Evaluation

In what way does your media product use, develop, or

challenge forms and conventions of real media Date line
products? Graphic Feature

Masthead

The conventions are what makes a magazine and so I researched various

magazines (particularly across different countries due to my theme of Headline
Culture Rock- various rock from different countries) before choosing a
House Style that may effect any conventions, for example NME has a busy
Anchorage
and more punk/teenager look than Gaffa which focused upon
Secondary
photography and a look better suited for older readers. After researching
Lead
various magazines I consulted the answers from my Questionnaire and
found my target audience seemed to be late, female orientated, teenagers Cover line
(16-19) who would fit a more impulsive but thoughtful stereotype. For this
Kickers
the best House Style appeared to be the poster style of Rolling Stone, with Feature Article
content’s and articles following a look similar to magazines, but would Banner Photo Barcode
need brighter colours and some conventions from a magazine such as Masthead
NME, without crowding the spaces on each page, in order to attract Date line
attention from the target audience
Secondary
Headline Lead
The end result was a magazine with all the conventions of a poster style
magazine but added extra and simplified for the target audience.
Anchorage
Graphic Feature
Kickers
Flash
Menu Strip Cover line
Banner
The banner incorporates the colour palette while adding more
colour to the Feature Article Photo, this grabs the attention of
the target audience while informing of competitions and
Masthead Banner
special editions that while common for almost bustling music
magazines like Kerrang! Is different but still not taking up too
much room in the poster style (with a repeated image
throughout the magazine of different characters that push the
idea of a multi culture rock magazine not existing in typical
banners.)

Masthead Banne Bar

A convention needed for all magazine in order to install identity and a r co
brand for the magazine, the typical rock magazine would have a more rough Barcode de
and harsh font to put forward the rebel stereotype of a rock fan, however
my target audience was more older than the typical rock magazine and so I
went for a smoother font for the Masthead that was a completely different
from most other fonts used in the magazine to make it brand like to other Date line
magazines.

Barcode and Date line

While not found on a poster style magazine, a barcode is a common
convention of magazines ranging from music to sports and so including a
barcode on my magazine gave a better and more professional appearance
despite it being abnormal for a poster style. The inclusion of the date line was to allow the date line to be more visible on the barcode’s
white background as well as conserving space on the front page. The date line also includes a link to a website for the magazine in
order to broaden the advertising and community of readers for the magazine using an engine highly popular in today’s culture.
Feature Article Photo
The most prominent part of the magazine
that needs to grab the readers interest, the
photo corresponds to the headline that
would be the main attraction to the target
audience while using conventions similar
to other magazines, the more blank
background that focuses upon the people
within, with one person holding their hand
out as though to push the headline at the
reader while the other person is in shadow
and is to intrigue the reader of hinted
secrets. The picture remains the most
prominent convention by sticking to the
poster style and not including other photo’s
within the front page.
Headline
The main article in the magazine that is to gain
a more general interest within the target
audience, though a shock none the less. This
was done by centring the magazine on a battle
between artists (and making any photo’s to do
with this correspond) while using a different
font from all other text, as well as a larger size,
to immediately grab the interest of the reader.
The font was also highlighted in blue to blend
with the colour palette and stand out from
other article.
Secondary Lead
The second most important
article to gain attention from
readers who have little
interest in the headline article.
To keep with the poster style
(and keep the feature article
photo as the most prominent
convention) no photo was
used for the article, instead
the text was made bigger and
with a bolder font to present it
as important but is still the
same font as the other kickers
to not take away any attention
from the headline.
Anchorage
To explain the feature article photo the
anchorage needed to link with the
headline, the best way for this was to
not follow typical magazine conventions
of explaining, instead it was simply a
quote from the actual article that
explained the photo while showing a
preview of the article and gaining the
interest of the reader.
 Flash
Within a blue box to match
the magazines colour
palette, unlike most
magazines that use buzz
words as a flash I used the Danish magazine
Gaffa’s style, still akin to the poster style, for
the flash; the symbolic flash gained more
attention because it defies more Western
conventions while not taking up too much
space and still appearing professional.
Menu Strip
Another convention based upon the Gaffa magazine is
the inclusion of a menu strip on a poster style magazine
that gives readers more options for articles, and
therefore increased interest, while matching the colour
palette to still appear professional and fit into the style
unlike magazines such as Kerrang! That use a variety of
colours to instantly grab attention, however I still used
the larger box type menu strip than Gaffa’s two
coloured strips to still gain the attention of readers that
the Kerrang! Menu strip does.
Win a trip
to Japan
Graphic Feature
The style of the graphic feature was to remain basic, but not
too basic and of a bright colour that would stick out on the
magazine and go against the colour palette (like Gaffa
magazine) however with the more younger target audience
than most poster style magazines are aiming for the graphic
feature was to include a type of freebie instead of a serious
news story. A competition was a good way to hook the
reader and include a type of freebie that would appeal to a
late teen demographic.
Kickers and Cover lines
More articles would be needed to appeal to readers
but without taking too much space, the same font as
with the secondary article was used to place them
as an article but in a smaller size as used in Rolling
Stone magazine to a good effect, these were in bold
to stand out unlike the cover line's which were
simply to explain the article’s without many words
and gain reader interest.
 Following the poster style, particularly that of Rolling Stone, the index itself is more of a
newspaper style with a regulars section and main article in one column (though in
Eurasian Funk the main article is made larger with it’s photo to push the theme of the
article at the reader) to the left side of the page. The sections are also split by bars to
keep order to the page and make it appear more professional.

While included in some magazines an extras column was

included as a way to include more articles and appeal to the
audience with an apparent article filled magazine while
appealing to the target audience (as shown in questionnaire
results) of promoting smaller artists.

Lastly is photography, to keep space to promote articles there is

no inclusion of pop up figures but with some major articles
having their own spaces some photos were used that promoted
the key part of the article and give a focus to photography; this is
then enhanced to the reader by including a box around the images that also keeps the organised style
seen in Rolling Stone and newspapers. The main article photo itself is a new photo unlike Rolling Stone
and takes up more space to grab the instant attention of the reader and gain interest as the major hook
of the magazine.
To grab the immediate attention of the reader and gain
interest by letting them read the list of articles within the
magazine instead of flicking through I used a large box to
house the text that places the page as the contents page;
there is also a motif seen throughout the pages that is of
use in the same way as a logo, to promote awareness of the
magazine’s image but still have a feminine feel that makes
up a majority of the target audience (see readership profile
blog post.) There is no inclusion of advertising like Rolling
Stone’s website advertisement because of less space and
the website already being included near the price, that
would already attract attention from potential readers.

Other major articles are laid out in a similar way to Rolling

Stone to keep with the poster style but are much less in
number and have more room to keep attention to that
article and still feel like a magazine, instead of becoming
too much like a newspaper, due to the audience being of a
younger age range than that of Rolling Stone.
The poster theme of Rolling Stone kept up the look of a
newspaper throughout it’s pages with articles usually getting one
page, to keep reader attention and allow for a layout that would
focus upon photography Eurasian Funk had a full double pages
spread for the main feature article though kept the column’s
used as used in Rolling Stone to keep it looking professional and
allow for more space for the photograph and any other
information to give the reader that wasn’t included in the article
that was mainly comprised of an interview.

Photography itself relied more on the Photoshop effects used on the image to
give any readers flicking through a taste of what was in the article and left
blank space like in the Rolling Stone poster style, however the style would
typically use more images that speak to the interests of the reader much like in
a readership profile. Lastly is the use of boxes within the article of the double
page spread not present in most poster style magazines, this is again because
of a different target audience age range, Eurasian Funk’s target audience may
be put off by large bulks of text as seen in Rolling Stone magazine which the
boxes organise and are easier on the eyes while leaving less room for text on
the double page spread and stop it being empty.
How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
To represent the Culture Rock scene there had to be a mix of various culture while
appealing to a female audience, to do this I used colours such as blue that connote
serenity to appeal to the female audience as well as white that compliments this
colour, however there is also the use of black to symbolise the darker rock aspects of
the magazine and balance the use of blue throughout it. This is also seen in the font
used in the magazine, as seen in other poster style magazine’s unique styles of font,
when compared to other fonts in the magazine, it represents the origins of the band
the rolling stones a major group within rock representing the social group within the
rock genre. For the same effect of representing the rock social groups I used a font
associated with the wild western style to represent the stereotype of rock that it’s
group is wild and free, rebelling against authority, and therefore give part of a lifestyle
for the rock social group to look up to.

Then there is the clothes used within the photos through the magazine, as
seen in my second blog post a common theme with clothing many in the
social group look up to is jackets, most commonly military styles, that can
be seen with the model for the artist Debbie Jones in the magazine who
symbolises the old rock. This is then kept to the dark underground
stereotype of rock by using dark lighting and tones within the photos that
appeals and represents the social group.
What kind of media institution might distribute
your media product and why?

Future Publishing is a smaller company than most that may be open to

working with a magazine aimed at a niche market, however it is still fairly big
and so will probably have enough funds to launch my magazine. So far
Future Publishing has launched more Rock and basic instrumental magazines
and so would be willing to include another magazine that almost centres on
rock (along with other expertise in the field) but includes a different twist of
rock from all cultures; however my go opposite direction with no real
interest in another rock magazine. Another company that would be a good
partner would be Dennis Publishing due to advertisement through more
internet based means would carry out to a younger and more obscure target

?
audience but may not include the expertise and opportunity of a niche
market rock magazine that Future Publishing would.

Other publishing companies would not work as well as partners such as IPC
Media due to them already owning the large variety rock, and indie,
magazine NME while their rival Bauer Media may be too large a company to
give more freedom to a niche market magazine while owning their own
popular varied rock magazine Kerrang! There is also the bigger focus on
fashion and gossip magazines within regards to a women target audience
that would not fit the target audience for Eurasian Funk. Lastly is Hearst, a
smaller company that would give less funds and appears to have little
expertise with more music based magazines.
Who would be the audience for your media
product?

Before the magazine itself was planned there was a need for the
target audience to design for, for this I created a questionnaire
targeted at various aspects I would need to know in the audience;
lifestyle, opinions, age and background. With the results a readership
profile was created to summarise all these aspects, it showed a
majority of the audience were female and so the magazine would
need to appeal mostly to them (as seen in the music magazine
planning with the colour palette set to more calmer and bright colours
than the vibrant or harsh usually seen in magazines such as Kerrang!
That attract a more male audience) There was also the want of rock
and smaller artists that meant Culture Rock (rock from around the
world) would appeal to the target audience. With this audience in
mind before the magazine many things were able to be centred
around it such as the photo shoot and fonts of the magazine, in the
end this allowed for the magazine to appeal to that audience.
How did you attract/address your audience?

As explained before a part of keeping the audience interest was to appeal to

them with an ideology and themes of stereotype that they can look up to,
however another way to attract the audience was with the language used within
the index and the types of articles and sections used. One way with this was
keeping a light hearted tone that almost jokey to attract the young audience but
to get them truly involved was to keep headings of sections of the magazine
designed to make them feel a part of the magazine and so a section called ‘YOU’
was created for that purpose with audience feedback (though did not feature
with the main article double page spread.) To also attract an audience I used the
results from the questionnaire and the readership profile to find the specific
wants of the audience that would appeal to them, such as the need (though not
overwhelming) for minor bands, with the creations of the ‘EXTRAS’ section this
could be created while including competitions to a major Asian country that
would appeal to those within the Culture Rock social group (that the magazine
was designed for.)
What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product?

Using a digital camera to take photos and the internet to research my house
style, audience and study professional photography I was able to come to
understand the composition and various techniques, as well as props and the
type of models, needed to incorporate all of these things into the house style
and niche market, Culture Rock, I had set at the start. But in developing these
photos further in Photoshop gave a better understanding of computer
manipulation within photos and how to use them within media products as a
whole to compliment other features within the product. Photoshop allowed me
to manipulate the lighting within the photos that I couldn’t capture with a
camera to appeal more to audiences of my social group, the program also
helped to place various pictures together and compose the overall media
product. While my skills improved here I also opened the option of the internet
to the readers of my magazine, by giving a website it allows for the magazine to
become more known through the vastly growing internet as well as having the
audience together within forums as a group.