Evaluation

The genre of my magazine is pop music and to portray the conventions of real pop music magazines, I focused on colour schemes, the use of mise-en-scene in images and linguistic terminology that is stereotypical of this genre. I have learnt that in a pop music magazine, bright colour schemes, fun and lively images and abbreviations and slang phrases are used throughout. I did this by using images from concerts and from looking back at my research of several music magazines of different genres to compare the generic conventions of all of them. From this I was able to understand that the images used for articles are very simple in terms of setting but also very fun in terms of facial expressions and props. I took this on board for my double page spread and used a plain white background to represent the simplicity of the photo shoot and represented the fun of it through costume (a pink feather boa etc.), props (a large inflatable pink microphone) and also the facial expressions used by the model. This is because the magazine needed to relate to the target audience, which is 11-15 year old girls, because they needed to understand the magazine and be interested in the content. For example, my front cover has a pink, yellow and white colour scheme which relates to the target audience because they are fun, lively and link well with one another. The target audience are quite young meaning they will want a magazine they can enjoy and is fun to look at. To allow the pages to look like they belong to one magazine, I kept the same colour scheme on the front cover, contents page and double page spread. I also attracted my audience through the linguistic terminology. For example I used abbreviations, slang and modern day phrases. Such as, ‘celebs’ instead of celebrity, ‘pics’ instead of picture and ‘OMG’ as an abbreviation for oh my god. I included this in my magazine because it related well to the target audience as that sort of language is used by people of that age today allowing them to feel comfortable reading the magazine as it relates to their own personality.  The social group of my target audience is teenagers around the age of 11 - 15. There are many stereotypes of this social group that I have used within my magazine. For example, I used my colour scheme to represent the stereotype of teenage girls’ favourite colours being pink which I used a lot in my magazine. Also, there are many other stereotypes of this social group. Such as, teenagers are seen as quite wild and lively so I used the layout of my magazine to represent this.
               
The media institution that might distribute my media product could be The Bauer Media Group. The Bauer Media Group is a multi-platform media institution based around magazines and radio showing they have background knowledge of both magazines and music. This media company have a lot of music related brands such as The Hits Radio, Smash Hits Radio and 4 music. They also distributed Heat, Q and Closer magazine. This allows me to believe that the background knowledge this company has in a combination of magazine brands and music will benefit my magazine because it is based on pop music meaning that it relates to a number of people. As this company have distributed different music brands, it means that they will understand this media products music genre and the social group they want to relate to.

From this process, I have learnt a number of things about technology. For example, one is how to filter a background without changing the fore ground. I learnt to do this by layer masking as I erased around the part of the image that I wanted to keep the same and put it onto the background once I had filtered it. This made the images in my magazine stand out and they look more professional. I used this on a number of images in my magazine. Additionally, I have also learnt how to change the colour of part of an image without changing the colour of all of it. I used this technique on my double page spread for the microphone in the main image. Originally, the colour of the microphone was red. To make it fit in with the colour scheme and genre more, I thought it would be a good idea to turn it pink. Again, I used layer masking by changing the brightness and contrast of the entire image to pink and erased around the microphone. I then layer masked it with the original image to make it look as if the microphone was originally pink. These are all techniques I learnt since the beginning of the unit representing the progress I have made since the preliminary task. At this point of the preliminary task, I knew very little about how to take photographs professionally and how to structure a magazine. However, from doing the preliminary task, I learnt basic techniques and strategies which helped me think about how to make my magazine look professional and sophisticated. During this task I learnt how to create a front cover and contents page for a school magazine. By looking at examples of this task, I learnt what sort of picture I needed to take to relate to the genre of the magazine. Due to this, I decided on taking a picture of a sixth form student stood in front of the school entrance. This is because it will be automatically clear to the audience what the magazine is about. I then chose that the name of the magazine would be ‘Believe, achieve’ because it is motivating and relates to the motto of a school. After, I thought about the structure of the magazine and what I should do to make it look professional. To do this, I thought about magazines that I have read in the past and what I know from that. This meant that I chose that, for the contents page, all the text would be on one side of the page with the image on the other side. And for the front cover, the image would be to one side with text on the other and the heading at the top of the page. I did this because from the knowledge I already knew of magazines, this layout was most sophisticated and professional looking. To structure these magazine pages, I used publisher and Photoshop to edit the images. After doing this task, I had a clear idea on what I needed to do for the real task and how to make it look like a realistic magazine.

Double page spread

I made sure that the content of the article was about something that the audience would be interested in, could relate to and understand. This is why I chose the article to be about a female singer talking about her everyday lifestyle. This is because it allows the audience to believe that someone they idolise or look up to are similar to them and audiences also enjoy learning personal information about celebrities they are fans of. By achieving this, I mentioned things in the interview to do with the singers’ relationship status and the sort of people she is interested in. Also, the structure of the article gives the reader an indication of the singers’ personality because it is in a question and answer format meaning that all the information on the double page spread is said directly from the said person instead of a journalist or interviewer giving the reader the information about them. I also made sure that the length of the article was not too time-consuming to make sure that the audience stayed interested and engaged in the content without being overloaded with unnecessary information that they have very little interest in. This links to the stereotypes of teenagers being lazy and having a short attention span. This is shown through the way that the text within the double page spread is not too detailed or overly full of information.
There are two images on the double page spread. The main image relates well to the convention of a pop music magazine as it is fun yet simple. The pink in the picture links well with the background of the right side of the page and the black contrasts well with the background it is on and links with the colour of the text. The smaller image which is placed in the middle of the article relates to the content of the interview. This is because it is an image of the related person with the dog she was just previously talking about. It allows the audience to see that what is said in the article is real. Also, my research showed that people of this age group will enjoy a piece of writing a lot more with visuals than just text. Both images used on the page relate to each other because the person in them is in the same costume and the two images have the same setting.  
Additionally, I made sure that everything on the page was aligned. For example, the placing of the columns is aligned so they are all along one straight line on the page. Also, the main image is central to the heading meaning that it is in the middle of the left hand side of the page and equal distance from the right side of the double page and the far left side. The bottom of the main image is also aligned with the pink side of the page as it is all along the bottom of the page. The alignment allows the page to look professional because the layout is neat and is also eye-catching and interesting to look at. The heading I have used is at the top of the left hand side of the double page and takes up about ¼ of the left hand side. The sub-heading is directly underneath and they are both placed above the main image and to the left of the text. I arranged it like this because it will be the first thing the reader will read as they read from left to right. This is important because the heading and sub-heading give the reader a basic outline of the content of the article allowing the reader to make a decision on how interested they are in it.  

Contents Page

For the contents page, I made sure that the colour scheme was similar to the other pages of the magazine. This meant I used pink and white colours to relate to the rest of the magazines colour scheme. I chose these colours because the research that I found for pop music magazines was that the colours used are very bright and lively and the pink related to my target audience of young teenage girls. This is because a stereotype of this age group and gender is that their favourite colour is pink meaning my magazine relates to the stereotype of my target audience.
                I used the same font for all of the text written and a different font for the page numbers and page heading. This is because the heading and numbers has a font that is bold and stands out so the reader will be drawn to them. This is important because they give the reader basic yet necessary information that they need to lead onto specific details about the content of the magazine that they need. The remaining text is in a smaller font to represent that this text is less important than the rest and only relates to the content in larger font.
                There are four images on the page in which two of the images have been merged together because they are from the same article. These two images are taken from the same article as my double page spread so due to the fact that they have the same background, I decided to merge the two images together to look like one image. This is because it lets the audience know that they relate to one another and are from the same article. The other two images are of Olly Murs performing. These images link to the genre of the magazine as he is a singer who performs pop music and images of him on tour performing in my magazine is something that the audience would want to see because there are not many other images like that. The structure of one of the two images was a perfect shape to be put as the main image on the contents page because it is portrait and the same length as the column of text to the left of it. The other image is the same shape as the two images from the main article which meant I could put the three of them in a banner along the bottom of the page and write the heading and page number either below or above the image. To enable that the audience knows the purpose of the page, I put the heading at the top of the page in large bright font so it is eye-catching for the reader. By looking back over my research, I learnt that most contents pages within pop music magazines have their page numbers and article headlines on the left hand side of the page beside the main image. This is because people read from left to right so they can read that information which is useful and necessary before reading the headlines underneath and above the images.
                To relate and interest my target audience, I made sure the storylines relate to both the genre and the target audience. My research showed me that all the stories in a pop music magazine with a similar target audience to mine are all light-hearted, based on celebrities and singers that are very well known and current and have hints of humour within them to make them more exciting. Examples of the headlines I came up with are ‘Battle of the boy band: 1D vs TW!’  ‘We check out Mr Murs on tour’ and ‘OMG! JB in the UK! His week in pics.’ When looking at existing pop music magazines, I found out that they use a lot of abbreviations and slang words such as ‘OMG’ ‘pics’ instead of pictures and ‘check out.’


Front Cover

I wanted to make sure that the genre of the magazine was clear by looking at the front cover because it will be the first thing that the audience will see meaning they need to know whether they will be interested in it or not immediately. I represented the genre (which is pop music) of the magazine through the name. This is because it is called ‘Pop Universe’ which links to the genre because it states the genre within the name whilst being fun and light-hearted which also relates to the target audience of young teenage girls. The genre of my magazine is also represented through my choice of images and straplines as they all relate to the genre by including famous names and pictures of those involved in the pop music community. My main image links in with the genre because it gives off a fun and lively vibe which is a key element of pop music in general.  All of these elements also relate to how I have linked to my target audience of young teenage girls. This is because the fun, lively atmosphere that the front cover is highlighting links with the stereotypes of this age group of girls. My colour scheme of pink, yellow and white also represents a fun and lively atmosphere. This is because they are all bright colours that stand out and link to the stereotypes of pink being a girl’s favourite colour. Additionally, the straplines link to the stereotype of this group in society gossiping as many of the stories included in this magazine are to do with a celebrity and the reader learning gossip about their personal life. For example, a story that I used was ‘Bela tells all about the celeb lifestyle’ which gives the reader the indication that they will be learning a lot of personal information about them by reading the specific article. Also to relate to the genre of the magazine and the target audience, I made sure the mode of address of the front cover was very positive, laid back and fun. This is because I wanted the front cover to be eye catching for those who will be interested in buying it meaning they will have more of a desire to purchase it. The tone represents being laid back by the fact that the layout is not constantly aligned with everything linking to the stereotype of young teenage girls being quite disorganised and messy as the straplines and images are chaotically dotted around the page to represent this. However, at the same time, all of the images and straplines are in some sort of order as they all surround the main image giving that more authority and they are all aligned around the outside of the page.