existing media items from my genre.

I have taken and developed the small plugs that Q magazine uses down the side of their cover that don’t interfere with the main image. I used this as it is an easy way of explaining the additional content of the magazine without taking up too much space on the cover.

I have used the main colour scheme and white background from the well-known Indie/Rock magazine Q. I have used developed these features to fit around my magazines already existent features, such as the main image.

Other than Q, I have used NME which has many neutral features and convention but also contains some that relate to Indie/Rock music. I have taken the masthead style from this magazine by placing my masthead in the upper left-hand corner.

On my front cover, I have developed the quote that is used on the cover of Q by including a quote around the focus of the cover picture. This form useful as it can entice the reader and is used on many magazine covers.

These are some already existing media conventions that I have challenged in the making of my magazine. I have challenged them to not only make my magazine specifically unique, but to make them better by challenging and then adapting them. The adapting will allow my magazine to follow the conventions expected while also being relative to my magazine specifically.

The Rolling Stones magazine has a long and curvy masthead which I have taken advantage of in my on my magazine cover due to its unspecific genre conventions, which means I can develop it into my own style. However, I have challenged this by changing its central layout which I believe is in the way of the other features of the page.

One of the main features of already existing media products is the common feature of having a main focus picture in the centre of the page with text and plugs around whereas in the making of my magazine I have placed my main image at the bottom of the cover with the text and plugs above it. This is very different to most magazines but does not have a negative effect on the overall impact of the magazine cover.

I believe that my magazine challenges very few genre conventions that appear in already existent media products as I have chosen to create my magazine with as close

resemblance as possible to my previously mentioned example media products.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The already existing media products that represent my magazines genre are ones that would (upon first appearances) relate to an older audience of about 18+. Due to the maturity of younger teens nowadays there are few music magazines that relate or are aimed at their age range. For this reason I have deliberately aimed my magazine at a younger audience of around 13-18 years old to allow this age range to access the magazine information that is suitable for their age range.

My magazine focuses around the genre/s of Indie/Rock which is a genre that is stereotypically related to teenagers with their own individual style and music taste. This relates to the style of my magazine as its cover doesn’t necessarily have a style and is individual.As the main audience of my magazine is teenagers, I have incorporated guitars into my cover which could relate mainly to male readers who would see electric guitars as being ‘cool’. This instrument theme has also been carried out in the design of my masthead which incorporates an electric guitar lead.

The class that my magazine would mainly aim at is a class of about C2-E due to its informal tone and informal style. The informality is shown significantly in the clothing of the band members featured on the front cover of the magazine as they are wearing casual clothes and are posing in a relaxed and ‘laid-back’ fashion which would not be seen on a higher class and more formal magazine. My magazine uses a very informal layout style as it is extremely cramped and almost cluttered at the top of the cover. This cluttered effect gives the reader the idea that it is a less formal magazine and will not contain content of a formal nature. This informality and ‘laid-back’ style reflects on the target classes who have a middle class background unlike the higher classes which will have a different style.

The race of my target social group is undefined. However, my magazine has a tone and language type that could make it seem more aimed towards a white and English race.

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

As my magazine will need publishing and then distributing as a purchasable product for my audience to buy I will need to have a magazine distribution company to help me launch my magazine. As my magazine is based around a genre of music, it would be a good idea to pair with a distribution company that has experience in the music magazine field.

This is why I have chosen ‘Music Mags’, a suitable magazine distributer that specialises in music magazines of all kinds. This company has distributed all types of music magazine that all branch from different genres, this means the company is able to adapt to the specific magazines style and form.

This is a screenshot of the companies website which contains a page showing some of the music magazines that they have launched under their name. These include some very specific genres and styles which further emphasises their experience of variety.

The company may also be able to help me adapt my magazine to my market and make it a more presentable and overall professional looking magazine with a selling potential.

Who would be the audience of your media product?

My research magazines (Q, NME, Rolling stones) all relate to my magazines style and genre. I also believe that these magazines have a similar target market and audience as they also have a similar genre and form basis. The audiences of these example magazines are all very general and unspecific as the genre doesn’t cover a very defined niche, but instead covers a large group of people due to the size and vague style of their genres.

As I said previously, my magazines style is very much based around these example magazines, meaning my magazine will also have a very general and unspecific audience and market.

I have attempted to style my magazines aesthetics so that they relate as closely to my magazines Indie/Rock genre as possible. One significant sign of this is the use of guitars on my front covers main focus image which are very much seen as an instrument relating to rock music.Rock music can sometimes be seen as a more ‘rugged’ or ‘gritty’ style of music which is why I have chosen to make the ‘E’ in “Break-up” crumble and break.Another Indie/Rock related aesthetic is the masthead, which uses a guitar lead to relate to my audience.

Crumbling (gritty)

Indie Instruments

Guitar lead design

How did you attract/address your audience?

The magazines that I have seen and researched all attract and address the audience in similar ways. These ways usually involve using the aesthetics of the magazine to almost interact with the reader/audience in specific ways. The front cover of the magazine is the main piece of aesthetic media that is used to address the audience. The first and main way that the magazine addresses and attracts the audience is by taking advantage of the first visible feature of the magazine cover which is the masthead. The masthead is usually bold and ‘eye-catching’ which can draw an audience in purely because of its aesthetics.

My masthead, like most magazines, is situated at the top of the magazine and to the left this area of the page is the initial point of reading, as the human brain cases us to look there on the page first. The design of my masthead may attract an audience who like guitar or are into rock music as it is styled like a guitar lead.

I have also used a technique that, during my research, I have found many magazines use, which is the use of a main title which usually contains the most interesting story in the magazine. This is to attract a potential customer who may see it and then be interested in it, causing them to want to read on.

Another way in which I attract the audience of my magazine is in the way that the language is used on the cover. I have used language that speaks to the audience as if they already own the magazine; this could make the reader of the cover feel as if they need to own it to find out the stories etc.

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

During the process of development in the making of my magazine pieces, I believe my skills in the use of technology (especially editorial software) have improved. I have improved these skills due to the need to use different tools and program equipment in different situations. For example, in the making of my double-page spread I needed to edit the main background image well enough to make the image larger and not see any signs of it being manipulated and edited.

I was also not used to the program provided (Fireworks) to develop these media pieces and therefore had to adapt my already existent image manipulation and editing skills to a different software. Although this proved difficult at the start of the process, I eventually found myself getting better and more fluent with the different style of program.

I became more skilled with the different tools on Fireworks and therefore was able to improve my capabilities on the program.

These tools involved the basic design editing tools that would automatically edit the media feature in a way of your choice.

Other programs I used in the process involved GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) which is a Photoshop styled program that I used in the editing of some of my images.