For my Foundation Portfolio I was given the task to create a music magazine. In order to create this I had to understand the conventions, style and formats of existing magazine. So I firstly researched various existing magazines such the ‘Rolling Stone’, NME, Q and VIBE. I specifically focused on the ‘Rolling Stone’, the reasons for this is because of its diverse range of content, even though the magazine focuses on music it contains features about film, politics and sport. This is why the magazine is so successful, the diversity of magazine enables it to attract a wide range of audiences, not just those interested in music. This certainly influenced me to create a magazine containing a mixture of features about media, even though music is the main focus my magazine at the same time focuses on film, politics, TV and sports, this therefore maximizes my readership. My magazine not only appeals to those interested in music it also appeals to those interested in all the other aspects included within the magazine such as the features about film, this gives my magazine a strong appeal. My magazine is called ‘Your Virtue’ the reason for this is because Virtue simply means having the quality of excellence, this reflects to the idea that the magazine it itself excellent.
‘Your Virtue’, follows many of the conventions and formats of many existing magazine, it provides strong similarities to the ‘Rolling Stone’.
My focal magazine ‘Rolling Stone’ constantly creates familiarity towards its audiences, they achieve this by using the same format, the masthead is always placed on the top middle section of the magazine, they always use the same fonts, and also the cover line are always depicted on the left and right side of the magazine, lastly it continues to use an image of a renowned star in the music industry, therefore appealing to its readers. ‘Your Virtue’, similar to ‘Rolling Stones’ continues to create familiarity towards its audiences. It attracts the audience with a large eye catchy image of someone famous musicians within the music industry, captivating the readers attention. It continues to use cover lines as way of telling the audiences about the most exciting features and articles within the magazine, therefore attracting readers. This shows how my magazine uses many conventions which are constantly used in the ‘Rolling Stone’, and as result both magazines successful attracts the reader attentions within shops as both magazines are easily identifiable. The key ways all magazines attract the audiences is through the USP, nearly all music magazine use USP as a way of persuading the audiences to purchase the magazine, as in return they will gain or get something such as a free CD, poster or even read an exclusive article or interview. In the ‘Rolling Stone’ the USP are often world exclusive articles or interviews, it doesn’t usually give audiences gifts such as CD’s. My magazine develops the use of the USP as it provides the readers a world exclusive about the star ‘Martin O’Neil’ at the same time providing them with a free Martin O’Neil poster. ‘Your Virtue’ challenges the use of cover lines, in comparison to you’d expect to see in the ‘Rolling Stone’ and other notable magazines such as NME and Q my magazine has limited cover lines, the lack of coverline allows the readers to be drawn into the existing ones, making them seem exclusive and important.
2) How does my magazine represent particular social groups?
‘Your Virtue’ aims to be a diverse magazine, reaching out to a wide range of social groups. The term social group refers to a group in society which share similar norms, values and attitude this mainly occurs as a result of their status and wealth.
The representation of social groups usually comes through stereotypes which we gain through the media. The people who buy my magazine usually fit into a certain social group, the audiences vary from Indie, Folk, Rock N Roll and hip hop, therefore my magazine appeals to people who enjoy these types of music genres. The range of genres included within the magazine represent a range of social groups. The Indie artist in the magazine is represented stereotypically, he’s wearing a jacket looking laid back, with jeans, and a base guitar, this is typically warn by many indie artists such as Ryan Adams. The world exclusive article is about Martin O’Neil, therefore the article represents and appeals to the social group who are fans of this Indie artist. The depiction of the indie artists on the front cover plays such a vital role, as the image is stereotypical it makes the magazine look realistic. The image on the front page represents young adults and teens, as it’s an image of a young artist, this would appeal to the young social group as they could then relate to it. The pose shown by Martin O’Neil makes him look cool and young, and full of life, this also represents the young adult/ teenage social group as they could look at the image and relate to it themselves. In the contents page I use an image of a folk star ‘Beenie’, as mentioned the magazine aims to attract it widest possible audience the only way to do this is by creating a magazine which contains a variety of genres and media. The folk star is wearing fashionable clothes with an acoustic guitar, both of this appeal to the (old) adult socio group, as this shows them that it’s a folk artist, this makes them more likely to want to read the interview with him. The folk music doesn’t have any negative reputation, this genre of music has so much history, it’s natural and traditional, and this is supported by the pose which expresses his innocence, where he’s looking into space, captivating the reader to buy and read his interview. ‘Your Virtue’ certainly represent many socio groups, the images I use appeal to the readership, and allows them to both relate to them and identify with them.
3) Who would be the audience for my magazine?
From my research into the magazine the ‘Rolling stone’ I found out that in the 50’s the magazine was well know for its political features, this certainly effected the success of the magazine, as the magazine focused on politics it only appealed to a certain target audiences. However during the 90’s with the rise in fashion, music and film it changed its format by focusing on pop music, film and TV. The change in format led to a significant increase in the magazines popularity, this was because once they changed the format it led to appealing to a broader audience, leading to the magazines success. ‘Rolling Stone’ is one of the most successful music magazines, this is because it appeals to wide audience this is shown through the diverse range of features included ranging from film to politics, there is not set audience the magazine is aimed at. This certainly influences the ideas within ‘Your Virtue’, it continues to use a range of features, thus appealing to its wide audiences, this makes many audiences have reason to purchase the magazine as there something in it for everyone.
The range of media bombarded in the magazine shows that my magazine would then have a wide audience. The magazine is targeted to the male and female readership, mainly young teens and young adults. The ways in which this is done is through the image of the renowned star Martin O’Neil, his music is loved by both sexes, and is literally cherished by young teens. This persuades them into wanting to grab hold of this issue. The appeal to the teen/young adult audience it then supported by both USP’s, one of them is the world exclusive about the return of Martin O’Neil, his absence in the music industry left the his fans quiet, the fact that ‘Your Virtue’ have an exclusive about his return certainly forces his fans to buy the magazine, as his BACK. The teenage and young adults is reinforced through the language used in his article, the language used in a formal tone, I don’t use any tricky words, the sentences and word choice are easy to understand and it could be understood by the teen and young adult readership. The young target appeal is also shown through the USP, the fans of O’Neil have the opportunity to get a free poster of him, this in my opinion captivates our young readership and gives them no choice but to buy the magazine. The price of the magazine is relatively cheap, its £3.65, this is a reasonable price for the young readership.
‘Your Virtue’ similar to the ‘Rolling Stone’ does not have a se audience, it appeals to literally everyone who are interested to the various different areas in media; (which is included in the magazine) Film, Politics, TV, Sports and most importantly.
4) What kind of institution might distribute my magazine?
The publishers of my magazine would be IPC media, this is due to the fact that it publishers a wide range of magazines such as NME, Beautiful kitchens and NOW. They already cater to musical tastes by offering a wide range of musical magazines from the consumer to the niche magazine market. IPC is the most appropriate British publishing company for my magazine because it covers many aspects in media and this fills a gap in the British magazine market. In terms of content it covers a wide range of media such as features about film, politics and music. IPC media does not publish a magazine which addresses all of the content featured in the ‘Rollin Stone’. Having a magazine in the British market which provides a range of media within the magazine would play a key role within the success of both the magazine and IPC, and would have a wide readership. Although the ‘Rolling Stone’ is published by Wenner media it’s a relatively small publishing company that relies solely on the success of the three magazines; Men’s Journal, Rolling Stones, Us weekly. Rolling stones is a renowned magazine in the US, therefore the reason my magazine could not be published by Wenner media is because there would be fierce competing, and my magazine would not thrive unless I change the content I covered in order to make it different from the ‘Rolling Stone’s. The magazine wouldn’t survive because of the success and popularity of its rival rolling stone. Due to the small scale of the company it wouldn’t be willing to publisher my magazine as they publisher 3 successful magazines, and also it solely relies on the success of these three publications which keeps the company afloat. Therefore my magazine would be distributed my IPC, as it’s the most appropriate, sensible and reasonable chose.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPC_Media
5) How ill I attract/address the audience for my Music Magazine?
Attracting and addressing the audience is constantly achieved by many magazines such and NME, Q and ‘Rolling Stone’, this is done through various methods, one of the key methods is the use of the image on the front cover. The image on my front cover clearly addresses/attracts the reader, this is shown through the image of O’Neil, his position and pose is arranged in such a way it directly looks at the reader, this idea is constantly used in many magazine particularly NME. The picture O’Neil shows him holding a guitar, this attracts the ‘Rock N Roll’ and Indie fans, as this tells them that this is a music magazine targeted to them. The use of fonts also plays a vital role, the phrase on the front cover ‘The Return of Martin O’Neil’, is of a large bold colorful font, this straight away tells the reader that this is the USP, thus making them more attracted to the magazine. The success of a magazine relies solely on its use of colour, a magazine with no colour would fail as it provides no visual interaction between the magazine and reader. ‘Your Virtue’ continues to use a range of colours and fonts which stand out and appeals to our audience, the use of the bright golden colour within the magazine is eye catchy, so its therefore attractive. The different colour used makes the magazine look new in comparison to the previous issue. Lastly I continue to use cover lines, aiming to tell the readers about the most exciting feature within the magazine, the main cover lines such as ‘Obama’ and ‘James Carmon’ is written with the same colour as the world exclusive ‘The Return Martin O’Neil’, the fact that its in the same colour makes it stand out and makes the cover line seem important (as it is), this shows how its also easily identifiable. ‘Your Virtue’ uses many methods of attracting and addressing its readership, they achieve this by using fonts, colours and pictures.
6) What I have learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the process of this music unit, I’ve learnt so much about the process of making a music magazine, especially the importance of technology. Due to technologies I used it played such an important role within the final outcome of the pages, it made the magazine look and feel realistic. I used technologies such as adobe Photoshop; it’s a graphics editing program. Photoshop allowed me to edit the images in any way I please, the use of Photoshop certainly made my images look professional. Once I had taken the images on the front cover I had failed to realize the importance of using a blank background, the image on the front page never had a blank background, the images was taken in the music dept, and the background had musical images and a radiator. However the use of Photoshop allowed me to use major laser tool, this tool allowed me to crop the image, only showing just the person not the surrounding (which had images of guitars and a radiator). The picture of Martin I believe was a good image and a really good front cover image, however this was ruined by the surrounding, however Photoshop played such a beneficial role as it allowed me to keep this good picture. Photoshop made me learn and understand the importance of technologies, without this types of software’s all these successful magazines ‘Rolling Stone’, ‘NME’, ‘Q’ would not have exsisted, furthermore photo shop allows me to literally manipulate an images and texts in any way I pleased. I used another technology which was the digital camera, this was used for taking the images. Instead of it being a traditional camera it allowed me to look at the image straight after taking it. This played a vital role as it allowed me to see whether or whether not I was working on the right lines, the fact that I was able to see the image straightaway gave me the options to the change the camera angles , it also provided me with good quality pictures. Within this unit I’ve learn a great deal about technology, the use of Photoshop and Digital camera allowed me to create a spectacular magazine, this would not have been achievable without new technology.
7) Looking back at my preliminary task of designing the front cover of a school magazine, what do I feel I have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at my preliminary task I believe I developed many skills and have improved my work considerably. During the preliminary task I show a lack of knowledge into magazine conventions, and during the creation of the front page it looks as if no effort has been made, this was because of the short time and also my lack of knowledge in magazines, and my lack of Photoshop skills. I feel that doing the preliminary task it enabled me to gain understanding and knowledge into magazine conventions, it gradually improved my Photoshop skills. Even though the school magazine looks good, being in this position looking back at it shows me that so many improvements should have been made. During the preliminary task I failed to understand the importance of using magazine conventions. However during the music magazine I have come to understand the importance of using magazine conventions, as it’s a key way of persuading the readers to purchase the magazine. I feel that I developed my productive and creative skills, my Photoshop skills have significantly improved. I’ve also learnt the importance of a target audience, and the importance of addressing this to the readership within the magazine. I’m very grateful of my music magazine pages, I feel that the preliminary task has given me so much insight into the world of magazine, this played such a significant role within the final outcome of music magazine.
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