Evaluation

AS MEDIA STUDIES

Foundation Portfolio Evaluation

The media product that I have produced for my coursework is a music magazine, the style and layout of my music magazine all determined on the target audience.

The media product I have produced uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products because I have tried to look at a wider audience. I have tried to do this in quite a few ways, one being by making the main image on my front cover female, after researching into similar products before actually producing my music magazine, I realised that many of the existing top music magazines like NME, Q, Vibe etc, seem to use males as the main focus on their magazines most of the time. But I thought that if I still made my front cover attractive, and if the reader, male or female, was interested in the type of genre in my magazine, they would still be willing to buy it. Another way that I have challenged existing media products is by using synergy. I have done this by advertising a website for my music magazine in the main feature of this issue. (www.fusemagazine.com). Although many other institutions do use synergy for their media products, some are not as popular as others, for example after researching the top music magazines available at the moment I think that NME is a lot more popular than Vibe magazine, so because I have decided to advertise my website in the main feature on my magazine, this will be one of the most popular parts, therefore many people will come across it.

My media product mainly represents an ‘indie’ social group. Indie rock is a genre of rock music that originated in the 1980’s, this term is used to describe an independent kind of music. ‘Indie’ artists are known for maintaining complete control over their music career, for example writing their own songs and advertising their own music. The way that I have portrayed this particular social group on my media product is by making the artist seem quite rebellious, and making them come across as being quite carefree and independent.

The types of existing media institutions that I would expect to distribute my media product would be a company such as IPC media, I think that this would be a good institution for my product because after doing my research, I discovered that they already distribute some existing products like NME and Q magazine, and these magazines are the same kind of genre as mine, and these magazines are where I got some of my ideas, therefore I would hope that they would be willing to distribute a magazine like my own.

The target audience I have focused on for my music magazine is both males and females aged around 17+, the reason I have chosen this kind of age group is because after researching the ‘indie’ sort of culture, I discovered that the artists in this type of music genre, seem to avoid the ‘normal’ artist-cultivating behaviour, which I think would attract many young adults. The way I have tried to attract this kind of audience, is by using a female on the front cover, I have done this because after doing my research into similar existing products, I discovered that most institutions choose to make males the main image of their front cover. So by using a female on mine not only will it make the magazine stand out visually, but it should also appeal to a wider audience, this challenges the conventions of many other existing music magazines. In my opinion this is because many males would still be attracted to the image on the cover, or even attracted to the female actually in the main image, and also the magazine would appeal to females as they would realise that this genre of music does not just consist of male artists, and they may also be able to relate to this female cover artist.

Whilst constructing my music magazine I have learnt that I can manipulate a photograph to how I want it to look using Photoshop. I chose to use Photoshop to create each part of my music magazine because I felt like it gave a more professional approach to my work, rather than using a programme such as Microsoft publisher, for example by using Photoshop I was easily able to cut around the parts of the image that I wanted to use, whereas if I decided to use Microsoft publisher, I would not be able to do this.

I feel that I have learnt a lot since producing the preliminary task, I feel that I can now use Photoshop more confidently, as before when I was producing my college magazine, I used Microsoft publisher. I feel that I have had a much better outcome with this piece of work as I think it has a much more professional look, as I was able to manipulate each part of my magazine exactly how I wanted to. Not only do I feel I have had a better outcome with the technologies I have used this time, but I also feel that the research I did this time has gave me a much better outcome. I think that because I researched through quite a few different existing products, this gave me a much clearer idea of what music genre I wanted to focus on, and also helped me decide on the layout of my magazine.

Feedback on my media product

To get feedback on my media product, I sent out 10 questionnaires to students aged 17-21, asking for their opinions on my magazine. Here are the results I got.

Q1) On a news stand in a shop, do you think this magazine would appeal to you?
YES - 8 students
NO - 2 students

Q2) Do you think that this would stand out against others?
YES - 7 students
NO - 3 students

Q3) After looking at just the front cover, would you be interested in reading the main feature of this magazine?
YES - 8 students
NO - 3 students

Q4) How attractive do you find the front cover on a scale of 1-10?
1 -
2 -
3 -
4 -
5 -1 student
6 -
7 - 1 student
8 -3 students
9 -1 student
10 -4 students

Q5) What genre do you think this magazine is?
Rock - 4 students
Indie - 6 students
R'n'b -
Hip hop -
Other -

Q6) Do you find the contents page easy to follow?
YES - 5 students
NO - 2 students
KIND OF - 3 students


After reading this feedback, I have decided that the weakest part of my media product is the contents page, most other aspects of the magazine seem to be easy to follow, and seems to appeal to my main target audience. So if I was to improve my media product or do it again I would have to spend more time on my contents page.

Final contents page and double page spread

Here is my final contents page and double page spread, for my contents page I still decided to use images of my main feature on this, but also mentioned features that would be in this magazine every month for example letters to the editor. I chose to do an interview on my double page spread because I think that this fits in with my music genre, I think this is the best type of feature I could use for the music genre I was focusing on, this is because I think that the target audience I am looking at would be interesting in the artists private life as well as their music career.

Final front cover

Here is my final front cover, to make my media product stand out from any top existing products I have chosen to do quite a different style on my front cover. From my research into similar media products I realised that many existing music magazines all seem to use the same kind of colour scheme on their cover, so I have changed this on mine, possibly making mine stand out visually on the music stand. One selling line I have used along the bottom of my front cover 'YOUR NUMBER ONE MONTHLY MUSIC MAGAZINE' this will make my music magazine stand out also, as I as the producer of this magazine have been very confident by writing this, obviously the consumer of this product should be quite trustworthy towards it from this coverline.

Screenprints of making front cover and double page spread

Here I have screenprinted my front cover, contents page and double page spread whilst I was making them, I used photoshop to make each aspect of my media product. For the image on my contents page, I used the 'magnetic lasso tool' to cut out the figure of my model. I did this because I just wanted to use a blank background on this so that the image and the text would stand out more, but still making the image the main focus of my magazine. For my masthead and coverlines on the front cover, contents page and double page spread I used www.dafont.com, to get better quality fonts, that would fit in more with my genre, rather than just using fonts of microsoft word etc.

More images

As my other photographs didn't work out as well as I'd of liked them to, I decided to take some more of a different model, using a different location to see if this worked better. I think that this worked much better.

Photos

Here are some photographs I have taken for my music magazine, I think that these photos would have worked much better if I had been more organised with the location. But I will be able to edit these images in photoshop and change the background.

Front cover sketches

Here I have done 2 rough drafts of the layout I would like my magazine cover to be like, I have chosen to put the masthead at the top so it can be easily recognised, and obviously the main image in the middle as I think that it is the most appealing thing to my target audience. I have also chosen to put the dateline and price at the top so the buyer knows that this is a recent issue of my magazine.

Mood Board

Here is a mood board I have produced showing the kind of style I would like my music magazine to be in, as I am looking at an indie/rock genre for my magazine, I think that using an instrument such as a guitar would go well with my theme, showing that the artist featured in my magazine is independent with their music. I have looked at existing artists such as Florence and the machine and Kasabian whilst producing my mood board, this is because when I organise my models, I would like them to be styled like these types of artists. The style I choose for my model in my feautured article will be a very important aspect of my music magazine, because this will be the representation of the music genre. I have also looked at different kinds of fonts which I would like to use for my masthead, I think that the bottom one works the best as this goes with the genre the most. I am also starting to think about the colour scheme I would like to use for my music magazine, at first I was thinking about using red, but then I changed my mind as many other music magazines such as Q and NME use this colour scheme, I have decided that I would like my magazine to be different in some ways, and will choose a different kind of colour scheme for my front cover etc.

Analysis of double page spreads

Here is the first double page spread I am going to look at, on this one the artist, Lily Allen, is taking up one full page of the double page spread, showing that she is the main focus of this article. The clothes Lily is wearing in this image are quite eye catching, this is because the colour scheme, not including her clothes, is quite dull. The company may have decided to do this as the way she stands out makes her seem quite confident, which by the headline, she would need to be as it sounds like she is defending herself. The way that she is stood also reflects from this, with her hands on her hips and the way she is looking straight into the camera, is possibly the way of telling the audience that she can stand up for herself. The headline in this article is very eyecatching, and takes up a lot of the page, this is to grab the readers attention. The headline used is a quote from the article, which would make the readers intrigued and want to know more about what the artist is referring to.

Q magazine cover

Here is a recent front cover of Q magazine, the masthead on this magazine is clearly shown in the top left hand corner, which helps readers to easily identify the magazine, and regular readers to easily recognise it. As you can see along the top of the front cover, it states 'The UK's biggest music magazine' which I know is true from my previous research of top UK music magazines. Along with many other music magazines like NME, Uncut and Kerrang! Q uses the colour red on its cover, as all of these magazines seem to represent rock/indie/metal music, possibly because it is a colour that easily stands out against other darker colours which are usually used for these genres of music.
The main image on this magazine cover is a close up image of Cheryl Cole, the way that she is portrayed on this image suits the genre of rock. Even though big fans of Cheryl will know that she usually sings pop music, and her fans will also know that she has a very successful career, and does many different things from singing and dancing to being a judge on the TV show, The X Factor. So with Cheryl having this 'rock' look on the cover of Q magazine, this may appeal to people even more, as they may think that she is going to try a different genre of music in her successful career. Also as Q magazine usually focuses on rock and indie music, having Cheryl Cole on the cover, who is known for her solo pop music career, and also her music with her band Girls Aloud, this may make Q magazine appeal to a wider audience. Which is obviously a good thing as this magazine is made for a commercial purpose (to make money).
On this cover of Q, there doesn't seem to be many coverlines used, but the ones that are used, in my opinion, they are enough to make the reader want to buy this issue, if they are interested in this genre of music. One coverline includes 'The 10 best new acts' I think that this is a very strong coverline, as it is introducing new artists to the reader who will obviously appeal to them as the magazine is all about the genre of music they enjoy.

Research into similar products

When I began looking for similar music magazines, I wanted to look at the most popular ones at the moment, I found the top 10 music magazines on this website http://top40.about.com/od/top10lists/tp/musicmagazines.htm. This gave me an idea of the type of things I needed to include in my magazine. Some of the most popular music magazines included Q, NME, Vibe etc.

Target Audience

After researching similar products as what I am going to produce, I have now decided on the music genre, and the potential target audience I would like to focus on. The genre of music I have chosen is indie/rock, the key features of the indie/rock culture, is being independent, meaning writing, and possibly publishing your own music, rather than relying on major record labels. Also avoiding the expected behaviour of artists in major labels. The way I am going to portray this genre is by making the artist(s) who will be featured in my magazine seem to be quite rebellious etc. The target audience I would like to aim my music magazine at would be ages 17+, and to both males and females.

Vibe magazine cover

Here is one front cover of Vibe magazine. The main image on this magazine is Chris Brown, the way he is dressed in this image is a very important aspect of the representation of this magazine. The clothes that he is wearing show his genre of music, which is R'n'b/hip hop. Although Chris Brown is a very famous artist, someone who may not have heard of him or his music before may buy this magazine just because of the way he is dressed. So the institution must think very carefully about the appearence they wish to present to their target audience. The way that Chris Brown is portrayed in this image is quite moody, but also quite confident at the same time. Suggesting that his music talks about himself and his personal experiences quite a lot.
The language on this front cover is also very important. R'n'b/ hip hop, and rap artists seem to use 'slang' words quite a lot, so if the correct language is used on the front cover, this will appeal more to the potential target audience. There are quite a few coverlines on this magazine cover, and they seem to be quite short. The company who make this magazine may not have wanted to use slang words on their magazine cover, obviously because not everyone would understand it, and as this is a commercial magazine, they would like to get as many buyers as possible. So instead of using slang language, they have shortened the sentences to make the language fit in more with this genre.
I think that the target audience for this magazine would be age 18+, this is because if you think about the genre of music this magazine is portraying, a lot of this music uses quite a lot of taboo language, and also the main coverline being 'I'm still a virgin... in your eyes' This article may not be appropriate for younger age groups.
In my opinion, I think that the masthead also contributes to portraying the genre of music across to the readers. There are some quite bright covers on this magazine cover, the reds, greens and whites could possibly resemble strobe lights, which fit in with the genre of R'n'b and dance music, as people aged 18 and over will know from nightclubs etc.