2nd Double Page Spread

 

Language - The double page spread features a Medium Close Up so that we can see who the article is talking about, the black and white style photo is one of the house style features of Q magazine. The fact that the large L in the background of the writing shows us the L for Lady Gaga, this enforces who the article is about, the colour is also the same as the Q masthead.

Institution - The institution for Q Magazine is Bauer Media Group.

Ideology -  This double page spread wants to show off the fact that Lady Gaga has come back and she's better than she was, she's got a new look but she's not all new, as shown throught the use of the black and white image, this is due to the fact that black and white photos are seen as old and thus she would be seen as old, there are also other meanings behind using black and white photographs due ot the fact that many artistic photo graphs are taken in black and white.

Audience -  Fans of Lady Gaga and general readers of Q magazine, people who might be curious about the article in general and people who are fans of the music genre.

Representation - The double page spread simply shows off how easy she is as a person, this is due to the fact that it seems as though she is looking you in the eyes, this is seen usually as a sign of respect that you are both equals, there is also the representation that due to the fact that she seems to be not wearing much she might live as sort of a free spirit sort of thing, or it could be the opposite since she seems to be wearing chains around her neck.

1st Double Page Analysis

Language - The language throughout this article and image shows that the main focus of it is something about Oasis, because of how we can see easily that there is content about Oasis and that the main image is also to do with Oasis that there is a dominant feature in the article of the band. The way that that the spread is ordered is also to do with the band due to the fact that there have been clashes within the band and this is also shown in the pull quote on the left side of the spread, they have also highlighted ANOTHER OASIS in orange to make it stand out this is an example of tease content due to the fact that a fan or Oasis might simply be drawn to those words and then would likely read the rest of the article.

Institution - The institution which publishes for NME is IPC Media.

Ideology - The way that this spread is ordered has the band shown as dominant in the frame, we can also take the fact that one of the members of Oasis is there and telling us their opinion that they don't think there will be another Oasis or another band which can replicate them, we can also take the fact that since Oasis had so many disagreements throughout their lifetime with each other that people can always pull together and do what matters when it needs to be done, the photograph however adds a sort of moody atmosphere into the frame, due to the way they seem to be looking down on the reader.

Audience - Fans of Oasis, NME readers and people who generally just read anything which interests them.

Representation  - This spread shows that Oasis are made up of people of different styles, as we see there are people wearing leather, shirts and t-shirts, this helps the reader realise that they are not that different apart from their job, however the fact that they are looking down on the audience from the long shot low angle camera makes them seem very dominant in the frame as though they are judging you.

Music Magazine Evaluation

The main task which we have been given is to create a front page, contents page and a double page spread for a new music magazine, the pages which we create must have a total of 4 images, all images and text need to have been created by us, by ourselves. In order to be able to complete this task I had to do some research into existing music magazines, I was able to look at different magazine conventions and see how they affect the readers and the way in which they influence the type of people who buy the magazine, how they make the magazine look professional and appeal to specific audiences. Normally a conventional music magazine uses large mastheads (bold), and pull quotes in order to interest the reader, this helps people to identify the magazine and other things such as plugs are used in order to show off giveaways and other important information to make it so that the reader notice them, the different music magazines which I analysed for my research were NME, Decibel and Metal Hammer.

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

On my magazine My masthead is across the top of the page instead of the top left corner which existing magazines seem to do regularly for example NME, I chose however to go with a style which is favoured by Metal Hammer, one of the other magazines which I researched, which has the masthead across the top part of the magazine cover, this allows it to be seen easily when on display or if seen by a passerby. I used the title VETO in order to have a more alternate style of music or rather one which you could choose (the example that you could veto something), another reason which I chose this title is tied in with my previous explanation, due to the fact that you might choose something else you would imagine that this magazine would go against the grain.

I chose to have my anchorage across the bottom of the cover, I used this simply because it's a design which has worked for many other magazines and because of this I felt comfortable incorporating it into my cover page, I also made sure that it followed the house style of neutral colours such as greys and whites. My main cover lines are following the conventions due to the fact that they are on the left side of the page which we can see many other magazines of varying genres also conform to.

My bar code, date and price is along the bottom left of the magazine, I also incorporated a website address for my magazine. This is a convention that I discovered from the research of published music magazines. My music magazine is based on a fortnightly publishing plan, I priced it a small amount cheaper in order for it to be available to a larger audience.

 My anchorage for the main cover page is on the top of the image, this is similar to the issue of NME which I looked at. My reasoning behind doing this is simply because I thought that the image looked at the best as that, the font is consistent with the house style font that I have used throughout the page, this helps the audience to recognise my magazine when places with others. I actually chose to go against the convention of adding teasing content to the bottom of the page as many magazines do, instead putting it along with my sell line on the right side of the image, I did this simply due to the fact that I already had my bar code and other things there and I didn't want to clutter it and in light of that I decided to place it where I did.

My contents page contains three images, two of the images go along with the article in my double page spread. I made sure that an image which is similar to the one used on my double page spread is featured, this is to let the reader relate to the article. The other images are used in order for the pages contents to be displayed in a fashion that is easy to recognise, the main image however is one that relates to my double page spread and the main story on the cover page, this is a convention of music magazines.

My contents page in itself varies from the house style of large white titles, however keeps with the neutral colouring of greys and whites, this makes sure that the reader can recognise the magazine however see that it does have some variation and does not look the same 24/7, I did however keep the same type of background with the gray fading into white, this maintains the house style which I used on my cover page of gray and white. At first I tried to imitate the metal hammer contents page on the right, however I felt it was too crowded and overwhelming for the sort of attitude I wanted to go for, though with my layout I think that it works better for myself, I have the space for the smaller pictures and titles to go with them, some articles and a large picture for my double page article.

All the way through my contents page I used the same font and colours in order to make sure that the house style was done well enough to be recognisable, on the actual there are different parts such as giveaways, Featured and Regular articles/The Usuals, this is a couple of well known conventional contents categories of a music magazine.

My double page spread has one image that covers the full of the page, this shows off how the artist looks, and lets me show some musical tie in. The reasoning I had behind this photo was to show off more of the musical side of the industry, since most of the other pictures I had taken were just of people, without any instruments or anything going on in the background. I took a large quote and placed it in the top left of the page along with two other quotes and placed them further down the page, the reason why I chose this photo over any others is due to the fact that I wanted to show the artist doing something that they enjoyed doing, it also goes along with the article, the posture and attitude of the photo also shows that the artist is relaxed, enjoying himself, this is mostly what the article was about and therefore is fitting.

In the article I chose to ignore the convention of having the introductory paragraph due to the fact that I simply wanted to get the readers in there, I wanted them to imagine this artist was just talking away to them about how they formed the band and what they were doing now. I added in the few pull quotes in order to show off how the artist thought about himself and just to show how he felt in general, I could have improved this substantially however as it is now, it is more than fitting for my magazine.

2) How does my media product represent particular social groups?

In my magazine I have tried to create something which is aimed at a youthful age but could also be enjoyed by anyone else on the other end of the viewing scale, I had no specific gender audience and have tried to remain neutral on this, this was one of the reasons that I was so neutral with the magazine style, I wanted to give it the change to be read by anyone, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity.

A way in which I have tried to appeal to older people by using the black and white a little frequently, however I also think that this helps add a bit of crispness to the magazines photos, I also didn't see black and white photos in any of the magazines I researched, because of this I wanted to show off something different and represent people in a different way. Due to the fact that I wanted to represent the alternative genre side of the 17-20 age with my artist, I made sure that he wasn't in anything too bright or colourful as the stereotype of alternative is blacks and grays in a sort of random dress sense.

The genre which I chose for my music magazine is alternative/metal, leaning towards alternative however, the magazine itself would cover all types of artists, not just alternative, this is due to the fact that it would be restrictive to cover only one genre when there are so many out there. I created the image of alternative through the use of my front cover, this was through ideology and the title, a good example of a music magazine which does what I am choosing to would be NME, due to the fact that they represent a lot of other genres although they are primarily alternative/rock.

3) What kind of media institution might distribute my media product and why?

I believe that Bauer media would publish my magazine, this is due to the fact that they publish magazines such as Kerrang and Q which are similar to mine in content, due to the fact that they follow similar artists and tend to make sure that they bring an excellent quality of news to the readers, the information in the magazines and mine is also laid out in a professional looking style which makes it much friendlier, to the reader and easier to consume for the audience.

4) Who would be the audience for my media product?

The target audience for my music magazine is music fans who are interested in the alternative side of music, I chose this due to the fact that it is the type of music which I enjoy. The audience itself is aimed more towards a younger audience, teenagers and up. However due to the fact that it is a music magazine it also has appeal to people who are older due to the fact that music is a subject everyone can enjoy and interests a lot of people, The target audience according to demographics is C2, D and E. This is due to the fact that they are younger and will generally have less disposable income to use on things such as my magazine. The target audience would likely be considered to be a niche audience, this is due to the fact that it is a specialised audience where the genre is not considered mainstream. Using the suggestion of festivals on the front page I can target the younger audience as they are the people who stereotypically go to such events. I also use a similar technique on the contents page however use giveaways, this is to draw in people who are a little older and would be interested in a competition.

5) How did I attract/address my audience?

The National Readership Survey's social grades are used throughout market research and advertising, they are used by all institutions which are concerned with an audience. The grades/demographics are explained below (S.E.G)

 Due to the fact that my audience are C2, D and E on the demographic, I needed to make sure that the price was correct for my audience, it also had to be competitive with magazines of the same genre and style.

The price for my magazine is £2.30 with the magazine being release fortnightly, I chose this price because of the fact that C2, D and E  have little disposal income in order to purchase my magazine so by making the magazine more affordable by making it fortnightly I can make sure that the number of times that they need to purchase the magazine is less and thus make it more available to the members of the audience.

On Maslows hierarchy of needs my magazine appeals to the social, the need to belong, to be part of a group. It would also belong to Esteem, self esteem, status, respect and admiration of others, the last part of that is the most key 'the admiration of others' this is due to the fact that people buy a music magazine if they feature somebody that they enjoy listening to or respect on the cover, thus they admire the person and would like to read about them.

Due to the fact that my magazine is not aimed at the wealthiest of groups, I have included things such as giveaways, festivals and other things which are meant to draw the casual passerby in, such as Electric Six and things about them.

In order to do this, on my front cover I used the convention of my artist looking straight into the camera, I used this technique in order to have the effect where the audience simply feel friendly towards the artist, due to the fact that he is not looking down on them nor is he looking away, he seems just relaxed and as though he would be easy to interact with. In all the photos which feature my artist I have made sure that he is in full view every time, this is so that people can realise what he looks like, and thus discern the genre of the magazine.

Through the images which I used in the front cover, contents page and double page spread I show the artist off and also show a calm and enjoyable lifestyle, this is due to the fact that through the use of mise en scene and the background of the photos/style of them, being calm colours and easy on the eyes, the photos in which you can see the artists expression they are smiling, and this helps to create the assumption of a calm and enjoyable lifestyle.

In order to launch my magazine onto the Internet I provided a website address on the front cover of my magazine,I would also try to place an advertisement in the form of a video on YouTube, I could also utilise Facebook and Twitter to get word around easier, I would use these sites due to the fact that a multitude of people in my target audience use these sites.

Once my music magazine had been completed I asked a few friends, two girls and two boys to answer a couple of questions about my magazine in the form of a questionnaire. All questions needed to be answered on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest and 1 being the lowest.                             The first question I asked was how likely they were to buy the magazine, one person said 2, two said 3 and the fourth person said 1. I then asked how well they thought I had represented the alternative genre? I got three people who said 3 and the other said 4. The third and final question was Would you say that this magazine is of high enough quality to be sold in shops? I got even answers here, with a score of 3 from all participants.

6) What have I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

My first front cover draft (above) seemed to take a long time and a great deal of effort on my part, and compared to my final product as it is now is very bad for lack of a better word. I used photoshop through my final front cover, contents page and double page spread much more effectively than I did on this draft.

I used a Panasonic Lumix FS35 camera to take my images, however for my first pictures I took them with a poor camera and as a result had to retake a few to make up for the loss in quality. In order to edit my images I used Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher, I also have used different ways of researching magazines and other things in order to gain some insight on how to produce my magazine. I used the internet for my blog alongside using it for my research into different contents, cover and double spread pages. I also used a GoAnimate production for my preliminary task.

When I was doing my work on this magazine most of it took place in Photoshop due to me needing to edit the images which I was using, when I was using photoshop I edited most of my photographs to black and white, to fit with the style since I had not seen many people in professional music magazines using black and white photographs during my research however I also used Microsoft Publisher in order to create a double page spread due to Photoshop being unable to have double pages, it was also easier to write my article on Publisher and then use the image from Photoshop behind it and then I could position things where I needed.

During the work that I put in on this project I struggled to use Photoshop from the start, however as it has come to the end of this I have found that I have gained some understanding of Photoshop from using it to create more drafts and learning more how to customize it to the full extent. In the end, comparing the two product (draft and final) versions of the magazine, there is a definite improvement on my final version of the magazine, I have edited the photos for a start where in my first draft I simply cropped the artist out of the photo and placed it onto a backdrop.

7) Looking back at the my preliminary task, what do I feel I have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

There are many different reasons why my music magazine is far superior to my college magazine (preliminary), though the main reason is because of my understanding of Photoshop now compared to back when  we were doing the preliminary task, in this project I have gained a better understanding of Photoshop which helped me to improve the way in which my magazine looked, back when we were creating the college magazine my skill in Photoshop was so limited I didn’t have a clue how to even transform an image in order to rotate it or scale it to another size.

The planning side of my preliminary task was also poor, with me not doing much research unlike my music magazine in which I have analysed other professional magazines and gained a bit of insight into how to create a good magazine, when researching for my music magazine I was able to find a large amount of information which allowed me to get the grasp of the different techniques and ways to influence the genre of a magazine through the look of the words and other things, where in the preliminary task I had no idea what these things were although they weren’t specifically needed for a college magazine.

In total comparison to my music magazine, the preliminary task was very basic and poorly thought out, I did not grasp the thought of how to make the image look correct, for example we can clearly see that the girl does not belong in that photo due to the fact that she is much brighter than her surrounding area. Throughout this project I have learned several skills however overall I have learn how to create an image which can represent a genre and a target or niche audience, I have also learnt how to edit images to a higher level of skill, I am now also able to use Photoshop with a bit more easy feeling instead of feeling confused when trying to edit something, also I have learnt that to create something for a specific audience I need to use conventions such a s a Masthead and cover lines among others in order to show the genre through the information that I present.

3rd LIIAR Contents Page Analysis

Language - From the Language which is used on the contents page we can see that this magazine caters too a fair few different types of band and other types of music along with the house style of red white and black colours, this helps make the language stand out and appeal to more than one group of people during the time that it is sold, this helps make sure that people don't just associate NME with a certain group of people and therefore helps them sell more copies of the magazine. However we can also see language such as NEWS and REVIEWS this could show more of a side to NME which allows people who don't necessarily like the magazine to see what they have to say about the band that they like or what news is abuzz in the music community.

Institution - NME is published by IPC Media which actually publish other magazines aswell, because of this we can assume that they want to promote different types of music and not just the music which NME covers.

Ideology -This pages ideology leans towards offering the readers different bands and features, it also has different categories such as 'LIVE!' snd RADAR in order to get more people who just flick through a magazine before buying it, to actually buy it. The magazine also has other things such as 'Gig guides' and extra things in the bottom right such as a crossword.

Audience -The audience of this magazine would be people who are interested in most music genres since it features a lot of different bands, however from the picture on the page and what we also saw on the front page we can assume that it would more likely be people who are interested in rock music and it's related sub genres, they might also have attended events in the past for the bands which are featured


Representation - The magazine represents different genres of music, however the contents page itself represents the different sets of items on the list and other types of things as more pronounced than others, for example the NEWS looks to be quite large, while there are other smaller titles throughout the contents page.

Double Page Spread

Contents Page Final

Front Page Final