Evaluation Question 3

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

Throughout the project and creation of the music magazine, I have been observing other magazines within the music industry for reference to accompany me with my own design. The main magazine that I have looked at are;

• Vibe
• Kerrang!
• Mojo
• Q
• NME

Because I have used conventions and used similar ideas to the magazines listed, it would be appropriate to consider one of their publishers to publish and release my magazine should I want to sell it. Within the five magazines listed, there are three publishers. These are IPC Media, German publishers, Bauer Media, and InterMedia.


-Click picture for link to site-This is he publisher for Vibe magazine. It is the only music magazine that it produces. It is however the magazine in the industry today that is most like the one I have produced. Although this is the case, it is the only music magazine that InterMedia publish, and is also only one of a few magazines in total that they own. I would not feel comfortable selling my magazine to these publishers as I would want a company with more experience in the publishing world with a high track record of high circulation and sales figures.


-Click picture for link to site- This company publishes Kerrang!, Mojo, and Q magazine. It would seem appropriate to use Bauer as my main publisher as it prints over 50 magazines, from lads mag FHM, to Women's magazine Closer. This means that it has a very good knowledge of the industry and if I was to ask them to publish my magazine, it would not jeopardise their other products because they already make thousands of pounds a month with what they have out already. Kerrang! have a circulation of 44,013 and the combined circulation of Mojo and Q magazine is just under 200,000. This shows to me that Bauer is able to keep up its circulation figures with both their weekly magazines and monthly editions.


-Click picture for link to site- NME magazine is the only music magazine to be published by this company. It is a weekly magazine that has a circulation figure of 56,284. Although this a higher rate of sales than Kerrang!'s weekly edition, IPC are not use to publishing a monthly music magazine. I would also feel that maybe IPC would not concentrate on my magazine that well as it would try and make the most money from NME as that is such a long running title that everyone knows.

So, from this, I feel that my magazine would be most suited to Bauer Media. I have chosen this because it already has a successful history in publishing two of the leading monthly music magazines today whilst maintaining a high revenue meaning they would make my magazine a success too. Although InterMedia publishes a magazine that is of similar genre to my magazine, I feel that it does not have as much knowledge and experience than Bauer Media.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The aim of my media magazine was to represent the casual music industry. By this I mean that it is not directed at any single type of person. Magazines such as KERRANG! are directed at one target audience only, the heavy metal listeners, however I want my magazine to reach out to anyone that has listened or listens to the POP/R&B music style. I wanted my magazine to be similar to that of VIBE or Q magazine. Both of these have had a wide variety of artists on them from, Eminem, Cheryl Cole, Jay-Z, U2 and Take That. This is a different array of music that anybody can listen to also known as popular music. As well as this, the artists used on the covers of theses magazines are identifiable by the general public as their music is so widely known. If there were to only be pictures of heavy metal band, then more people wouldn't know who they were than do as heavy metal is a genre of music that is not listened to or spoken about as much as POP/R&B music. Kerrang! is a magazine that uses bands such as Slip Knot, a band which in my eyes is not seen as a casual, popular, well known band due to the genre of music that they cover. However my picture is more calm and collective than that of Kerrang! This means that the social group that my magazine is trying to reach out to and represent is that of the popular music fans that covers genres such as R&B and POP.

To put in perspective how my magazine reaches out to to my target audience and social group, I will compare my magazine front cover to that of a VIBE front cover as this is the closest magazine that focus on my social group. The first notable thing about the two is that both of the models are male. Not only this, but the pictures are of a casual, friendly nature. As well as this, both of the pictures are medium close ups. This is a recurring theme with magazines and seeing a full body, or long shot' on a cover is not often seen. The gaze at the camera from the model on the left suggests he is used to the fame as he is smiling. The smile also connects with the reader as they would feel a positive persona coming from the man. The pose on my model is very straight on and looking straight down the lens of the camera. This is to show how the model/artist is new to the music industry and is nervous about what is going to come to him in the future. The innocent looks in the artists eyes also suggest a calm collective atmosphere associated with the genre of music. The clutching of the guitar also suggests how he writes his own songs. This would reach out to my social group as there would be people that are interested in songwriting and would maybe want to take some hints in how to do this from the artist in the picture on the right. As well as this, the clothing of the two models is fairly casual. The model in my design is simply wearing a long coat and white top. I did this to show that he is not someone that has unlimited sums of money, but to show that he is the same as everybody else and that the reader can relate to him by following in his footsteps.

Evaluation Question 1

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

My media product is mainly focused on VIBE and Q magazine front covers. The magazine that I have created follows the conventions of a magazine that has already been published in many ways. For most of the part of my magazine, I have stuck to the conventions of a typical magazine rater than challenge them in order to achieve the best possible results of my magazine fitting in to the music industry. The main cover image is a close up of a males face. I chose to take a close up picture for my front cover as many other magazines share similar shots to the one I have taken such as this, this, this, & this. I will now analyse how specific parts of my music magazine relate to appropriate conventions of other products in the market today. Below is my magazine cover next to one of VIBE magazine. I have put them together in order to show and explain how I have used similar conventions to produce my front cover.

1. This shows how I have made use of the top of the page by putting extra information. The VIBE magazine cover shows artists names however I wanted to include extra information to as what else may be within the magazine. I did not however completely ignore the idea of just adding a list of names on my cover - which is what most magazines seem to do - and have instead added the names at the bottom of the page. The reason I have done this was to mirror the top half of my magazine with the black bar and white text over. This is something that many magazines do when designing their covers. Examples of the mirroring of text and coloured 'bars' are shown here.

2. This was an idea which I wanted to use from VIBE magazine. By adding a barcode and a phone scanner adds extra authenticity to the magazine as every single magazine that is sold MUST have a barcode somewhere so that it can be scanned and purchased. As well as the barcode, I included the price, issue number and date of the edition of the magazine. This is something you would see on most magazines, not just the music ones, and shows how I am again, sticking to the conventions of a magazine. The 'sound.com' part of the section was an idea that I used from VIBE's magazine. I wanted to do this to show that the style was unique to my magazine.

3. Here you can see that I have highlighted the cover lines of both magazines. These are essential on any magazine so as the reader is able to see what is inside. The cover lines are the words that will sell the magazine to the customer as these are the things that are seen when on the shelf. If the cover lines do not look appealing then the target audience would not want to pick up the magazine, let alone buy it! I also included a '+' sign. This is a convention that many magazines use as a substitute for 'and' or '&'. Here are some examples of magazines that have used the '+' sign. VIBE magazine and Q

4. The use of the word EXCLUSIVE is another convention that I have followed creating my magazine. Nearly EVERY magazine in the media industry today has the word exclusive on the front cover of the magazine. It is done to try and tell the reader that they are getting something that only you can see if you were to buy that magazine. As well as this, the word exclusive may make the customer feel 'special' as they feel that they would be the first to read about their idols' life before anyone else.

Title

The title of my magazine was one of the hardest things to decide on. As I have stated in a previous blog, I initially thought of FIVE different names that could take the main name of my magazine. These were, Sound, Static, Defused, Deluge and Inside. As you can see, all of these names are single words. I chose to use a single and short word for my title as all other major music magazines have simple names e.g. VIBE, Q, MOJO, KERRANG!, UNCUT & even NME which has been shortened from 'New Musical Express'. The final title, SOUND, which was voted the best title by classmates, is an appropriate title in many ways for my music magazine. The word sound can be interpreted in two different ways. The obvious connotation is that it means; 'to make a sound and that music makes sound' or if looked in to deeply enough, it could mean; 'that is a sound magazine' as in 'cool'. The title of my magazine is also monosyllabic and I felt that this would be appropriate as it would be easier to see, remember and stand out more if it were to be placed on a shelf for purchase. I also feel that this is a sophisticated title of a quality magazine - similar to that of VIBE magazine - instead of an excitable KERRANG! which is even written in a smashed like font.

Font and Style

The font of my magazine title is called Futura. I wanted a font that was simple and easy to read and not too comic - like KERRANG!'s smashed font - so as to convey to the reader that the magazine I have produced is of great quality. As you can see, the vast majority of the fonts used on magazine covers today are easy to read and if seen any where else, you would be able to identify that font with the magazine it came from. As well as this, most music magazines use a SANS SERIF font. This is another convention is chose to follow as I felt a font with a serif appeared more like a fashion magazine and did not fit the picture or the type of magazine I was producing. The simple dark red colour of the font us a colour I chose as it was one of the only colours that looked appropriate against a black and white image. In a previous blog I showed that I did look at other colours to use for the title. Some colours were too bright and could not be read properly against the white background, another convention of most magazines. As well as this, the fonts and colours I originally researched were for my first magazine creation with the red. After I decided to change this, I simply took the picked the colour out of the guitar that my model was holding and coloured the text in that colour.

Main Cover

The main cover of my magazine follows the conventions of various different magazines. As already stated, the picture is of a medium close up of a male model. The model was positioned directly in front of the camera and told to look directly down the camera lens. The most notable thing is the picture. As in nearly every magazine that is sold, the picture is placed in FRONT of the main title of the magazine. This is because the publisher of a magazine would expect their audience to know what their magazine looks like - possibly even without the title -as it would have a unified house style that would be used in almost every edition that the recurring readers would identify.

As well as the picture being in front of the title, my magazine also has similar cover lines to others. The main cover line has been placed over the picture and it is obvious which is the main focus story within the magazine as it is written in a larger font on the front cover. The 'Nick Woods' is the biggest text found on the front cover. If I had have used the same size font for all of the cover lines on the front cover, it would not be immediately visible which story is the one has the most written about within the magazine. The front cover is described in more detail above.

Contents

As you can see from the two contents pages above, they are fairly similar. The fact that they both say contents -yes in their own ways- is the first thing to note. I did not want to make my magazine exactly like others so I used a technique that I stumbled across on the Internet in order to show my contents. Probably the most notable thing with the two pages is how they both contain large pictures in the top right hand corner. It is worth noting that the majority of music magazines do this. they do this in order to show what the main cover story is and where you can find it without having to scroll through the text on the left hand side. The other similarity between the two is that I have included an explanation after ever page reference. This is something that magazines do so as to inform the reader of what the titled article means. Something which I have included which challenged this magazine for a convention, was by including some information which would encourage the reader to purchase the next edition of the magazine. In this case, I have told the reader of an upcoming story they may be interested in and also the chance to win a years subscription to my magazine. Many other magazines use competitions in order to get the people to buy the magazine, but they are usually advertised on the front of the cover or simply on the brands web page should they have one. One last thing that I have included in my magazine that many others do, is the 'Regulars'. In the contents page on the right you can see that they have included an 'Every Month'. Most magazines use this convention to stick to their unified house style. It may be a quiz or a story that is updated every edition, but most magazines, not just music, have this sort of section. The last thing that I have included at this stage on my contents page is that extra piece of authenticity. It is just a summary of who did what in the magazine.

Double Page Spread

As stated when constructing my double page spread, it is similar to many withing the music magazine industry. This is because of the way it has been divided in to the six different columns. Without columns, the magazine would look more like a book and therefor less appealing to the target audience. As well as this, the way I have layed out the interview with the different colours for the asking and answering of the questions is a convention that I have used from other magazines. It is done so as to differentiate between the two speakers in the interview.