AS Media Evaluation

Liam Denton

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The two most read magazines I found from my survey were GQ and karrang, this made me realise that my mag should be aimed at some sort of rock audience but also be geared around fashions and the latest looks.

By asking this question I was able to find out the best and most appealing destination for a competition give away to help attract readers.

From this I found that most people prefer footall to any other, which agin is good for a prize and led me to think that there could maybe some sort of section in my mag that informs my readers of other different sports to get involved in but by doining this I would gear my mag towards more males and lose some of my female audience .

In this question I found that all the genres of music where all equally listened to therefor leaving me in the dilemma of ether doing a mag the incorporated all genres of music or just chose one and gear my mag around being a specialist mag and aim it at a niche market.

This again helps me with prizes as I know that the iphone is the most popular phone so if I was to give a phone prize I might be some sort of iphone phone case or something along these lines.

from this it gives me the option to put a section in my mag aimed maybe at the top 10 all time comedy's or best comedy's of this year

From this I know that more than half of the people who filled in the survey prefer facebook and twitter this means that I could set up some sort of twitter page or facebook page to gain extra readers, advertise and maybe put some exclusive content online. This also extends the brand reach of my product which is very important.

Topshop/man is the most shopped that meaning I could give away maybe a free £50 shopping voucher or maybe do a prize in which the winner gets a shopping spree in the shop of there choice.

This again means I could give away some sort of discount on a meal at TGI Fridays to attract readers to buy my magazine in the hope that may buy it for the discount but then like the mag and end up eventually subscribing to a weekly addition.

From this I found that a lot of people are active and enjoy playing sports or hanging with friends so I will have to try and incorporate things into my mag this will attract this types of people.

As expected most people listen to the top chart playing music station, this does not effect the type of magazine I am creating as my mag will be specialised towards indie rock

I aim my magazine at ...

People who like to wear

Age from 16-35music

Like gigs and festivals

Mainly males

Spend money on

Interested in

I feel that my magazine would be similar a similar age group as that of NME except my mag will focus more on home grown

British talent and be mainly based upon indie rock/classic rock music. I feel very strongly that there is a gap in the market for my style of magazine as I don’t believe there is a magazine out there that goes out to find the latest talent coming out of Briton and sits them center stage this would be my USP. My mag will also feature

many of the biggest and already established British acts along with a look back at past acts and groups produced by Briton.

Along with this my mag will also include tips on the latest male fashions and brands, making it a hybrid mag of fashion and

music.

Based on my audience research I have

decided to combine 2 different types of

magazine to create a hybrid genre of male

fashion and indie rock/classic rock. This broadens the audience reach of my magazine meaning it will appeal to a wider audience

My Primary Audience My primary audience for my magazine will be

mainly males. although women will be able to read it I most of my content will be aimed toward the

male sector. The age range of my primary audience will be 16-35 years of age as I believe a large

proportion of he people who listen to and read indie rock and fashion mags are around this age.

Secondary Audience

My secondary audience is people who wouldn't’t necessarily buy my magazine but would pick it

up and read it if it was at a friends house or maybe on a table in a waiting room. Although I

have aimed my mag at a age of 16-35 this doesn't’t mean that these are the only people that can read this as if they are interested in

rock music and fashion then this is the magazine for them.

Audience Idols

During my research I have been looking at the biggest stars in the genre of indie/classic rock so

that I am able to recreate one in my product. Theres stars include the Arctic Monkeys, Jake Bugg and beady eye. Not only are these people

massive in the music world, that all also have very individual and different fashion senses. This is why I thought that a hybrid of rock and fashion would be a good idea. Not only was Liam Gallagher in

oasis and now the current lead singer of Beady Eye but he also owns his own fashion label ‘pretty

green’ further strengthening the link between this genre of music and fashion.

Ideal ReaderThe ideal reader for my product is someone who aspires

to be like Alex Turner or Liam Gallagher . These are people who model themselves on these celebrities and

will copy their hairstyles, fashion and style because they want to be like them. The ideal reader for my magazine are people who are interested in indie rock and like to listen to up and coming artists coming out of Briton.

How does your media product represent particular social

groups?

To appeal to my target audience my cover star has to represent an idealized version of them selves. Also my star must not come across as threatening in order to appeal to as many

consumers as possible.

The following slides are going to show you how Ricky Wilson filters his performances for different audiences

Wearing suit, smart, formal

Positive facial expression, very welcoming to audience

No tie, top buttons undone show scruffy side

Neat, stylish hair

Hands in pocket show laid back. Doesn’t really care

Appealing to a television audience, more pride in appearance needed

Sex symbol for female audience. Young males want to be like him

Denim jacket, connotations with rebellion

Sun glasses. Rebellion, hiding eyes, creates enigma, distances the audience.

Facial expression quit aggressive

Stance masculine and dominate

Ricky would not wear this while preforming a concert or at a festival as it does not represent the image he wants to promote.

This would not be appropriate to wear on a red carpet event or while sitting on the judging panel of the voice as it is far to informal and does not give a professional look

Both outfits represent different

images. The suit gives the impression

of a smart a professional coach

and judge on tv, while the double denim connotes

rebellion, much more of the rock star look. Both of these appeal to different audience

In the photos of my cover star I've tried to make sure he is somebody that my readers would aspire to look and dress like. My star is the same age and gender of my ideal readers. The mise en scene of my pictures portray my star as rebellious. The use of the glasses adds enigma and leaves people wondering who this really is.

My cover star

What kind of media institution might distribute your media

product and why?

My magazine has been produced to rival the likes of NME. This means that a large proportion of our

readers/subscribers will ether be stolen from or still currently readers/subscribers of NME. Due to my mag

being very similar, I don’t see any gap for my mag to be part of the same institution as NME therefore the institution I would publish my magazine with would be bauer media

group.

Bauer media group also publish magazines such as ‘MOJO’, ‘karrang’ and ‘Q’. My magazine also has a fashion element to it so therefore I also believe it would fit well as ‘Q’ also

has a fashion element to it.

I will publish my magazine fortnightly as my magazine focuses mainly on the best and most promising young talent coming straight out of Briton as well as a look back over the greatest

talent, with a special interview every week with a British rock legend. My magazine also will give

out weekly tips on the latest fashions and how to ‘get the look for less’ with will be another weekly

feature.

As my mag is published fortnightly, this means I can not charge a high price, so therefore it will

cost about £2.50-£3 depending if there is a special feature or not.

NME’s website

By having such thing as videos, blogs, film and tv and shop improves there brand reach

Digital version of the mag improves brand reach and creates a unique selling point

Having features such as this draw in readers and keeps the audience coming back

Merchandise

apps

Festival stage ‘after dark’

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

How did you attract/address your audience?

Masthead

Cover star

Main image

Anchored text

Free give away

Features

Unique selling point

Use of the word free draws the audience in as it is something extra that they are getting that they didn’t have to pay for

The masthead stand out because of its size and the dominance it has on the front cover. Also by sticking to conventions and having it in capitals it means that my audience will trust my magazine as its something there used to seeing

By offering a lot of exclusive content such as interview, it

creates a reason for consumers to by my magazine over my

many competitors

Colour

The use of the colours yellow and white on my cover as they contrast nicely with the colour read. Also the white and red are associated with Briton, and with my magazine being all about British talent and stars this works really well. Finally the colour red is often associated with rebellion and so is rock/indie music especially during the 70s 80s and 90s

The heading is the same colour yellow as that used on the front cover. This keep the house style and helps to build brand recognition

By using pictures to emphasis articles, it draws the read to begin to flick through the magazine

This ‘plus’ box contains the regular features, that most of our regular customers will be familiar with. Although they're regular features, the uses of the black background with the white and yellow writing on means they still stand out to the customers that are less familiar with he magazine

Brand logo in the top right hand corner to create brand recognition

Pull quote to make who ever picks it up want to buy it to read rest of the interview.

Web page so that audience can get in touch over ticket, extending the brand reach. feature is clearly

displayed in the top left corner so that is catches the eye of the reader and draws theme in.

Colours keeping to the house style of the magazine

Pull quote to create interest and give a little insight into what it about without having to read the whole article

Star completely dominates page, audience know the artist so want to read about him, those who don’t know him want to find out more so read on.

• a reparative colour scheme consisting of red, yellow, white, black and shades of gray.

• All the colours can connotes masculinity in some way so therefore fits my target audience well but are not to masculine to detour any female consumers.

• These colours also all contrast nicely making all my features stand out.

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

Front cover

I started by inserting my chosen picture into photoshop

I then duplicated the layer so that I had 2 of this picture.

Hide one of the layers then select the magic wand tool on the left hand side of the screen

I then clicked and dragged he tool around my cover star deleting the background around him. (picture o the right is what I ended up with)

I then unhide the original layer of the picture and then imported a picture of the union jack to begin working on creating my header

Begin adding text over the top of the union jack saying ‘after dark’ which is the name of my magazine

After playing with different fonts this is what my header ended looking like when I as finished

To make my cover look more professional I wanted my cover stars head to be in front of my header as he is the main selling point of the magazine. This is where creating he 2 layers of my cover star and deleting the background of 1 becomes important

I just selected the union jack layer in the bottom right.

Then dragged it below my duplicated layer of my cover star

This makes it look like its actually behind his head and pushes my star off he page. Giving my cover depth as show on the right

Finally I just began adding my text and features to fill up my cover plus little detail such as barcodes, price, issue number and date.

Contents page

First I inserted my chosen image

Then I decided wanted to make it black and white. To do this I selected the vibrancy tool

Then it was just a case of playing around with the levels until I found he shades that I thought looked the best.

To create my features column and ‘plus’ box, I simply used the rectangle tool to draw myself 2 rectangles and places them where I wanted. I slightly tilted 1 of the boxes to all to the design of my contents page

Finally I just added in all my features and and extra image to give my page more colour and extra content for my readers

Double page spread

Begin by inserting chosen image with background already

removed using same technique as the front cover

I then inserted a background of a ally way behind my cover star to make it look like he was there

I then had a play around with the vibrance and exposure layers and ended up with the picture below which I think is an improvement as my star looks a lot clearer and stands out more.

After that there wasn’t much else to do apart from add my text. So I started by using th rectangle tool and drew out some whit boxes to add text onto

Before adding the text I first inserted my headings to make the page stand out the the reader and draw them in.

this was the final design I ended up with.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of

constructing this product?