Main Task: Evaluation Question 1

EVALUATION QUESTION 1:
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
At the start of this coursework I had to analyse and evaluate the conventions, the denotations and connotations that were presented on the front cover of the music magazine called “KING”. During the analysis and evaluation of what is featured on the cover I have managed to pick up and use the right conventions on my own music magazine so I can attract the correct audiences.

An example of a typical magazine convention is a very large masthead at the top centre of my front cover. A majority of today’s music magazines do this, such as Rolling Stone magazines.
By having a large masthead with a striking colour at the top centre of the front cover, it is able to attract attention to itself when it is in retailers due to the font size and it’s bold, heavy font. Because the masthead is powerful, it helps represent what type of genre magazine it is by seeing it without looking at it in detail. My mastheads colouring is eye catching because most magazines do not tend to use that type of colour.

On the front of my cover I have also have an image on the right side of the page which is one individual photo at a medium long shot. The stance of the person in the image and the camera shot both work well together as the stance is powerful and it helps connote power to the intended target audience. A single person image on the front cover is a common convention of music magazines which I why I chose to follow it.

An example of it used in a popular magazine Vibe is shown here:

In addition, the image on my front cover is on a plain gray background surrounded by a simple colour scheme which helps denote the simplicity of the magazine which is similar to the cover of vibe magazine, shown above.

Alongside my masthead, I have tried to recreate a legit looking music magazine by using typical magazine features such as cover lines, a simple eye catching colour scheme, a bar code and price.
These are typically used conventions in any type of magazine as it is what makes a vast majority of magazine front covers. I have 2 different cover lines which are different but match the colour scheme to help attract audiences as they stand out enough to be eye-catching.
It is a typical of magazines to place the barcode on the right side of the front cover as shown by these covers:
I have attempted to challenge this typical convention by placing my barcode on the bottom left side of the screen. I choose to put it on the left side of my cover because it was easily placed there as there was no room on the right side.

Also alongside the conventions I have mentioned and used, I have included a banner which promotes the largeness and status of the magazine at the top above the masthead.


This type of banner helps promote and sell magazines by attracting buyers into purchasing the magazine as it claims it is ‘the best in hip-hop!’ many magazines incorporate this convention as it makes the magazine cover more prestigious if it is seen as the best in the country or best in the genre, which is why I decided to follow this convention.
On my contents page I have followed the typical conventions of a magazine contents page by laying out my contents page vertically. But what I have decided to do different is to lay out the vertical columns to the right of the contents instead of the left side which is how the way magazines will lay out their contents page. I decided to do this as although magazines will place it on the left side, a majority of magazines do also place it on the right side of the cover so I knew it was acceptable, and a chance to make it look different.

An example of what I did for my contents is below:

Here are examples of how magazines usually lay out their contents:

With my front cover and contents page I used only simple colours to help draw eyes toward my magazine. I used four colours which were black, white, gray and brown. Due to the contrast of the brown and gray background, it allowed for my title to be eye-catching which is what most magazine front covers attempt to do. A majority of magazines will use a simple colour scheme that is no more than 3 or 4 colours because it allows for it to be simple and memorable because of the contrast of small amount of colours, an example of this would be the KING magazine at the top of this question.

23. Main Task: Post Production Feedback

22. Main Task: Double Page Spread FINAL

21. Main Task: Contents Page FINAL

20. Main Task: Front Cover FINAL

19. Main Task: Manipulated Photos

I thought this would be a good contents page picture to use because the person in the picture is looking upwards, which I thought would have been perfect to use as if he was looking up at the contents page title which would add a touch authenticity to the contents page.

I thought a close up of this picture would be a good editors note as the person in the image has a serious face which would be good for editor note use.

I decided to use this photo as the pose, stance and camera shot were perfect for an ideal front cover as there's a lot it could denote.

I didn't use this because the photo because the pose isn't as good as I thought it could be as compared to what I actually choose.

18. Main Task: FC, CP, DPS Mock Ups

17. Main Task: Mood board

16. Main Task: Case Study of a Publishing House

Case Study of a Publishing House

The publishing house I am going to do a case study on is MusicMags. MusicMags is a
magazine distribution publishing house for music instruments. When this
business was created, many publishers had joined together to form the
MMPA. In 1998 the Music Magazine Authorized Dealer Program was created, which was the former name of MusicMags. The MMPA has two primary purposes that they mention: to encourage positive perceptions and acceptance of musician-oriented magazines throughout all of segments of the music products industry and to facilitate the most efficient, most cost effective distribution and sale of music magazines in music retail outlets possible.

The music genre that this publishing house focuses and specializes on is mainly
rock and instrumental genres. This is shown through by some magazines such as:
Revolver, Music connection and EQ. MusicMags media portfolio of magazines manages to very successfully target their audience providing them with high standard magazines. Considering
the genre of these magazines they are most likely targeting audiences of people that are 15 – 30. It can be assumed that the magazines published by this publishing house are aimed towards those who are white people that are working to middle class because there are seen listening to genres such as rock and are interested in instrument solos especially acoustic guitars and electric
guitars. This also supports the white stereotype as a lot of people do believe that white people are more into rock than other genres such as rap which is what my magazine is. It is possible that they do target a black demographic audience but not a young age range since the magazine that targets the black audience is a jazz magazine and a lot of young black people are not into jazz while as black people in their late 30s – 40s enjoy jazz.

My magazine is a rap magazine as mentioned before and because the genre is rap and
it’s a genre they don’t publish it can help diversify the publishing house
range of magazines, this would attract a larger audience for them, help them make money and help get their name out to a wider demographic. This new genre of magazine would attract a wider range of people, mainly young teenagers due the fact that young teenagers are not interested in what other magazines this publishing house has to offer. Also, this new genre appeals more so to the age group the publishing house tries to attract because rap has a very vast audience which the publishing house doesn’t target. Many publishing houses have their own interests but because there is very limited information on this specific publishing house so the business interests cannot be mentioned, this a con as it does not allow for any magazine producers to know the aims of the business, and the business cannot fully reach out to advertisers and retailers. The business has no other interests other than publishing their magazines and making a profit.

15. Main Task: Profiling your Audience

THE BLENCH! Magazine Reader: Michael 18, the utmost typical teenager who is in his second year of college, he lives in an strong urban environment which breeds grime and rap music, it greatly influences his choice of his hobbies, his attitude, and how he lives his life. Hobbies include, gym and football. He engages with grime and rap music endlessly throughout the day, no matter his mood, happy, sad, or angry it’s something he will always turn toward. He carries a fully loaded iPod that has the latest grime, as well as the classic archive of old grime from the early 2000 and rap from the late 80s When he is not listening to music he is following the attitudes as well as the jokes that the grime and rap genre presents with all who are around him. Although the grime and rap scene presents a dark side to it, Michael acknowledge it but chooses not to the follow that side that some artists make music about.

14. Main Task: Audience Research

The questions I had decided on asking people for my audience research are as follows:

What age are you? 16? 17? 18? 19?

What is your genre of music?

What do you look for in a magazine?

What age group do you think a grime/rap magazine should appeal to?

What catches your eye about a magazine cover? The images of the artist or the cover lines?

Would you prefer to see a male or female artist on the front cover?

How often do you buy magazines? Once a week? Once a month? Once a year?

First part of audience research

Second part of audience research

  

Third part of audience research



Forth part of audience research

I asked people on both Blackberry Messenger and Facebook, the social networking site. I made sure to ask different genders, and different ethnic races to see if there would be an equal want for the same things seen in a music magazine.

My audience research helped me determine what age group should my magazine be aimed at as everyone in the research had said it should be aimed people aged no more than 21 but no less than 12.

13. Main Task: Double Page Spread Conventions Diagram

12. Main Task: Double Page Spread Textual Analysis

11. Main Task: Contents Page Conventions Diagram

10. Main Task: Front Cover Conventions Diagram

9. Main Task: Front Cover Textual Analysis

Denotation: The magazine cover consists of a black and white photograph of a man posing and looking directly at the camera. It is a medium long shot showing his head, arms, and waist. He is standing up with his hands into his pockets. The background of the photograph is white and the photograph covers the majority of the magazine. Behind the mans head is the King magazine masthead and infront of him are 9 cover lines in black, gray and yellow text. The mans name is in bigger capital letters than the cover lines is in gray. The bar code is at the bottom left of the magazine.

Masthead: The King Masthead is quite noticeable on this magazine cover due to it's large black bold font, the font used is very basic but it stands out prominently as it contrasts the white background as well as the clothing Jay Z is wearing. The name of the magazine is 'King' which could be suggesting a denotation that it is 'King' of magazines. King implies that there is authority of something, or people.

Character: The cover photograph is of one of the most successful rappers in the world, Jay Z.

Composition: He is posed in a slight relaxed but weary state with his hands in his pocket and his head tilted back.

Costume: His clothing is very simple, a white t shirt with black jeans while wearing 2 chains and a black and white watch, which help support his image of being a gangster rapper. Because of what he is wearing, it has helped set out the layout to be quite strong and noticeable as a front cover.

NVC: His non verbal communication is relaxed while still having an element of uncertainty of what or who he is looking at.

Setting: The setting is very minimal as it is just a white background.

Cover-Lines: The main cover-line is meant to intrique the reader about whats in the magazine as it says 'Diddy, Code of Silence - clip presentation' because it is about a very famous artist and it says Code of Silence clip presentation, it helps to persuade the reader to want to purchase the magazine. The layout of the coverline makes it a slight bit more noticeable than the rest so it is more likely to be seen first. The rest of the cover-lines are as what you would expect on a hip-hip/rap magazine, they mention the most famous and known rappers today, eg 'Tupac is alive!!!' which is surely to get people involved with hip-hop/rap wanting to read the magazine.

Target Audience: Because of the type of magazine, who is mentioned in the coverlines as well as who is the on the front cover photograph the likely target audience owuuld be male and females who are interested in these artists and type of music who are in their midteens (16) to people who are becoming fairly aged adults (30).

8. Main Task: Introduction

For my this coursework unit I have been asked to create a front cover, contents page and a double page spread for a music magazine. The genre of the music magazine and the audience that needs to be targeted will be left up to me to decide. This blogging site is where I intend to upload my magazines progress.

7. Preliminary Task: Contents Page FINAL

6. Preliminary Task: Front Cover FINAL

5. Preliminary Task: Front Cover & Contents Page Mock Ups

4. Preliminary Task: Front Cover Conventions Diagram

3. Preliminary Task: Front Cover Textual Analysis

Denotation: The magazine cover consists of a photograph of a male actor looking directly at the camera. It is a medium close up showing his torso upward. He is standing up while holding a prop (machete). The background is rusty, dark and gray, and the photograph covers a huge majority of the cover. Behind the photograph of the actor, is the ‘Empire’ Masthead, and on top of the photograph is the main cover-line which is in red capital letters. The cover lines are on the left of the photograph of the actor in white and gray capitals. There is a barcode on the middle right of the cover.

Masthead: The Empire masthead is very noticeable due to the huge red coloured font. The entire word ‘empire’ is in capital letters and is big enough in size to take up the top quarter of the cover, it is likely to grab attention due to it being a very famous logo and magazine that was first published in 1989. The word ‘Empire’ means a group of nations or people ruled over by an emperor, empress, or other powerful sovereign or government.

Character: The cover photograph is of a very successful American male actor ‘Brad pitt’

Composition: He is posed holding a machete in a very smug style. His body language suggests he is confident in himself. His pose with the machete could be him suggesting that he is aggressive.
Costume: He is wearing a very old type of winter coat which is possibly from an older era than that we are in. He is holding a machete which is a violent object to be holding. The coat has been chosen because it was primarily a type of coat that was worn in the years that the film he is in starring in has taken place to try give a feel for what the film could be like. The machete was chosen to add some aggression to the photo to help add effect to the type of film.

NVC: His non verbal communication is smug, showing confidence in himself. He is looking into the camera with a slightly arrogant expression.

Lighting: The lightning he is in is high key. Half of his face is in shadow and half of it is being illuminated.

Setting: The background is dark and gray, giving a gloomy feel to it which gives the idea that the film he is starring in is rough and depressing.
Cover-lines: The main cover-line says ‘INGLORIOUS EPIC IS HERE!’ This is to express how ‘epic’ the films release is for it to finally be here. The word epic refers to the fact the film is supposedly going to be an impressive viewing because it has hit cinemas.

Target Audience: The target audience would be both for male and female who are most likely 30 – 55. They would be reading it because they have a definite interest in the newest films that are to be released. They are most likely film fanatics if they are buying this magazine to be reading up about all different types of film.

Induction - Movie poster Texual analysis