To the examiner,
I hope you like reading through my blog and looking at the work I have produced. Looking back from the start and at my preliminary work, I feel my skills and knowledge have improved drastically and I hope this is shown through my final cover, contents and double page spread. I have put in a lot of effort to the research and planning so I could produce the best possible magazine and I feel my ability to use software and to understand the conventions of magazines has also improved. To make them easier to look through, all my blog posts are labelled, there are links to websites that I have used a lot or found inspiration from and there is also a music player that helps give you an idea of the kind of music related to the magazine I've created. Overall I hope you enjoy my blog, thanks.
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Thursday, 7 April 2011
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Evaluation. Question 5
How did you attract or address your audience?
My audience ranges between older teenagers and young adults; mainly of the student age so I have designed my magazine in a way that will attract them to buy it. I am also looking to attract a female audience. I did this by featuring a woman of a similar age to my audience on the cover who would be considered as someone who would appeal to female audience. This could be due to her pose, her clothing and and facial expression. Although the colours aren't particularly feminine, I think they would be aesthetically pleasing to a female because they coordinate with the photograph and look quite stylized. The cover lines feature slightly more female artists than the average magazine cover, which I again think would appeal to a more female audience despite the music not necessarily targeting a particular genre. Also I have chosen predominantly British artists, with only three non British artists featuring on the cover. This would attract the audience as they I feel they would be more interested in British acts, possibly due to the fact there will be more chance to see them perform live. I think the banner featuring the festival news would address the audience as it targets a certain age group that festivals are very popular with; the young people in my target audience. The fact I have offered a chance to win tickets to a festival would also attract my audience as they would be keen to go to the festival.
The contents is designed for my audience because they would most likely be semi literate in the genre of music and would therefore understand the short brief descriptions and the ways in which they relate to the particular feature. They would also follow the mainly formal language I have used throughout my pages. I feel the pictures would be attractive to them as they are all of young, supposedly successful or upcoming artists who they would aspire to be like as well as being able to relate to because of their age. The fact many of my features gives readers a better insight into bands is also a feature that I feel would attract my audience. For example, the behind the scenes interviews gives the audience the chance to feel closer to their favourite artist. I think by giving the different pages subheadings such as the reviews section would appeal to the audience because it helps them go straight away to the parts of the magazine they are interested in.
The language I have used in the interview would appeal because of the interview style; the voice of the youthful artist featured would effectively relate to my audience. I also think the photograph on the double page spread would appeal to my audience, the styling and pose of it I found to be very popular among my friends who would fit into my audience. The cover line that reads 'Music was always going to be a part of my life' would appeal to my audience as I feel they could relate to this as by buying my type of magazine that music is an important part of their life, with which they have an invested interest. This would make the artist more appealing to the reader because they feel they have something in common. The interview represents the artist in a very positive light,pointing out qualities of the artist that the audience would respect. I think the fact that the interview focuses mainly on music as oppose to other features such as fashion would attract my audience as they would be more interested to know the story behind the artists music than what they are planning on wearing to a festival for example.
My audience ranges between older teenagers and young adults; mainly of the student age so I have designed my magazine in a way that will attract them to buy it. I am also looking to attract a female audience. I did this by featuring a woman of a similar age to my audience on the cover who would be considered as someone who would appeal to female audience. This could be due to her pose, her clothing and and facial expression. Although the colours aren't particularly feminine, I think they would be aesthetically pleasing to a female because they coordinate with the photograph and look quite stylized. The cover lines feature slightly more female artists than the average magazine cover, which I again think would appeal to a more female audience despite the music not necessarily targeting a particular genre. Also I have chosen predominantly British artists, with only three non British artists featuring on the cover. This would attract the audience as they I feel they would be more interested in British acts, possibly due to the fact there will be more chance to see them perform live. I think the banner featuring the festival news would address the audience as it targets a certain age group that festivals are very popular with; the young people in my target audience. The fact I have offered a chance to win tickets to a festival would also attract my audience as they would be keen to go to the festival. 
The language I have used in the interview would appeal because of the interview style; the voice of the youthful artist featured would effectively relate to my audience. I also think the photograph on the double page spread would appeal to my audience, the styling and pose of it I found to be very popular among my friends who would fit into my audience. The cover line that reads 'Music was always going to be a part of my life' would appeal to my audience as I feel they could relate to this as by buying my type of magazine that music is an important part of their life, with which they have an invested interest. This would make the artist more appealing to the reader because they feel they have something in common. The interview represents the artist in a very positive light,pointing out qualities of the artist that the audience would respect. I think the fact that the interview focuses mainly on music as oppose to other features such as fashion would attract my audience as they would be more interested to know the story behind the artists music than what they are planning on wearing to a festival for example.
Overall, I think I have done a lot of things to attract my audience and address them in an appropriate manner. I think I achieved this by focusing on my audience profile and the requirements of my audience. I also focused a lot on the way in which I was going to represent my artist to appeal to the audience whilst still fitting in a believable magazine. The content is also focused around what I know people who would buy the magazine like, as my friends would be this audience.
Evaluation. Question 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think the kind of media institution best suited to distribute my magazine would be IPC Media; the distribution company that publishes NME magazine. I think this because I feel NME is targeting the most similar social group to my magazine. I think the magazine would work best in the Connect division of the corporation as this is targeted at women. It is also a British corporation and has a large portfolio of trusted magazines; so I feel this would be beneficial for my magazine. The Connect division does not currently have a music magazine designed for a more female market; meaning there is a definite opportunity for the publisher to take on something new and with experience from NME they would have the right knowledge to make the magazine successful. I could distribute the magazine in several ways including postage for subscribers and on magazine stands in shops. I could also consider looking into publishing the magazine online as this has become more popular recently making it more accessible to readers; particularly as my audience targets a age group familiar with the technology in which to achieve this.
Of the three types of circulation, I think paid circulation would be the type I would choose for my magazine as this is what the majority of other music magazines such as NME do. This would mean a fixed price for each magazine as well as making it available for subscription which I think would be the most beneficial. If I was to go with free circulation, I think the people who normally buy the magazine would be more hesitant to if they think it is simply available to anyone by charging nothing; as I think my 'indie scenester' social group would be more keen to buy a magazine they know the be of value and therefore worth their time to read. However I think controlled circulation is too far in the opposite direction as younger people would not be keen on having to 'qualify' for the magazine as they would simply see this as too much effort just to get a magazine when they have much easier access to others on a news stand for example.
Looking at the type of magazines IPC Media deals with, I would most likely make the publication of the magazine weekly with a fixed price, that would possibly be cheaper if the reader was to subscribe for a longer period of time.
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