Conventions of a front cover
- short, memorable magazine title
- large, dominant full page image of one of the main articles in the magazine (with a band displayed)
- subject's face can be easily and clearly seen, with eye contact.
- bright colour scheme, with colourful clothing
- thumbnails of other important articles
- language techniques used to anchor articles
- price
- teasing contents
- competitions and free gifts
Conventions of a contents page
- Page title at the top of the page with date issue
- quotes from various articles
- 'features' section
- images from various articles
- continuous colour scheme throughout
- images of artists both performing and on a set
- page numbers giving reference to location of articles, with the name of the articles
- large, clear font
- few external advertisements from other institutions on contents page
- various language techniques
Conventions of a double page spread
- page title at the top left of the page, indicating what the page contains
- name of the artist in large clear font for big impact amongst other articles
- a continuous colour scheme used over two pages
- introduction to the article
- the article is written in columns - clear font
- contact details to get in touch with editor
- highlighted quotes from the article
- some text highlighted with large bold colourful font
- many pictures of the band included over pages
- often EXTRA INFORMATION columns
- Some text drags over page
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product (magazine) aims to promote the stereotype of rock in a positive way. I realise that there are a lot of generalised assumptions when it comes to the rock and metal stereotype, such as being weak, self-harming, having an angry and anti-social personality. I want to change society’s perceptions of this stereotype. I also want my magazine to perceive metal and rock music as being the best music; I will do this by only representing this type of music in my magazine and perhaps representing other music with negative connotations. I do, however, want to stick to the assumption that rock music is ‘hardcore’ and I have decided to do this by making my models have neutral facial expressions, and I have tried to dress them in dark colours to make them seem rather dark. My magazine does not represent any other social group in terms of stereotypes apart from rock/ heavy metal, so I guess it could be said that all other social groups are being represented negatively or as unimportant seeing as they aren’t featured. My magazine also aims to promote my age group, and the youths in society, stereotypically as being rather rebellious. This is the general ideology of teenagers and it also fits with the rock and roll genre. My magazine tries to represent both the D and C Socio Economic Groups in a positive way; seeing as my target audience is teenagers they aren’t going to be receiving a large income from a professional job. I have used some models that are dressed better than others just to show that the type of Socio Economic Group that you come from doesn’t matter, and that people shouldn’t be judged on that. Hopefully that way I can cover the class of everyone who is going to read my magazine so that they can all feel accepted.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A way in which I could promote my magazine would be to sponsor other music magazines following my genre online – therefore they would post an image of my magazine and a website link, so anybody on the website for the magazine I was sponsoring (for example Kerrang website) would automatically see that my magazine was similar and hopefully check it out. I would pick institutions that created Kerrang! Magazine and NME magazine because those magazines fit my specific genre; these institutions are Bauer Media (Kerrang) and IPC Inspire (NME).
Bauer Media Group publishes magazines such as Kerrang, and Q magazine which specialize in alternative and rock music, which is why I would choose those specific magazines to feature my magazine in as it would attract my target audience. Bauer media group is also a very successful institution which publishes over 38 million magazines weekly, so I feel it would be a good idea to use a very successful and well known publishing company to advertise my magazine. I would also possibly choose a publishing company like IPC inspire because it publishes magazine such as NME and Uncut, which are the same genre as my magazine (rock).
I could also promote my magazine online by creating a website dedicated to my magazine which would give information about the magazine such as release dates for issues, prices, editors/journalists names and topics covered. I would post images of the magazine onto the website, and perhaps post a tease article to show the readers what’s in store. On my website I would create the option to sign up and subscribe to the magazine for free; this would benefit both me and my audience as I could notify my readers when the next issue is due/ information about the magazine via email, but I could also keep track of how many subscribers I had for the magazine. I would also create a page in which feedback could be given in order to help me improve certain aspects of my magazine – for example, I could find out what bands to feature in an issue due to popular demand. To begin with, I would not publish my magazine online as my fan base would be very small and this would encourage any followers to look online rather than buy the magazine, however if my fan base began very large, I may expand it by publishing free issues onto the website; this is another reason why a ‘tease page/article’ may be useful – to anchor the readers in.
I could also ask websites to advertise my magazine – I would choose websites which my target audience would go onto, for example teenagers would probably use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter often, so I would try to advertise my magazine there.
Another way to advertise my magazine could be to do a brief advertisement for the website or the actual magazine and place it on the beginning of videos – for example, when you watch a video online on the BBC website, they often have a short (around 30-60 seconds) advertisement before their video, this could be a place for my advertisement. I would choose websites such as the BBC because of popular dramas such as Eastenders, Coronation Street etc., MTV seeing as that website it aimed at teens, and perhaps a music website (if they contain music videos as well as the song being available) such as Grooveshark, which teenagers used constantly during school/college as it was available to listen to music on the school/college intranet. The advertisement would firstly show an image of my magazine and then briefly explain what the magazine is about/contains and give little teasers in order to persuade my target audience to buy the magazine. The advertisement would show a link to my website regardless of whether it was advertising the website specifically or not.
Perhaps if I was going to expand this idea, I could make the advertisement available to pass on through phones – this was very popular a few years back, where rather disgusting videos were created and passed on, however I would use this idea in a positive way. It would also be a very good way to advertise my magazine as it could be easily passed on to friends.
I could use different types of digital technology to further advertise my magazine; for example I could create an app which links directly to my website for my magazine. This would be effective as it would be a quick way to access the website, thus my audience will be more likely to use it. The app would be free for several reasons including the fact that my target audience (teenagers) would not be able to/ not want to pay for an app, the website would not contain any articles (unless a tease one is used) so it would be unfair to make them pay, and also because the website does not cost anything to view or subscribe, so it would be stupid to make the app cost something when they could go onto the internet and view the website for free there. It would also benefit me to create an app seeing as it is popular amongst my target audience (teenagers) to have an iPod/iPhone therefore the app would be an effective way of advertising.
I could also promote my magazine using non digital techniques such as using billboards, posters, flyers etc. These I could hang up in hotspots for my target audience – for example, the Welly club is a popular hangout for teenagers who are interested in rock music; this is exactly my target audience. I would also put a lot of posters up in town as teenagers go there several times a week.
If I was going to be more creative, I could create wristbands which could have my magazine website written on then; it was rather popular a few years back for teenagers to be wearing rubber wristbands with multiple sayings written on them.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
My target audience will be people who listen to and enjoy heavy metal and rock music; however they will be a wide variety of sub genres of metal music inside the magazine so my target audience won't be too generalised. I hope to aim my target audience at teenagers, preferably aged 16-18 as I fit in with this age bracket so I should be able to appeal to people my own age a lot more effectively. I want to focus on new rock songs/bands instead of oldies (such as Bon Jovi or AC/DC) so therefore my magazine will probably attract a younger audience and be more contemporary. I want to aim my magazine at both males and females equally; however I suspect that my magazine will be aimed more at males just because of the genre I have chosen and also because a lot of the bands/singers I have chosen to put in my magazine are male. Also, the colour scheme I have chosen is black, white and red, which are colours which may also attract a male audience more than a female audience. I can counterattack this however by choosing to use an equal amount of fully girl (or mixed girl and boy) and fully boy bands throughout the magazine.
In regards to demographics, my age group would be in the 15-24 section, and would include both genders, primarily male however. In regards to the social grades (S.E.G) section of demographics, my target audience would be in the B/C2 section (unskilled/semi-skilled manual workers) seeing as my target audience is mainly aimed at teenagers and therefore they wouldn’t be receiving a high income as they are uneducated/ still currently in education, or possess a part time job.
In terms of Psychographics, and my target audiences IOA variables, I would target an audience who are outer-directed, their attitudes would be that they are socially comfortable with their stereotype and accept their likes and interests and realise, with acceptance, that they are a different part of society. I would want my target audience to be inspired by my magazine and would want to target people who aspire to become successful in the music industry in later life. They believe that they are ‘belongers’ to the magazine and genre, and embrace it.
I asked my target audience what they would expect to find inside a rock music magazine in order to help me decide what features to use;
"I would expect there to be a lot of pictures, including live and non-live, and information such as tour dates, interviews, and perhaps a few fan mails." Ash.
" most rock magazines would probably contain interviews with bands, advertisements of bands, upcoming gigs, how to get tickets for them, introducing people to smaller bands etc.." Lewis.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
In terms of SEG, I attracted my audience by making my magazine affordable and a lot cheaper compared to other leading magazines of the same genre, such as NME and KERRANG, which are both priced between £2.50 - £3.00. I then decided to make my magazine cost around about £1 to make this affordable to my D/C2/C1 SEG groups. Because my target audience will mainly be students, they fall into the D/C category because they won’t work, and if they do they won’t get paid very much, therefore it is important to make my magazine affordable for almost everyone otherwise it wont sell.
6. What have you learnt about technologies in the process of constructing this product?
My target audience will be people who listen to and enjoy heavy metal and rock music; however they will be a wide variety of sub genres of metal music inside the magazine so my target audience won't be too generalised. I hope to aim my target audience at teenagers, preferably aged 16-18 as I fit in with this age bracket so I should be able to appeal to people my own age a lot more effectively. I want to focus on new rock songs/bands instead of oldies (such as Bon Jovi or AC/DC) so therefore my magazine will probably attract a younger audience and be more contemporary. I want to aim my magazine at both males and females equally; however I suspect that my magazine will be aimed more at males just because of the genre I have chosen and also because a lot of the bands/singers I have chosen to put in my magazine are male. Also, the colour scheme I have chosen is black, white and red, which are colours which may also attract a male audience more than a female audience. I can counterattack this however by choosing to use an equal amount of fully girl (or mixed girl and boy) and fully boy bands throughout the magazine.
In regards to demographics, my age group would be in the 15-24 section, and would include both genders, primarily male however. In regards to the social grades (S.E.G) section of demographics, my target audience would be in the B/C2 section (unskilled/semi-skilled manual workers) seeing as my target audience is mainly aimed at teenagers and therefore they wouldn’t be receiving a high income as they are uneducated/ still currently in education, or possess a part time job.
In terms of Psychographics, and my target audiences IOA variables, I would target an audience who are outer-directed, their attitudes would be that they are socially comfortable with their stereotype and accept their likes and interests and realise, with acceptance, that they are a different part of society. I would want my target audience to be inspired by my magazine and would want to target people who aspire to become successful in the music industry in later life. They believe that they are ‘belongers’ to the magazine and genre, and embrace it.
I asked my target audience what they would expect to find inside a rock music magazine in order to help me decide what features to use;
"I would expect there to be a lot of pictures, including live and non-live, and information such as tour dates, interviews, and perhaps a few fan mails." Ash.
" most rock magazines would probably contain interviews with bands, advertisements of bands, upcoming gigs, how to get tickets for them, introducing people to smaller bands etc.." Lewis.
I also learnt how to use the Blur tool which allowed me to merge together a photograph that I have copied so that the background and the picture look like one thing rather than it being obvious that I have just stuck the picture on top of the background.
I then learnt how to edit the size and angle of my photographs by going on to the ‘Edit’ bar at the top, and then selecting ‘Transform’ and then I either choose ‘Scale’ or ‘Rotate’. Whilst doing this, it was important for me to have the right layer selected.
I then learnt about how to duplicate layers by right clicking on the layer itself, and clicking duplicate, or I could select the right layer and drag it down to the bottom of the layers section and onto the mini icon that looks like paper and release.
I then learnt some other basic skills such as adding text and how to edit the font size and style.
I next learnt how to edit photographs by using certain tools as the Red Eye Removal Tool, The Spot Healing Brush Tool and I also learned how to change the colour of people’s eyes/hair. The Red Eye Removal Tool allows me to click in the centre of the model’s eyes and it will remove the redness made by the camera flash. The Spot Healing Brush Tool allows me to click on the model’s imperfections/spots and it will remove the redness/spot and smooth the skin. To change the colour of somebody’s eyes I need to use the Quick Selection Tool to select the outline of the eye, and then go onto the ‘Image’ drop down menu, then select ‘Adjustments’ and then select ‘Hue/Saturation’. I can then use the sliders to decide which colour I like the most.
I learnt then more complicated procedures regarding how to enhance someone cosmetically, such as how to smooth somebody’s skin, how to add makeup, and also how to change the shape and size of people’s features using the ‘Liquify’ tool.
This is an example of using the liquify tool:
To smooth somebody’s skin I have to use the Quick Selection Tool and select all the skin on that person. I can use the ‘+’ and ‘-‘tools in order to help me select the skin more closely and effectively.
Then I go on the ‘Select’ drop down menu, and click ‘Inverse’ and then press the ‘Delete’ button. This then gives me all of the skin by itself.
Then I go onto the ‘Filter’ drop down menu, and select ‘Blur’ and ‘Gaussian Blur’ and change the % to about 20-30%. This will then give the skin a blurred look that eliminates all imperfections.
I then change the opacity of this layer so that the skin looks airbrushed. I have to make sure that I keep the original skin selected as well as this one. I then need to use the Rubber tool to rub out the eyes/nose/mouth on the blurred skin layer so that only the skin is airbrushed.
To add makeup – eye liner for example – I would need to draw the outline of the eye which I wanted to add eyeliner too using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, and again use the ‘Image’ tab, ‘Adjustments’ and then ‘Hue/Saturation’ and I would then change the darkness slider to the darkest setting.
This method can also be applied when adding lip colour.
Next I learnt how to add different types of makeup, for example I learnt how to add eye shadow. I needed to create a new Layer (By using the ‘Layer’ tab at the top and select ‘New’ then ‘Layer’ and then I would make sure I had that new layer selected. Next I would take the ‘Brush’ tool and select a colour using the two swatches at the bottom. Then I would simply just paint the eye shadow where I wanted it, and change the opacity of the layer until I reached my desired effect.
I also learnt how to take one exact colour that I used beforehand, and select it again so that I can use it again. For example, I may want to select the exact same shade of purple again to use on the other eye, so I would then select the ‘Eyedropper Tool’ and click on the purple colour and then select the Brush Tool again and I would have the same colour.
For my magazine, especially for the production of the contents page, I needed to learn how to create shapes in Photoshop. This was very simple. All I had to do was to select the ‘Rectangle Tool’ and if I right clicked I would have the choice to make other shapes, such as the ‘Polygon Tool’ or the ‘Line Tool’.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have elarnt in the progression from it to the full product?
One of the main things that I learnt during my main task, compared to when I did my preliminary task, is how to use Photoshop and take full advantage of all its tools.
For example, when I first started creating a college magazine in my preliminary task, I only knew how to use basic tools such as the crop tool, the polygonal lasso tool, and I also knew how to duplicate/copy layers. I knew how to add basic effects onto layers such as selecting the ‘FX’ button at the bottom of the layers column, and choosing certain effects such as drop shadow and inner shadow. I chose to use these effects on the leaves on my magazine’s front cover. I also knew how to use the blur tool to some extent.
However, now that I have done my main task, I have learnt so many other functions of Photoshop, such as how to change the colour of certain objects, for example somebody’s hair colour, and I also learnt how to change the overall hue and saturation on any image. Before my preliminary task, I didn’t know how to change the size or angle of my photographs/objects on the page by using the ‘Edit’ bar at the top of the page.
During my main task, I also learnt about how to use the Liquify tool which allowed me to change the shape and size of different aspects of the model’s appearance; for example I could make a model’s nose smaller, or I could make someone’s shoulders broader in order to achieve an effect that would match my rock stereotype which would be to make the model look ‘hardcore’.
I have also learnt about the different types of conventions used in magazines, specifically on the front cover, contents page, and double page spread, which I didn’t know about before when I did the preliminary task.
For example, I learnt that most cover lines on the front cover need to go on the left third of the page, as the left third section of the magazine is shown when magazines are stacked in the shops; therefore this technique is used to draw the audience’s attention. I also learnt that cover lines need to be short and simple, without too much information, so that the audience then need to read on to see what the article is about. In my preliminary task, I didn’t use many cover lines at all, whereas when I did the main task, I realised that it was good to use at least 5 cover lines, as most professional magazines use a lot of cover lines.
In my preliminary task, I only took a few photographs for my front cover, and didn’t really plan out any effects or poses that I wanted my model to use. However, during the main task I learnt about how to use different poses to achieve different types of photographs; for example I learnt that close ups are better for contents pages and double page spreads, and that long shots or medium shots are better for the front cover. I also learnt about different angles, for example taking a photograph from slightly above the model to make them look taller and it also creates a nice effect to the photograph, almost as though the model is standing on a tilt.
I then learnt about how important the layout is with regards to my front cover; for example in my preliminary task I just put my pictures and cover lines anywhere, however I did place my masthead accordingly in the top left hand side of the page. However, during my main task I learnt that the image should be placed in the centre of the page, and should be relatively large. I then learnt that cover lines should be placed in columns down both sides of the page; however the majority of cover lines should be on the left third. I also learnt that the dateline and the issue number should be beside or underneath the masthead.
I also learnt about how it was important to change the font size of certain texts on my magazine, for example the mast head had to be relatively large, and some cover lines should be larger than others in order to highlight the importance of certain articles over other ones.
As you can see here, my main magazine is a lot more structured that my college magazine, as it contains more cover lines which are set out in the typical conventional way, whereas the cover lines on my college magazine contain too much text and are not laid out appropriately; for example the word ‘information’ on one of the cover lines is separated onto two separate lines.
I have also learnt a lot more about the music industry; for example when I first I didn’t know about any of the main music companies such as Sony and Universal, and I was unaware of how they promote and sell their music. When I first created my preliminary magazine, I never considered what institution might have promoted and sold my magazine or anything like that. I also never thought about things such as how much I would charge for my magazine, and I didn’t think in depth about my target audience, I just decided that it would be for teenagers. I also never knew anything about psychographics or demographics in terms of my audience; for example different social classes and age groups and how the layout of your magazine can effect which psychographics and demographics you use for your target audience.
Before my main task I had also never created a contents or double page spread before apart from a basic draft (drawn on publisher with boxes etc.) and so during my main task I learnt how to create these pages properly. I learnt also about the different conventions sued in a contents page; for example you need to use main image showing one of the main articles, and you need to have a lot of article headings in columns. It is also conventional to have an editor’s notes at the bottom of the page. I then learnt about the conventions of a double page spread which typically include a large image taking up a whole page which relates to the article. You then have the article laid out in columns to make it easier to read, and quotes are often used to break up the text and to convey the main points of the article. Headings usually go over both pages to connect the two.
I feel that I have developed a deep understanding in the music industry which I did not possess before my main task. I also feel that I have developed a huge understanding in how Photoshop works and also about how to create a magazine using the correct layout.
I have also developed my analysing skills as before I didn’t really know the conventions of a magazine, however during this task I have had to study conventions of a magazine in order to help me create my own.
