Main Task: Evaluation FINAL

Q5. How did you attract/address your audiencenc?

I used all the research and previous magazines that I had observed and I saw the way in which they attracted their audience, I also looked at the first things I looked at when looking at a magazine and what caught my attention. I started looking at how I was going to make my front cover because that was one of the important aspects of the magazine and that would e the first thing that my audience would see. I focused on my selling line; it had to be something that was relevant to my magazine, bold and catchy.

The next thing was the main story itself. I found out that when I was looking fore magazines the main story always caught my eye because I wanted to know how it ended and what went on for that person to be in that particular position. When thinking of a story I was looking back at my thoughts and who I was targeting and they would be getting up to. Because they had so much freedom, certain things were not taking in moderation and therefore there was always sex, drugs and violence. Once I had a clear understanding of this I was able to have an outline of how I wanted my story and that then linked into how I wanted my pictures and if they portrayed the story well enough to attract my audience.
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Another aspect that I covered was my ‘RnB Classics’. I used this especially because with my experience with music I found out that music from the 70’s and 80’s where more lyrical in the sense that it was all about guns, violence and sex, instead it was more about love, peace and freedom from artists such as Diana Ross, Janet Jackson who had many hits that spoke about having control and independence. This particular part of my magazine will attract people from the later year who will probably be aware of this.

Similar to this is used our present celebrities such as Amber Rose and Christiana Millian as my cover lines. These included stories of how they are progressing in their lives even though they have been through s much. For example Christina Millian has just come out of a cheating relationship and she is now a single mother. Celebrities like her are able to inspire my target audience, hence the reason why she was one of the celebrities that I used.

In addition to this I was able to attract my audience by making it very clear to read, even and symmetrical. Keeping everyht9ng clean and organised so that my audience would be able to read it. I kept a continuous pattern of font. I enlarged particular fonts when I had to type in the names of the celebrities I used; the font size I used was 48. I purposely done this so that my audience could be aware f the celebrities that were inside the magazine and this would therefore engage them into reading on.

Main Task: Evaluation FINAL

Q4.Who would be the audience for your media product?

As stated before my target audience is women from ages 18- 30. My audience vary from women around the world but can be seen to target black women because of the music genre my magazine represents which is R’n’B and hip hop.

I chose this age range because from 18 certain things begin to happen such as you become legal to do certain thing which could lead to life changing decisions such as begin able to drink alcohol and drugs. The freedom given can change someone and these certain changes can lead someone into not taking things into moderation which can then lead into an addiction of any nature. This is where my magazine comes in, it is for independent women, women that don’t have to depend on anything to feel accepted and their use of therapy and well being is music and they can be influenced through music in the right way, fashion can make them feel good about themselves, and this is what my magazines includes.

Main Task: Evaluation FINAL

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

In reference to the publishing house that I studied as my coursework, which included planning and research, I believe that Condé Nast would be more likely to publish and distribute my magazine. One of the reasons why Condé Nast would publish my magazine is because they haven’t established a music magazine and this could benefit their company because they would be aiming for a niche market, which could then increase their customer base. Even though Condé Nast own fashion and entertainment magazines such as Vogue and Vanity Fair, my magazine also includes these factors however my target audience is women, RnB and hip-hop which Condé Nast fail to produce.

In addition to this I believe that Condé Nast focus on a affluent audience and therefore they fall short when covering a mass market and their age range isn’t as wide because certain people for example 16 year olds will not be able to afford such magazines. They portray this in one of their magazines such as their house and garden magazine which focuses on interior design, gardening and entertaining. This is based on a middle class audience, whereas my magazine is based on both working and middle class. Howevever more of working class women mainly because middle class women probably won’t be able to relate to hip hop music.

I would probably distribute my magazine in big musicCD stores such as HMV. This is because HMV is a well known music store that different people with different ages and ethnicity visit .Another place that I will use to distribute my magazine will be news agent shops in allocated areas where I think my audience will be based. This will also be in local areas so it can reach working class women, with a reasonable price.

Main Task: Evaluation FINAL

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social group?

While doing my audience research and after my teacher showed me drafts of previous music magazines, I started to gain some knowledge of my audience. My audience would be independent females who loved music and who thought that music inspired them in every aspect of their lives. This was the perfect target audience for me because I was able to relate to them. This influenced me to write my audience research and my double spread page.

I had to find storylines for my contents page and my cover line on my front page. I visited websites such as ‘Concreteloop’ to find stories that related to my target audience about women and music.

Another thing that helped me in fulfilling this project is when I had to profile my audience. I had to ask questions to some of my friends on a social network, I chose blackberry messenger. I asked them normal questions to do with music such as what genre of music do you listen to and how are they aware of the music they listen to? This gave me some sort of understanding of how people in my age group group listened to music and how they were influenced by it through the lyrics of the song.

In addition to this I had to observe every aspect of my magazine, this included the pictures that were taken and the outfits. The way in which they posed, this had to represents strength and independence. The simple look was what I was aiming for; I also made the model of the double spread wear wedges which is in trend at the moment. The colour scheme is continuous throughout the magazine.

Main Task: Evaluation FINAL

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

At the begging of the project I was unaware of some items and I found it difficult to use Photo shop because I had never used it before. Because I didn’t have enough knowledge of magazines I looked at different types of magazines that attracted me, this helped me to have a visual understanding of the format of a magazines, such as mast heads and the way the front cover picture were set out and how the numbers were portrayed on the contents page.

The way the pictures were taken was also a very important aspect of my magazine making. My aim was to take the pictures that I was going to use to symbolize a story and because my magazine was aimed at women and how they can overcome through different situations, my objective was to depict this in the photos that I had chosen. In addition to this while doing my research on music magazine I normally found that the pictures taken were normally medium close up shots. I chose to do a medium long shot to bring forth the message behind the magazine. The picture used is symbolic to the main story; therefore my target audience will be engaged.

To show the genre of my music magazine I used famous female celebrities that I thought could represent my magazine in a positive way, such as Beyonce and Rihanna, hence the reason why as my selling line I used world wide women, because my audience was versatile and reached out to different women,different ages and ethnicity's .

The font that I used was ‘Wide Latin’. I used this particular font because it was very bold but then still sophisticating. I also liked the way it made the ‘M’ look because I wanted a continuous look and the ‘M’ was able to symbolise this.

In order for me to attract my target audience I had to make my cover lines bold and noticeable and to do so I placed three top celebrities that my target audience would be aware of. I used white boxes and placed it behind their name so it could be visible.

In regards to my contents page, I used ideas from real music magazines and I incorporated it in my own way. Ideas such as the way the numbers were formatted and the way the pictures were laid out with the numbers placed on them and what was included in the editor’s note and how it was laid out.

While doing my research I noticed that the magazines I was researching such as ‘Vibe’ and ‘NME’ didn’t have editors note. At first I didn’t want to add it in but I released for my audience to feel attracted to the stories and the meaning of the music magazine they should have some sort of motivation, and through this I included some motivational word in my editors note.

Similar to what I had done on my contents page I also did the same with my double page spread. I used ideas from on going music magazines and the way they structured their pictures, laid out the article with the quotes, text column and the title. This gave me a brief understanding of how I wanted my double page spread to look like, this then influenced me on how I was going to take the pictures and how it will be symbolic to the main story.