My music magazine front cover, contents and double page spread all inhibit common conventions of a media product, however in order to engage interest and make the magazine my own it does contain a few elements with are unconventional for a contemporary music magazine.
Firstly, my front cover has all of the significant elements of a contemporary, mainstream music magazine. It contains pull quotes, images, sub-headings, price, date, images and the mast head of the magazine.
The front cover also has a conventional colour scheme of consisting of 3 main colours in order to give it a sense of order as appose to looking messy and unprofessional. The magazine therefore has a theme which can easily be distinguished against other magazines.
However unconventional elements of the magazine front cover is firstly; the model. The model is singing into a hairbrush as appose to being a celebrity. This therefore gives the magazine friendliness and allows the audience to establish a relationship with the model and recognise the ideoligies of the magazine because the model promotes the reader profile as she appears fun-loving, care-free and music-loving which is ideally who the music magazine is aimed at.
The contents page is simple so that it is easy to understand because the purpose of a contents page is to allow people to find key features in the magazine quickly. Therefore if the contents page was poorly structured and confusing then it would not be suitable for purpose. To ensure it is suitable for purpose I have included images so that people have a visual indicator of features in the magazine accompanied by the page number. This allows the audience to find what they are looking for straight away. The contents page also follows the colour scheme adopted by the front cover. This ensures continuity throughout the magazine so that the audience feels comfortable in that there is a sense of familiarity throughout.
The double page spread also follows the adopted colour scheme which emphasises the continuity of the magazine further. The double page spread also features the same model as the front cover so the audience have already established a relationship with the model. The double page spread consists largely of images which follows a conventional double page spread model, however the layout is different giving it authenticity.
How does your media product represent social groups?
Firstly, the model on the magazine is female which immediate suggests that the magazine is for a female audience. The model is also wearing pink which also carries connotations of feminity. The model is smiling and singing into a hairbrush which suggests that the magazine's idelogies are fun loving and care free because the model does not represent anything serious or negative. This therefore appeals to a younger audience who fit the reader profile of fun loving, care free and interested in music. The use of the prop; hairbrush suggests that the model is not a singer, but has interest in music. Therefore the audience should be able to familiarise themselves with the model and seek interest in the contents of the magazine because it shall therefore appeal to them. Lastly, the model is making eye contact with the reader which helps the reader to establish a relationship with the reader therefore making the magazine front cover more appealing.
The connotations of 'music mania' insinuate that the magazine is packed full of important information about music. This therefore appeals to music fans.
The double page spread and information on the cover also insinuate that the audience is for devoted music fans who enjoy mainstream music and want a greater depth of knowledge than the average listener. This therefore attracts an appropriate audience for the contents of the magazine.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A similar media institution to the distributor of the top of the pops magazine would be ideal for my music magazine because 'Music Mania' targets a similar audience so will therefore benefit from being distributed by a company which is aware of the target audience and already have thorough experience in targeting the appropriate reader. The company are also known for their successes in distributing the 'top of the pop's' magainze so successfully and therefore they are likely to have a similar success rate in promoting 'Music Mania' because both magazines have similar ideologies and reader profiles.
Top of the Pop's magazine has similar idealogies and conventions to the music magazine I constructed which therefore makes the distributor an apporpriate person to distribute Music Mania.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
In order to establish what genre of music magazine that we are going to create we created a reader profile. This included all the relevant informationt that would enable us to be aware of important aspects that we may feel should be taken into account when creating the front cover and contents page. Therefore the task was very helpful in establishing the target audience and therefore raising awareness of the genre. This is my reader profile:
Reader Profile:
Gender: Female
Age Range: 14-21
Favourite TV programmes: X Factor, Pop Idol, Britains Got Talent, Music Channels, Soaps, celebrity related programmes.
Music Tastes: R&B, pop, dance etc.
Favourite Albums: Chilled R&B, R&B classics, Now that’s what I call music.
Favourite place to purchase music: Itunes, HMV.
How music is listened to: Radio, Ipod, Mp3, Computer, Music Videos on TV.
Favourite items related to music: Headphones, Ipod, CD’s.
Clothes/Fashion: Republic, River Island, New Look, H&M, Top Shop, Zara and Primark.
When is music listened to: Travelling, privately and publicy at social events.
Food and drink: popular foods like sweets and chocolate, snacks, maybe healthy snacks.
Other hobbies: Keeping active, Meeting new people, Meeting with friends.
Hates: Boredom, Hypocritical people and liars.
Loves: Music, relaxing, meeting friends.
Transport: Walking, buses, trains, cars.
Values and Beliefs: Treat others as you would like be treated yourself. Have you own moral beliefs and stick with them – don’t just follow the crowd. Live each day as though it’s a gift and appreciate what you have got, have fun and enjoy what you are doing.
Personality: Laid back, fun-loving, sociable, care free, fairly relaxed, confident. Etc.
The reader profile enabled me to establish an appropriate audience for the music magazine and therefore create realistic ideologies which would engage the audience.
How did you attract/address your audience?
The main feature of my magazine to attract the audience is the model. The long shot of the model enables her to dominate the front cover and therefore immediately become the primary element of the cover which engages the audience. The model is making eye contact with the audience which addresses them personally and makes them feel involved with the magazine which is engaging. The model is also smiling and singing into a hairbrush which suggests to the audience that she is just a 'normal' woman who they can therefore relate too. This addresses them more personally attracts their attention. The colour scheme also enables them to familarise the magazine with the model because she is wearing the same colours as the colour scheme of the magazine. I also edited the image of the model to fade the back ground out slightly so that it looked professional and to ensure direct attention was primarily on her rather than distracting factors in the background which may not represent the idealogies or conventions of the magazine which would have negative implications on attracting the appropriate audience. Also I ensured the double page spread featured further images of the model which ensured the magazine contained continuity throughout which attracts the audience further because they have already established a relationship with the model from the front cover.
Audience Feedback
To evaluate the magazine I constructed, it was critical that I obtained audience feedback.
One way in which I did this was contact friends over facebook via email. I sent them images and asked them to make a short comment on what they thought was good and what they thought I could improve.
"The colour scheme is good because it is simple and is the same as the models clothes. But the font is small so some of it does not stand out"
Contents Page;
"Having the images is a good idea because you can immediately see what you want to read. But the background is too plain and makes it look a bit empty"
Double Page spread;
"The images of the model are really fun and energetic and attracted my attention straight away, the only thing is that the large font in the middle doesnt look professional"
The comments were really useful in helping me discover what was effective and what could have been improved. I learnt a lot from the audience feedback because i was able to obtain opinions from their point of view which is more accurate than my own because they are the target audience and I am likely to be bias.
