Media Studies AS: Foundation Portfolio Jil Chitsa
Media Studies AS: Foundation Portfolio
Jil Chitsa
Introduction
For my media project, I chose to produce a print music magazine written within a period of 10 weeks!
Why use conventions of a magazine?For any magazine to be successful and sell to their audience, they need to follow specific conventions. Although I wanted my music magazine to have a
unique edge, I still had to follow magazine conventions in order for my chosen audience to be persuaded to
purchase it.
• Even Vogue, a fashion magazine has to follow conventions
of a magazine to make it look genuine
and professional!
InnovationThe music magazine market is highly competitive, therefore by having a unique selling point that will
stand out from other magazines is vital. So by following magazine conventions and adding a touch of
individuality – your target audience will be enticed to purchase your product.
• After looking at my initial idea, I decided to create a Christian music
magazine targeted for 16-25 year olds. My research pointed out that this was a
niche market, so my decision was to create a mixed genre music genre magazine that was aimed to sell to
Christian teens that were interested in Christian music!
CCM Magazine: a popular Christian music magazine
Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of conventions of real media products?
The name of the magazine must relate to the genre of the magazine.
The image of the magazine must fit the content and the target audience.
Mode of address is created when in an image the person on the cover looks straight out of the magazine, not only does this invite the reader in but also creates a relationship with them.
The colour scheme creates a ‘house style’ and eventually becomes recognisable to the audience.
Price, barcode and web address Stars and Celebrities related to the
genre of the magazine/theme should be used - aspiring people sell magazines!
Conventions of a Front Cover
Title/Header
(brand image)
Main image, medium shot with MOD
Date, price, barcode and web address
Slogan
Leading caption
Subheadings
Straplines
My Magazine
Conventions of a Contents Page
Extra Info on publishers etc Slogan (also on front
cover)
List of contents
Page references
Images dominate the text to allow
‘grazing’
Colourful and bright to encourage readers
to read on
Title/header usually at the top of the page
Simple black and & white
colour palette
R.A.D Magazine My Magazine
Conventions of a Feature ArticleHeadlines and subheadings usually containing a pun or wit, based on the artist and their life. This will catch the audiences attention
Advertising the artists new album, tour, book,
merchandise etc, Artists don’t appear in magazines unless they have something to sell
Text grabs/anecdotes are used to add humour
and controversy
Images are used to break up text and keep article interesting – images should
dominate the page
Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
By using a different range of social groups and ethnicities: black female, Arabian male, Caucasian male and mixed race male, this has given my magazine the opportunity to present
itself as a mixed music genre because of the variety in races and
musical interest. This offers an alternative towards the dominant
stereotypes when it comes to music genres. For example, by choosing
Mimi, my leading artist to be associated with Indie/Pop singers –
‘Florence and the Machines and The Noisettes’ it means an innovation
with Christian music and mainstream music itself because of the
individuality my artists have.
Q3: Media Institutions
For a successful magazine, it needs to be produced and distributed by a publishing company which specialises in the field. Popular publishing companies like IPC or BMG publish
music magazines such as Uncut, NME and Q
But since my music magazine is Christian based, I think that if I want my magazine to sell at it’s highest peak, I should research publishing companies which distribute existing Christian music
magazines. Therefore, I came across Salem Publishing: produces and distributes former printed CCM magazine and
current Homecoming Faith magazine
Therefore by deciding to have Salem Publishing as my chosen institution, I don’t have to worry about promotion and
marketing to a certain extent compared to if I chose a non-Christian publishing institution because of competitive pricing
and strategies they have.
Q4: Audience
An 18 year old boy said in my audience feedback “The target audience for music magazines
can be anywhere from 12 to 30, I really can see no issues in the
attraction of the magazine towards people of those ages."
My target audience is 16-25, both genders and no preferential race, who listen to Christian music,
Groups of A-C2 in the socio-Economic scale with a psychographic profiling of aspirers,
succeeders and reformers because I think as a Christian, you aspire to be a better person whilst trying to succeed in life as well as wanting the world to be a better place.
However, I don’t think that my target audience should be in any ‘lifestyle
groupings’ because Christianity is the most popular religion with people coming from
different backgrounds. So why would I want to specifically target my music
magazine to ‘WASP’ or ‘KIPPERS’, when I can have them all?
Q5: Addressing your Audience
Selecting a magazine name associated with Christian
beliefs/teachings
The artist on my front cover is stylish and on trend lace dress, striped boyfriend blazer and a layered Bob haircut. This will
attract female readers, suggesting to them that she could be a new
fashion icon. For males, using females for your front cover can add sex appeal (without even
trying)A 22 year old boy from my audience feedback said “ … and plus she looks smokin’ hot!”
Describing Mimi as a ‘new
sensation’ attracts the audience to
find out more about this
‘exclusive’ new artist
Aiming to make my pages look
professional with the constant
colour schemes, edited images and creative
layouts
The style and layout of the magazine is very suiting in
comparison to many of today's magazines on
sale. The layout is captivating and draws in
the reader.
A 17 year old girl said “ your cover model looks well styled and the font and layout is dead cool"
Creating headings that will make your audience read on
An 18 year old girl said “ the contents page makes me
want to turn over and begin reading! The use of various
colours, captions under page headings and the images
used all contribute towards a sound reading"
A 16 year old boy said “ I think the contents tries too hard to engage the reader, it is meant to be
factual but not over powering”
Interests me in reading the rest, the little bits under the headings
are interesting and intriguing, like the one about prison, gangs
drugs...Christ"
A 16 year old girl said “ the contents page also entertains
due to the good use of pictures and word art"
Well edited images allow the audience to
graze and find the contents page more
interesting than informing
On the other hand, it should not be too busy
and distractingThe overall presentation of
the contents page should entice the
audience. It should give a
good first impression
Too much text scares readers away from reading article, especially a young target audience like mine, therefore, by spacing the paragraphs out and using images… it distracts the reader from the amount of text in the article
An 18 year old boy said “ the article layout really does make me want to
read on, by separating the main text with questions and short headings the
page is split into sections and helps get the facts
across to the reader very quickly.”
A good piece of journalism flows,
relates to the audience and keeps them entertained
A 22 year old boy said “ the article helps the
reader to imagine the situation and sympathise with the interviewee as well as feeling joyous on
their behalf for the success of the music
artist"
Hyperbolic language, an exciting heading or snappy
tagline will make the reader interested to read
the articleThe title of the article is superb, "the new EDGE" instantly gets me as a reader questioning as to why this new and upcoming singer/song writer is a cut above the rest"
Q6: Technology from the process of constructing my product
InDesign, for the formation and composition of the magazine. At first I really struggled using this
software but looking back at the tutorials handed out, I began to find easier solutions to text wrap
and edit page layouts.
I used Photoshop for the editing of all my images in my magazine. I actually found this very easy because I already had knowledge on how to use it. However,
trying to download fonts and paintbrushes was a tricky issue that I eventually tackled.
By using various equipment and technology, it enables my music magazine to look professional
and genuine like any other magazine on the market
A 7.2 megapixel Samsung camera for the taking of my images and a Kodak scanner for my mood board and mock-up layouts. This helped me visualise what I wanted my preliminary and final product to look like,
Using Blogger to record my research, planning and evaluation was a good idea to help me continually build up on my progress. On the other hand, I'm very unorganised, therefore on occasions I would simply forget to record my
development in the coursework!
Using facebook for both my questionnaire and audience feedback was easier than giving my target audience hard copies, it meant that I
could ask Christian friends in London and my cousin in Rome!
Using a search engine like Google helps you track down all the information you need. For
example, Google helped me find Salem Publishing and Christian music magazines
currently on the market.
Preliminary VS. Final Product
Image not cut out properly: lack of precision
Image is in high key lighting, well edited and airbrushed
Image is under-worked with side lighting
No straplinesColours are too
bright and contrasting
Subheadings are positioned in a slanted angle to give it a more ‘edgy’ look
Conclusion• Overall, I think that my final product is successful. With the use of well composed layouts on all my pages, edited images that look professional and establishing a new artist, I could
actually see this music magazine on the market.
• On the other hand, think that I could have improved on the colour scheme to make it look more subtle and sophisticated.
• After 10 weeks of researching, planning and producing my final product… I am proud to say that revelation magazine
was solely created by me!