During my Media A level Course I analysed several music magazine; front covers, content pages and double page spreads. I analysed the convention of a music magazine and examined them on how and why they were presented. Through the knowledge and understanding I gained I was able to collect enough basis to create my own music magazine. I used similar features from the Vibe magazine that I analysed. I included a mid shot as my central image in order to give a direct mode of address, followed by the anchorage text to draw the reader in and to give them a hint of what will be in the magazine. The use of no more than four colours used in a real music magazine is effective because it gives the magazine a theme which I also applied to my magazine. The three colours that I used (gray, yellow and blue) combined well together and it’s attractive to the viewers eyes. Having the masthead ‘J-STAR ’in a 3D effect dominating the font cover, not only makes it stand out from the rest of the other text used in the magazine to show that it’s the title it also represents the genre of the magazine but it also helps anyone identify the genre of the magazine. For example, from looking at ‘VIBE’ magazine: vibe is short for vibration, vibration from music - Hip-Hop and R&B tend to have a lot of base so you can immediately tell that it’s a R&B and Hip-Hop music magazine. The same can be said about my media product ‘J-STAR’ (Jesus star easy and memorable) The letter ‘J’ stands for Jesus, from reading the rest of the text on the front cover instantly the read will acknowledge that ‘J-STAR’ is a gospel magazine. Like most magazine I added buzz word like ‘exclusive’ which stands out to persuade the customers into buying this ‘exclusive’ magazine. As you can see I made sure that the same colours and fonts used on my front cover were use on my contents page in order to keep a fixed house style. The layout of the content page is simple and well structured: the contents page is made up of just three categories to keep it organised and easy to read, the centre image of the main host of the magazine. I chose to merge some images along with page numbers on the side like a colaj rather than following the usual convention where the image is put right next to the wordings. My style of presentation is unique and makes the contents page more intriguing to look at and it also brings out a modern atmosphere.
The image of teenagers is generally portrayed negatively by the media now-a-days; the most common stereotypes of teenagers (partially ethnic minority (if they wear a hoodie they will automatically be ladled as criminals) are that they are rebellious, drug abusers, promiscuous, alcoholics or usually participating in anti-social social behaviour. This is shown in many aspects by the media, whether it is on a soap teenage storyline or news headline. However my magazine shows a clear positive representation of the specific social group of black teenage girls. I use different methods to impose a positive image of black girls for example through my the double page spread I present my artist as a courageous and independent young woman; which is shown through the interview where she talks about the struggles she went faced before she became a gospel sing, she not only explains how she overcame them but she also gives a special advice of how the reader can overcome their problems to be successful – “it ‘s not about how much obstacle you face, it’s about the strength you have to overcome them”.- she encourages the reader. I did this so that the reader could have close relationship with the artist and look at her a role model. My artists rebel against the stereotype of christens being boring and religious. Having her wear clothes that are in fashion makes her more modern and appealing to the target audience. I believe that my magazine challenges the negative stereotypes that the media labels young people today in society.
The media institution company that I would like to distribute my magazine would be BBC Magazine company which is owned by the government (censorship) by all mean my magazine will have to meet the general guide lines of; educating, informing and entertaining which I believe my magazine has these qualities, the way that I represent my magazine shows that it has an inspiring and friendly brand image. The mainstream magazine published by the BBC Magazine Company is targeted at different social group – Adults, teen, Pre-teen and per school. BBC is popular through their TV and Radio channels targeting at both adults and children. BBC would be successful in distributing my magazine because my magazine will bring a wider range of different type of audiences.
My magazine is targeted at the mature teenage black girl aged 15 to 18, who are interested in gospel grime music. The reason as to why I chose this specific target audience is because nowadays we don’t see much teenage gospel magazines that appeal to them instead we see more Hip Hop, R&B, Rock etc. therefore I want to do something different and as a gospel listener, I know things that they like and I value their interest. The reason why I chose to have an ethic minority female in the font cover is because it will appeal to the target audience as they are an ethic minority so they will automatically assume that they can relate and will be keen to read the magazine. I observed and took notes on this particular social group and I noticed that they have a typical teenage fashion sense which is the reason why the artist on my magazine is wearing a hoodie. However as I analysed my magazine I become aware of, that my magazine can draw in a secondary audience which are black boys who are interested I n gospel grime I would say this because gospel grime is a genre that a lot of black boys are starting to listen to now. Regarding my media product, my magazine doesn’t contain feminine colours, on the contents page I show that I interview a lot of male gospel grime artists which may additionally appeal my secondary audience.
During the process of constructing my media product I learnt a great deal about different technologies. In order to make my product I used various technology; first of all I used a computer/internet to create a blog so that I could save all my documents and research database (I was able update my progress, showing evidence of pictures). The internet allowed me to research on the conventions of magazines to help me with my own. I used a professional digital camera to take pictures for my magazine, the fact the camera that I used featured 18.9 megapixels it meant that the images were going to come out clear and professional. With the SLR digital camera I was able to learn different camera effect, more importantly I learnt how to use it. In the making of my media product I mainly used Adobe Photoshop and illustrator software, I was able to use different effects and edit a photo like the photo on the left (in Photoshop), for example, the first thing I did was to use smudge tool to smudge off what I didn’t want to be seen (the number) the second step was to created another layer of the same image but this time I made the image black and white, I then carefully cropped out what I wanted in colour (the actual phone)which I then merged it the on top of the other layer which then to made the phone stand out in colour. I really enjoyed making this image becaus experienced with other tools. Overall the different technology source that I have used helped me abundantly with the making of my front cover, double page spread and contents page in several ways. Without the technology it would have been much harder to keep track of what I was meant to be doing and also my work would have been less professional.
the same effect was used in this image
Looking back at my preliminary task that I had to complete at the beginning of this course; although it was a simple task of creating a college magazine using some of the basic tool in illustrator like the gradient and the type tool mainly (only took me two lesson to complete), I believe that it helped build my confident and made me feel comfortable in using the software. In my preliminary task I showed lack of knowledge of the conventions of a magazine. Looking at the choice of colours, I clearly didn’t show a house style which I believe that it wasn’t suitable for the reader because the colours are all over the place. The presentational is poor, no special effect or signs of any other tool used (magic wand tool) which made it look unprofessional.
However in my final music magazine was able to apply the magazine conventions such as having a house style as you can see the three main colours that I have used. Using the skills that I learnt in Photoshop and illustrator I was able to crop a mid shot image that I took and feather it, I was also able to use the font effect to make the text more intriguing e.g. drop shadow. I could go far as to say that my preliminary task contents is appalling, no effort was shown there is many criticism for the contents page; first the colours are not consistent with the colours in the front cover, The images are not enough and they also do not have a page number, the name of the actual magazine name is not where to been seen, It looks cheap and unprofessional.
Conversely my final music magazine contents page shows a good presentational skill and consistent colour scheme from the front cover. More pages are added which makes it look more realistic and interesting to read. I have truly enjoyed doing all the tasks, I’m glad that I have improved and that I became more creative and artistic, I’m pleased of what I have achieved with the final outcome of my music magazine task. Receiving audience feedback was very helpful and important from the beginning of my journey in this course. Having feedback from teacher, peers and target audience allowed me to see the changes I could make to make my magazine more appealing and draw the target audience in.
