Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To The Full Product?

Looking back at how I made and presented my preliminary task it has showed me that I did not have the range of knowledge to create the music magazine then, than I have now when I made for my final piece. When i made my preliminary task it only took me a few hours to complete the task of making a magazine for my school. Making this was a way to get a feel of what i was going to be making and how it would all work and fit together. When making my country music magazine i was responsible for all the roles played by industry professionals including researching all information about my genre and about other music magazines similar to mine to get a real feel of what they look like and how they are structured. This would help me understand how to put my magazine together and format it so it looked like a successful music magazine that you would see out on the market. I also produced the magazine completely by myself using my recent research and my own knowledge of music magazines. I then also evaluated by magazine at the end of producing it to explain why i did certain things and why the magazine worked and why it failed at points and how i could improve it now.

When i compare my preliminary task to my final piece i realise that there is so much difference to how it looks and how effective it is to its target audience. My final piece is a lot better than my preliminary task as it looks more like a real music magazine and genuinely looks more professional. I think that it appeals to its target audience more and would like original on the market. Although evaluating my music magazine showed me that i could have made slight improvements like the font's on my front cover, contents page and double page spread i still think it looks worthy of being a real media product. I also learnt the importance of the structure of the magazine and where things are on a page to how successful it looks. Putting a photo in the wrong place can completely ruin the glossy effect on the magazine front cover. Over all i think i have improved thoroughly between the two magazines and i have shown that i can successfully make a magazine from my own research and knowledge that could be worthy of being a real media product.

How Did You Attract Address Your Audience?

What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

 My audience for my country music magazine is targeted at a niche audience at a quite broad age range between 16-60. Having a specific gender of audience to target is not very important with my magazine as i think it is unisex and anyone who likes country music can be enticed by it because it does not use what we would say as 'boy' colours like blue or 'girls' colours like pink and is genuinly very neutral. At the NRS website it tells us that mostly men read music magazines. I did find this quite surprising at first as i did not think this would be the case. It is also important that the target audiences interests are fulfiled when reading my magazine. It means that they would have to be interested in country music but also the type of fashion that country singers would wear. They would also have to be interested in the type of offers and things to win inside the magazine aswell as other aticles and festivals. The type of lifestyle that i would expect them to have would either be at school in the lower ages of the target audience age range or an older person in full time employment. I would also expect them to be in a socio-economic group of ABC1 as i would put my magazine in a more civilised grouping as it is quite a mature type of magazine. However i do think that grouping people in to these groups is very outdated as they are quite vage now and i beleive they can be split in to more niche catergory's which will be more informative of a particular type of person. They will also be part of a 'western culture' as they live in the UK and often have the money to afford luxury items such as magazines. However, some people may suffer from the Penumbra effect. This means that a person who is not really interested in a country music magazine may still pick it up and read it because they are interested in the front cover or what the magazine has inside of it.

 

The first picture on the left is Kayla Law. She is a 17 year old sixthform student who is very interested in my country music magazine. She generally likes things that are more rural, and likes to be different from everyone else. Here is something she said about my magazine.
"I think Hannah's magazine is brilliant and just what i want to see on the magazine shelf's! It is the type of music magazine that i am interested in and i feel that there are no other music magazines of its kind available on the market and i think it would prove very successful if published"

 

On the right is Tiff Eden. She is also a 17 year old student and is not very interested in my magazine! She thinks that it would not appeal to her if it was on a magazine stand as she does not like country music and would not want to read about what it has to offer. Here is something she said about my country music magazine.
"I do not like Hannah's magazine one bit! I think that it would not satisfy my needs and what i expectof amusic magazine,but then again that may just be because i do not like country music"

 

 

 

What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why?

As my music magazine appeals to quite a niche audience i dont think it would be distibuted by a large media institution as it probably would not make the amount of money that they would want to keep publishing it. For this reason i think that D.C Thomson and Co. might like to distribute my country music magazine as they are a UK publisher for magazines, comics, pocket books and picture books for childen, teenagers and adults. They are also not a well known company for selling music magazine's so they may profit from my magazine.However, this could also be a bad decision for me to judge as people may not buy a magazine if the publisher is not well known because they do not think it will meet their standards and needs. D.C Thomson and co are located in Dundee in the United Kingdom.They distribute 'Beano', 'The Evening Telegraph' and many other magazine's and newspapers. They also distribute 'The Scots Magazine' which i think has the same typical elements as my country music magazine.

About D.C Thomson and co. Ltd magazine-

D.C. Thomson is very much a family firm and has been publishing newspapers since 1905 but the family were involved in both newspapers and shipping before the actual formation of the company itself.
The Company was founded by William Thomson – grandfather of our current Chairman Andrew Thomson – and his two brothers David and Frederick. It was David or D.C. [Thomson] who was asked to run the company for the family at that time. The three Directors of the company are descendants of our founder and other members of the Thomson family also continue to work in the business.

Representing Social Groups

In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

I think that my media product follows the conventions of a real country music magazine as it shows simplicity but effectivness. I think that this is a good way of advertising a magazine as it looks good and suits my target audience as people who want to buy the magazine for its purpose only and the information in it, not the amount of information on the front cover. I also think that my magazine challenges the conventions of a real media product within the picture that i used on my front cover. Normally on country music magazines you find a country singer with a guitar or a glamourous women with a plain background. I think that using the rural country idea and dressing it up to add to my front cover is actually very affective and develops the original country music magazine seen in stores on shelves. Adding the real rural effect to the magazine enhances the fact that it is a country music magazine so the element of 'country' should not be lost in the glamour of music. However, is still beleive my chosen images display glamour in a way of their own. I beleive that the font types and layout design is kept simple like a orginal music magazine like the one below and really shouts out to its audience. I also took idea's from a real country music magazine for my contents page and designed this with the same conventions that would typically be seen in a real media product like winning competitions from entering them through the magazine and following the typical housestyle of  a real magazine. I also used many suggestions from the survey that i took about country music magazines during my research before i started the production of my magazine. These include keeping the layout simple and easy but using effective and eye catching images, fonts and colours. I also received a suggestion that i should enhance the rural theme than real media products do not do in their magazines. I have selected 'Country Music's' magazine front cover to compare with my front cover to show hwo similar the conventions are but how different the images are, but how they still both look good and worthy of a place on a magazine shelf.

 

 

Final Design Of Front Cover

This is my final design for my front cover for my magazine. I was given advice to change one of the cover lines to the same font as my header but I then went on and asked further advice from different people and they disagreed and agreed with my perception of music magazines and that the header should never be used as a font through out the magazine or elsewhere on the front cover.

Final Design Of Contents Page

Final Design Of DPS

This is my final design for my double page spread. Although i said that this would not work before and changed it, i realise that this design does work better than what i changed it to. This is because when the photo is edited like this is matches these conventions of the front cover and the contents page where as before there was a massive change in colour for all three. I think this way my magazine looks more attractive and appealing to an audience and more worthy of being on a magazine shelf.

Taking My Photo's

Here are just a few other photo's that i took when taking my photo's for my magazine. I believe out of all my photos the one's i chose for my front cover and double page spread were the right one's as they look good and represent a country style very well. I also think that they are very different to the other country magazines on the market but would stand out more on a shelf compared to others.

Editing My Pictures

These were my edit's of the chosen photo for my double page spread, i feel like last photo works for my country magazine as it has a dark, slightly western feel to the image that would work well with the magazine. The interview is also now visable of this photo, unlike my last edit.

Problems with my DPS

As i was designing my double page spread i came across some problems. When i had edited my photo that way i wanted it and started writing my interview over the top, i realised that the reader was not going to be able to read the interview as some of the colours were clashing. This meant that i either had to change my writing colours and font, or change my picture. After trying to play around with the colour of my writing and failed i decided to edit my photo in a different way to what i had thought of doing before. Even though this meant steering away from my original idea, i soon realised that it was the best option and the double page spread would look better and more successfull if the interview was clearer.

My Genre For My Music Magazine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDo9_PDFMrY



This Youtube clip is from Taylor Swift's song 'Our Song' and is the genre i am going to focus on to make my music magazine.

Textual Analysis Of a Music Magazine

 

Semiotics and Representation

Semiotics is a study of signs and how we read them. Every aspect of representaion has some significance, it is a sign. The Signified is a mental concept, the actual thing itself (before the signifier). The Signifier is the verbal manifestation and the sequence of letters or sounds (the written realisation).  The combination of the signifier and signified = A Sign.

In photography and art, signs are generally ionic. This means that they look like the thing they represent and are therefore more universally understood. Each element has significance and needs to be identified.
  
Rhianna is wearing white here and in front of a white background which can show purity and innocence. However this is contradicted by her having her middle finger up and positioned in/on her mouth which can be seen as seductive. Her hair covering half her face can also connate that she is hiding half of her personality from the audience like there is a different side to her.

Pitching My Music Magazine

Name - 'Countrified'

Slogan- (Undesided)

Function Of Magazine- To inform readers of country music and articles related to country singers. Promote music to newly interested audiences.

Type Of Audiences- People who like country music and like to read about the artists and new songs.

Format and Formula- Simple, Country style colours (green, orange, yellow), Earthy Style with a consistent style so audiences recognise my brand.

50% New Country Music
20% Advertisments (Including country CD's etc)
10% Interviews With Artists
10% Fashion
10% News (Artists)

Similar to- 'Country Times' 'Country Music' 'Oklahoma' 'Billboard'

My double page spread will be an interview of a newly introduced Country singer.
                  

Publisher and Demographic Case Study

Kerrang

The world's biggest selling weekly rock magazine. It is published by the Bauer consumer media who own 238 magazines including FHM, Closer, Heat, Grazia and many more. Kerrang appeals to a specific niche audience and identifies its audience as individuals that are independent of thought and musically experienced who are defined by attitude, passion and loyalty.

Readers are 60% males and 40% females generally in the C or D demographic traditionally in the lower middle class or working class. Most readers are of white British ethnicity and 16-24 year's old.

Kerrang have adopted a strategy called synergy to attract greater readership. As Bauer own Kerrang Radio and Kerrang Tv they are able to use those channels to promote their magazine. This is an example of cross media ownership and means that Kerrang can systematically promote their products in several broadcast mediums. As bauer also own other popular magazines they can advertise subscriptions for Kerrang in the hopes of maximising sales and attracting readers.

One survey showed that 83% of readers of Kerrang bought an album as a direct result of an article in their magazine.

Effect On Front Cover Design

A Folk and country music magazine will have a more rural front cover. The publisher will use natural and environmental colour scheme with bold, simple and plain fonts. There will not be anything that would be frowned upon or seen as 'fake' as it is a hearty, homely style.






 Dance music is more modern and minimal with simple colour schemes like black, white, brown and blue. The fonts are bold and glamours appealing to modern society.



Indie music can be seen as slightly rough and ready in its approach. There is a DIY ethos where it looks amateurish but in a stylish way where the fonts may be a bit disorganised but look good. The band will be dressed in everyday clothes and most probably look like their audience.



Soul would be likely to go for a classic look with glossy images and timeless fonts with a well groomed artist. It may seem more classy and sophisticated.

Comparing music magazines

Q magazine

The founders of Q magazine are Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, Bauer Media Group produce it and it was first published in October 1986 at this time it was originally called Cue to imply a musical reference ‘ready to play’ but got mistaken as a snooker magazine. In 2006 Q published a reader survey called ‘100 greatest songs ever’ which was won by Oasis. In late 2008 Q adapted its image, by using a smaller amount of text to create an increased focus on subjects other than music. This led to criticism from much of the Q readership, but is yet to be seen if this change in attitude would affect sales.

The magazine has a widespread review section, with new releases in music, reissues, music gatherings, film and live concert reviews, as well as radio and television reviews. It uses a system of star-ratings from one to five stars. It also accumulates a list of around eight albums, which it classes as ‘the best new releases of the last three months’

The majority of the readers are in the ABC1 area rather than C2DE and it is much more popular in the age range of 15-34 rather than 35+ and over 2 times more men read it than women. The issue with this information is we do not know whether the high popularity within the ABC1 comes from each one or maybe is just from C1 and with the age it could mainly be 15 year olds or maybe scattered all around that big age range.  The typical reader is slightly higher up in social class but probably fairly young as it’s not as popular in 35+ which would imply the audience is mainly teenagers and young adults.

The house style of this magazine is fairly consistent throughout for example the heading/title is the same in every magazine, maybe some slight adaptions made but it is unnoticeable and the background sticks to quite a pale colour such as white or grey for most of the issues with a few exceptions being made for certain artists to fit their genre or the main topic of the issue. The colour and font of the sell lines and tag lines stick to reds, blacks and whites of quite a bold font but once again they sometimes change to fit the artist or new background etc.

Q represents women as sexual items and in some they look quite animalistic which implies they are dominated and sexualised. Whereas the men are shown to be quite fierce or dominant even by not showing any particular facial expression because their face takes up most of the cover but with the women their bodies are on display or at least shown slightly in the image. This would mean that for the audience the female audience admire and aspire for the women in the magazines but have a desire for the men. Whereas the male audience would have a sexual desire for the women and aspire/respect the men.


Top of the Pops

Top Of The Pops magazine is a monthly publication published by BBC magazines. It features chart information, star gossip, fashion and beauty advice, quizzes, song lyrics and posters. It is a supplementary magazine for the TV show Top Of The Pops until it was cancelled in 2006, however the publication is still in publication.

The magazine was launched in 1995 and is famous for giving The Spice Girls their nicknames. Alongside a revamp of the tv show, it was originally marketed as the missing link between Smash Hits and NME. But its format was gradually changed with less music content and a demographic shift to young girls. It has has several editors over the years including Peter Lorraine, but its current editor is Peter Hart.

The magazine is aimed at 11-14 year old girls Most readers are in the ABC1 category, however their are a small range of young females in C2DE. Most of the readers are probably BC1/C2. The housestyle of the magazine consists of bright colours like pink, yellow and white which connote happiness and purity. This creates a positive atmosphere for the reader and makes in very feminine. The conventions of a Pop magazine are followed extremely well in this magazine including posters of young, inspiring celebrities and 'gossip' from their lives.














 

Ideology

Ideology- A system of ideas and ideals formed, espeshially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.

Meme- An idea that spreads from person to person with in a culture.

Tropes- Memes eventually become tropes. A common or overused theme or device become conventions or cliches.

As music has evolved it has split in to different sub genres which have evolved in to certain tropes. When a band first comes together they may experiment with particular looks and sounds to see which best suits them.

Pop vs. Rock- Pop music began to get more heavier during the sixties. However their was still a big divide between simple, inoffensive pop and rebelious rock and roll. This divide still exists now between more commercial mainstream genres and more 'hardcore' styles.

Every genre will have evolved its own tropes over the years which invlove lyrical themes, style of dress and intruments used.

Differences between Rock and Pop-

Pop itself is considered as a softer version of rock and roll as it was derived from rock and roll in the year 1950. However, pop music is a genre that seeks to reach out to a larger audience where as rock music identifies itself as a sub-culture or an ideology that does not reach out to the masses. Pop music is normally performed solo, unlike rock which is usually identified in a band structure. Rock artists also like to perform more live gigs as they like to be motivated by the crowd and their supporters.
Pop music is known to be more about love and heartbreak where as rock is more about the 'sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll'.







At the beginning of The Beatles they would have been seen as a pop band. However when the drug years came some say they became rock spilling over into psychedelic.

Mock up idea for front cover of magazine

 

 

 

 

 

This mock up idea is what i would like my final draft to look like. I think it follows all the conventions of a typical country magazine and would look good enough on a magazine shelf. From this i am going to take my pictures and start putting together the draft for my final piece.

 

 

Prelimary task research mood board

Country magazine mood board

I started putting together idea's on a mood board for my country magazine including different font covers of already existing country magazines and different fonts which i may want to use when creating my title for my own country magazine. I would like to create my country magazine to follow the conventions of the magazines below that are already available for audiences and are successful.

Country

Country

Country

Country

Country

Country

Country

Country

Considering my magazine title

When I was considering my magazine title I simply searched ‘country’ into the thesaurus Google which gave me many words to consider using as my title. The final two titles that I couldn’t decide between were ‘Countrified’ and ‘Outland’. I agreed that they were both good titles for a country magazine that would show audiences what the magazine was offering and clearly show what it is about. Finally I decided that ‘Countrified’ would be the most effective title for my magazine as it describes the rural and rustic theme I am trying to convey with in my magazine.

Main Entry:	country /ˈkʌntri/
Part of Speech:	adjective
Definition:	rural, pastoral
Synonyms:	Arcadian, agrarian, agrestic, bucolic, campestral, countrified, georgic, homey, out-country, outland, provincial, rustic, uncultured, unpolished, unrefined, unsophisticated
Notes:	country really refers to geographical characteristics while nation refers to political and social characteristics; country comes from Latin contrata (terra) 'the landscape in front of one, the landscape lying opposite to the view' and nation is from Latin nation-/natio 'race, class of person' a nation is made up of states - and a country is a nation defined geographically
Antonyms:	city, metropolitan, urban

 

Countrified- rural or rustic

Outland- peaceful, referring to the countryside

Effects models for music magazines

The 'Hypodermic Needle Model' is all about sending a message to an audience that will be wholly accepted. However this is a very outdated view of media effects that is understood by many people but not entirely accepted anymore. The 'Two Step Flow' is the modern version of the hypodermic needle model. An example of the two step flow would be a person seeing another person reading a music magazine and wanting to read it themselves. This may be because they dont want to seem 'uncool' by others who read the magazine. Once one person starts reading a magazine, others may 'follow the leader' which is a positive multiplier effect for the magazine company as they get more sales. The 'Obstinate Audience Theory' is about the audience actively selecting what messages they want to recieve and understand from the media. The media often responds to its audiences by seeing what they like and what they 'want, however this is often just what the media think we would want to see and hear. The 'Drip Drip Drip Effect' or 'Cultivation Differential' is the most common and accepted media effect. It beleives that the mass media does effect our attitudes through repition of messages recieved by audiences. An example of this would be seeing an advert on TV a few times every day. This would gradually reinforce the message of the advert and make the audience beleive it is right. This would apply to music magazines by advertising something in the magazine or introducing a new band and new things about them each week. This may make the audience gradually start to like them as they learn new things about the band.
Uses and gratifications in music magazines lets the audience know new things about the bands they like. An example of this would be someone telling another person a fact about a particular band and feeling good about knowing it because the other person doesn't. This effect can also be known as the dominant model. 'Reception Theory' is the meaning of a 'text' with in the text itself. This theory rely's on the readers cutural competence and media literacy and the audiences overall opinion of the media.

In my opinion i think that the drip drip effect is very clever and has the most affect on an audience. It shows that almost anything can be thought of by a person if they are constantly given slow, drip feeding information about it. However, using this theory can also make people not like something that is being considered because they are constantly hearing about it or seeing it somewhere.

Prelimary Task

For my preliminary task i will be making a magazine baseed on Southfield school. I did a lot of research of other school magazines before i had a go at making my own. I tried to base my magazine on one that i particulary liked from google to get the right composition and framing of my images and texts. The layouts and masthead designs were also an important feature to think about aswell as the colours and sizes of my fonts on my magazine.

This was my final draft of my pleminary task which only took me an hour to complete, but it gave me the chance to play around with ideas and features that would be in these types of magazines.

What pleasures do people get from reading magazines?

For some people it comes a ritual or a routine to read or buy a magazine every week. This is most likely because they like the information that is in the magazine, but some may just like the pictures on the front or the way the magazine looks. This is because most people just like the visual culture of magazines and buy them just to look at and not actually read. It also gives a person something to do, providing entertainment and diversion from real life. People are probably more likely to buy a magazine if they know about the genre and what its based on so they feel more knowledgeable. Many magazines also provide information that readers will want to know, espeshially music magazines releasing tour dates. You can also feel part of a community when reading a magazine and like the magazine is talking to you itself, which may also plant ideas in a persons mind of what they like and dislike. Someone may also buy the magazine for the freebies that you get with them even though you would probably only skim a magazine and not properly read it.

Most music magazines are normally aimed at niche audiences who probably are not included in mainstream music. You would be the same as the person who reads the magazine but different from a lot of other people which is quite chanllenging for some music magazines.