Entire evaluation link

http://katherinealexnadia.tumblr.com/

4)      Who would be the audience for my media product?

ECHO’s audience is largely going to be youngsters, mostly teenagers and no one above 30 years, those both females and males, of working or middle class and most likely those who live in cities. This is my most likely audience because the people who fit into this group are the most urban group Young people will be the main age group buying ECHO because it is aimed at this age group, the artists in the magazine are this age, the language used in the magazine will be familiar to society’s youth and the music in the magazine will mostly be listened to by these young people. Both females and males will read ECHO, there will be no gender- specific artists and artwork and images will be tailored to both attract the eye of both females and males. The magazine focuses on RnB and Hip-Hop music which is a very gender neutral genre and so neither males nor females should feel excluded due to the article content. I will represent both male and female artists in my magazine by including features and interviews on an equal amount of artist from each gender; this will ensure that ECHO appeals to both males and females alike. A magazine which has a female cover artist as well as cover-lines only detailing of the female artists features will automatically eliminate a large portion of the male audience so I have made sure to include a range of artists from both genders who make music which is not always aimed at one sex in particular. Those from working class backgrounds will read ‘ECHO’, although the magazine is not exclusively targeted at them it is most likely that the people interested in the content of ECHO will not be from an upper class background. Lastly, my audience is likely to be people living in the city, because the magazine is urbanized to appeal to these people, also it is unlikely that a large audience will be found in the country-side and rural parts of the UK. The media product is targeted at urban youngsters who are mostly still in education, or at a similar age to those in education, these are the people who are the ones who will be most interested in the events in the lives of artists such as Drake, Rihanna, Plan B and Chris Brown. The people who will be buying magazine most typically shop like; HMV, JD, H&M, New Look and Topshop/TopMan which are all high street stores, this is because my audience will mostly be young people who can’t afford to shop at designer outlets and these are some of the most popular stores for both boys and girls on the high street. These people are likely to go to the cinema, shop, do sports or listen to music in their spare time as these are the activities available to young urban people, also the advertisements in my magazine being for shops, music and television show that these are the activities that interest my audience. The audience for ECHO differs from the audience of magazines such as VIBE and XXL, these magazines have been designed to appeal to Americans by using their language and news stories that they will be familiar with which will be very different to that of a British audience. An American audience will be more likely to shop in designer outlets and buy different brands of clothing that are popular in America, also the richer groups in American society are more likely to buy these magazine compared to the richer people in British society because there is a wider spread of young rich people in America.

5)      How did you attract/ address your audience?

After creating my audience research questionnaire and receiving my responses I gained the information allowing me to give my target audience what they want. I realised that the most popular artists were NIcki Minaj, Drake and Beyonce and so I based the issue around RnB/ pop/ Hip-Hop music. Contrary to this, I used Rihanna as my cover artist despite her not coming up as one of the most popular artists on my questionnaire results, this is because I had a vision of how I wanted my magazine  to look, being heavily based around her greatly successful single ‘Rudeboy’. Having this issue of the magazine being based around Rihanna’s song will attract my target audience as ‘Rudeboy’ was a huge chart success and remained in the UK and US charts for a long time and an even longer time in the urban charts. As this magazine would have been released at the height of this song’s dominance of the charts there would have been a huge following of people wanting to know every detail about Rihanna and her song meaning that the issue will have had a unique selling point, adding to the readership. The advertisements within my magazine are also a reminder to the readers that this magazine is targeted at them, advertisements for things such as Blackberry’s, Adidas clothing, and iPods which are very popular amongst the younger generation. These advertisements not only appeal to my young target audience but also mean that whilst they are reading they are tuned into their youthful/urban mindset. Also, as voted the most important feature, ‘new releases’ feature heavily in ECHO whether it be through the latest news, recent award winners, latest charts or articles on what to expect in the coming months, readers and constantly being updated on the here and now. To address my audience of young people, I made sure to use mostly non-formal language with a  few uses of slang language and ‘in the know’ references that the audience will be familiar with such as references to Beyoncé’s ‘alter ego’ and Rihanna’s break up with Chris Brown. My magazine is accompanied by a website; this is very important in addressing my audience seeing as most people nowadays are computer-literate and may be inclined to check the website for updated rather than waiting for the next issue to find out what’s been going on.

6)      What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing my product?

Whilst creating ECHO I used several technologies, some of which I was experienced in using, making it very easy to develop my work and some of which were new to me and challenging as I learnt to use them. I used both Publisher and Word to create my pages, these are both programmes that I was used to working with and so I was able to apply my knowledge and get the most out of them. In Word I was able to create my two page spread article with Rihanna and copy and paste it into my Publisher document in which I was developing the two page spread. In Publisher, I created text boxes in three columns to paste my article into and I inserted the images for the page, created quote text boxes and a title for the article. In addition, I was new to using Photoshop Elements for photo editing, as well as an online photo editor, ‘Picnik’. I developed the skills in Photoshop to remove backgrounds from images using the ‘magic wand’ tool, to use the airbrush tool so that skin looks clearer, and to adjust the brightness of the images using the contrast and lighting tool. These tools made my images look more professional and made the magazine look better organised as images on the same page didn’t have contrasting backgrounds. Using Photoshop allowed me to layer my images and also made it easy for me to cut out the backgrounds of my pictures. In the majority of my images there was a busy background unsuitable for the magazine and so I had to put each of my images into Photoshop and change the background so that it was pure white, or the colour of the page. The website ‘Picnik’ was very helpful in editing my images for things like contrast, brightness and sharpness which was necessary so that the images looked high quality on the pages. I also developed the skills to operate blogger.com, prior to my magazine production I had not used any websites on which you create a blog and I had to learn to save Publisher documents and JPEG documents in order to be able to upload my posts onto the blog.

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

From creating a contents and front page for my school magazine I have learnt the importance of quality of images to give the correct representation within the magazine.  If the images on a page are taken from clashing angles they will make the page look too busy and ruin the focus of the page, also clarity and style will be lost because through the images we can see how much effort has been taken. I have also learnt the value of audience research, without having carried out my questionnaire for my music magazine I wouldn’t have been able to make sure I included appropriate content that was tailored to interest my target audience. In comparison to the Preliminary task’s questionnaire my questions didn’t have to be so structured where I had to break down the answer into different sections for parents, sixth formers and year 7-11 students. When I was creating my school magazine I did not take enough time out to gather my images and get a wide range of original images and so I had to use image which had not been taken with as much time put in to them. From this I learnt to spend a lot of time deliberating over which images to use and placing large emphasis on the quality inside the image; regarding dress sense, make-up, stylising and poses. For my music magazine, having learnt from this, I took a whole day out to have a photoshoot where I took over 200 images of my models in different outfits and different make up. Also, with my school magazine it was difficult to come up with lots of content to go inside the magazine without having created a flat plan, mapping out where all my pages would go. When it came to creating my music magazine I had a detailed flat plan that helped me create my contents page. After creating two drafts of my front page for the school magazine, I learnt that it is important to continue redrafting your work and to document the changes your work goes through. I have also learnt that it is important to use a house style that you will use for your magazine so that it is easy to put your work onto the page and make it appropriately stylised for the audience. Creating the school magazine in the preliminary task prepared me for being time – conscious when it comes to preparation, taking too long on drafting my page instead of putting time into actually making the page was a waste of time also, I learnt that it is best o take images early on in the process and to put a lot of effort into taking the images. By knowing which images you are going to use this makes the process of putting together a page much easier as you can design the page around whatever images are on there first.

Deconstruction of my music magazine front cover

Deconstruction of my contents page

images before and after editing

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2)

3)

4)

5)



Copies of original images used

Used as key image on front cover

     Used on Contents page as main image

     Used on two page spread

     Used on two page spread

     Used on two page spread

 UNUSED IMAGES:



Final front cover

My final front cover takes inspiration form the theme of Rihanna's song, 'Rudeboy', it is bright and colourful and my model  wears an outfit copied from the music video. On both sides of the front cover there are coverlines which consist of a headline and a description of the article. These coverlines are placed around the image and overlap the image so that the main articles are very obvious but the smaller articles do not distract from the image. The model in my picture comes across as arrogant and big-headed because she doesnt look at hte camera in her shot, but she does show off her accessories. This pose represents the swagger of Hip-Hop music and lets the reader know that ECHO is about Hip-Hop music.

Front cover draft 3

This draft of the front cover has only been changed slightly, and this draft is an alternative to the previous, rather than an ammended version.The feature that has been added is the advertisement for Skullcandy headphones, i thouight it was important to include this feature no only to fill up the space but so that there is more than just information on interviews and artists in the magazine

'Creating your own magazine' questionnaire

Creating your own magazine

Complete this planning sheet for your magazine and then begin planning your first articles

What genre of magazine will it be? Music

Who are the target audience? Males and Females aged 14 - 28

What articles will you include in your magazine?

List of articles

1. Brits winners, losers and next years Brits

2.  The GRAMMY’s winners and losers

3. Artist interviews with Rihanna, Plan B, Jennifer and      Lopez and Drake

4. Clothing and the style

5. Staff’s choice awards

6. The best talent coming from the month

7. Shocks and scandals

8.  Music charts, what’s new, whose number 1

What other things will it contain? – quizzes, horoscopes etc

1. Poster images of artists

2. ‘Have your say’ Letters that the audience have written in

3. Quizzes on music trivia

4. The magazine and when it will be on TV

5.  Next months issue and what it will include

6. Gigs, forthcoming gigs that the readers can buy tickets for

What will be advertised in your magazine?

1 Trainers - Adidas

2 Lil Wayne album

3 Mobile phone – Sony Ericsson

4 Coca -Cola

5 Laptop - Dell

6 Nike clothing - sportswear

7 Blackberry

8 Football shirts – order website

9 Signed Drake album

10  Cologne - Diesel

What will be on the front page?

Title ECHO

Price £1.85

Date 18^th March 2011

Cover lines Interview with Rihanna, Drake and a competition.

Freebies The chance to win skullcandy headphones FREE if you enter a competition.

Other Information on the website, and a brief introduction to the contents of the magazine; runs along the top of the page.

Second draft of two page spread

This, the final draft of the two page spread feature extra additions to the previous draft. The masthead of the page (RIHANNA!) is in large font and placed at the top of the first page. Also, three quotes from the interview are placed around the page, breaking up the space and making it easier to look at.

First draft of music magazine front cover

This front page follows a purple and white colour scheme that runs through the magazine, all the text on the page is either white or purple. The font of all the text is 'corbel', also following the house theme. The main image is a wide shot, of 'Rihanna' taken of the full body against a brick wall which gives us the background of the whole page. The front cover has two main features on it, one of the main interview with the cover artist and another of the second, smaller, interview with 'Drake'. There is also a list on the front cover, in the bottom right hand corner, comprising of the people who will be featured in this issue of ECHO. There is also a thin strip at the top of the page which details the price of the magazine and a brief introduction to the magazine. I have followed the conventions of XXL magazine fwhilst making this front cover, in doing so i have; made a masthead which stays in the same position throughout each issue, used only three colours (excluding the colours in the image) to make up the features of the front cover, there is only one image and this is of the artist who has the main interview in the magazine and the list detailing the artist that can be found in the magazine.

First draft of two page spread

This is the first draft of my two page spread, an interview with Rihanna. On each of the pages the text has been split into three columns so that it is easy to read, and the page is broken down so that it does not look daunting to read. The images i have used are all of the cover artist posing in a photo shoot, and in each the artist is wearing the same outfit. This continuity shows that the images have been purposely taken in a photoshoot for the magazine, showing the professionalism of the magazine.

The two page spread has a white background, this makes the page look sleek and means that there is no colourful background to detract from the quality of the images. The text on the page is in 'corbel' font, size 12, The questions and answers are separated by being in different colours, the questions are in purple, following the purple theme of the magazine and the purple in the outfit of the artist in the images. The answers are in black, i chose black because it stands out against the white background and because any other colour would have taken away from the sleekness of the page.

There are still amendments to be made to this page, the masthead must be added, this will be a large title of the artist name (Rihanna) and a blank white space on the right of the second page must be filled with either an image, text, or a quote.

First draft of music magazine contents page

On the first draft of my contents page i have split the page into two columns, the first column's main feature is an image of the cover artist, the background of this image correlates to the background of the whole page. At the very top of this column is the beginning of the contents listing. The page is framed by the banner that runs along the width of the page at the top, this banner is of a different font colour to the contents list and this is to differentiate between the two separate texts on the page. The font of the texts runs the same throughout the whole magazine, 'corbel', and does not change in any of the text, this is so that the magazine looks sophisticated. This contents page was based upon the contents page of XXL magazine whereby i have only used one large image, taking up most of the page, of the cover artist, and the text is aligned to the right and is on the right hand side of the page.



Graphs showing the data collected from my music magazine questionnaire

Graph 1: This graph has shown me that most people would like the magazine to be released weekly and no one wishes for it to be released fortnightly.

Graph 2: Graph 2 shows that a majority of people wish for the price of t magazine to be up to £2, An equal amount of people answered that the magazine should be between £1 and £2 to those who answered 'Under £1', because of this I will price my magazine at £1.85 so that it is not out of the price range of my target audience, whilst still collecting money at a near - maximum price.

Graph 3: From this graph I can see that most people think that it is important for a music magazine to be accompanied by a website, because of this I will create a magazine in conjunction with my magazine that will be mentioned within the magazine.

Graph 4: Graph 4 shows that out of RnB, Hip-Hop, Grime, Pop, Rock and Indie, RnB is the most popular genre with the Sixth formers at Hampstead and that Indie is the least popular. After collecting this set of results I have decided to base my music magazine on RnB music.

Graph 5: This graph shows that the most popular genre of magazine being read at our school is gossip, and that of those who do read magazines music magazines are the least popular. As the most popular magazines are gossip I can guess that most magazine readers are girls therefore I will ensure my magazine has a lot of articles directed at a female audience and i will also make sure to include a lot of gossip content in the magazine.

Graph 6: From this set of results i can see that the most read magazine is 'NME' which, surprisingly, focuses on the indie genre which was voted least popular by the respondents. This shows that for a magazine to be successful it has to cover a wide range of genre's and must focus on the quality of its articles so as not to exclude any niche in the market.

Graph 7: This graph has shown that the most popular artists currently are generally Hip-Hop, RnB and pop artists such as Nicki Minaj, Drake and Beyonce, because of this i will make my magazine feature articles on these popular artists to grab the audience of my target audience.

Graph 8: Graph 8 showed that respondents thought that the two most important features of a magazine were the inclusion of new releases and interviews with artists, from this i will make sure that my magazine places emphasis on the people who are are successful at the moment, people soon to be successful and the current charts and that there is a good number of interviews in my magazine.

Draft of front cover

This is a copy of my draft of the front cover of ECHO which has been hand drawn. To create this front page i had to use both dafont and word to search for an appropriate font to use for my masthead and consequently the rest of the magazine. The font i found and used was 'corbel' which i found on word. I chose this font because it is very clear and easy to read, also it is curvilinear so this gives the font a brightness and personality. Also, i had to use the Internet to find an appropriate image of my cover artist, Rihanna, the image had to be taken from the music video for her song, Rudeboy, as this was what i was basing the photo shoot on this style. The features on the page are of the same font and the colours used on them are red and purple, i used these colours because they are bright and follow along with the theme of 'Rudeboy'.This front cover also has a barcode on it, and above that, the isuue nu,ber and date of release of the magazine.

Music magazine flat plan

I have created a flat plan for my music magazine, the purpose of this is to plan out what will be in the the magazine and identify where all the different articles and features will go. The flat plan also gives us an idea of the esssence of the issue, and how it should be portrayed on the front page acording to its inside articles.

first draft layout of music magazine contents page

This is the first draft of my layout of the contents page of my music magazine, the page is organised into three columns so that the page looks organised and sleek. The contents list is surrounded by images of the artists within the magazine.
The background colour is a metallic grey which is plain and so will not detract from the main articles or the contetnts list but will gove the magazine a sleek look emphassing the genre of music and the persona of the artists with in the magazine.
Under each of the images is a brief description of the person in the picture, why they are there and the page number their feature will be found on.

First draft of Front cover Music Magazine

This is my first, very basic, draft of the front cover layout of my music magzine. The blue boxes represent where the cover features will be placed; these features are place around and behind the key image, this is to keep the focus of the front cover on the cover artist and also to follow the convntions of XXL magazine which I am emulating. The only feature which covers the main image will be the one that corresponds to the cover artist and the colouring of this feature will be a part of the colour-code of this edition. The font of this feature will be the largest on the page so that eyes go straight from the image to this headline

Music magazine research

Music magazine Questionnaire

Conventions of an XXL contents page

Conventions of an XXL front cover

Target audience research

Layout research

Graphs and Evalutaion of data.

EVALUATION OF FINDINGS:

After receiving the responses from my questionnaire, I have gathered the data and consolidated it all into 6 graphs which tell me the collective answers from Sixth formers, students and parents to the questions I have asked.

Findings:

Graph 1 shows me that most people are unlikely to buy the school magazine on a weekly basis; this tells me that I will have to work to create a USP of my magazine and tells me that I cannot expect to have the widest possible audience.                                                                                                    

Graph2 shows me that, overall, people are most interested in seeing the achievements of our school and are least concerned with reading about school league tables; from this I have decided to include a range of achievements within all subjects and that, if any, only a small feature on school league tables will be needed.

Graph 3 tells me that the majority of people would like the school magazine to either be free or below 50p, because of this I will make my magazine free in order to not dismiss the audience of the magazine who will not purchase it if it is above 50p in price.

Graph 4 demonstrates that, collectively, most audience members believe images to be the most important feature of a magazine’s front page, due to this I will make my front cover dominated by one key image and will feature only limited amounts of text.

Graph 5 reveals to me that few people purchase any magazine more frequently than once a month; this tells me that I will have to make my magazine a monthly one in order to keep the interest of my audience.

 Graph 6 displays that there is an evenly spread opinion as to whether the school magazine follows the schools colour code, if anything, the graph suggests slightly that most people think it is irrelevant; because of this mixed response I will be able to loosely follow the colour code of the school whilst keeping the basic colours but being free to change them.