Evaluation of My Music Magazine (Hardcore Magazine)

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

I have looked up on several of different types of magazine as I came across with NME and Kerrang magazine. This type of magazine are known for establishing indie/rock type of music based on its own artists within several other companies linked. NME magazine had inspired me to feature similar elements in order to design my own type of magazine based on the same music genre as I have chosen to establish indie/rock types of music, featuring popular artists that my main target audiences would or not be fond of. As for Kerrang magazine, I was inspired by the use of fonts and images used based on their front cover, contents page and DTP page during my case studies. They both gives off indie/rock feel towards their own set of way as that’s what I intended for my own indie/rock magazine to be like based on its first impressions towards the main target audiences.

Font styles & Mastheads

NME and Kerrang magazine both used bold and Impact font styles for their masthead, positioned at the top left corner of the page as their font size is nice and big as the element would be able to outstand the other elements included onto the magazine, such as the cover lines, captions, images etc. example on a front cover. The only difference between the two magazines is that Kerrang magazine’s font style appears to be more creative as they used an eroded type of font for their masthead and a punctuation used for the word ‘Kerrang!’ as it’s a metaphor for illustrates the excitement of the magazine based on the music genre’ following a black rectangle shape used as the background effect in order to appear more of the music genre, which is indie/rock as the colour black would establish this type of music genre towards their main target audiences. Based on my case studies research, I have decided to use bold Impact font styles for my masthead and other elements included onto my sub-tasks, such as the sub-headings, teasers, captions etc. as this would appear more appropriate to use only use less than 3 of font styles so it would be appropriate for my own target audiences, which is 14 and above years old boys and girls but mainly focusing more on girls side than boys.

House Style (Ethos)

Both of the magazines house style contains similar features and elements based on looking at their front cover, contents page and DTP pages. They both include the same genre of music artists to feature on a magazine issue in order for the fans to be able to purchase the issue’s magazine right away. An example, Kerrang magazine would include Paul McCartney (as they also feature some pop artists on the magazine as well), bringing more elder audiences to the magazine as collecting a wider range of target audiences for the magazines future presence. And as for NME magazine, they would feature indie/rock bands such as Paramore. The teasers of both of the magazine are placed either at left and centre positioned of the magazines as the pull quotes are mainly placed at the bottom centre of the page with bold and capitalized font styles in order to capture the main target audience’s attention. The location of the featured artists is also one of the similar elements for both of the magazines from my case study as I intended to reinforce it by finding an appropriate studio shoot that contains either a black or white background drop, but in the end, I chose to go with the black background drop to feature on my own artists magazine. The layout for my front cover, contents page and DTP must all contain similar and regular features that would also support your chosen images and a cover line in order to dedicate towards the main cover story of your magazine. For example, a contents page needs to include appropriate images and text to engage the main target audiences to purchase the issue’s magazine and that is worth value for money.

For photography, magazines would feature either a medium or close-up shot to add on their front cover magazines and I was inspired and intended to do a medium shot for my feature model – maintaining an eye contact towards the camera in order for the main target audiences to engage and interact with the magazine. I also positioned my model to move a quarter to the left so that I can capture her left side as it appears to appear more appealing than her right hand side of her face. I wanted my model to appear serious by making her not smile at all or give any emotion apart from having a straight face following a gaze towards the camera in a professional set of form.

The colour scheme for NME and Kerrang magazine portray a mixture of red, white and black for their front cover magazine feature as this would give off a first impression that the genre type of music would either be indie or rock and a mixture of the two. As for my own magazine, I have challenged and reinforced the colour scheme of red, black, white and yellow as they are known for being the bold yet effective colours of styles.

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

During my case studies, I have come to establish and explore different types of ethnicities, age groups, social groups and genders to set a target for my own magazine design. For my magazine obtained, I have decided to target amongst teenagers who are in their 14 and above years as it would be representative for my main target audiences intended. My target audiences are both for males and females but targeting more on the female side because for a indie/rock types of music, females tend to not be fond of those types as they’re too busy paying attention over the Pop music industry and whatnot; for example, a pop sensation heartthrob icon, Justin Bieber have over 8 millions fan around the globe so I think it’s time to change things around and let indie/rock music come into the spotlight instead of letting Pop music and other types of overrated genres take over the globe. 

The messages and elements that I've included onto my magazine are things like getting to know a new artist, new updates such as news of related artists and bands, album reviews, tour dates and so on.  As for my images used, I've used one featured model to become the issue’s main subject such as J.F, an indie/rock artist that comeback, overwhelming the fans after many years passed. I mainly told J.F to pose through her emotions, such as looking straight at the camera as emotionless, looking down at the ground to represent how she felt isolated through her past and other ‘smug’ kind of gestures like crossing her arms whilst looking straight at the camera – interacting with the target audiences. Every image used for my magazine illustrates her true personality and identity of my chosen artists in order to portray an honest effect on my magazine in order to captivate my main target audience attention. 

As for my journalism, I’ve used a formal speech but in a friendly tone and professional manner since my target audiences are 14 years and over, I would want them to be entertained in a way that they would understand the whole context of every page of the magazine as it would appear appropriate that way for my target audiences; as just using formal tones would directly bore them. Also, I would be including short term words such as ‘Faves’ as it’s a short term of favourites and used a lot of exclamation marks, as it’s a sign of punctuality because mainly the word indie and rock types of music are hardcore and loud that it makes you want to shout and chant a lot. For the clothing purposes used, I decided to go for a more casual yet chick style for my featured model, including a black plain shirt with a black leather jacket and black fitted jeans alongside red lipstick and an up-do of hairstyle because many indie/rock artists are into black clothing style more than anything else and their fans tend to be influenced and copy their style. I have mainly challenged the stereotypes as into only people who are ‘Emos’ or ‘Goths’ listen to indie or rock music but I have added other unusual artists like Adele, whom is a R&B artist, as she states that ‘anyone can be a fan of indie/rock music; don’t listen to what society has to say about stereotypes.’ Overall, my representation will be left on a mixture of both good and bad note- either giving off a new fresh impression or influencing the target audiences through the artists back story of depression, depending on how they look at it but most likely to interpret it differently compared to the intentional of the magazine itself.

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

My publisher would be IPC Media, as it’s a publisher with more than 60 iconic media brands. It’s said to be the ‘UK’s leading consumer magazine publisher’ as it engages 26% UK adults – almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men. This type of publisher is committed to working in partnership with its consumers, advertisers, business partners and employees in order to produce creativity and service sub-tasks intended. Also, IPC contains 2 divisions; IPC connect, IPC Inspire and IPC Southbank. IPC connect focuses on woman divisions with a range of brands that would be suitable for them; this type of magazine had been read by 9.4 million women as its own audiences is highly valuable and responsive. IPC inspire focuses on men’s division as it includes mostly of music magazines, such as NME, Country Life and The field to the Nuts. As for IPC Southbank, it focuses on women divisions, as its topics consist of fashion, women’s lifestyle and home interest. The publisher’s webpage is stated to reach over 25 million users globally every month, which illustrates that they can partner and collaborate with other different types of music genres around the world.

IPC media publishes other popular brands like Instyle magazines, Look, Marie Claire, Now and Look. Also, I have research the press pack of NME magazine as it’s mainly targeting to indie/rock fans as well so I thought this type of publisher would be appropriate to use and rely on it since it made their current magazines popular and known towards their own fan based intended. As for my magazine, I would include a page or two where to present a clothing style pages of what indie/rock artists wear on stage in order to boost the level of entertainment for my main target audiences and be able to feel contented and influenced by the look of style that they can follow the style shown easily. The differences between the current existing magazines from IPC media compared to my magazine is the features shown as IPC media clearly focuses more on the style and health for women magazines and as for me, I intend to focus and get more women into becoming fond of indie/rock music types and see a new light into them than just listening to overrated songs. Also, the link between my brand of magazine and the organisation of IPC media is that IPC media has gained more female readers, as the statistics shown above and that’s what my brand is mainly targeting for (main target audiences)than males in my sample obtained. I would want to establish a official webpage and a blogger for my magazine, called ‘Hardcore’ in order to gain a wider range of target audiences around the globe and not only in the UK, as it may seem quite bias for the people who wants to purchase the magazine.

Electronically, I would also include a fan page of social networking sites in order to get the latest updates of the recent magazine issue and such so no one would be able to miss out anything or any of their favourite artists to feature on the main cover line as it would be free and easier this way, especially the ones who can’t afford to purchase the magazine so they can subscribe onto our website and see it online. Finally, as stated on my proposal before, I would give free posters of the featured artist included on the front cover as it would also gather a lot of audiences seeing getting a free item would benefit the price of the magazine as a whole.

Question 5. How did you attract/address the audience?

Being able to look briefly at my feedback obtained from my peers, they have concluded that my subtasks, which includes my front cover, contents and DTP page for my magazine appears to be clear as it’s easy to read the context and the layout appears to be professional and effective towards their own opinion obtained. Most of them stated from a focus group that I needed to change the colour scheme for my masthead line because I’ve apparently used different tones of the colour red for my cover line and texts as it looked messy and confused to look at. And also, I needed to edit my chosen images that I have included onto my front cover, contents page and DTP because some of my peers had feed backed that I needed to get rid of the edgy corners of the image once I was intending to cut and crop around the background of the image in order to just get the model image. So since my target audiences are mainly around the same age group as my peers, I’ve taken their comments and made changes and improved onto my subtasks in order to appear even more professional and appealing to them than before. This way, I have carefully edited my chosen images and made it appear attractive and smooth as the edgy looking corners cannot be seen no more as I’ve edited them using ADOBE Photoshop software during my spare time so as a result, it would appeal to my target audiences, since 14 year olds and over tend to be more picky about how an image are being portrayed in any type of magazines as it needs to look perfectly edited. I also uploaded my subtasks onto my blogger and some of the comments states that my colour scheme as in house style appeared to be a good standard however I needed to feature other elements for my initial contents page as I left a huge gap underneath my chosen image as I didn’t complete my overall outlet design yet. Therefore, I have worked hard into completing my final contents page and included other important elements and images in order to create a suitable and appealing contents page for my own magazine genre towards my target audiences. In my opinion, the specific elements that would capture and attract my target audiences would be the chosen masthead title of my magazine, as it entitled ‘Hardcore’ in a bold and big sized font style; which my audiences would be able to read it quickly and become interested at it, since the word Hardcore could define a term that involves extreme topics that could either be into music, sports, movies and so on. Also, since my main feature model looks quite young, maybe around her early 20’s, by looking at her first impression, this would be able to captivate both female and male genders of my audiences but I think more male would purchase the magazine more considering the use of having a female model to feature on my front page obtained. However, some may argue back stating the fact that using a female gender would engage more female readers because they would be able to relate to each other about certain types of topics or situations. 

I would include more female artists to feature on my magazine issues as it would be a representative as they would aspire my target audiences as some of them had shady pasts but have changed into becoming a better person and become into becoming a producer, being a song writer and so on. I intended my target audiences to be fond of indie/rock music and let them know the artists back story in order to be influenced in a positive manner and start respecting the god of indie and rock music instead of being obsessed about overrated artists like Rihanna or Justin Bieber and start becoming a fan of Johnny Marr, rock artist for instance. The sort of language that would captivate my target audiences attention would be using abbreviation, which means using short terms instead of long terms, such as ‘faves’ instead of favourites as this would distinguish and differentiate the age groups of my audiences, as 14 year olds and above tend to be familiar with the use of abbreviation of words. However, I think using slang words like ‘Yo!’, ‘Wassup’ and so on would influence my target audiences in a bad manner as they tend to copy the language and would consequences with it. 

Finally, as for my house style case, the use of black, white, red and yellow determines a mix gender for my target audiences as I have chosen simple yet bold and effective colour schemes that would blend and match well with the likings for both genders; so I didn’t tried to be biased at all. For the font styles used, I mainly focused on choosing clear and appealing types of font styles as I’ve only used 2-3 different types to include onto my masthead, cover lines and texts as it would be simple for me to know only 2-3 font styles rather than having too many inappropriate ones where the target audiences wouldn’t be able to read and understand it properly. Including the layout of my subtasks, I’ve placed my main features and elements carefully where they can be seen effectively as it would be easy and fun sight to look at; for example having 3 images overlapping each other would seem quite acceptable for the age group of my target audiences as they may state that it’s creative to look at.

Question 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have used Indesign software in order to design my own initial and final outlook of my own magazine. At first, I wasn’t familiar with using this type of software because I haven’t heard of it before and so I was not that confident. After having a lesson based on where the tools are and how to properly use Indesign software, I slowly understood the purpose of each tool placed on the left hand side of the screen. I kept on going over my notes and briefly memorised what each tools do, in order for me to create my initial and final design for my own magazine sub-tasks. I wasn't familiar and confident in using ADOBE InDesign as I didn't heard of it before but then after having a tutorial - I wrote down the basics and started to create my actual magazine obtained. I kept on going over my notes and briefly memorised what each tools do, in order for me to create my initial and final design for my own magazine sub-tasks.

 So now, I now know how to add images and being able to re size them by holding down the control button and adjusting the size. Also, I've learnt new skills in InDesign software such as how to add rulers in the corner of the page landscape orientation and how to add a colour background as for my colour scheme obtained on to my contents and DTP page. For Photoshop, I was already familiar with it and I have watched certain tutorial online as it shows me new skills and techniques that I can include upon my overall music magazine. I have used new technologies such as using slideshare, prezi and blogging. These types of technologies are known to be the unique way in presenting as they include different types of features, such as animation text effects, different types of funky font styles, colour schemes etc. It took me a while in order to get used to using slideshare; as I didn't know how to present my media upon this technology. Then I find out I had to create the presentation on a power point and then upload it via slide share. 

As for prezi, it was easy to use as it guides you in what you have to do each step of the way. There are a lot of varieties of theme styles you can use as I have chosen the types who would distinguish my music magazine's target audiences, which are boys and girls who are 14 year olds and over. For blogging, I did it before during my spare time so I have used Windows live movie maker in order to edit my videos and being able to present my media product in an interesting and creative way.

Question 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the procession from it to the full product?

Having to briefly look back upon my preliminary task, I have learnt and improved new skills and techniques when it comes to designing and creating my own magazine using ADOBE Photoshop and Indesign a lot better. Compared to my college magazine outlet, I was a bit unsure and had too many weaknesses as I wasn’t confident and fond of suing Indesgin because I’ve never came across it before and had no idea what types of tools it included so I was working quite behind the class. After having a session on how to use Indesign software properly and knowing the basics of the tools, I slightly gained confidence and just started to create an initial magazine and explored the different types of tools and what their uses are for so when I actually create my magazine – I’d know what each tool would represent and do instead of panicking and having to ask the teacher every now and then, as it would only waste my contingency time and not being able to complete it by the deadline date intended. On my college magazine, I have only added small features of elements, such as the masthead, cover lines, an appropriate image of a student that goes to the college organisation and the prize. My college front cover appeared to be plain and simple but it didn’t look effective or appealing enough to catch my intended target audiences as I look back at my work. I also didn’t like the sound of my chosen masthead line as it reads, ‘LSChronicle’ as it seemed a bit tacky and not professional to use to be known an actual organisation type of brand magazine; it would cause humiliation towards its own intentions overall. 

So then I have come up with more mature and acceptable masthead lines to use on my actually magazine and I came into a conclusion to use Hardcore as my final masthead of my magazine as it links to the music genre of indie/rock type as they are known for having extreme and loud types of songs, which determines the term ‘Hardcore.’ I have also improved in having to edit my chosen images to use on my front cover, contents page and DTP as compared to my college magazine, I did use some effects by adjusting the level of brightness and contrast of the chosen images in order to bring some life and fun towards the target audiences gained. So in order to improve it more for my music magazine, I intended to make my images appear nice, smooth and appealing to my own target audiences to be contented at and give off a professional impression at it. Overall, I became and worked upon Photoshop and Indesign software’s as even though I was familiar with Photoshop, I still need time to get used to it and become eager when designing and adding the feature elements onto my magazine and became more confident in using these two types of software’s. I have also mentioned during my evaluation upon my college magazine that my weaknesses was sorting out the layout of my college magazine and include other relevant features based on the organisation itself as I’ve only mentioned a couple of the cover lines of my college magazine. In comparison to my actual music magazine, I have added more features and cover lines that would attract my target audience attention by letting them know new updates based on a particular artist, any recent comebacks and giving them free items, such as ‘free poster inside’ in order to boost up their enthusiasm towards the magazine and actually gain something valuable and would benefit the prize of the magazine as well. 

However, I have received some harsh comments that I needed to work and improve on because some of my peers had feed backed stating that the colour schemes used for my college contents page appeared biased and inappropriate because I have used a light tone of pink as the background colour scheme onto a college target for both female and male genders, so they stated that it wouldn't attract male readers since pink doesn't fit into their style which is only for girls. And also, the use of journalism wasn't appropriate either because I only added short term texts as I needed to expand a bit more into a sense where my target audiences would be fond of and be entertained as they read the context obtained.