Tuesday 17 January 2012

Evaluation 5

Images:



I chose to have the image of my cover artsist on the contents page very differnt from the image on the front cover after doing research into female indie artists. The examples above show the diversity of the artists; The images on the top row show aggressive body language whereas the images on the bottom row show are much softer. This symbolises the overall diversity of the indie music genre.

Colours:
The colours i have used throught my magazine are red, white and black. I chose these colours because they are gender nutural, therefore not making my magazine appeal to one sex more than the other. These are also similar colours to those used in successful music magazines such as NME, Q and Uncut.

Layout:
I chose to use a simple layout throughout my magazine. I chose to do this on the front cover to make it simple to read if it was on a shelf in a shop. The contents page is set out in a simple layout so the reader can find the article they want to read quickly. I also chose to make the layout for my double page spread simple as it easy and pleasant to read.

Price:
I researched the price of other monthly magazines and made my magazine fit with the cheaper prices I found as a large majority of my target audience will be in school, sixthform, university or just begining a carreer, therefore would not typically have a large amount of money to spare. I wanted my magazine to be affordable as this would assure that it sells better.

Coverlines:
All of my coverlines include atleast one artist/band's name as this would grab the attention of my target audience if they saw it in a shop. I also looked at successful music magazines to see that each of them included artists or music events in each coverline. After speaking to several people about why they buy magazines, I found out that many of them judge wether or not to buy a magazine by reading the coverlines and looking at the cover image.

Are codes and conventions important?
After speaking to several people about the importance of seeing what you expect in a magazine I found out that many of them prefere a magazine cover to follow the codes and conventions.

For example, when asked people prefered the second of the covers below as it shows more about the contents of the magazine, whereas the first cover only shows the main story.


Things my target audience are interested in:
A huge majority of the people in my target audience I spoke to expressed great interest in attending a festival- most of them had been to the Leeds festival for 2-3 years running. I included an article on my contents page about festivals to suit my target audience.

Through research I found that most indie fashions are in dark colours, therefore the artist on the cover of my magazine is in dark colours. My target audience responded well to this image and I got the feedback that it looked like a convincing cover image.

I discovered what artists and article topics to include through research online, talking to people in my target audience and getting questionnaires filled out.

Monday 16 January 2012

Evaluation 4

Profile of a typical audience member and why they would be interested in my media product:


A typical audience member for my media product would be between the ages of 15 and 30. They would have a strong interest in the music industry, in particular the Indie genre. I have included an article on 'How to make it as an unsigned act' which would appeal to people who are in a band and wish to do it profesionally. I purposely made the front cover image very different to that of the same artist on the contents page to show the diversity of the genre and how the artists who perform this type of music have the freedom to change appearance and style of music, whilst sticking to the indie genre.

Examples of indie music:
These are two of the artists I included on my front cover. They are in the same genre, yet sound very different. I included such different artists so that my product would appeal to a wider range of people. The Artic Monkeys song (Crying lightning) I have selected is a perfect example of the roudier side of the genre, whereas the Paloma Faith song (Upside down) I have selected is a great example of the more upbeat side to indie music.

After doing further research into the indie style of clothing i found that a great deal of the clothes are either white or black. Therefore I chose to dress the artist in dark colours on the front cover and light colours on the contents page. This would appeal to the indie audience as it makes it easier for them to recognize the magazine as and indie magazine.

Audience feedback:
Speaking to people within my target audience I have found out that they would be interested in purchasing my media product if it was real. They like the range of artists included; the images used on the front cover, contents page and DPS; The content on the contents page; the topic and idea of the 'indie icons' article; The price; The frequency of release; The fact I interviewed fans to help me write my DPS. I also used similar colours as seen in NME and Q because they are clearly successful magazines and these colours are gender nutral- as is my magazine. I made sure that the layout to my contents page was simple, so a reader could easily find what article they wished to read. This is important to audience members as they don't want to waste time with a complicated layout in the contents page. I used a conventional layout for each part of my media product to show my understanding of the codes and conventions of music magazines.