Evaluation Question 7

Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In this evaluation question I am going to focus on the progress I have made from my Preliminary Task to the final version of my Main Task. The preliminary task was almost a warm up in terms of getting used to using programs such as Photoshop and learning about the different features it offers. Seeing as this was the first time I had ever used this sort of image manipulation program I think that my work wasn't too bad, but now reflecting back I can see that I have come a long way with my skills.

I am now fully aware of different conventions and aesthetic design features you would expect to find in a magazine, both school and music. I have also become more comfortable with using new technologies and found that I will pick it up a lot quicker if I stick at it for a while rather than just giving up when it gets slightly tricky.

Through my increased knowledge of the magazine industry, and my increasing passion for getting everything to do with my music magazine perfect, I found that I was putting a lot more care and effort into even things as small as thinking about the background for my photographs and the small effects in photoshop that would give my magazine that extra bit more class. This is something that I didn't really think about doing for my preliminary task, and is something that I will do without even thinking about it now. Everything has to be planned and organised and I never rush into things anymore. This may be the main reason for the difference in quality between my preliminary task and the final copies of my main task.

As you can see from the post containing all of my photos, I had thought quite hard on a suitable setting for the photographs to be taken at and instead of choosing just one location I tried out many. As my target audience focuses mainly on the raver group described on the UK Tribes website, my first idea was to use a club as the location for my setting. Although I thought his would be good as I could make the photos almost perfect being set in a club, I found out that it wasn't such a good idea. The main problem I found was that it was just too dark to get any clarity or detail in the photos. Instead of using these photos, I decided that I needed to take them either outside or in a well lit environment. I tried a variety of other locations mainly in front of different types of walls and railings to give off that underground effect that the drum and bass and dubstep genres have.

Preliminary Task

Main Task

Here is a video showing the progress I have made from my preliminary task to my front page.

Evaluation Question 6

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


There was a variety of different technologies that I used to complete the construction of my magazine, and all can be seen in the wallwisher wall below.





Adobe Photoshop
The first, and probably most important thing I used to complete my magazine was Adobe Photoshop. As I had no prior knowledge of using Photoshop I was slightly worried that I would not be able to take full advantage of its full features when constructing my magazine. After a few weeks of using it I did, however, get the hang of it and found it a very beneficial tool to use. Not only did it allow me to construct and organise the layout of my work into layers, it also allowed me to manipulate my pictures in order to make them look of the highest standard. I could also add effects to my work which makes it look more professional, which is something I wouldn't have been able to do if I was using another program. It is an extremely advanced piece of technology that allowed me to do things that I would never have been able to do on programs such as Microsoft Paint for example. I couldn't have even had the option to edit my photographs in paint, which is wy Adobe Photoshop was such a vital tool to use for the construction of my music magazine.


Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign was used for the full construction of my double page spread. As I hadn't used InDesign for my preliminary task, I didn't feel as comfortable using it at first, as I didn't think I would be able to use it to my full advantage in order to produce the best work that I could. It turned out I was wrong as InDesign has many features that would not have been possible to recreate if I was to have used another program such as Photoshop or Microsoft Word. An example of a great feature that I was able to iinclude in my double page spread was text wrap. This gave my magazine a more professional look to it and helped me to structure the page more efficiently around pictures and pull quotes. One other useful feature in InDesign that I used for my work was the column feature. This adds in any nnumber of columns that you specify, all equally spaced and sized. This was very convenient as if I would have tried to do this in a program such as publisher, it would have taken a lot more time and effort.


Blogger
Blogger is the tool that I used to present the research, planning and final pieces of my work. It allowed me to keep all of my work organised in one place without having to have hundreds of sheets of paper in a large folder. There are many features of Blogger that allowed me to present my work in a professional way. One feature was that I was able to personalise my blog with my own colour scheme, animated banner, different fonts and font sizes, and pictures to compliment my work. I feel that this is a very good feature as the blog essentially becomes another piece of work that you can relate to the overall quality of my coursework. Another great feature of blogger is the ability to post your work in date order, but more importantly in grouped labels. This means that the blog is a lot easier to navigate through and every piece of work can be found with a couple of clicks rather than scrolling through the blogs for hours on end. Blogger is in effect an online replacement for a folder that can be organised a lot more precisely, and is something that I would have found it hard to complete my work without.

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?


There are many ways that I have attracted my audience in my music magazine, including using conventions from existing magazines and adjusting them to fit in my magazine, using an appropriate mode of address that the audience can relate to and by using pictures that fully represent the genre of music that the magazine features on.

 The most obvious way that my magazine attracts my target audience is by the use of pictures. All of the pictures in my magazine are influenced by images I found of artists that people of my target audience would be influenced by. For example you can see that the picture on my front cover is very similar to the picture of the drum and bass DJ Goldie. Both my model and Goldie have a similar stance in the photo and are staring directly into the camera which almost gives an aggressive feel. This would be something that would attract my audience as the type of music my magazine focuses on runs on an almost aggressive vibe with there being lots of bass and fast beats. There is no sign of emotion on either of their faces which is something that is featured heavily with artist from this genre of music.

Another picture in my magazine that would attract the target audience is the one of my model using a mixing desk. You can see that it is similar to what is typically seen at concerts featuring drum and bass and dubstep artists as seen here, from a Nero concert, and is something that will attract my target audience.

One other way that I have attracted my target audience is through the use of technology. Through research on my target audience, I found that they are very heavily influenced by the use of new technologies and the internet. I kept this in mind when creating my magazine and included a QR code and offered digital downloads. This would attract my target audience as they would feel that the magazine is aiming exactly at them, incorporating features that they will feel comfortable using.

One final way that I have attracted my target audience is through the mode of address used in my magazine. My target audience wouldn't be expecting the text in a drum and bass/dubstep magazine to be completely formal, and through research on other double page spreads from music magazines similar to mine, I found out that most have a more relaxed, but not totally informal tone to them. This meant I was able to use a lot more speech with things such as exclamation marks and small amounts of swearing without it being too over the top, which it would be in other magazines. This mode of address would attract my target audience as it makes them feel like they are being talked to and not at. They can easily relate to the type of language being used in the magazine, and will feel comfortable reading it.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I have created an animation depicting what I think the target audience of my music magazine is based on the information in my target audience post, which can be seen here, and information from the UK tribes website.

Evaluation Question 3

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


There are currently many different music magazines being published and sold by many different publishers. Some of the main publishers in the UK include Bauer Media (Q and Kerrang!), IPC Media (NME), Future PLC (Metal Hammer) and Developement Hell Limited (Mixmag). As you can see, these publishers all focus on a variety of music genres and produce many different types of magazines.


There is currently a fragmented market for the production and selling of music magazines which can be broken down into specialised niche markets. There are many magazines published that focus on rock/heavy metal music, pop music and indie/alternative rock music respectively. As there isn't currently a very strong market for drum and bass magazines, I think I should look at the main publishers and see if there is a gap in the market for my style of magazine. I will choose a publisher based on the magazines they produce, the main area of target audience they focus on, and the sales figures of each publisher's magazines.


In this presentation I have given an overview of each media institution and why I think they would or wouldn't be suitable publishers of my music magazine SubCulture.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


Seeing as there aren't any mainstream drum and bass music magazines in circulation at the moment, I have found a picture of drum and bass/dubstep artists chase and status from the cover or a DJ and clubbing magazine called 'DJ Mag'. I think this will be appropriate to review and compare to my magazine about how they both represent the same social group, which my magazine is focused at.

To begin with, you can see that the facial expressions of the model on my magazine and of Chase and Status are very similar. Both have straight faces and aren't showing any obvious emotions other that seriousness, which could relate to the social group as most would only be buying these magazines if they were serious about listening to drum and bass other similar genres of music.

The model used in the pictures in my magazine is also wearing clothes that would be associated to the target audience my magazine is aiming at. The clothing is very plain and simple, and paired with accessories such as the hat, which can also be seen in the picture of Chase and Status You can see the type of clothing and people whould fit into my target audience here.

Another feature of my magazine that would appeal to my target audience would be the free download that is being offered on the front page. As you can see from the UK tribes research of the 'Ravers' social group, they are heavily influenced by radio and the internet and this free download incorporates both of these features, which could make it a major selling point.










In this animation you can see who I think matches the target audience of my magazine, and how they relate so strongly to the 'ravers' social group.

Evaluation Question 1

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


The current industry for the production and selling of music magazines is very competitive, and is becoming harder and harder for the success of music magazines to be prolonged for a great period of time. As of the beginning of 2011, these are the circulation figures for a selection of music magazines:

• Mojo ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 87,555 ; -7.5%
• Q ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 77,522 ; -12.1%
• Classic Rock ( Future Publishing Ltd ) : 62,354 ; -7.9%
• Kerrang! ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 42,077 ; -2.1%
• Metal Hammer ( Future Publishing Ltd ) : 35,259 ; -15.7%
• New Musical Express ( IPC Media Ltd ) : 27,650 ; -14.0%

These figures clearly show that there is a lot of competition between the magazines. You can also see that not one of these magazines have managed to increase their circulation, most notably Metal Hammer magazine, whose circulation has dropped by 15.7%. The music magazine market is quite clearly fragmented and separated into magazines by the music genre they cover. I wanted to find a space in the market where I thought that my music magazine would be able to become dominant, whilst still basing it around a genre of music that I enjoy listening to. Through research I found that there is a relatively small number of music magazines that focus on the genres of dubstep and drum & bass, so this is what I decided to focus on.

The lack of other magazines within this genre of music meant that I had to find a way of relating the design and layout of my magazine to my target audience with no real identification of what it would expect. Therefore there are some features of my magazine that I have thought up myself and added to the design, and other features and ideas that use and develop the conventions presented in other types of music magazine.

Through further research (here and here) of the dubstep and drum & bass music genres I found out that the majority of my target audience would be males between the ages of 16-25, who regularly go to clubs and festivals, are heavy users of the internet, and are into the electro/dance/drum & bass/dubstep genres of music. This meant I knew what sort of headlines and artists I could feature in my magazine, and also gave me an idea of what colour schemes I could use in order to grab the audience's attention.

In popular music magazines, the way the titles are laid out are very different. Some magazines such as Q have their title as a logo in the corner of the page and some such as Vibe have the text written across the top of the page. Each of the titles follow a very clear structure, being positioned on the page in one of two ways, and I think that the title of my magazine follows the conventions of music magazines based on this. The title on my music magazine is laid out across the page, similar to Vibe, and this gives the impression that it is a serious magazine and will appeal to readers. If the title was placed somewhere that is different to the conventions of a music magazine, such as at the bottom of the page, the audience could see it as being something totally different and may not want to pick it up. The target audience would want to be picking up something that looks appealing to them. The positioning of the model on top of the title is another convention that I have continued on from real music magazines, and I think this makes the magazine look more professional.

Another feature surrounding my title that follows the conventions of music magazines is the strapline above the title. In some magazines you can find a strapline above or below the title. You can see that magazines focusing on a genre similar to mine (dance music) mostly all have straplines above or below the title, so to I decided to use the conventions by having this on my magazine. 



The contents pages of most music magazines seem to be laid out in similar ways, with stories listed under different categories such as 'news' and 'features'. Some magazines also feature a band index, which lists all of the bands featuring in the magazine. I tried to carry these features over into my magazine but ended up developing them. For example I have the headings down two columns of my music magazine instead of on, which seems to be the norm in the industry, and the picture taking up less of the space on the page, with information about more articles being dominant.  I felt that this shows my magazine is slightly more serious and focused on getting good articles consistently throughout the magazine, and less about just having one main article. 


I have however followed the convention of the main article being highlighted by a picture on the contents page with text on top of the picture. I feel that this makes the stand out more than the other features in the contents page and draws the readers attention to the main article.  The band index feature of music magazines is used in quite a few music magazines, but I decided to change this to 'Reviews' so that the readers will know what is being written about the bands, in this instance reviews of their music, and is better than having just the names of artists on the page with no indication of what has been written about them in the magazine. I think that I have developed the normal conventions of music magazines for the better in mine.


Another feature in my magazine that features often in music magazines is the option to scan a QR code to get a digital copy of  the magazine, or download a free gift. I felt it was appropriate to put in my magazine as it shows a use of the conventions seen in real music magazines, and also to act as a hook for my target audience who are technology based, as seen here. QR codes are being used increasingly frequently in modern music magazines and I feel that it is a key feature that needed to be included in my magazine to give it a feel of authenticity and make it look professional.

My double page spread also follows some conventions you would expect to find in music magazine, with the first example being the over-sized title featuring as a main part of the page. This is used to ensure readers are drawn staright to the title and can get an understanding of what the article is about without fully reading it. The colours used in the title are also coherent with the house style seen throughout my magazine, which is something that features heavily in real music magazines. You can see that the colours used are also similar to the title of a double page spread in mixmag magazine, which covers a similar genre of music to my magazine. This shows that the styling of my article is similar to those in real music magazines featuring on similar genres of music, meaning my double page spread will successfully reach my target audience.


Another feature of my double page spread that frequently appears in music magazines is the banner along the top of the page which includes a heading telling the reader what section of the magazine the article is from. I felt that this also gives my magazine an professional look and follow the conventions set by other magazines that have been professionally published.

Throughout my magazine I have pictures of two different models. One model features on the front cover, double page spread, and as the artist on the double page spread. I have created an album cover using the picture of my second model and have placed it in my contents page under the 'Discover' section. There is usually more than one picture throughout a front page, contents and double page spread of a magazine and I feel that using this convention of a music magazine will attract readers and make the magazine look professional. The inclusion of objects such as headphones and mixing decks in my pictures give a clear indication of the genre of music being focused on in the magazine.

The 'Discover' section is quite commonly seen in the contents pages of music magazines, but the inclusion of an album cover is not. I thought that putting this in will give the audience a better understanding of what they can expect to find in the magazine, and also grabs the readers attention as it is a visual that they will see instead of more text.


One final convention from real music magazines that I used in my magazine was the use of a consistent house style. I made sure that throughout the pages that I have created there was consistency with the colours and fonts used. This would hopefully make my magazine easier to read, and also continues with the presentation of the genre of the magazine.
Here you can see each page of my magazine next to the front page, contents and double page spread of NME magazine, to present how the house style has been used.