Evaluation: Q3

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

Referring back to my case study of a publishing company, I planned and researched and considered Condé Nast Publication as my publisher and distributor for my music magazine. Condé Nast is popular US publisher which publishes a range of magazines which main subjects are travel, food, home, culture, and other interests, with fashion the larger portion of the company's focus. There is different reason why I chose this publishing company, one of the reasons is that Condé Nast don’t publish music magazines, they normally publish lifestyle magazines. So my magazine will be something new that they can consider trying and maybe becoming successful in the future and start publishing more music magazines. Condé Nast publishes high tech fashion magazines such as Vanity Fair and Vogue, which are very popular with fashion lovers and classy/wealthy people. Even though my magazines main focus is music, fashion, but mainly urban fashion is also one of the main focuses in R&B, Hip Hop and Rap music, which is suitable for Condé Nast. Magazines that Condé Nast publishes target wealthy audience, but my magazine targets a younger audience. Therefore by including my magazine it would expand the company.

By Condé Nast publishing and distributing my magazine, there company would benefit financially because as you know they don’t really publish magazines like mine and also don’t target an audience that my magazine targets. There profits will increase because there isn’t any competition within the company. They would also gain popularity from a younger audience and maybe an older audience, because my magazine is new to their company. This would benefit to Condé Nast company finically because advertisement would increase my magazine will target a larger and wider audience other than the magazines that Condé Nast publishes. This would increase profit which will make the company popular and easy to recognise to audiences, so that they can associate it with my magazine.

I would distribute my magazine in music shops like HMV and retail shops like WHSmith, but also in news agents. I chose the music shop like HMW because it is very popular to people all ages and they mainly focus on things that’s got to do with music, e.g. CDs and magazines.  It is one of the biggest music stores in UK. As it is popular to music lovers it makes sense to distribute my magazine in their stores. Distributing my magazine in retail stores such as WHSmith, my magazine will be easy to access and purchase because WHSmith is located all over the country, also in news agents and corner shops around schools and colleges, because these shops are popular with young teenagers.  I would also distribute my magazine in youth centres because since my target audience is young teenagers, I could sell my magazine in a location where they are mostly at, which will attract their attention, because my magazine is sold within their environment.

Evaluation: Q2

2.How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The genre of my music magazine is R&B, Hip Hop and Rap, for both male and females. The images I have in my magazine represents the genre of music my magazine is about. My model on my front cover, clearly represent the style fashion that a lot of R&B females where as causal wear. R&B, Hip Hop and Rap attracts a lot of teenagers and young adults, because of the style of music they do. Also the images of artistes that are associated with these types of genres are modern, attractive and influencing to their listeners.

The reason I chose this girl on my front cover to be my model because for my main cover line, I talk about an Asian singer and I happened to have an Asian friend that was attractive. My model is wearing a dark long cardigan, which was navy blue, with a plain white vest top, which showed some of her cleavage. On her bottom half she wore acid wash jeans, which were different shades of blue and black Dr Marten boots as her footwear. My model looks has a ‘Girl Next Door’ look, because every thing she is wearing and including her hair is casual. I chose this look because female artist such as Rihanna and Beyoncé actually wear this type of wear on a casual day out, which isn’t too dressed up or dressed down. I made my model show some cleavage because it attracts some of the male attention, without needing to wear a short dress to look sexy. Also the clothes that she is wearing s fashionable and trendy to the young generations, which shows that they can relate to female artist of the 20^th century.  I chose my artist to do that pose because it’s very simple and laid back. It shows that the model, who is meant to be a music artist, is friendly and approachable. I named my model Yasmin Sewell because Yasmin was my models actual name and Sewell is the surname from another friend. I chose these names because they were simple and modern and also sounded realistic and no one else has that name.

I chose a different model for my image on my contents page because I talk about other artist other than the main artist Yasmin Sewell. My model on my contents page is wearing a leather jacket with studs on the shoulder, with a striped black and grey vest top. This look is edgy and different, instead of a sexy look; my model has more of a rock look, which represents what kind of music my model is aiming to show.  Her hair is slicked up with a little fringe hanging from one side of her head. This trend is very popular with teenage girls, because it is basic and also stylish. She’s wearing a silver and gold chain, which completes the look.

My model done this pose because, people would expect a rock artist to look antisocial, angry and no happy emotions. But I wanted my model to smile to show that even though she is a rock artist, her personality is different from what people stereotype it to be. Her name Cherhys Whyte is actually the models name, so I decided to stick with it.



The model on my double page spread is the same girl on my front cover. I had to talk about the same girl that I talked about on my double page spread, because she was the main cover line story. Instead I gave her a new look, something different from what she looked like on my front cover. For the main image on my double page spread she is wearing a black and white jumper and plain navy jeans. The clothes she is wearing is simple and also very casual like in my front cover. Instead of her hair down, she has her hair slicked up neatly into a big bun, with make up on her face. I made my model go for this kind of look because I wanted something different than what was on my front cover.  This look is casual and very simple, which a lot of teenage girls dress like. Also quite a few celebrities such as Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez do this hair style, because it is very simple and stylish at the same time.

The pose that my model is doing is very simple and straight forward. I didn’t want my model to pose in this photo because I preferred it to look simple, so the other images of my model, which is at the top of my double page spread is more appealing and interesting. Her pose shows that she can be a serious girl and not just your ‘Girl Next Door’ type of girl.

The other images on my double page spread; my model is doing a number of different posses. In these photos she is wearing the same clothing like seen on the image on my front cover. The different posse that she is doing shows the different personalities that she has. It shows that she can be sexy, fun, happy and seductive. I used these conventions from the Vibe magazine double page spread, but with different posses that I think suits my model better.

Evaluation: Q1

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

At the beginning of my project, I had to find and analyze music magazines and see how they are shown and what conventions they used to get the attention of their target audience. My magazine uses many forms of conventions of a real music magazine. I used conventions in my magazine to follow a real music magazine, to make my magazine look more realistic and professional. An example of a convention that I used, that is shown in most music magazine, was a large masthead, which is shown at the top of the magazine. I followed this convention because I wanted my magazine to follow the same convention as a real music magazine.  Also the masthead is one of the main conventions on a music magazine, because it’s meant to stand out from the cover of the magazine, so the target audience knows that it is the name of the magazine. I downloaded a font from dafont.com, so my font stands out from my magazine front cover. I had done this because I wanted my magazine to automatically catch my target audience’s attention, as it is large masthead, it should surely stand out from my front cover. To adapt my masthead and slightly change the convention, I continued part of the name of my magazine underneath the first word, but in a smaller font size so my masthead doesn’t take up most of the space on my front cover. I done this because I wanted my masthead to be a little different from the convention I followed in a music magazine I chose. I used a san serif font, I used it because it a more modern type of font, so it makes my magazine look more modern and stylish, which is suitable for my target audience. I used another convention which is popular in most music magazine, which was putting my masthead behind my model. I done this because I wanted the picture of the model to stand out more from the masthead, making it look more professional and appealing.  I also used another convention from the music magazine I chose, which was a skyline, which is located above the masthead. I chose to use this convention because a lot of music magazine uses this type of convention, which tells my target audience what to look forward inside my magazine.

Also, by following the conventions of a real music magazine, I included a barcode and dateline. In most music magazine, the dateline is usually shown underneath the barcode, but instead I placed in within my masthead.  I did this instead because I wanted my masthead to be remembered and different from others.



 

I had to use cover lines, which was another convention that is used in real music magazines.  The cover lines gives my target audience an idea of what is going be inside my magazine. They attract my target audience because they are short, bold and in color, which is eye catching. I used the same font for all my cover lines. My main cover line and image, tells my target audience that it is the main selling point of my magazine, therefore it had to be different and stand out from the others. Also in most music magazines the cover lines are arranged vertically, either on the left or the right. I placed my cover lines both on the left and the right, because I wanted to space out the text and try not leaving a lot of blank spaces. Also I didn’t want the cover lines to take up most of the attention from the images.

A popular convention that is used in a real music magazine is a medium close image, which is the main image of the front cover. On my magazine instead of using a medium close up image I used a medium long shot, which shows my models whole body and pose. It makes the image more interesting and different compared to other music magazine. Also the pose that my model is doing, draws the attention of my target audience more, because it is different.

Another convention that I used from a real music magazine is the use of popular celebrities name above the masthead. I also placed a variety of R&B, Hip Hop and Rap artist above my masthead.  This shows that my magazine talks a variety of music artist from different genres of music, which keeps my target audience interested in my magazine.

For my contents page, I also followed the conventions that are used in a real music magazine, but I also slighted developed these idea’s into my own. I added an image which is clearly always used in a real music magazine contents page. This demonstrates what will be written in my magazine. Instead I added an image of another model to show what else will be seen in my magazine, not just my model which is shown on my magazine front cover, this shows that I have more to talk about in my magazine instead of one main topic.

On my contents page I included categories, this convention is another popular one, which most music magazines use to organize their information, so everything is not all over the place.  To develop my idea even more I placed the categories on both sides of my contents page and included an image behind one of the categories, which related to the image.

For my double page spread, I followed the same conventions of a real music magazine and developed it into my own style. I chose to use a simple colour scheme, different from my front cover and contents page. It shows a more up-to-date look and looks realistic. I arranged my information into two columns and a stand first, but I didn’t use any headings, because I followed the conventions from the double page spread magazine example. I decided not to add another column because I didn’t want my double page spread to be taken up most by text. I did this because I didn’t want my target audience to be put off from reading the article because of the amount of text.

Contents Page Anaylsis



#1 - Vibe

 

 How many photographs are on the page? - There is only one main image on the contents page, which takes up nearly the whole page.

How is the page structured? - The page is structured with the text on one side of the page and the photograph on the other side of the page. The contents page name is in the right hand corner of the page which doesn’t take up much room.

What is the relationship between picture and the text? – The picture takes up 80% of the page and the text takes up 20% of the page.

How are the articles divided or organised? – The articles organised in one straight column and are divided into 3 sub categories.

How many pages does the magazine have? – The magazine highest page shown on the contents page is 102.

#2 - Billboard

How many photographs are on the page? – There are four different images, but one of them is the main one, because it is bigger than the rest.

How is the page structured? – The page is structured into three separate sections. With the images and text structured all over the page.

What is the relationship between picture and the text? – The writing takes up most of the contents page. The text take up 80% of the pages and the images take up the rest of the 40%.

How are the articles divided or organised? – The articles are divided into several columns and some are under sub-categories

How many pages does the magazine have? – The magazine highest page shown on the contents page is 53.

 #4 - Flavour

How many photographs are on the page? – There are three different images and one image is much bigger than the rest, showing that it is the main image.

How is the page structured? – The page is structured with the text layered on the right hand side and the images layered on the left hand side, with some text underneath the images.

What is the relationship between picture and the text? – The writing and images take up both 50% of the page.

How are the articles divided or organised? – The articles are divided into one large column.

How many pages does the magazine have? – The magazine highest page shown on the contents page is 57.

#4 - The Source

  How many photographs are on the page? – There is one main image on the page, which takes up the whole page.

How is the page structured? – The page is structured with the text placed on one side of the page, on top of the main picture, which covers the whole of the contents page.

What is the relationship between picture and the text? – The picture takes up 80% of the page and the text takes up 20% of the page.

How are the articles divided or organised? – The articles are divided in one column, which goes straight down the page.

How many pages does the magazine have? – The highest page number in the magazine is 184.

Music Magazine Double Page Spread

Music Magazine Contents Page

Music Magazine Front Cover