Evaluation 4: "Who would be the audience for your media product?"

Transcript:

The target audience I have chosen for my R&B music magazine ‘The Game’ are teenagers and young adults between the ages of 16 and 50 as they will most likely have a wide interest and knowledge of music and they will probably find top ten singles, news about their favourite artists and find reading about artists very entertaining. Also, the younger generation communicate a lot meaning that information about new artists and magazines will probably be spread around quite quickly at these ages. Also, they will probably have a lot more time on their hands than older adults to read magazines.

Furthermore, the ideal reader of my magazine would be both males and females as R&B music is targeted at both genres, however it will be more targeted at females as my magazine is going to appear slightly more feminine than masculine. This audience would probably be very communicative in a busy town talking with others a lot of the time. In their spare time they would watch channels on TV such as MTV, 4 Music, VIVA, Smash Hits etc.. Their Sundays would consist of them listening to music and discovering news about their favourite artists and the music industry. Furthermore, the reason why I have picked this particular audience is because it is a young age where teenagers communicate a lot more and get into music a lot more and also start earning their own money so they would be able to pay for their own magazines, therefore the magazine would be affordable for them to purchase. Aswell as this, because the teenagers are interested in music at this age they will be more passionate about discovering upcoming news and therefore buying magazines to discover this.

Anyone younger than the age of 16 would probably not have a large passion for music because they do not know about past magazines so therefore they are still trying to discover about new magazines but do not have enough knowledge about specific genred magazines. I think that a male and female’s interest in magazines can vary depending on who the artist is, however I will make sure that my magazine contains information that both males and females will be interested in. This is also the age where young adults are maturing and beginning to become more independent.

The social class of my magazine will be mostly aimed at B, C1, C2 as the magazine will be written in simple English therefore it will not be too complex for the audience to understand for the lower social category so when they see the front cover they will not feel daunted, intimidated and put-off. Additionally they will have more time to read the magazine because someone in the social category A would be top level management which suggests that they will not have a lot of time to read magazines and perhaps also not a very wide interest in magazines.

Demographically my target audience will be aimed at any race as it will be ethically acceptable for anyone from any country. The people will be living in places such as perhaps Camden Town, either having a job or being in full-time education, in some cases both. This therefore signifies the Uses and Gratifications theory as there will be escapism due to the fact that the reader may want to explore and find out new things different from the world they are living in now or perhaps to get their mind off things.

The ideal target audience I have set for my magazine would preferably be people that shop at places like Topshop, River Island, Missguided and Urban Outfitters. This is because these shops commonly include the types of outfits that R&B artists wear. The females would be really into the jewellery as R&B artists usually wear a lot of jewellery to make themselves look glamorous. Furthermore, the advantage of my audience shopping in these particular shops is that they may all s0cialise and communicate at these shops, therefore share information about their latest/favourite magazines with eachother.

Moreover, I believe that other habits my audience will have is buying magazines often, music albums, posters and gig lists. They would also be very interested in tour dates and one nof the most important thing also would be that they buy tickets to see their favourite artists perform live often.

Furthermore, my target audience’s hobbies would be preferably based on listening to music, but also maybe dancing and perhaps singing/rapping to themselves. This is because these hobbies generally relate to R&B and a lot of dancing, singing and rapping is included in the R&B genre.

A typical reader of my magazine’s profile would perhaps be: their name being Stacey Parker, her age is 18, her occupation is college, she likes R&B music, attending gigs and similar events, researching about her favourite R&B artists, dancing/singing, fitting in with the R&B trends and wearing similar clothes to artists like Rihanna, and meeting new people through social events and groups. However she dislikes overrated singers and rock bands, anyone who judges music taste and people who are not open-minded. Her reasons for reading R&B magazines are that they are affordable, they include freebies such as single releases, interviews with her favourite artists, and that it gives out gossips on artists you can’t find anywhere else. Her all-time favourite artist would be Rihanna.

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

Evaluation 1 by hannahalley

Transcript:

When I started to create my magazine, I firstly had to think about how I was going to make it appeal to the audience of the genre I had chosen as no magazine can continue into production without sales. I used similar product research to give me a better idea about the typical conventions of R&B music magazines and their success, aswell as carrying out a questionnaire with people who were of my magazine’s target audience and concluding the results of these. Once I felt I had gathered enough knowledge I began to create my own magazine with a target audience of people between the ages of 16-30 of both genders, but mainly females.

The most important characteristic of any magazine is to establish how you can differentiate yours from others, either competing against its typical conventions or going with them. I mainly wanted to make my music magazine stand out on a shelf, however I did take careful consideration of the R&B genre’s typical codes and conventions too so that my magazine didn’t seem too different, therefore looking unprofessional and strange. Firstly, on my front cover I created a white, bold masthead to make it look high class, sleek and basic in order to reflect the common connotations of a masthead but also to establish a brand font and image that would be commonly recognised within my magazine. Also, for magazines that have a young target audience, the colour white is commonly used as it holds connotations of youth and innocence, so I followed this convention. Furthermore, my model is holding direct eye contact with the camera lense which is very common of music magazines as they believe it creates a personal equality connection between the artist and the reader, however my model is holding a blank facial expression which is unconventional for an R&B magazine because usually in R&B magazines the artist has some sort of facial expression whether it be smiling, frowning or laughing. However I figured that my model’s outfit looks very feminine so to go against this, I needed something to make her look a bit more intimidating and different. The emotionless facial expression also reflects the characteristics of the artist and implies that they are rebellious and daring. This is appealing to the audience and therefore lures them into reading it as they want to discover the story behind the facial expression. Also, the image of my model is a mid-shot which is very conventional for an R&B magazine as most producers decide that mid-shots look best on front covers. I did decide to follow this convention by doing so. I then selected the colours of purple, black and white because purple holds connotations of royalty and quirkiness, suggesting that my magazine is different, going against typical conventions of R&B magazines, white being youthful, innocent and sophisticated, and black holding connotations of darkness and maturity. I have seen the colours purple and red be used in R&B magazines before so typically this is quite conventional. Furthermore, it holds the conventions of creating a relationship with the reader as when they see these colours they instantly know that it is my magazine. My magazine also holds the typical conventions of having a banner at the top and bottom of the page.

My contents page also conforms to the typical conventions of R&B genre magazines like Vibe as I have created an ‘Editor’s Note’, introducing the reader to my magazine and filling them in briefly of its contents. Most magazines in general have this on their contents pages. This will appeal to my target audience as it comes across as welcoming, therefore inviting them in further to my magazine. It also adds a personal effect to the magazine, reminding the reader that the magazine was actually written by a person who is just like them. I have also placed the ‘Twitter’, ‘app’ and ‘subscribe’ features to the page, therefore appealing to young readers who will be interested in social networking sites and the internet, allowing them to form even more of a personal relationship with the magazine as they are able to relate to it online too. This is very conventional of all magazines as the majority of magazines want to connect with their younger audience on this deeper level and aswell as this, being part of social networks online allows the magazine to be shared around quicker. This helps to portray my magazine as more aware of the zeitgeist (spirit of the age). Furthermore, what else is very conventional about my contents page as it includes headlines for each contents list, making it clear to the reader, which is what many R&B magazines do. Infact, I created these headlines due to inspiration from an R&B/hip-hop magazine called Vibe, so this just represents this in itself.

Finally, the double page spreads which I have used to conform to the house colours which I have earlier discussed in order to create a brand image and reinforce the relationship with the audience. Furthermore, on the first page I used this as an introductory page which is very conventional of an R&B magazine as it briefs and introduces the reader to the article about to be presented. However, what is unconventional about my magazine is that I created three purple boxes each consisting of things my artist has to say about other artists. I thought of this idea myself and have never seen it in any other magazine, highlighting that it is unique and unconventional to any other R&B magazine. Aswell as this, I also created a quirky black and white grid of different close up shots of my model making ‘silly’ faces. Usually, R&B models are quite posed and serious, but my model goes against this convention in these facial shots, presenting a completely different fun side of the R&B genre.

Evaluation 3: "What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?"

Transcript:

There are four main magazine publishers within the media industry, all of which brand very successful magazines. The first is Bauer Media, which is Europe’s largest privately owned publishing group and it’s based in Germany. It publishes over 300 magazines within 15 different countries as well as TV, online and on radio stations. Bauer Media’s aim is to focus on ‘personal relationships’ with engaged readers and listeners, being one main intention of the magazine. But, because Bauer Media already publish Kerrang and Q magazine, it could create a tough competition between them and my own as both magazines are very well-known, so this could potentially bring down the overall sales of my own and therefore it wouldn’t be as successful as it could be.

The next is IPC Media, which is currently the UK’s leading consumer magazine publisher. This publisher engages with two thirds of UK women and 42% of men. They publish a range of genres whether it be TV, music or fashion, unlike some other companies. Also, they create content for not just magazines but mobile, online, tablets and events. Similarly to Bauer Media, IPC publish NME which is another music magazine. As the layout of the NME magazine is fairly similar to my music magazine, again, this would create a competition and therefore it would be unwise for me to choose this company as my magazine’s publisher as it would decrease the popularity and buyers of my magazine.

            Conde Nast is another very successful publisher which publishes brands worldwide. It produces 18 consumer magazines, over 50 apps for mobile and tablet devices and 27 websites. Conde Nast’s publications are very audience-specific, mainly aimed at adult women. They appear extremely stylish and classy. Overall, I don’t think my magazine would fit into this category of style aswell as the language, because my magazine is younger with a different social class of language, therefore it wouldn’t appeal to the audiences of this publisher’s brands which potentially could affect the sales of my magazine massively.

            The National Magazine Company is another media industry publisher. It is very successful, being one of the UK’s leading companies along with having 20 magazine brands. This company also has many digital websites: menshealth.co.uk, allaboutsoap.co.uk and runnersworld.co.uk. I have concluded that this publisher would be best suited for my magazine as currently it doesn’t publish any music magazine, therefore my music magazine would appear different and unique to anything they have published before, therefore attracting more readers and buyers. I want to introduce new topics and a new genre to unfamiliar audiences to attract new buyers and give my magazine a different feel to it, standing out from the rest. Aswell as this, The National Magazine Company publish equal number of websites as well, so this means that my magazine could be online as well as print. This would work out well as my young target audience use technology/the internet as a very important aspect of their lives so this would work successfully. The National Magazine Company would like my magazine because its large target audience allows more people to not only read my magazine, but if it is published by this company then buyers may look into The National Magazine Company’s other magazines they have distributed, meaning that their other magazines’ popularity and buyers increase rapidly.

            I wouldn’t want my magazine to be published by a company called Miller Publishing for example because I have used a magazine called Vibe which this company published, as a style model for my own magazine. This means that there would be a lot of competition between my magazine and Vibe not only because they are of a similar appearance, but because they are of a similar genre too. This would mean that my magazine would have no chance to stand out, therefore decreasing its popularity and buyers.

Evaluation 5: "How did you attract/address your audience?"

  Transcript:

Throughout my magazine, I needed to make sure I included many aspects that would of fitted in with and attracted my target audience. To make sure my magazine would sell, I included crucial features that would clearly have a high demand from my target audience which are males and females (but mainly females) between the ages of 16-30.

Firstly, the fact that the majority of participants voted for R&B as their most favourite type of music has really reinforced my reasoning for wanting to make my magazine’s genre R&B. These results reassured me that I have definitely made the right decision in picking this genre.  Also, the top-voted name suggested for my magazine through my questionnaire was ‘The Game’ and the least-voted was ‘Rhythm’. This suggests to me that my target audience like to see things that sound more exciting and suggestive (e.g the name ‘The Game’ which is inviting and fun) rather than going for things that seem less daring and more plain and predictable (e.g the name ‘Rhythm’) reinforcing my reason for making my magazine’s name ‘The Game’. I knew from these results that my choice of making this its name would instantly attract my target audience to its fullest.

The first method in order to attract my target audience would be through my front cover. This is the first thing that they see and it is highly crucial that it stands out to them amongst many other magazines on the shelf. I made my front cover stand out by using a mid-shot of my model which brings attention mainly to her face and body since she is closer up to the lense. As you can see, my model’s body language is welcoming with her arms open behind her head. This will attract the audience as it may make them feel that the magazine offers a lot and that the main artist is very inviting. Mise-en-scene-wise, the main artist of my front cover uses direct eye contact with the camera lense creating a personal connection and sense of equality between the artist and the reader which may attract them as it may make them feel less daunted/intimidated by a successful artist and instead feel as if they are ‘the same’, which is very luring. She is also wearing bright red lipstick which I adjusted the colour of to make it stand out more, and this use of makeup will make my model look feminine and create a sex appeal with my male audience, perhaps as will the direct eye contact, representing confidence that males are attracted to and females may admire. Her curly, bouncy hair creates a flirtatious vibe and her colourful floral crop-top is very casual which shows off part of her stomach. This will attract my target audience as this clothing will create the impression of my artist being relaxed which is what most teenagers like to be, and also casual, again making my target audience feel as if they are ‘the same’ therefore intriguing them. The floral pattern on her top makes my artist look very feminine, attracting not only a male audience, but the female audience too. Also, the fact that some of her stomach is showing may create a sex appeal for my male audience as it looks quirky and confident. Also, I edited my model’s skin on a program called Photoshop to remove any blemishes and give her skin an appealing clear and smooth effect. I hoped this would attract my target audience massively because some young females inspire to have good skin beauty-wise, therefore intriguing them; and most males generally find clear skin more attractive. Infront of the picture of my main artist, I put ‘exclusive with..’ and then ‘CASSIE STARR’ in very large, black font to give it a bold effect an instantly catch the audiences’ eyes as it stands out against the pale, feminine colours of the model’s clothing  behind.

            The fact that in my questionnaire I’d received a majority vote towards my target audience preferring a chance to win a freebie in my magazine portrayed that my audience would like to have a chance at winning in a magazine. I don’t think posters are that popular anymore as many teenagers resort to using technology to endure their pleasures so I decided to use a ‘WIN! FREE SIGNED CIARA CD’ feature on my front cover because CDs are something my audience can actually make use out of instead of just chucking it in the bin. Moreover, due to the proliferation of new technology, on one of my pages in my magazine I would alternatively give the option for my audience to receive a free download of Ciara’s CD with a picture of the signed CD included incase someone who doesn’t use CDs wins. This is because CDs are quite dated now. However I think the use of a CD as a prize is still effective because the winner can actually receive it and own it; - juxtaposed with an ordinary download which anyone can perform online.

            Aswell as this, on my top banner it states “MOBO AWARDS & CONCERTS”. I’d concluded that from my questionnaire data concert and gig reviews were the second most wanted feature on a magazine, so I used this to my advantage and made sure that a mentioning of concerts was at the top of my magazine to attract my target audience instantly. Aswell as that, Mobo awards are awards given to R&B and hip-hop artists, so I knew that the mentioning of Mobo awards would be a lot more relevant to the R&B genre than a mentioning of the Brit awards for example. On my bottom banner I have ‘HOTTEST & LATEST R&B MUSIC’. I figured the adjectives ‘hottest’ and ‘latest’ would have a great luring effect on my target audience because it will give the impression that my magazine is up-to-date and ‘in’ which is what most young audiences aim for. Also, with my sell lines ‘BACK STAGE WITH..’, ‘TICKETS TO SEE..’ and ‘PRIVATE GIG WITH..’ along with the artists’ names, I have made sure to include Beyonce’s name there. This is because, when analysing my questionnaire’s results I discovered that Beyonce was majority voted by participants as one of their top three most favourite artists. Therefore, I took advantage of this, knowing that people liked her most, so I made sure I included Beyonce here to catch the reader’s attention instantly. Lastly, my house colours are black, white and purple. My questionnaire’s results showed that my target audience would most prefer a magazine with the house colours of turquoise and pink, with the second vote going to a draw between purple & black and black & blue. I wanted my magazine to look classy and basic so that it wasn’t too complex for the reader to look at and its appearance seemed worth the money, so the colour mixture of turquoise & pink seemed inappropriate and tacky for this. Furthermore, because my magazine’s target audience is male & females but mainly towards females, I felt that the house colours black & blue were too masculine and harsh for the magazine I was making. Therefore, I chose purple, black and white to give a classy, simple but bold effect to attract the audience.

On my contents page, I used a bold black script font for my headlines ‘on the cover’, ‘regulars’ and ‘exclusives’ to represent classiness which is quite feminine, attracting my female audience. Then I used a purple colour for the subject headline and a black font for the brief description of the subject afterwards. This therefore makes everything look easier and clearer to read so that the audience are not put off by any complexity and difficulty to navigate around my contents page. I think I used a good variation of images too, because I used another picture of my main artist in different clothing which was a leapord-print furr jacket with a denim shirt and burgundy red skater-skirt, representing quirkiness which is different and will catch the reader’s eye, along with other photos such as a picture of a male doing a casual pose which creates sex appeal for the females but also equality for the males. Next to each of these images I have included page numbers so that the reader can easily navigate to the page they want to. Lastly, I have made sure to include a social networking feature in a purple box including The Game’s twitter username with the Twitter icon which will instantly grab my target audience’s attention because many young people use this social networking site nowadays so they will be familiar with it, aswell as The Game’s app with a realistic photo of an iPhone with The Game’s front cover on it, and also a subscription feature which includes three different versions of my magazine front cover, attracting the audience because it portrays to them that my magazine has a lot of different things to offer for them and that they won’t just be subscribing to the same magazine every month. Aswell as this, the competitions/quizzes feature I have also included will attract my audience as they are at the age where most of the teenagers are fun, adventurous and competitive, wanting to play games and win things.

On the first page of my double page spread the quote I have used states ‘this is just the beginning’. I used this quote as the headline of my artist’s interview because it highlights excitement, making the audience wonder what else the artist has in store for them which is particularly intriguing. My questionnaire portrayed to me that an interview is the most-wanted feature when purchasing a magazine, so I took full advantage of this. On the second page of my double page spread I used an image of my ‘artist’ singing into a microphone therefore attracting the audience because it portrays that she is a performer and doesn’t just sit back and not take action in her career. Futhermore, I have used a black and white grid of different close ups of my model’s facial expressions, representing that she is quirky and has a fun and easy-going side to her too which will be very alluring to my audience. Aswell as this, I have used a ‘CASSIE’S TWEETS’ feature at the top of my double page spread so that the audience know she is active on social networking sites, just like them. Lastly, there is also a feature at the bottom of the page where my artist is ‘talking about other artists’, and since my questionnaire showed me that my target audience appreciate gossip, I gathered that this feature would be much appreciated to the audience.

The last aspect that would attract my audience is the Uses and Gratifications Theory. This theory consists of four reasons which tell us why people use the media. These are: personal relationships. This is where the magazine would create a ‘word and mouth’ effect where friends or family would discuss the magazine, creating their own relationship with another as it is something they both have interest in. Personal identity, which is where if someone becomes a frequent reader of my magazine, it would become something that is personal to them and something that makes them who they are. Then we’ve got entertainment, where my magazine would be entertaining to read and something that the reader would enjoy doing. Therefore this would persuade them into buying my magazine each week. Then, lastly we have information. This is where the main reason why people buy my magazine is to be informed of what is going on in the R&B music industry. My magazine would inform them of upcoming artists, personal details, album reviews etc.. 

Evaluation 7: "Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?"

Transcript:

Question 7 Evaluation by hannahalley

This is question 7 of my evaluation, going into details of how my skills have developed over the time period from completing my preliminary task at the start of Media studies to completing my music magazine. As you can see, I have created a video of me performing my essay through recording multiple videos of me (using my iPhone) reading out each paragraph and then put these together as a final movie on an app called 'Splice' and then uploaded this movie to YouTube. I then embedded the code of the video from YouTube and pasted it onto the HTML of this text here. As you can see, below this video I have also provided a transcript of my video too which is in Word document format presenting my essay in text along with pictures and examples.

Evaluation 6: "What have I learned about the technologies from the process of constructing my magazine?"

Transcript:

Question 6 Evaluation by hannahalley

This is my evaluation question about the technologies I have learned how to use since creating my magazine. This includes me elaborating on programs such as Photoshop, InDesign, Voki, camera and photoshoot equipment and Blogger.

Question 2 evaluation: "How does your media product represent particular social groups?" evaluation question, made with Adobe Premiere Pro

Question 2 evaluation: "How does your media product represent particular social groups?" evaluation question, made with Adobe Premiere Pro & a voice-over

This is one of my evaluation questions I created with Adobe Premiere Pro which I downloaded a trail version of at home and then recorded myself doing a voice-over for all of the text involved, just to make it seem more presentable. 

At first I just made my evaluation question with Powerpoint, but then I figured I wanted to use more of a variety of programs with my evaluation questions to make it more interesting, so I print screened each slide I'd made and imported these one by one onto Adobe Premiere Pro. Then, after recording my voice-over for the movie, I imported this audio file and cut it up carefully so that unneeded parts were deleted and that they were measured up correctly with the right slides for the right amount of time. Then, I watched over the movie one last time and once I was satisfied I finally exported it and published it to YouTube. I'm glad I used Adobe Premiere Pro as this furthers my knowledge and skills of different programs, not just Powerpoint or Windows Movie Maker.

Transcript:

The type of magazine I was looking to create was of a similar genre and style to the magazine ‘Vibe’ but with more of a focus on R&B music that is not always shown as mainstream nowadays. I lead my magazine down this route as I find that mainstream music is too popular nowadays and that R&B music is underrated and not played enough. I gathered that this is a market that can appeal to many people’s needs as the market is unique and may satisfy those who agree that R&B is not played enough nowadays. My magazine will also include the latest album and gig reviews which will include the type of artists that are going to be expected in my magazine by the audience.

Firstly, the house colours of my magazine are purple, black and white. I believe that the colour purple holds not only connotations of royalty, but it gives the magazine a quirky feel too. Aswell as this, the black and white colours give my magazine a smart and sophisticated look to it, too. This clearly relates to the social group as these are characteristics that my audience are most likely to have as a person. However, the colour black also hints that my audience are mature, however the colour white suggests that they are still young innocent, representing the age I have chosen in my target audience and how it varies. The readers will also choose to read my magazine out of their interest in R&B music, therefore the use of loud, bold fonts will instantly stand out and appeal to them as perhaps they are likely to be different from the crowd and unique, which is exactly what my magazine is. I chose these house colours over colours such as yellow and pink because I feel that darker colours represent a clearer view of the music genre my magazine is about.

Next, on my front cover my model makes direct eye conact with the camera lens and looks confident with her arms crossed behind her head. The camera placement is at eye level with the model, suggesting that both the model and the magazine are friendly and approachable, and that they are the ‘same’ as the readers. Furthermore, my model is of a similar age to the reader as my target audience is young, so my model represented this successfully therefore more appealing to the reader. Aswell as this, my model’s confident pose and firm eye contact with the camera, plus a colourful floral top represents confidence and strength. Aswell as this, her curly bouncy hair could portray joy and fun, and all of these features may lure the reader in and perhaps make them look up to her as a strong R&B role model, wanting to be like her. Aswell as this,  I did make sure that my model’s clothing was common for the R&B genre as the social groups viewing my magazine are more than likely going to want to look to my magazine for fashion tips and clues on what to wear.

Because my magazine is aimed at people within the social classes of B, C1 and C2 I have made sure to use simple English so that the reader is able to understand and read through it swiftly. Furthermore, I have made sure that my magazine is written fun and witty throughout so that it has a positive tone and the reader knows that the magazine has a good, positive attitude. However I have made sure its tone isn’t too laid-back and sarcastic or else it may come across as negative and mocking, therefore putting the reader off.


This is an evaluation question which elaborates on how I have presented my model and how this represents particular social groups.