Evaluation of music magazine coursework

Evaluation of Music Magazine Coursework

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The coursework task was to create a music magazine and do everything needed to create that magazine e.g. designing, researching and producing. There are many areas, which are being explored in the following piece of writing that explains the coursework and shows understanding of producing media products, also to explain the strengths and weaknesses of this coursework.

The genre for the magazine was to be a music magazine in which I had chosen ‘POP’ music. A reason for this is because Pop music is hugely popular in today’s society (‘pop’ meaning popular). Also by choosing this genre, it gave me the opportunity to have a huge choice of who I may target my magazine at, also what I can include in it in terms of music as for there is a lot of music that can come under ‘Pop’ title such as dance and hip hop.

My magazines presentation is very bold, bright and eye catching (for a target audience of young teenage girls) giving the impression that it is quite a cheap reasonable price but still keeping a high expectation. The colours used are associated with girls such as Purple, orange, white and pink Also the way the magazine addresses their readers is very suitable for the target audience, in which it is very chatty and conversational and using terms and sayings that the sort of target audience would e.g. OMG! (Oh My God!). Although the magazine focuses on Pop music, it also covers other subjects such as fashion, beauty and real life. This is because it gives the reader a wide range to subjects to read, look at and makes it more appealing to pick up. The magazine I had created can be compared to other magazines such as ‘Top of the Pops’ and ‘Smash Hits’. These are very popular magazines amongst young teenage girls and some of the topics covered in them are very popular and common within most ‘Pop’ magazines. My media product can challenge such similar magazines because it has so much more to offer in terms of subjects and different types of music coming under the genre of ‘pop’. Examples of this is that it includes more articles that are associated with pop and can give the reader a sense of gaining knowledge about the pop industry such has having a ‘artist profile’ which allows the reader to learn facts about a certain artist. Also revealing the truth about pop rumours (such as rumours to do with artists) can give the reader more knowledge of the pop industry. In the media market so far for pop magazines, the magazines already published, although they are well known, are quite old in age. By creating my music magazine it gives pop magazine readers a new exciting magazine to read which also includes further interests that are most associated with young teenage girls such as fashion, make-up and advice. Also by being a new magazine it is likely to get more people being interested in it because it hasn’t been seen (read) before. The forms and conventions of magazines are included and are appropriate for the target audience. The layout of the front cover is appropriate because it has been kept quite simple so everything is readable and there is not too much going on, to make the reader feel intimidated. The same sort of principles has been used for the contents page. The contents page has been sectioned out into 4 sections with headings. This allows the reader to find certain articles in the magazine and it also gives the impression that there is not too much text on the page, which would not appeal to the younger readers. As before, the main double page spread has been kept to a simple layout and all the colours have been kept to the colour scheme.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product represents a certain social group. The overall representation of the magazine is very appealing for my target audience of young teenage girls (aged between 8 to 13), especially from the first appearance of my media product. This is because it used bright colours that can be associated with girls (such as pink, purple and orange) also the way the magazine addresses the reader is linked to the way young girls talk and is inviting when read. Headlines using such words like ‘hot’ comes across as very chatty and conversational so, for a young teenage girl to read such cover lines, it is very inviting and it may make them feel that the magazine is ‘perfect’ or made for them especially if it completely rules out any adult from reading it, which is also another inviting factor for the young readers.

There are many factors that indicate what sort of social groups would read my media product. There is a very wide range of people who would read this media product but factors such as class, age and gender etc. play a huge part that indicates what sort of social groups would read this type of media product.The ways in which my magazine represent this type of social group is from the type of language used becuase it speaks a way in which the target audience would talk e.g. New Hot songs words. Also the features included are especially aimed at young girls e.g. 10 new bargains!

Starting with class, the sort of reader reading this media product could come from any sort of class ranging from upper class to middle class. Reasons for this are because the interests between upper class and lower class young teenage girls, despite stereotyping are not that different. Also the magazine has purposely been priced at a low, reasonable price so a wide range of girls will be able to afford the magazine including girls coming from lower class families.

Moving onto age, the target age for this media product is for girls aging between 8 to 13. This is because at these ages, girls are growing up and believe they are becoming more mature, also the interests of girls of such ages are very similar. By aiming the magazine at such a wide range of ages allows the reader to have more money, making it more popular and ending up making a bigger profit, making the outcome of the production very successful.

The gender is specifically girls. The main reason for this is because im a girl, making it easier to research about the target audience, also I feel that I can relate to the readers and now a bit about what they would want and the sort of things that should be included. Also the challenge of making it aimed at boys or both would have been very difficult due to the choice of music genre.

The Ethnicity of the reader can vary. By making the magazine available to a wide range of ages also a wide range of classes, it allows the ethnicity to come under the same heading. So the girl readers can feel that everyone can be included and not feel any discrimination and feel that they can all read this magazine.

The Nationality of the reader would be mostly British. Reasons for this is because the magazine will be made for British people, living in Britain but that doesn’t necessarily mean that girls of different nationalities can’t read it. As said before, the magazine is open to a huge range of girls and there is not anything within the magazine that would indicate that any girl who is not British couldn’t read it. This magazine would be a great opportunity for girls of different nationalities to read because then maybe they could learn about different cultures; this is also a good opportunity of British girls.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Synergy is the interconnected marketing and distribution of media products and within Synergy, the kind of media institution that would distribute my magazine would be a small. Independent company. An example of a successful independent magazine distributor is Ashley Mark Publishing company, it is a great example of how successful you can be when your are an independent company. It shows independence and it also means that you are your own boss and there are no other companies that can influence you. You are completely independent and unique. Also there won’t be any trouble of trying to get money from the government, it is completely up to your own company to raise your own funds, and the way I would like this to be done is by advertising.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
Having already discussed the sort of target audience, it is very clear who the target audience for this magazine is. Young teenage girls aged between 8 to 13. The way that I had made this very clear while producing the magazine is that I had created a reader profile that went into more detail about the average reader of ‘Popsicle’ the pop magazine. Beforehand, I had done my research on reader profiles and analysed two different profiles from two different magazines. The first one was ‘Word’ magazine, which is a lifestyle magazine for men. The profile was very simple, just a heading and words, but the interesting way that ‘Word’ had told its reader about their reader is that they had written it in a story like way, telling you about one reader in particular and what that average reader would do in a typical day. By this it allowed us to know more about that persons personality and interests, indicating who would read their magazine and what would be included in it. Another reader profile I had analysed was NME. NME’s reader profile was more inviting to read due to the use of colour and images. They had kept the text minimal and straight to the point and the way they had layed out their information made the reader profile very easy to read, it was set out in bullet points and headings so you can identify the facts and statistics about the average reader of NME is most likely to be like/ be interested in. The images used were images that were associated to the sort of interests and various objects the average reader of NME would be interested in/would own. This is a good way of advertising NME especially if you associate the images used to yourself, introducing you to a new magazine that you can read, that you would be interested in. I analysed the two reader profiles and came to the conclusion that I most preferred the writing to be written in a ‘story’ like way, but I also liked the way the images had been used to get the reader captivated. These reader profiles had given me the inspiration to create a exciting reader profile for my magazine in which I would write about my reader in a story like fashion, surrounded by images that the average reader of ‘Popsicle’ would be associated with. The images included within my reader profile include images such as make-up, high school musical and milkshakes and sweets. There was a box centered on the page with a story of your average ‘Popsicle’ reader surrounded by the connotating images.

How did you attract/address your audience?
There are many marketing techniques that attract my target audience. Starting with the title of the magazine ‘Popsicle’. Popsicle can be another word for an ice-lolly, in which ice lollys are very popular amongst teenagers and young children. The word ‘Pop’ is in the word Popsicle that obviously indicates the genre of the magazine and the ending ‘sicle’ can be seen as ‘is cool’ in a figurative, meaningful way, giving the full name ‘Popsicle’. This is where the tagline for the magazine comes from simply being ‘Pop is cool’. This can be a marketing technique because telling the young readers that ‘Pop is cool’ (Popsicle), it can influence them to become interested in the genre.

The colours used on the magazine are colours that are associated with girls (Pink, Purple and orange). Most colours associated with girls are bright and loud, especially from these colours used, they are very eye catching and will easily grab the attention of the younger readers.

The images on the front cover are most popular with girls. The main article of the magazine is about a girl pop band and the main image (selling point) of that particular issue is an image of that pop band. This is a good marketing technique because the actual models in the pop band are very girly and the poses they are in are as well very girly. The pose they are in is that they are all close together, which could indicate friendship (A big issue when you are a teenager) and the audience could be able to relate to them, which can be a persuasive selling technique. Also from the clothes the girls are wearing, it shows their age and perhaps who the magazine is aimed at (young teenage girls) and from the fashion used (pretty dresses and colourful tights) fashion conscious girls (most teenage girls of today) will want to read the article as for the celebrities they are looking at are into their interests and may feel that they are their role models because they can already relate to them in terms of fashion. The facial expressions on the girl’s faces are happy and posed, which is what generally teenage girls do with their friends when they have a camera. It shows friendship, laughter and fun which most teenage girls will be able to relate to. My magazine shows mode of address by the headings on the front cover, which talks in the language that the reader can relate to, are talking to the reader, also the interacting articles of the magazine, give the sense that the magazine is ‘talking to them’.

Popsicle can relate to two other magazines in particular in terms of the front cover (most important selling point). In terms of music it can relate to ‘Top of the Pops’ and in terms of other alternative articles ‘Mizz’. This may be because I had decided that Popsicle should include a whole lot more than just Pop in which it can be associated with ‘Mizz’ but I didn’t want to forget the main reason of the magazine being all about Pop music. So between the two I balanced out that there should be more about Pop music with in the magazine and that the other alternative subjects e.g. fashion, makeup should be kept to the minimal but include more than your average pop magazine such as ‘Top of the Pops’ or ‘Smash Hits’.

The cover lines used play a huge part within attracting the target audience as for these are one of the main selling points for a magazine cover. The actual cover lines are persuasive such as using rhetorical questions ‘Are you true friends?’ and the language used can relate to a younger audience (sounds like young teenage girls talking) such as ‘Hot New Song Words!’ The topics covered on the front cover are stereotypically aimed for girls e.g. Star Style 10 New Bargains! And play a huge part in attracting the younger audience and persuading them to buy the magazine.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The process of constructing the product has had its advantages and its disadvantages. The advantages will include the research process because this part is quite easy for me, especially as I can relate to my target audience and research in itself is quite easy but it has its rewards in being very helpful as to what I will need to include in this magazine in particular (huge help from creating a questionnaire for my target audience). Another advantage may include having a preliminary task before we started our final product. The preliminary task was a huge help because for someone like me who hadn’t had the option of taking media as a GCSE option, going straight into the final product would have been a complete disaster. The preliminary task allowed me to learn about aspects behind creating media products such as Media Institutions and marketing techniques; also it allowed me to learn basic skills in using product software such as Fireworks and Photoshop, especially as I had never used them before. Without the preliminary task, im sure the process of creating my final media product would have been delayed and not of an acceptable level.

Behind the advantages are the disadvantages. There were many disadvantages that I had come across while creating this media product. Especially while creating images (taking photos) and using the technical side of the product such as using Photoshop and Fireworks. I had the main idea of my most important selling point all organised into my head, it was just arranging it that I had problems with. The main idea was to introduce and promote a new girl band of 5 girls. I wanted the girls to be quite young (same age as the target audience) and I wanted images of them dressing in the latest fashions and to come across as a successful girl band in the making that the target audience could feel that they can relate to. The actual photos went very well but there was an outcome from the photos. There was one particular band member who looked as if she wasn’t part of the band and looked overall miserable compared to the happy theme of the magazine. To overcome this problem I basically cut her from the photos, which I found very difficult to start with as for my lack of skills in using software such as Photoshop and fireworks. After exploring these programmes I was able to cut this certain person out.

The next part of difficulties I came across was editing the photos. For my double page spread I had individual photos of each girl band member holding up a name tag (letting the reader know a bit more about them). Although the photos used were perfect, when edited they kept coming up blurry. This was really agitating because I kept thinking surely if you’re decreasing the size of a photo they shouldn’t be blurry? But they did but I did overcome this problem by using a tool, which straightens out blurriness.

The only other sort of problems I had encountered was my colour scheme on my double page spread. The colours I had decided to use through out the magazine are purple, orange and pink, purely because these colours are associated with girls. But on my double page spread the colours used within the interview (Introduction, interview and conclusion) were hard to read against each other. The only way I could overcome this was the keep the layout and headings within the colour scheme and to keep the interview to common writing colours such as black and white.

Advantages could include elements such as being a girl myself; feeling that I can relate to the target audience and have some understanding of what my target audience would look for in a music magazine.

From the Questionnaire produced this furthered my understanding of the expectations of the target audience.

Other advantages would include after developing skills in Photoshop and fireworks, it made the process of creating the magazine a whole lot easier.

From the preliminary task I feel that my progress in using media product software has developed and improved also that from research into the magazine industry I have learnt a lot of marketing techniques and media terms such as USP (unique selling point). The differences from my preliminary task product to my final product, it is clear that my skills and understandings have had a huge improvement (such as image shots and editing photos) and the differences also show that my knowledge about the media industry has improved.

From the following piece of writing I have explored all areas about the making of this final product. I have also explored the strengths and weaknesses and how the preliminary task has helped me through out this part of media coursework.