Evaluation.

Media Evaluation – Music Magazine.

The brief asked us to create a music magazine, we had to include a front cover, a contents page and a double page spread all of a particular genre of our choice. I believe my magazine is very conventional, my masthead is placed in the top right hand side it is a bold colour with a contrasting colour outline. The headline is placed in the centre and is the same colour as the masthead, you can also find strap lines which you find on a real magazine cover. Also there is a barcode and issue date, price and issue number in the lower right hand corner. My contents page also follows conventions by having a large title at the top of the page in the centre, having lots of headlines with the features underneath they all have page numbers which is seen on professional magazine contents page. My double page spread follows conventions by having a large picture of the main artists and having a large centred headline.

My magazine represents my targeted social group (young adults – 16-25) by on the front cover offering the reader to ‘win free gig tickets for a whole year’, and also ‘the top 10 must have gifts’. Also on my contents page features artists who that age range are interested in such as ‘Vampire Weekend’ and also ‘Tinie Tempah’. On my double page spread ‘the only exceptions’ are around my target age range and also are interested in the same things my audience are interested in, and the interview that is featured on my page asks questions that I’m sure my audience would ask and want to find out.

I believe an institution such as IPC media as they publish magazines such NME,I believe my magazine is very similar to NME apart from NME promotes new music I want my magazine to be produced in the same way and follow the format I just want it to feature more mainstream artists. I think also my magazine and NME have the same target age range and the same readership profiles, they also have the same price range as NME and are published at the same intervals e.g. Monthly. This is why I believe that IPC should distribute my magazine, as they will now how advertise and market it.

I believe that the target audience for my magazine is the age range of about 16 – 25, as the genre of the music in my magazine has had a greater affect on this generation than any other. The fact that the artists are within this age range and also the fact that on my double page spread the artists say that they would like to offer a student discount this directly relates to my audience and helps them identify with the artists. Also on my contents page it has features such as ‘this months top 10 albums’ and ‘your letters’  these features are what my target age range most enjoy reading these things. Also on my contents page it says about ‘in the spotlight’ a feature that introduces the readers to new and upcoming bands I feel that this is relevant to my target audience as people of that age are all about finding new music and talents and as technology has advanced things such as YouTube has made the generation able to access these artists and this has helped encourage their find for new music, So I believe this was a relevant thing to add to my magazine and helps attract the audience.

My magazine attracts it’s audience in many different ways. The first is by the style of the masthead, the font is very distinctive and not conventional and helps me connote the alternative genre. The way the artists are photographed make them look like they are having fun, full of live and that they are crazy, This is similar to how I expect my readers to act and behave. It helps the audience to relate to the artists. Just like on my double page spread I made the artists appear as normal and down to earth as possible, so the audience can relate to them and maybe hope that they will be in their position one day. The clothes that the artists are wearing are normal clothes found in high street shops and maybe be similar to the audiences clothes nothing designer or out of their price range and maybe the audience see something of themselves  in the artists. Also on my contents page the fact that you can subscribe and save money this will relate to my audience as many of them may be students struggling with money.

I believe that the range of technologies we’ve used such as Photoshop have helped me make a more professional looking magazine. As Photoshop has many features that helped me achieve and create the exact pages that I had in my mind. Out of all programmes similar to Photoshop, I believe this one is the best and helped me complete my work to the best I could. I also believe using websites such as blogger was a great idea, as we could look back and review our work and if we were then not happy with it, it could be easily changed and put right, something that we would of not been able to do if everything had to be written. It also helps keep everything in the same place and all together while we were making so many changes, some of them so minor but helps us improve our grade, or work could of easily of gone missing. I find now after doing these projects that these programmes are a lot easier to use, and I can now use them with ease then the first time when I struggled to do anything.

Now that I look back to the preliminary task I now know how much I have progressed and learnt since then. I now have a greater understanding of Photoshop and now find I can achieve more with the program and make things I am designing look more realistic and professional. I have learnt how to create different aspects of magazines such as the contents page, double page spread and the cover. I have learnt the key conventions and where I must place things such as mastheads, strap lines and puffs for maximum affect on my audience, I now know how to attract particular audiences and what I have to do to create a successful magazine. I have also learnt about institutions, how they work and how they publish and distribute their magazines, one of the main things I learnt is how to actually represent an institution, and I believe I have shown this in the music magazine I have created.

After conducting research for audience feedback on my magazine cover, contents and double page spread I have found many varied opinions on my magazine. I had sent out a questionnaire asking a range of questions out of rating my practical products out of 10 and comment on any improvements they thought I could make. It was shown that people had varied opinions on what genre my magazine was as 75% believed my genre was purely indie. 5% of people were undecided between pop and indie and the last 20% believed it to be rock or rock/indie cross. Hollie Allison believed that I connoted the genre of my magazine by on the cover having the artists ‘jumping in mid-air’ and she thought I carried this theme on to my contents page by then picturing the artists ‘flipping their hair’. My magazine on a whole got and average rating of 9 as did my cover. My double page spread got an average rating of 10 and my contents a average of 8. When I asked how they thought my magazine looked professional Kim Walker said ‘Good photography and well laid out’ Hollie also said about the layout and also about the text and colours I had used. It was also commented that on my double page spread the highlighted quotes worked well. On my contents page it was said that features looked interesting however it was also said that I needed more information on the pictures featured on my contents page. On my front cover ‘Wendy Arthur’ said that it is ‘visually looks fun and appealing’ and that for improvement I could add more information about what is in my magazine.