Evaluation

Media evaluation

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Final Front Cover , Contents and Article

Photoshoots - Planning

For my magazine I have decided to feature a female solo artist. I have based my idea around artists such as Pixie Lott and Selena Gomez, after carrying out research I have found that both these artists often appear on the fron cover of many of the popular teen magazines therefore they appeal to the audience I am targetting.

My model Jessica, will be wearing fashionable clothes that link and reflect her type and genre of music. Her outfit will be pretty yet not too girly, possibly denim shorts and a coral top. I will not use any props as I feel this may take the attention away from Jessica.

Moodboard

This is my mood board and the images and texts on this represent the house style I want my magazine to have. The fonts are soft and fun and they appeal to a younger female audience. The images that are on the mood board reflect those of a similar style to which I would like to appear on the front cover and in my feature article. 

Feedback 9.2.11

Well done Gabbie, you are making good progress here. You need to ensure that you book the studio for your photo shoots and plan what you'll need in terms of costumes and props and give the model clear instructions on when to arrive etc. Please ensure all the planning is complete this week so that you can stick to the calendar you have suggested. After half term you should be working on each page.

Mrs A

Calender

To organise my time I have created  a calender so that I know when things need to be done by and when my own deadlines are.

7th - 11th February : Finish planning (including photoshoots, costumes, models)
8th - 15th February : Draft article and draw up page mock ups
17th - 18th February : Photoshoots

Magazine name

I have decided to call my magazine "WOW!" as I feel it will attract the girls in my target audience as it is very eye catching and quite young and appealing.

Equipment

The equipment/technologies that I will be using to complete my magazine are :
InDesign
PhotoShop
Camera

Most of my pictures will be taken in the photostudio at college, as there is professional lighting and tripods to use there.

Reader profile

The readers of my magazine will be a young teenage girls aged between 11-14. She will be the girl within her peer group that will know the latest news on her favourite bands and artists and she will filter this information through to her friends. Her friends look to her for music and fashion advice, as they know she is clued up on both topics.

She will receive weekly pocket money from her parents and this determines how much she spends on clothes, magazines and music. She will not only read the magazine for the latest music and fashion gossip but she will also use the internet to check out new songs and listen to her favourites.

She will be a typical girly girl who loves bright colours and her favourite genre of music is pop, however she also likes dance music and some RnB. She enjoys school and loves reading my magazine with her friends at lunch and break times.

Annotated feature article

Annotated contents page

Annotated front page

Questionnaire feedback

After carrying out my questionnaire I have discovered that most young girls receive weekly pocket money but don't wish to spend this on expensive magazines, therefore I am going to price my magazine at below £2 as many of the girls I asked the questions to said that they don't want to spend anymore than £2 on a magazine. Lots of them also prefer to read articles, I found this surprising as I thought many of them would prefer to look at the pictures rather than read magazines. The final question on my questionnaire was asking about if the young girls would prefer a music magazine or a fashion magazine or a mixed magazine. The most common reply was a mixed magazine, this means that my feature article can contain questions on music and fashion to the cover star.

Contents scans

This is a design for my contents page, it is just a template but I will follow this type of structure in my final piece.

Analysis of band images

I feel that this image reflects the type of band image I want to create for my magazine. I know that Selena Gomez is popular with the age group of my target audience. On this image she is wearing soft purple colours (normally associated with girls), which reflects the type of audience she wants to appeal to. The fonts used on the album cover are not harsh or bold, they are quite floaty and girly. 








This album cover is the complete opposite to the previous one. The font is much harsher and more definite, suggesting the artist may be trying to appeal to a more male audience. On this front cover the artist has landmarks from major cities around the world suggesting he is going to take them over, showing his masculinity.

dada

Using media theory to discuss target audience

My target audience is young teenage girls aged between 11 and 14. The magazine will feature a mixture of music and fashion as I think this age group will find this more appealing. Although the magazine is female orientated I do not feel this would affect sales figures as there are many male magazines that revolve around more sporting genres. The socio economic status of my audience depends on the earnings of their parents as these may be either the provider of the pocket money for the magazine or the person who buys the magazine for their child. I feel that the race of the reader will not affect what goes into the magazine and the features. 

Analysis of journalistic style and structure of an article

 I have chosen to analyse the journalistic style and structure of this article, from ‘Sugar’ magazine. It is an interview with Glee star Lea Michelle.

The article uses soft blue colours as its target audience is teenage girls, so harsh colours would go against this, the style of font also reflects this. As the colours are simple the large image of Lea stands out against the white background. The questions that are asked in this article are asked in a style in which a typical Glee fan would ask, for example, “What’s been your favourite song so far?” As in many articles, simple questions help the reader empathise and associate themselves to the star. This helps the reader, in this case young girls, understand what the star goes through. The questions and answers are in different colours (this happens in most magazine articles), this helps the reader distinguish which is which. Each answer to every question has its own individual paragraph. The article features images from the television show as well as larger images from the featured star. The black font stands out against the white background yet the pale blue matches to the blue on the dress of Lea, this coordinates the article and keeps the separate pages of the article connected together. This article does a very good job of attracting its target audience as it is soft and has an appealing topic to young girls.

Target Audience

The target audience for my magzine is young teenage girls, between the ages of 11 and 14. My magazine will feature articles mainly about pop music, as I feel this genre appeals more to my target age group. The magazine will be brightly coloured and have large fonts and texts to make it easier for the younger audience to read.
Below is my audience questionaire:

1) How old are you ?  

8                      9                      10                    11                    12                    13

2) Do you receive weekly pocket money ?

Yes                   No

3) How much pocket money do you receive ?

£1-£2               £2-£3               £3-£4               £4-£5   £5 or above

4) Do you spend your pocket money on magazines ?

Yes                   No

5) Do magazines with bright colours and large fonts attract you more ?

Yes                   No

6) What magazines (if any) do you read at the moment ?

______________________

7) What do you like most about the magazine you read ?

The people in it                       the free gifts               the articles

8) What is your favourite type of music ?

Pop                  Dance              RnB

9) Who is your favourite singer/ band ?

______________________

10) Would you prefer to read a magazine all about music or a magazine all about fashion or a magazine with a mix of music and fashion ?

Music              Fashion                        Music and Fashion

Magazine Institutions

The institution that I would like to use to distribute my music magazine is IPC. After carrying out research about different distributors I decided on this company as I feel they relate to the type of magazine that I wish to publish. They publish lots of popular magazines from a variety of genres, including weekly and monthly magazines for both males and females. Although they only publish one music magazine (NME) I feel there is a gap in their market for a magazine like the one I want to make. All of the magazines they publish are priced between £4.80 - SuperYacht World and 49p - TV Easy, this shows that they publish for all types of people. 
I chose against the institution EMAP as I feel they have very little variety in the publications that they produce. 

Analysis of download top 40

After analysing the UK top 40, which consists of bought and downloaded tracks I can see that their is a variety of music genres throughout the top 40. However, there are three main music genres that dominate the chart, these are singles from the pop, dance and urban music genres. As I am creating a pop magazine, the top 40 shows a that there is a clear interest in this genre of music.

Magazine Circulation Figures

After researching music magazine circulation I have found that many magazine circulation figures have decreased, and only a few have increased. You can see the evidence of this in the table below :

As my magazine is going to be a teenage magazine, I have researched the sales of these types of magazines. The 5 teenage magazines that I have researched are: Bliss, Mizz, Shout, Sugar and Top of the Pops. The sales figues for these magazines taken from January to June 2009

From these figures you can see that although all of the magazine sales figures have decreased 'Top of the Pops' has had the smallest decrease showing that there is still a demand for a teen music magazine - this shows that there is a gap in the market for my magazine and that many teens will find it appealing.

Unique Selling Point

I have decided to create a magazine for young girls (11-14 year olds). I will make my magazine stand out form other magazines for this age group by adding elements of fashion and 'gossip'. I will use bright eye catching colours and large fonts to make it easy for a younger audience to read. My magazine is going to be a weekly glossy yet for a younger audience, it will be priced at under a pound, as I feel this will draw in the target audience more and attract them to reading the magazine, as many of them may recieve pocket money from parents and may not be able/ want to spend all of this on an expensive magazine. The tone of the magazine will be informal as this will help the reader connect. If I use these techniques this will help me create a 'house style' and make it more appealing to the reader.

Feedback 30.1.11

Gabbie, you have made a good start here. Please ensure you upload the sketched contents page with the prelim task. You need to work on this blog from home and during free periods to keep up with the tight deadlines. You should have your research complete by thursday's lesson in order to start planning and then allow maximum time on production. See me if you need further advice.

Mrs A

Preliminary Task - Front Cover

Preliminary Task Analysis

I am somewhat happy with my preliminary magazine cover, yet I feel there are a few changes I could make to improve the way it looks.

The font and background on the front cover are quite simple and are not very effective. When I start the main task, I will make sure that the font and colour reflect the target audience and the genre of music. I have only used two different fonts and I think this makes the front cover look boring.

I think the title of the magazine, ‘Corridor’, is quite individual and recognizable for the reader. My magazine does not have a slogan, these normally make the magazine stand out from rival magazine companies. The cover star image is conventional of magazine covers as it is a medium shot (used in many magazine covers). The leading caption, which is normally about the cover star, is not very dominant on the page as it is the same font and size as the other captions on the page. The front cover of my magazine does not have any strap lines, I feel if my magazine did it would finish the page of and act as a border. 

To create my magazine cover I used Adobe InDesign. I learnt how to make text boxes and create filled colour boxes for my background. I also used Photoshop and used the pen tool to cut out an image and delete it from its background. With the skills I have learnt using both these programs I feel it will help me achieve an eye catching and professional looking front cover for my main task.  

Conventions of the magazine genre

All magazines, whether music, fashion or lifestyle, all follow the same rules, they can either be monthly 'glossies' or cheaper weekly magazines. They have an image, colour scheme and name that all fit the content and the target audience. Most magazines use direct adress (when the person on the cover looks straight out of the magazine) not many magazines use indirect address as it is less conventional. Most writing in magazines is friendly and informal. Magazines normally include celebrities or starts that are admired and aspirational, the main aim of this is to sell the magazine.
The main advertisement of the magazine is the front cover, because this represents the whole of the magazine, they should be bright, interesting and eye catching, the colours used should reflect the genre of music and the target audience. Normally on magazine front covers a varitey of fonts are used to make the cover aesthetically interesting. 

Most magazines have a title and and a slogan, these create a brand image which will make the magazine instantly recognisable for the audience. There is normally one main cover star either in a close up or medium shot. The leading caption dominates the page and usually links to the article about the cover star.

Contents pages should be bright and colourful to entice the reader, on these pages image dominates text so images are used with page numbers to direct the reader. 

Feature articles in magazines are normally a double page spread (if not more). They include headlines and subheadings to explain the story, many of these are usually witty and pun based on the star. Most artists will not appear in a magazine unless they have something to sell, be it a single, album or tour. There is normally one large image with several others spread out across the pages, these are normally taken in different locations. Some music magazines use slang and swear words as these may be relevant to the music genre and may appeal to the target audience. Many articles use text grabs (quotes from the article that are made bigger to break up the columns) these are usually controversial, funny or rude. 

The magazines cover price doesnt pay for the magazine to be published, the majority of the money that make the make the magazine possible comes from advertising revenue. Therefore the magazine has to appeal to its audience and sell well to make profit, the magazine can then charge for advertising space and encourage companies to advertise within the magazine.

Initial Ideas

 My initial ideas are either a young teenage girl pop music magazine (similar to TOTP/Smash Hits). The target audience for this magazine will be between the age of 12-15. Or an indie music magazine, featuring an interview with an "up and coming band", the target audience for this magazine would be mixed sex and between ages of 16 and 25. Both of the magazines will feature a cover page, a contents page, and a double page spread featuring the cover star.