Evaluation

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media product?

My first goal was it to design a magazine which is different to all the other magazines on the market, because I think it is difficult to stand up as a new magazine against older, more popular magazines.

I am not a reader of music magazine, so the first thing I have done was buying a music magazine. In comparison to the fashion magazines I usually read I realized that these two types of magazines distinguish mainly in two things: first of all music magazines use darker colors, whereas fashion magazines use lighter colors. The music magazines try to represent with colors the music genre and maybe also the lifestyle these people lived. I tried to do that also in my magazine.  The second was that I realized that music magazines put in their picture more the character of the person in the foreground, for fashion magazines count more the appearance, clothing and accessories. I tried to do that with using black and white pictures. So we concentrate more on the act itself which is also clever if the person is famous.

As professional music magazines has my magazine the masthead in large at the top of the page. If there were more issues of my magazine I would always use the same masthead and change the colors according to the pic. My magazine has also cover lines these are very short because they should not distract from the cover image.

I used an black and white image as my main image. As I said I wanted to make a different magazine and as you can see in the planning I have informed myself about the distribution of music magazines and also their positions in supermarkets. Music magazine have often a neglected place in the stores, so I needed something which stands out of the rest. I could not find a magazine with a black and white front cover.  My model has big eyes and gazes directly in the camera, also that could get attention.

I realized that most magazines have advertisement on their front cover. I put a banner on the bottom, it stands out in yellow. I put another advert in form of a yellow star over the head of my model. I copied that form from professional music magazines. This advert guarantees people that 20% of the revenue goes to homeless people. This augments the authentic of the magazine.

Another thing I noticed on professional music magazine is that most of them have a an advert for the magazine itself on the front page (and often also inside the magazine) The magazine “Q” calls itself for example: “The UK’s biggest music magazine” I made an advert for my magazine too, but I put it as a grey stripe on the left side of the magazine, it is not something what the audience sees first. I have done that to create a community for my readers, so they have something which holds them together. This kind of advertisement is called covert advertising. I used the phrase “the first magazine which treats people like you and me as stars” as my advert. I obtain that to the theory of Blumler and Katz.

I also tried to use the language of professional music magazines (exclusive, etc.)

For my contents page I used many pictures of articles in the magazine. Many music magazines do that or put just one picture on it to reach attention on this theme. I have decided to put more pictures on it because I think if the target gets interested in the magazine the first they do is looking at the contents page seeing if there is more interesting stuff in it. With more pictures the chance to reach more peoples interest is higher.  The pictures show people on the street playing their instruments, I have chosen this pictures according to Blumler and Katz theory about the need to be social. We meet street performers every day on the street.

I used one big picture for my double spread page. The fond is very clear and simple; I have chosen to do that because people who buy my magazine are interested in music and do not want get distracted by fond and too many pictures. On the bottomof the spread page I have put the opinion of people on the street to the act I have interviewed. These are just positive opinions, so someone who does not know the act gets more interested.

To create a magazine as professional as possible I have decided to do some interviews with buskers on the streets. One of the interviews can you find on the contents page.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

It was important for me that this magazine would be interesting for everyone, so I got the idea to make it about street performance because we are confronted with it every day. If we want or not.

I think that it is harder to reach a target group of people over 25 because they are used to their habits and change them hardly. So I used a young male model to reach the target group of teenagers. According Laura Mulvey’s theory women like to gaze at women, as inspiration, and men like to look at attractive women as sex objects. I think that works also the other way around.

How does your media product represent a particular social group?

I think my magazine does not represent a particular social group because it speaks more or less about people like you and me which we see every day on the streets. I think that’s a strength of my magazine because people can easily recognize themselves.

I think my magazine would represent the lower class who tries to get in a higher class. I used mostly dark colors which are found in the nature like dark green. 

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product?

To distribute my magazine I would choose the Bauer Media Group, because it seems to me that they have most experience in distributing music magazines or I would decide me for a smaller institution, because my magazine is a bit alternative so I do not think that it fits in the Bauer Media Group. I would like that the magazine also get sold on streets. That would make the idea of a street performance magazine more authentic and I can reach the target immediately. Maybe could also some buskers try to sell it, people who are listening to them are the real audience.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I tried to attract the audience by my main picture. It is the center of the magazine and so gets all the attention. The pic is in black and white that should attract the audience because it is different to other music magazines.

Another thing I tried was to attract my target group by winning games.  I guaranteed to the customer that 20% of the revenue goes to charity for homeless people. The audience feels that they have done something good.

As I said I would like to sell the magazine also by the buskers that attracts also the audience because they feel that they buy the product by the source.

For the cover lines which are also important to attract the audience I have used just one or two words. I hope that makes the target curious and they want to have a closer to look.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I am an exchange student from Italy, we do not do media studies as a subject, I have neither done graphics in school. I knew basically anything about these technologies at the beginning. First of all I was trying to use different soft wares to see which fits me most. Then I have decided to create my magazine with Serif Page Plus because I found the results with it quite good and after a while I got used to the different tools. To understand this software completely I needed to watch some YouTube videos.

I learnt also to edit pictures, I had already basic knowledge for that, but I clearly improved my skills. Further I learnt how  to cut an image from it's background.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I have learnt a lot about music magazine, mostly the layout of magazines. As I said I have never done Media Studies before, so I knew neither of the different terms (masthead, main picture,…) When I talk now about magazines I am able to use these professional terms. I also realized how much work every little detail needs and that you need to do a planning.

Further I realized how important pictures are for a magazine, as you can see in my planning I have done another magazine again, but I had to redo it because my pictures were from a bad quality and I did not use the right camera angles. I was not aware how important camera angles are for a picture.

I have done my preliminary task with windows paint. I created my magazine with Serif Page Plus, more difficult and also professional software.

If I look now at my preliminary task I realize how important details are (for example different types for the font) or that I did not consider the colors and also the meaning of them.