My Media Product

My Media Product

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My Target Audience

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My Target Audience

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Main Task: Evaluation 7

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

When it came to planning and preparing my main task, i felt i had acquired slightly more experience from my preliminary task. The preliminary task only required me to research three similar student magazines, but the research was not in depth at all. I think that research is vital in deciding, ultimately, everything on your magazine, if i were to do the same amount of research i did for the preliminary task for my main task, my magazine would be solely on my terms, and that is poor because my magazine is not just for me, but for a varied audience.

Here is a link to my preliminary task research:
http://danbmedia.blogspot.com/2009/09/preliminary-task-research.html

I admit, my time organisation is terrible, my preliminary task was rushed because of it. Since then the construction of a time plan (see blog here:
http://danbmedia.blogspot.com/2010/01/time-plan.html) has really helped me gain a solid structure to do my production in. for example i had planned when i was to take my photos and which lessons i would spend doing either the: contents, double-page, or cover, this helped me meet deadlines etc. Despite having a time plan, i feel as though i still need to work on my organisation of time.

The preliminary task only required me to take a mid-shot as my main image, the main task however, allowed me to be more creative with my camera shots and in doing so broadened my view on camera shots and framing. Lighting was an important issue that i wasn't aware of when doing the preliminary task, fortunately i was able to use various lighting equipment in the main task. the lighting equipment was pretty straight forward but its results were far better than i anticipated it really did encapsulate the photo and gave me a well lit image to use on my cover.

Dialogue was never really an issue in the preliminary task because a double-page spread was not needed in this. The main task however needed me to create a double-page with text appropriate to my target audience. At first i didn't see a need to use appropriate language because i didn't think that my English was being scrutinized, for example there are some words (scrutinize as an example) that i use, but my target audience would not, and so i really had to change my vocabulary to appeal to my audience. My previous front cover, in my opinion was too "blocky" and i don't think it flowed well, however with my main task cover, i believe i have achieved a good result based on my research.

Some features i have lifted from my preliminary task onto my main one, for instance the bleeding effect on the main image. But i wasn't as technological advanced when making the preliminary as i am now, you may be able to tell that the skin tone on my model is rather blotchy, compared to my main task where i have managed to blend the properties to make for a more even tone.

The audience research that i undertook was a big help when deciding where to place images etc. I was not aware of the important role the audience play in the creation of a magazine. In my main task i referred to the audience research i did and created a product based on those credentials. My double page spread posed the most problems during production, i couldn't decide which font to use for the text just above the main body, blue or red. So to solve this problem i consulted some of my target audience through Facebook, and they were unanimous in choosing red because it was "inkeeping with the overall style of the magazine" and "better suited to your audience"

The biggest thing that i have learnt since my preliminary task is the importance of audience research, everything i wanted to do had to be approved by my audience before i could do it.

Main Task: Evaluation 6

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

I have expanded my knowledge of the DSLR camera. For this task i learnt the various features of photography , such as determining which camera shot would be appropriate and get best results, and i also learnt a fair bit about lighting techniques. I was fortunate to have lighting equipment, which i was almost clueless about, so i had to learn quickly, luckily due to this i learnt a lot about lighting from doing this task.

Since the preliminary task i have learnt how to blend on Photoshop. This proved invaluable when trying to even out skin tones without giving off a plastic vibe to the model. A minor thing that i learnt was that i could simply drag a selected item onto a new piece, minor feature but something that i learnt which helped my progress.

With this new software technology (i.e Quark Express, PhotoShop,) I think that it is easier for amateurs to create a product similar to mine. New software is increasingly becoming easier to comprehend and for this reason i believe that it is getting easier for amateurs to create a media product.

Blogging has proved invaluable for keeping track of the creation of my media product. Since creating my blog, I have found that it is far greater for keeping a production log than written work, largely because a blog allows me to go back to a previous post and edit whenever a new idea strikes.

Main Task: Evaluation 4/5

Who would be the audience for your media product?

How did you attract/address your audience?

I set out making my media product with a specific target audience in mind. My target audience was teenage radicals, possibly on the levels D/C1 income wise, and mostly males with a few female readers. For a full audience profile see my previous blog: http://danbmedia.blogspot.com/2009/12/audience-profile.html

The target audience that I think i have attracted with my finished product, slightly differs from what i originally planned. I think by having an absence of females on the cover, i have isolated the female readers and attracted a large proportion of males instead. I think that because of the radical and gritty fonts I've used I have still attracted teenage radicals, and because my magazine is priced at £2.99 it is still in the income of D/C1 teenagers.

I feel as though i am successful in attracting my target audience. When i showed my rock magazine to a group of 16/17 year old, mixed gender rock fans, there response was very positive. The majority recognized the genre immediately due to my fonts and colour schemes, and were able to notice the similarities to other music magazines i.e. Kerrang! They particluar liked my double page where they thought my representations of teenagers was "true" and "to the point"
I showed my magazine to my friends via facebook and here are a few of there comments:

The Front Cover

"I like how the coverlines are of alternating colours, i think that really makes your cover look professional. I would say you have attracted your target audience with this"

" The background is a bit lazy and i think you could've done a better job with that, although i think the image itself is well taken"

(I agree with this comment, i do think that my background is sloppy on my part and i could've better used the technology available to create something more suitable)

The contents

" The background is appauling, really makes it look more amateur"

" The Editor's Note bit has come out well but i think the overall layout could've been improved"

" I think that your features and regulars section has appropriate bands and terms for your audience"

Its pretty obvious from this that the audience didn't take too kindly to my contents page, and if i were to do this task again, i would most definately organise my time better so that i had equal time to spend on the three sections of the task: Cover, Contents and double page.

The Double Page

" I really like the layout of this spread, its clear that you've put some time into the general layout of this, The use of comical images and text i think attracts your audience"

"The funny article does reflect some of the characteristics of your target audience, although it could've been risky, i think that you've done well here"

"The pictures are well suited to the article itself, very well done. x"

From these - and more - comments, two things clearly stood out: one, my contents page was lthe least liked out of the three, and two, my double page was the most liked. The cover page had mixed reviews but was generally praised. I am slightly dissapointed with the reviews i got for the contents page, however i respect the fact that these people were honest.

Main Task: Evaluation 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I have researched three different music magazines (from my chosen genre) that are all from different publishers, to decide which publisher is best suited to my magazine.

Kerrang!
Bauer Media

Kerrang magazine is published by Bauer Media Group, who also publish a wide variety of magazines, ranging from: Women's magazines (Closer, Heat), Gardening (Garden News) Fishing (Sea Angler, Angling Times) to Motobikes, Pets, Sports and more. This means that Bauer Media Group has vast experience in publishing magazines of all genres. Bauer Media group also has the rights to the Kerrang radio station, meaning that it distributes the brand across a multiple platforms.

I picked up a random issue of Kerrang! and discovered 58 different advertisements, most of which were advertising concerts/events, but there were also adverts for clothing and music, a couple were promoting Kerrang Radio and Kerrang Subscriptions, despite the fact that they are owned by Kerrang they are still classed as advertisements. Advertisers place adverts such as these.
The top advert is for a downloadable song by the band Laruso. Adverts like these are placed in Kerrang! because these bands - like Laruso - are of the genre of music Kerrang is based, which is Emo/Rock with occasional metal. Also Kerrang has numerous adverts like the one to the right. These are adverts for concerts/events that are in Kerrang! because the concerts/events are the very same that Kerrang specialises in, and so the advertisers place the ads within because it would appeal to more consumers through the readers of the magazine.

Metal Hammer
Future PLC

Metal Hammer is published by Future PLC who also publish magazines such as: PC Gamer, Nintendo Power, Digital Camera, Mountain Biking, and other music magazines such as: Classic rock, Total guitar and Revolver. Meaning that Future PLC appears to specialise in music magazines, becasue judging from their portfolio, that is what they seem to have the most brands in.
Again i flicked through a copy of Metal Hammer, and found 55 different adverts all advertising the same things as Kerrang but advertising for the genre of music Metal Hammer promotes - Heavy metal. One particular form of advertisement was only present in Metal Hammer, these were adult sex lines etc, this suggests that Metal Hammer's audience is older than Kerrang's, similar things that suggest this are the words used inside the publication and other features.

Rock Sound
Independant

Unlike most music magazines, Rock Sound is published independantly and the magazine proudly boasts this by saying "Publish by Rock Sound Ltd - a 100 percent independent operation" By remaing independant, Rock Sound have managed to attract their target audience of teenagers/young adults who reject the mainstream and prefer underground music, and a more unkown sound to a fabricated mainstream alternative.

Because Rock Sound is published independantly, you would expect it to have a lot of advertisemtns to regain some revenue. Which it does, 77 was a total i reached in a random copy of the magazine, they were all again clothing and music based. Another thing about the adverts in Rock Sound is that they are predominantly full page adverts, which would cost more money than small ads, perhaps this suggests that although Rock Sound is known for being independant, it advertises a large amount of mainstream products, such as the one shown.


I think that my magazine would benefit from being distributed independantly. If it were to be distributed through a company i think that it would lose its appeal to my target audience of "radical" teenagers who want to rebel against the mainstream and selling out. Sure a distributing giant such as Future LTD has it's advantages, but if my magazine were to be under their control, it would lose its freedom of speech and be cast into the portfolio of other magazines the company distributes.
Independant distributors do have hefty financial disadvantages, but once the magazine gains a cult following of readers (such as Rock Sound) the advertisers will flock to the magazine and pour money into it so as to get an advertisement within its pages.
Fuse magazine is solely independant, and the reasons why it does so well is that it is its free, and sold in places where their audience shops, i can't make my magazine free but as for the latter i can do. I would sell my magazine in places where i think my target audience would shop (aswell as newsagents and WHSmith) i would place the magazine for sale in: alternative clothing shops, CD shops, and music/instrument shops, mostly the alternative clothing shops such as fourleaf clothing.

Main Task: Evaluation 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In my magazine i have set out to challenge sterotypes and dominant ideology, i did not want to produce a product which follows a trend representation wise.

My magazine has presented teenage males in a positive light. Evidence of this is that the three males shown are all smiling and not looking menacing or threatening, which challenges the dominant ideology that teenagers (boys specifically) are of these characteristics. Another thing that my main sell challenges is stereotypes, the band shown are of the metal genre but their clothing and general appearance suggest otherwise, thus proving that the black hair, black clothes stereotype isn't a just one.

There are some social groups that are absent from my work, for example: females, the disabled, ethnic minorities. Females are important in our society, but in music magazines, they are represented as sex objects, take Lacuna Coil's Christina Scabbia for instance. By leaving te female representations absent, i may have deterred female readers, however i could not get female models due to poor scheduling.

Main Task: Evaluation 1

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

My main inspiration for my product, was Kerrang! magazine, and I have loosely based my magazine using Kerrang! as a template.
The overall layout of my magazine is minimalist, because one of my main worries was that i was going to clutter the page with useless features.

I have used a bleeding effect, where my main

image slightly overlaps onto the masthead, however i didn't get it to cover the magazine name, as this would've completely covered the strapline which meant it would've been unreadable. My magazine name uses a screamer - similar to Kerrang! - the screamer connotes that my magazine has something to shout about (no pun intended)
The masthead itself is in a rough, gritty font ("Distorted and Scratchy") and this shares connotations with the metal/rock genre of which my magazine is based, hence why i chose this font for my masthead.

Front Cover Complete

My front cover for my magazine has been influenced most my the music magazines Kerrang! and Rock Sound.


The mast head of my magazine denotes the word "OUTLAW!" in upper-case white letters with an exclamation mark or "screamer" at the end. The text is set on a black background with two skull piles on either end of the text, beneath is strapline "SAY NO TO THE MAINSTREAM" again in white upper-case letters but in a different font to the masthead. The name outlaw to me connoted rebellion and is a symbol of free will, a rogue if you like, to my target audience the name Outlaw would appeal to them, because based on my audience research i found out that my target audience likes a sense of rebellion and freedom. Similar connotations also apply to the font i chose to type in the font naem is "Distorted and Scratchy" and i think that the same connotations for the name are appropriate to the font style as well. However i chose a different font for the strapline because i wanted it to be clearly different from the masthead, to do this i made the text smaller and in a different font style, the font i chose for this was called "nightmare" and i believe that it has slightly darker connotations than the masthead's font. The connotations that are in the strapline are more horror based and - based on my audience research - this was fitting for the genre of my magazine and audience i wished to target, these connotations also apply to the skulls that are on either side of the masthead. Say no to the mainstream was chosen as my strapline because it again connoted rebellion and individualism, this phrase isn't a question or a request "please say no to the mainstream" its a demand "SAY NO" making it seem more edgy and personal. The strapline also gives off theimpression that my magazine is unique in that it focuses on new music and not the generic swill that is churned out in the mainstream, thus appealing to my target audience.At the foot of my page is a bar which has all of the features within the magazine included, it follows the monochrome colour scheme and is simple but i think adds a flavour of professionalism to my cover. What i am most pleased with about this particular features is the inclusion of two white lines which act as a dived from the black background and the white text, and i do believe that this turned out far better than i first thought. For the barcode, i decided to have it in the bottom right of the page, mainly because that is where it usually is on most magazines, but for my placement of the issue number, date, price etc i chose to put that in a box above. The box above isn't a regular square because i thought that this would look too "blocky" and i didn't want to give off that vibe on my cover, instead it has a sloped edge which i think makes it look slightly less blocky which is good for me. My magazine is priced at £2.99 which i think is reasonable for what you are getting ut of it. As well as the date and price, included in this box is a web address, a minor feature but an important one nonetheless

The main sell for my magazine is a band called Murder at Midnight (the name derived from a high school band i was in, but i digress) and them recording their new album. I chose this idea to do because i had recently seen a similar feature in Kerrang! and thought that it played well, and due to the recording studio in college, i could easily take the pictures there. The image itself is of three friends of mine posing as the trio Murder at Midnight, they don't appear sinister or angry, but more approachable and average (not in a bad way) they seem like normal people, which i think is important to my target audience because the people used on my main cover don't appear to be fake, like the models on other publications. The font for the text is the same font as the strapline featured on my masthead, but this text is in a larger font and different colour. I chose the yellow-ish colour because it stood out against the blacks and greys of the colour scheme and looks rather fitting with the rest of the cover. The screamer was added on the tag line: "RECORDING BEST ALBUM YET!" because it made it seem like it was important and connoted that they really were recording their best album yet.
The coverlines you see on the page are directly taken from my plan ( as seen in a previous blog post) i did what i planned and made alternating coverlines, reversed-out and normal etc, i am really pleased with how this worked and am glad that it is on my cover. If you look slightly closely at the coverlines you would notice that they are on an ascending slant, this is intentional, because i wanted it to seem more lively than just plain, boring straight lines and i think i have achieved this by putting them on an angle.

Production Log 4

The contents page above follows examples from Mojo and Rock Sound magazine, as seen in this blog: http://danbmedia.blogspot.com/2010/02/post-planning-new-ideas.html
For my contents i struggled to find relevant features to include on it, the contents page above is very bare because of this. Admittedly, the page does seem pretty basic but this is because i felt as though this would be too cluttered, and based on my audience research, my target audience does not like pages that are too cluttered. Originally i intended for the "features" section to beon a slant, but i felt as though this looked bad adjacent to the straight "regulars" section.

My complete contents page is the one above. Since the contents page at the top of this post, i have included numerous features which back the page look far less bare. I changed the "features" section so that it was no longer on a slant and straight like the section alongside. I had intended to include a "note from the editor" style section since the early stages of planning and so this was a must for my contents page. Within the note from the editor section i have included a mini image of the front cover, which i think connotes professionalism. To include this section i needed to shrink the main image down from its original size so as to fit the section in. The red and black bars leading into the note from the editor is a "next week" segment, this was a last-minute idea which i included because the page still seemed bare, this part only lists the names of bands that will be featured in next weeks issue, looking back on this i feel as though i should change that to "This week" as oppossed to "next week". In the top left and bottom right corners of the page are simple techniques used to fill space, this idea waws given to my by a colleague in the class, and i believe that they really do fill the space well.

Production Log 3

This is a near complete front page, however i still think i need to work on it, add a little more, but i haven't decided what yet.
So far the front cover includes the main sell "Murder At Midnight" which is in a gold/yellow colour to stand out against the monochrome colours behind. I have stayed true to my plan of having the coverlines reversed-out and not reversed-out respectively. The background of the fading black to white, is still a debateable feature that i may yet change due to its simplicity and that it looks child-like and too plain.
One part that i am most proud of, is that i have magaged to get Gregg Wookey's (Centre of the main sell) head just behind the masthead and strapline but infront of the black box i have included in the masthead.

Production Log 2

The double page layout has followed by design layout (below) almost to the letter, however some features in my plan i later discovered were problems and difficult to realistically achieve. Looking at my construction so far, you can see that the puff has shifted from the centre right of the pages to the far left of the double-page, this was largely due to my lack of photographs to fill the amount of picture boxes i had included in my planned layout, so to overcome this i replaced a picture box, with the puff to fill in the gap. The bold quotation at the head of the page was a later feature i added, which was inspired by a kerrang! article i read which used a similar idea, naturally i placed this quotaton whee there was a space, and by looking at the plan you can find that the space is at the top of the left page.

Post planning new ideas

This is an issue of Rock Sound. On this cover there is one feature that really stood out to me as unique and a genius way to incorporate the barcode in a less generic fashion. In the bottom right corner of the cover is an image denoting a woman (Christina Scabbia - Lacuna Coil) appearing to be holding the barcode. I will attempt to incorporate this idea into my magazine by merely taking a photograph of a person holding a blank sheet of paper and then photo-shopping the barcode and neccerssary infomation onto the page.

The above contents pages are examples from RockSound and Mojo magazine respectively, these are not the main traditional contents that you would expect in a magazine, but more of a brief summarised form with only the main points featured. From these i thought that a contents page in this style would not only be easier for me to accomplish, but provide me with a strong contents page with minimalistic values, that of which i think is appropriate for my target audience.

With that said, there are examples from other contents pages that i would like to incorporate into my own. For example, in the Kerrang contents page above, at the top of the page there is a "note from the editor" section, this i find works well and i think it will be good to include this into my contents. However i find the small image of the cover featured on the contents page greatly effective and professional, this is one feature that i will definately include on my contents page above all else, mostly because it connotes a sense of professionalism, plus i think it is a grand idea which is a bonus really.

Production Log 1

This is the first in a series of blogs showing the various production stages of my media production.

The Front Cover

I chose an edgy font for the masthead, which i uses connotations appropriate to my target audience. The bones on on either side of the text in the masthead was a spontanerous thought of mine which i think has gone well with the rest of my magazine so far. As mentioned in the previous blog - http://danbmedia.blogspot.com/2010/01/potential-layouts.html - i have included reversed-out coverlines aswell as normal coverlines.

The Double Page

This double page follows my original layout as seen in the previous blog: http://danbmedia.blogspot.com/2010/01/potential-layouts.html

Although i decided against the circular puff because it distracted the attention away from the main focus of the page, and also was unnecessary clutter. The text shown at this stage is merely "jabber"

This double page spread was made on Quark Express 6.5.

Time Plan

I plan to spend the majority of my time on the double paged spread, this is because i have already prduced a contents and front cover page for my preliminary task.
Firstly i intend to plan the layouts of my magazines and get an idea of what the photographs will be taken of. I need to think of colour schemes and fonts with the help of my research into audiences etc, and then the layour o such ideas onto the pages i am going to create.
I feel as though it is important to take my photographs first beforehand so i can get an idea of what the text is going to be about and use the pictures to encorporate this. What i am mostly worried about is whether or not i can think of a sufficient amount of shots to fulfill the chosen layouts, because afterrall theres only so many photos you can take without over crowding the page. If i can take a really powerful photograph for my front cover, i'll need to think of props and lighting, backgrounds, clothes etc, theres a lot more to an image so it will achieve the connotations you want.

Institution/Publisher Research

A magazine publisher produces lieratute or infomation for public view, these publishers spend a lot of their time buying or commissioning copies. Writers often first submit a query letter or proposal directly to a publisher according to submission guidelines or to a literary agent. Submissions sent directly to a publisher are referred to as unsolicited submissions.

The publisher usually controls the advertising and other marketing tasks, but may subcontract aspects of the process to specialist publisher marketing agencies. In many companies, editing, proofreading, layout, design and other aspects of the production process are done by freelancers.
The publishing process is organised into stages:

1.Acceptance and Negotiation - Once a writers work has been accepted by a publisher, commissioning editors negotiate the purchase of intellectual property rights and agree on royalty rates

2.Editorial, Design, Sales and Marketing Stages - These usually start simultaneously, and are often done by freelancers.

2.1. Editorial Stage - The writer may be asked to improve the quality of the work through rewriting or smaller changes, and the staff will edit the work. and then the staff will copy edit to ensure that the work matches the style and grammatical requirements of each market. Editing may also include structural changes and requests for more information. Some publishers employ fact checkers, particularly in non-fiction works.

2.2. Design Stage - Can be done by freelancers, but this includes the design of the front cover, the layout for each page, images and photograph placements, colour scheme and pretty much he entire look of the magazine

2.3. Sales and Marketing Stage - Publishing companies focus extensively on early sales interest, so as to get a lot of potential customers. When a final text is agreed upon, the next phase is design. This may include artwork being commissioned or confirmation of layout. In publishing, the word "art" also indicates photographs.

3. Printing - Before printing begins, a pre-press proof is created which is sent for final checking and sign-off by the publishing company. This proof shows the magazine exactly as it will appear once printed and is the final opportunity a publisher has to ensure there are no errors in the material. Some printing companies use electronic proofs rather than printed proofs. Once the proofs have been signed off, printing of the magazine begins.

The publishing industry is organised firstly, into the numbers of people or parties who own, control, or influence a given medium; and secondly, the numbers of people or parties who are exposed to, affected by, or influenced by, that medium.

http://www.ipcmedia.com/about/

IPC Media produces over 85 iconic media brands, reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 44% of UK men – that's over 26 million UK adults in print alone. IPC's diverse print and digital portfolio offers something for everyone, with a focus on three core audiences: men, mass-market women and up-market women. This means that IPC influences and affects more people than it is owned by.

IPC is divided into 6 companies:

IPC Connect publishes some of the biggest magazine brands in the Women's Weeklies sector, delivering 2.8 million sales each week.

IPC Ignite aims to be the leading media player in the key men's sector of lifestyle and entertainment.

IPC Inspire is IPC's men's division. With a portfolio of over 50 brands, it ranges from hugely popular specialist titles such as Country Life and Golf Monthly to iconic lifestyle brands including Nuts and Loaded.

Marketforce is the UK's leading newstrade sales and distribution company, successfully marketing 23% of the total magazine category.

IPC Southbank is the upmarket women's division, focusing on the two key markets of Fashion & Women's Lifestyle and Home Interest. Southbank is home to some of the most iconic magazine brands in publishing.

IPC TX is at the heart of British television, TX is home to a market-leading portfolio: What's on TV, TVTimes, TV & Satellite Week, Soaplife and TV easy.

The division into 6 sectors means that IPC is a large conglomerate that is run by Evelyn Webster CEO and a hierachy of business asociates. It was sold to Time Inc. the magazine publishing division of Time Warner.

http://www.ipcmedia.com/brands/brands.php here is a link to all the brands IPC publishes

My thoughts on IPC are that, because there is a vast hierachy within the company, the company is weak becasue the structure is spread out over a large portion. However because IPC have broken down their business in to different divisions it prevents a large hierachy occuring within these divisions and thus strengthens the brand.

Where some companies distribute their products in generic shops, independant distributers distribute their magazines in specific shops where they believe their target audience shops. For instance Vice magazine.

I think that Bauer media would be appropriate to publish my magazine because it has a varied portfolio of music brands that it already produces, and so it has large experience in that area of publishing. Bauer doesn't publish as many music magazines as other publishing/distribution companies, but i think that this is a good thing because it means that Bauer can focus more on my magazine instead of "lots of fingers in numerous pies" (to use the old expression) to put it simply, Bauer can afford to invest more time on my mgazine than other companies.

Potential Layouts

This is my primary double page layout, i took advice given from my cover page and interpreted them to suit my double page. For instance one friend put " i think for your target audience, more pictures are needed" so i took this and as yu can see there are plenty of images on the pages.
These are my 3 ideas for front cover layouts, i showed them to a selection of my friends and the response i got praised number 1 highly and number 3 poorly. some said that number 3 looked to "corporate" and "blocky" number 2 had the circular coverlines which didn't go down as well as i'd have thought. From this research i think that i will use layout number 1 because o the good response it got from my pals.

Audience Research

I showed my mood board to some high school friends, and they all had positive reviews because it included most, if not all, of what they like. The mood board itself covers: films, DVDs, Cars, Converse, Clothes, Guitars, Amps, Musical Instruments, Grafitti, Gaming, Phones, CDs, Skating, Computing, Magazines, Vodka, Concerts/Festivals, the world, all of which are interests of mine and others, and this was apparent when i showed it to others via facebook.
By showing this to my target audience, i now know that my audience likes all of the things shown in my mood board, however one response was that the emo grafitti in the top left corner was too stereotypical, and so i will try to add more colour than just black and monochrome colours, and try not to add too much "emo art".
The people i showed this to like the blues and reds but not too much black.

All the comments are:

"Agreed pretty much sums up Everything, loving the o2 acedemy ;)"

"Hmm .. maybe .. something to do with photography? Or that could just be me :P x"

"gr8 but where is the country tennagers there is no tractor quite franklybut part from tht lovely"

"think you have definately encapsulated the audience you are after. Using a festival is a really good idea because then you have a chance for adverts and competitions giving tickets for 'Download'. You've used a good festival as well rather than a more indie fest like Reading or V-Fest.
The leisure activity references are really well targeted and seems well thought out."

The latter comment (contributed by Mike Paul, thank you) has praised my mood board, his ideas about the competitions are of good value and can be used for puffs, however i am intent on not including adverts, largely due to there being a lack of need to include one.

I also showed a few friends existing music magazines, to my surprise, some of my friends actually read these magazines and had something to say. At first glance one of my friends liked the layout of Kerrang! because it was "simple and to the point" Another said that the Metal Hammer cover " was cool" but it was also said of the Metal Hammer magazine that it was trying to be tough and failing, because of the images of people posing and acting tough.
Rock Sound appealed to all of the people i showed it too. They said it was "simple but not too simple" " has a sense of humour" and "wasn't as patronizing as Kerrang is" Kerrang was seen as patronizing because it used words like "mag" and "awesome" and that came across as too try hard.

From these results on diferent music magazines, i will not b=make my use of language too colloquial like Kerrang, because that was a big turn down for the audience. Metal hammer was full of posers according to some. Rock Sound is the best existing magazine to use as a guru so to speak when creating my magazine. :)

Summary of Research into existing Magazines

This post is a summary of the research i undertook into different magazines of a similar genre to mine. For my music magazine, i have chosen to focus on the rock/metal genre of music as this is the one that i find interesting and have a lot of knowledge on. I have been reading music magazines since 2008 (specifically Kerrang! but i have read a variety also) so essentially i have been researching since before i started college, and i have gaine lot of insight into how these magazines engage the reader beforehand.

http://danbmedia.blogspot.com/2009/12/main-task-magazines-my-chosen-genre.html

Above is a link to my previous blog post with the research into magazines of a similar music genre to mine. In this blog, i have taken 3 rock/metal music magazines (Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, RockSound) and disected the contents and ways in which these magazine attract their audiences. This was useful because by looking at these magazines in a media perspective, it really helped me understand what these magazines do to manipulate their audiences into buying more copies. For instance, Kerang! uses simple layouts, lots of images, and colloquial language, so that their target audience feels more comfortable reading the magazine. Metal Hammer on the other hand uses aggressive images and a dark colour scheme, to attract its audience of more extreme radical teenagers, and RockSound includes new unsigned bands and stays very underground, which attracts its audience who challenge dominant ideology by listening to far less mainstream acts.

http://danbmedia.blogspot.com/2009/12/main-task-magazines_07.html

This link is to a previous blog on a spectrum of music magazines, not just my chosen genre specifically. This blog included segments on 3 music magazines (Music, Kerrang!, Mojo) By researching into magazines that focus on different genres of music, i could see how they use different techniques to engage their audiences. BBC Music magazine is a prime example because it focuses on the classical music genre, which is associated with older generation traditionalists. It uses a wider vocabulary range than other magazines and includes a select one or two prominant photos instead of a variety, as used in other magazines. This research helped me understand what not to use in my rock/metal magazine, because i know now that if i use big words like in Music i would alienate the target audience who are most definately not the same as Kerrang! or others.

From my research i have determined that my magazine, would not be as "chatty" as Kerrang! and not as aggressive as Metal Hammer, and not as plain as RockSound, it would combine these three magazines to form one magazine that would appeal to a wider target audience. It would include the underground level from RockSound, the uses of images from Kerrang! and the format of the text from Metal Hammer, these three features are the features i found most interesting in each magazine.

Audience Profile

My magazine is focused on metal and rock music and so i am aiming to target the ever expanding "niche" audiences. This niche audience comprises of: radical teenagers (now known as emos) This audience will be largely males, but still with a few females, all aged roughly between 15-19, and on a low income (D/C1)because they are in full-time education. This audience would register as post-materialistic hedonists because of their radical fun-loving nature.

The type of audience that would read my magazine would wear: black t-shirts (band t-shirts most of the time), jeans topped off with a studded belt and chain, and canvas shoes most likely Converse Hi-tops. The males would have long hair, with the fringe covering at least on of their eyes, this hair could possibly be dyed black however it is not certain. The females would have very alternative hairstyles, red colour perhaps with bizarre coloured highlights. These people would have a low income job, possibly in the local supermarket or a store in town, definately in the shopping industry in a shop is the most likely for my target audience or maybe even a pub/restaurant (D/C1)

My target audience would spend the majority of their money on cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, clothes and music, with little deviation from those items. They would shop in places like: CEX, HMV, Four Leaf Clothing, H&M, Topshop, Burton, Office. They would watch a large variety of comedy shows, mostly on Dave and Channel 4 and not be associated too much with ITV and the BBC channels, the main tv channel would be Scuzz, the metal/rock music channel. Specific TV shows might include: Live at the Appollo, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Mock The Week, Scrubs, Friends. They also enjoy films such as: Avatar, Harold & Kumar, Dude Where's my Car? (and similar "stoner" films) Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy, Batman and similar films.

The music is obvious, Rock and Metal. Bullet for my Valentine, Funeral For A Friend, Rise Against, Paramore, etc, etc...

The target audience, enjoys spending time with friends, smoking cannabis, and similar activities, the majority of this audience would most likely be musicians, in bands or otherwise.