Abbie Hastings- AS Media

AS Media- Magazine Evaluation

In this analysis I will answer examiner questions 1-7 in essay format. I have done this so that I can fully describe and answer the process of which I created a magazine. All of the questions have been answered however may not all be in the same paragraph as each other. I believe it was necessary to do this as many questions correlate with each other and back up my reasoning for what I did within the magazine.
Over the past few weeks I have been creating a music magazine of which will compete against other magazines such as NME and Q. My magazine will compete against them due to conventional similarities that will catch the target audience’s eye and ensure that the magazine is appealing to them. To begin with- the front cover my magazine has a clear and noticeable masthead- situated in the top left corner in bold red writing so that it is the first thing the audience can see. This is similar to the placing of the masthead on the competing magazines also as it helps to ensure that when the magazines are all lined up on a rack in a shop it is still possible for the name to be partially seen. The title of my magazine is also short and memorable to ensure that it’s easy for my audiences to read and remember. This differs from ‘NME’ as the full title of that magazine is ‘The New Musical Express’ which is abbreviated down to ensure that it can be displayed in large text at the top left of the magazine, I decided to use the word ‘pulse’ as the title however as it relates to my tagline which is “the ultimate indie alternative lifeline!”.
I have ensured that that the main feature that is displayed on the front cover or my magazine relates to the full page image and also the dominant image on the contents page, I have done this so that the audience can immediately establish who the excusive artist in this issue is- and this will therefore give them more of an insight as to what they will expect from the middle page spread. Because my front cover only has one large image on it I believe it was very important to place more teasing contents down the left hand side. This is so that the audience will see it directly after reading the title and they just have to scan their eyes downwards, also by adding more features onto the front cover it helps the audience decide whether or not they are interested by the content and genre of the magazine.
I have used three different images of the main artist that is being interviewed on the centre pages of my magazine, however I have ensured that they all link together through use of the same font on the front cover and middle page as the headlining title and also used a re-occurring colour theme so that the audience can establish links between the two. Magazines such as NME and also do this (as shown on my blog) so that the audience don’t get overwhelmed and confused by the use of numerous different fonts that will draw attention away from the main article.
Unlike Q and NME, I have only used one image on my front cover, however I have included more thumbnails on the contents page. I have done this because I didn’t want the cover to look over-crowded and too busy for the audience to read. I believe it is important to stick to an eye catching yet simplistic front cover so that the audience can make a quick judgement of whether the want to buy it based on the displayed short and straight to the point articles written on the front and within the contents. I have displayed the conventional similarities between my magazine and NME magazine on my blog which was uploaded on the 27th March 2012, this shows how they both follow conventions in order to attract a specific audience, which in this case is people who enjoy indie alternative music.
I believe that my magazine specifically represents people within the age range of 16 to 20- in particular females. The main image on the front cover and inside the contents and double page spread are all female characters as I wanted to challenge the stereotypes of indie alternative magazine’s usually displaying male bands or artists. I did this however in a similar was as to what the ‘Lily Allen’ NME cover was produced, by ensuring that the model wasn’t dressed in too much of a feminine or over glamorised way in order to make the magazine still appear to a male audience.
On the front cover and contents page of my magazine I have dressed my model in black clothing, this is because it not only represents that she is a mysterious character but it also shows that the magazine is versatile for both male and females to use. In the contents page however my model was in more floaty and girly clothing- but still in dark colours, I did this to symbolise that my artist ‘Amy and The Rangers’ was rising up from her dark and boyish ways to become a more mature artist. This would appeal to my female audience as it will give them the courage and belief that they too can transform their lives and succeed, however it will also appeal to my male audience as they will appreciate the beauty of the model and be intrigued as to what the interview is based around.
I used a colour theme of grey, black and red as I believe through magazines such as Q and NME, they have established these to be colours that are more based around alternative music. Although black is dark and could be considered to be more for rock or punk music- the grey and red counterbalances this and adds a more indie feel due to red symbolising danger or power and grey symbolising a bland yet constant tone which is more calming then the rock based blacks.
I made sure to make it clear that the photo’s in my magazine stuck to this colour theme through editing or choice of costume so that it was clear throughout that they linked to the indie alternative genre. For example on the contents page the image in the top right shows a model in a red and black checked shirt, not only does this link in with the females taking on a more dominant masculine roll (due to less feminine clothes being worn) the red shows that she is part of a strong indie alternative background or source of music, which it what my magazine is about.
In order to gain inspiration as to who the institution of my magazine may be I looked at similar competing magazines such as Q, NME and MOJO. In doing this I discovered institutions such as Bauer Media and IPC Media. I also found an institution called ‘Conde Nast’ however I do not think that this institution is ideal to my magazines indie-alternative genre as their magazines are mostly things such as ‘Vogue’ and ‘Glamour’ which are aimed at a target audience of females age 25-35 due to their fashion pages and advice columns. I have recently done some research as to why I think that Bauer media would be a good
institution for my magazine which is displayed on my blog (29th March 2012). I have also done some research into IPC Media which is also displayed on my blog, posted on the 29th/3rd/2012.
In my research of these three institutions I have decided that for the benefit of my magazine and to boost sales and promote it in the correct way I will use Bauer Media as my institution. I believe that this is the best institution for my magazine as they already have a very widespread audience which isn’t as specific as IPC and Conde Nast’s- and therefore is more likely to be more welcome to new audience’s such as teenagers who like indie alternative music buying their magazines.
I have decided that it would be too much of a risk to produce my magazine independently- due to my audience being so specific, therefore it may not make as much as a profit as it could if Bauer Media produce it and get a name for it with other magazines that it produces due to their strong reputation of providing high quality magazines. Another reason that I would not produce my magazine independently is that it would mean I may have to increase the pricing of my magazine which I don’t believe would be very positive towards the sales due to stating on my blog on Sunday 20th November 2011 how I want my magazine to be at a lower cost than NME and Q so that many of their readers may decide to purchase my magazine instead, and also because the target audience that my product is aimed at are usually not very wealthy due to things such as lack of employment or university debt.
As shown on my blog on Sunday 20th November 2011, I have discussed how and why I have chosen to target the audience of people between the ages of 16-25. On this post I however stated that my main audience may be males due to my magazine having a strong underground genre to it, I decided to change this however so my magazine would appeal equally to both males and females. I did this by slightly altering the genre from underground and alternative to indie and alternative, I believe that this makes my magazine more appealing to females as this genre has powerful bands such as Florence and The Machine, Lana Del Ray and Kate Nash which symbolise how women are just as equal to this magazine as men. I have also decided to portray that my magazine should appeal to both males and females by having a female artist on the front. This shows that over this particular magazine females are dominant, however dressing her in dark clothing this symbolises the idea that she has a mysterious inner boyish side that she lets lose within the interview of this magazine in the double page spread.
Because I want my magazine to have a unisex feel in order to attract a wider audience I used a colour theme of the colours red, grey and black because I believe that they are very versatile colours that don’t particularly symbolise either male’s or females. This therefore shows that my magazine doesn’t want either sex to feel as though they cannot be attracted into buying this product. If I used colours such as blue (which would convey that it was mostly a male audience that my product was aimed at) or pink (which
would symbolise that it’s aimed at a female audience) then the number of copies that my magazine sold would be significantly lower due to having a more specific audience. Not only is my red, black and grey colour theme suitable to use because of my unisex magazine but they also help to portray the genre of the magazine. As shown in my Prezi presentation on my blog on Sunday 20th November 2011, other magazine which are similar to mine have also stuck to a colour theme like the one I have used. I decided to this because when my magazine is on a shelf next to these other products the audience will be able to easily see that they are of similar genre’s due to NME and Q already building up an indie alternative fan-base.
In order to get a clear idea of different age groups I got some audience feedback which is shown to be posted on the 30/03/2012 on my blog. I asked a 19 year old female what she thought of the magazine and then to contrast this I asked a 46 year old female what her opinions of the magazine were. In doing this I discovered the different opinions of my audience however I also discovered that my magazine may have a secondary audience. Due to my magazine being specifically target at people between the ages of 16-25 it is shown in my ‘audience feedback number 2’ on my blog that many parents would buy their child this magazine if they saw this on the shelf. When producing my magazine I didn’t fully consider secondary audiences however I do feel as though my magazine isn’t overly specific to people between the ages 16-25, as long as the person who wants to read the magazine enjoys indie alternative music then I believe the magazine will still appeal to them on some levels due to the front cover displaying how much content of band interviews and information it has inside of it.
My magazine is priced at £2.50 which I believe is attractive to my target audience because they are usually people within the socio economic groups of D and E, which means many of them are unemployed- while others work for a very limited time period therefore will not earn that much money. Of course there are exceptions within this age range of this however if I was to base the price of my magazine on socio economics I would have to use this information in order to do it as it speaks for the majority of the UK rather then the minority.
In order to make my magazine more appealing to my audience I have put the information that there is a free £5 download for iTunes in side of the magazine on the bottom left of the magazine. I think that using this convention will attract more people into buying the magazine due to the fact that it’s already a music magazine, therefore it’s obvious that the buyer of my product is already interested in listening or making music- therefore a free music download would be very beneficial to them.
The images on the contents of my magazine and also on the double page spread also work to attract an audience as the models focus is looking directly to the audience. This works well as it makes them feel as though they are a part of the magazine and not just a reader of it. I decided however to use an image on the front of my cover where it looks as though the model is looking at the title of my magazine. I have done this so that it draws more attention to it and overall makes the audience more attracted into buying other magazines on the shelf rather than mine.
Through the process of constructing this magazine I had to use many programmes such as Photoshop, Publisher and Word. To assist me with doing this magazine and help my planning I also had to learn how to use facilities such as ‘GoAnimate’ and ‘Prezi’. I began this course with very little to no knowledge of Photoshop, therefore I had to begin by learning how to use the tools in order to manipulate and smooth out my images. To begin with I had to take photo’s using an Olympus SP600UZ 12 megapixel camera, I then uploaded them to Photoshop. In order to manipulate the images and give them a white background I had to use the lasso select tool and the regular select tool to cut the image from the background and put it onto a white one. I then softened the edges of the image to ease them into the harsh white background. Another thing I did to my images which is shown on my blog is smooth the tone and colour of the models skin out. I did this by selecting the area that I wanted to edit and layering it so that I didn’t make a mistake on the original image. I then used the ‘edit’ and ‘blur’ tool which I decided to use Gaussian blur between 3.0 and 5.0 pixels. I did this to make the skin look smooth and even. I could change the tone of my models skin by altering the opacity level- this worked well as it made me able to make the skin still look realistic instead of over-edited. I then placed my image onto the area that I wanted it to be displayed on the magazine and used the text tool to write in the names of articles that were to be displayed within my magazine.
If you compare my current music magazine to the quality of the music magazine that I produced as a preliminary task at the start of the year- the standard of the work has improved greatly. I believe that this is due to the fact that at the start of the year my knowledge of using programmes like Photoshop was very limited. Since then I have discovered that using the select and edit tools you can transform your selected image and manipulate it into a different shape size or position in order to be able to place it in an appropriate place on the magazine. I believe that a positive of the magazine is that I still managed to stick to a house style therefore I displayed some knowledge of the magazine conventions, however the editing and alterations of the images I used was of a very poor quality. In order to help myself progress from this standard of work I did many individual research of Photoshop. This involved using sites such as YouTube or question and answer sites such as ‘Yahoo Answers.’ By doing this I learnt new ways to alter images and ensure that it was of a high quality so that my magazine could look as professional as possible.