Evaluation of My Music Magazine

How does my media product represent a particular social group?

Social stereotypes are given by individuals based on appearance and certain iconic images given to that stereotype. As stated in research for my magazine, plaid patterns are specific fashion image of the Punk cult that arose in the 70s in the UK especially. In my magazine, especially in the article of my magazine, references to Punk/Post-Punk artists are included (Sex Pistols and Joy Division/New Order). The Punk cult originally had non-conformist beliefs. This cult no longer exists, except for certain people who still follow the punk fashion or listen to punk music still. The revival of punk is what I was attempting to bring across in the article with Dane within my magazine. 

Dane in my magazine does not follow the Punk fashion, a different fashion completely. The difference in fashion is highlighted largely with Dane wearing a snap back cap, which would be seen typically in a hip-hop/R&B type magazine, rather than relating it to Punk. Therefore, this must highlight that Dane’s Punk-esque are portrayed more through on his attitudes rather than his appearance. An example of this is seen in the article with Dane “we kicked the sh*t out of my hotel room”. This destructive behaviour was based on a recent news story involving ex-Sex Pistols vocalist John Lyndon in the Ritz hotel, where it was reported he punched a female presenter in the face, yet I did not want the ‘woman beater’ stigma attached to my figure of Dane, which I believe would be too controversial, therefore gave a more acceptable story to cover. 

I believe that the way I have portrayed Dane as a punk was satisfactory. The way that Dane is dressed may not be seen as punk, yet I used the tartan picture in the background of the cover to create the illusion of ‘burning through’ as well as using the same tartan pattern on my double page spread on the large letter D. It is not Dane’s fashion that highlights his punk-ish beliefs, yet his attitudes. I have given the audience the questionable identity of Dane whether he is punk or not.

In consideration of social groups, they must be represented carefully in attempt to prevent negativity towards a social group. In this instance, my reason for the representation of a younger character such as Dane was due to they are popular within music, especially when concerning a character that the audience will be able to empathise with, hence the younger target audience. If I considered an older character, my target audience would also have to have been refined. This may have been critical towards the publication of the magazine as well as the genre of music, due to the genre of music as the more ‘underground’ and new music that appeals to a younger audience, who are in touch with new music, unlike the older generations who tend to desire the music that they have always liked.

What kind of media institutions might distribute my media product & why?

Bauer Media were the original chosen institute to publish my magazine. I believe that I will use Bauer for the publication of my magazine. My reason for choosing Bauer Media for publication is that they have similar music magazines to my product, such as Q Magazine. The success of Q shows me that Bauer’s publication sector in music magazines is efficient, with a large range of countries that will potentially also prove to be a success for my magazine. The wide 15 countries that Bauer operate in would distribute the magazine and hopefully, due to the large demand of the Q Magazine, will also have the same effect on my magazine, with high demand. 

Alternatively, as another option of publication is self-publication. The music magazine/newspaper The Stool Pigeon is a fully self-published, independent magazine which is produced bi-monthly and has a large amount of readers of the magazine. The Stool Pigeon, the self-publication magazine, is a free magazine. Therefore, it is hugely dependant on advertisement for income, otherwise would have potentially no funding. Yet, The Stool Pigeon survives through the large amount of advertisement that is included in the magazine, such as local music festivals or venues and recent LP releases. My magazine, bSide is not a free magazine, priced at £2.10, therefore could afford to be a self-published magazine without advertisements, yet will be purely dependant on the bi-monthly consumers of the magazine.

Another alternate for publication is the other magazine that I have considered for research, which is The Fly. This music magazine is part of the MAMA which has been taken over by HMV. The magazine is distributed through the stores as a free magazine. If my magazine could get connected to a popular entertainment shop such as HMV, then it could be possible to distribute the magazine though the shops as The Fly do, except with the same original pricing of the magazine of £2.10. 

As an overall, I would prefer to distribute the magazine through a large media company like Bauer Media, due to the large publicity of the company. Yet, to gain full profit of the magazine it would have to be self-published. A downside to this is the potential lack of popularity of the magazine therefore a fail in terms of sales. I would prefer my magazine to be published through Bauer. My final decision for this would be due to Bauer’s extensive network of distribution.

Who where my target audience & how did I address/attract my audience?

The chosen age range of 18-29 year olds was an appropriate choice. The magazine that I have created used some explicit language within the article. This may be seen as a ‘younger’ target audience, as opposed to a more mature target audience like Q Magazine. With this in consideration, I believe that I have correctly selected a rightful age range due to the nature of the language, as 18 year olds will be mature enough to see this language. Even the cover line on the front cover directly addresses those ‘younger’ using the word ‘youth’, which obviously applies to the target audience. 

My magazine is not directly addressed at a specific gender; unlike I have said in my research that it will be predominantly a male orientated magazine. Yet, using gender stereotypes, the colour scheme house style use of the majority blueness may imply a male audience orientation. I would not necessarily like this one gender orientated magazine role to be fixed on a specific gender, due to potentially more readers if there is a broader opportunity in terms of male/female readers, rather than a predominant male or majority female reader population. This is the consideration of the demographics of the magazine. 

Socio-Economic Groups (based on occupational values) where also considered in research of my magazine. I considered the middle of the Socio-Economic Groups (SEG). I believe that my magazine reaches the middle SEG groups that have been chosen through the ideology used in the article. The thought within the main article is all based around the idea of non-conformity and going against the normality of rules of social acceptability. This is done through the figure of ‘Dane, the foulmouthed youth’. In my research, I have given the character of Tyler, The Creator who is the front man of Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, which is a perfect example of this attitude, which is who I have based the character of Dane on; young and disobedient. In terms of people who want this rebellious attitude, it tends to be the working classes who oppose certain rules and labels that are given to them, which I believe are within the middle of the SEG groups, where the manual labourers lay. Therefore I believe I have given a good consideration for the target Socio-Economic Groups of my music magazine. 

Psychographics consider the values and attitudes of individual people. My research has also considered this for my music magazine. The Values and Life Styles system (or VALS) is summarised as 4 different groups of people which are:

• Those driven by need

• Those who are outer-directed

• Those who are inner-directed

• Those who are inner & outer-directed

My research considered the outer-directed audience, which are individuals who will want to belong to a group to gain an identity and may copy or emulate certain actions of this group to gain this identity. The reason for selecting this certain type of individual was due to their desire of emulating through a media product, which will regain their identity as the certain group that these people belong to. Due to the desire of gaining access to less known music, (this is a trait of these outer-directed people) I believe that my niche market choice has been satisfied, which was also summarised by the early sell line that I adopted for my magazine ‘Hidden from the Hype’.

Access to music is also vital for offering a service to a specific audience. Due to the larger desire for digital technology, such internet access on mobile handsets and an advance in netbooks/tablet technologies. This technological interest will fit well with my target audience as it tends to be the younger generation who take an interest in the latest gadgets. This will also fit my psychographics and SEG considerations. Those who want to have the latest technologies and be up to date with these tools tend to be those who want to gain an identity, therefore outer-directed audience. Additionally, the SEG group selection of the middle proportion will be on an average salary, therefore not too little money. These people will be able to purchase these latest technologies due to this access to money and financial stability.

With use of these technologies, I would like to use the free access to social networking, as well a publishing an online, digital magazine from the bSide website which would be created for updates for people to access. Subscriptions to the magazine would also be made available, such as paying an amount annually to the magazine sent to your door, rather than buying it from the shop. This price tends to have a slight reduction to the price. Considering the cheap price of £2.10 spent 6 times a year due to the bi-monthly publication of the magazine, I believe that £10 is a reasonable price per year, which is a £2.60 reduction. This is a 20% reduction, which would look good as an offer within the magazine. Subscriptions often also come with additional perks, such as exclusive access to certain features or goodies. I would offer subscribers that pay the £10 annually, the magazine sent to their door, also a free digital version of the magazine which can be accessed on android phones (iBooks for example on the iPhone), as well as exclusive membership to the bSide website which could offer immediate updates and first access to certain features, such as competitions with prizes. I could also create an application for these android phones to create easy access. Free social networking such as Facebook and Twitter also enables audience an easy access to normal updates.

Looking back on the preliminary task, what have I learnt and how have I progressed?

This is the draft front cover of the college magazine that was used to practise Photoshop skills and learn the structure of a magazine. This early draft can be seen to have many flaws. The plain, two colour house style colour scheme of blue and white that is seen is not as attractive as having possibly three colours and may not give the audience the best vibrant impression in terms of the colour scheme.

Here, after receiving feedback on this front cover, we can see a development, especially in the vibrancy of the colour scheme. The additional colour gives a much more appealing visually for the audience of the college magazine. After considering this progression from receiving feedback of the college magazine and re-drafting the cover for this magazine, I could already see a progression in how I have developed using feedback as a benchmark.

Here is the final front cover of my music magazine. We can compare/contrast to the original college preliminary task front covers. We can see how I have progressed in terms of the feedback received and have used 3 of the house style colours rather than the 2 that I had originally used for the draft of my college magazine. The use of technology has also developed through the preliminary task (see ‘Evaluation of Technology Used’ PowerPoint). As we can see here a development of the use of lighting and manipulation of lighting levels can affect an image, rather than the previous 2 main images for the college magazine simply using the original image, only cut out using Photoshop.

Structurally, I have also progressed through learning the conventions of a magazine. As seen here, I have adapted the space available on the front cover and used it to promote the main image as much as possible. This can be contrasted with the college magazine, where I have carelessly obscured the main image with other specific features.

This is the final content page of my college magazine and the final content page of my music magazine The college content page follows the same colour scheme that includes 3 colours; therefore this can be said that the realisation of the importance of the colour scheme has been achieved. We can see how consideration of structural importance has improved here. My college magazine using individual sections for each certain conventional music magazine feature. Alternatively, the college magazine content page lacks many features. The college magazine content page uses boxes to segregate certain features, yet these are unevenly spaces and alternatively sized. This obviously shows the progression of how the importance of visual organisation of the magazine can appeal more to the audience, as opposed to one that uses many images in attempt to have individual features. Concerning the progression of me as an individual, I believe that we can see a dramatic change in how I used technology and how my knowledge evolves from the original preliminary task of the college magazine to the final products of the music magazine. These final products are different through learning and progression with help of feedback and ideas for improvements.

Other aspects have also been learnt from the preliminary task to the main task, not just technical skills and conventions of the magazines. Within the media industry, music magazine companies such as NME and Q are on schedules for production of the product, especially if their product is a weekly edition. Therefore time management and working to a deadline is also a vital aspect within these real media products. I have also learnt about time management and working to tight deadlines, producing a satisfactory work at the time it is required. Work that requires a high standard must be produced over a period of time, not just over one day, hence why I took many hours to produce this work. Also, some work that only needed a small aspect of it changing, such as my content page first draft; I could submit another draft within the next few days and then re-alter using constantly updated feedback. I believe that this was a purpose that my music magazine progressed well until I was left with my final drafts.

When taking the photos of the model for Dane, I also had to consider certain factors. I wanted the character of Dane to have a youthful and deviant attitude that was obvious, yet also these certain characteristics of a passion. Considering these factors where accounted for hence why the model is wearing a snap back cap. I believe that the cap that ‘Dane’ is wearing enforces this youthfulness, and the funny face that is pulled on the content page also captures this aspect of childishness and humour. Alternatively, the aspect of passion that I wished to include in ‘Dane’ was shown through his guitar that is shown in the images that I have taken. Including the guitar into the images that I used meant that I could show Dane’s musical passion and ambition to become a success. My reason for considering these aspects was learnt from the initial preliminary task, where the models are wearing plain, casual clothing and no real focus on deeper, analytical meaning.

If I had more time, what would I add or improve on my product?

Obviously my final product of the magazine was not perfect, therefore will suggest some modifications of the product, if I were to do the task again or additional factors if I had more time to spend on the music magazine. Firstly, I would have liked to have created a replica of a website for my music magazine, which would be the digital basis of my widespread bSide network. As I have stated, the website would offer news and updates, yet exclusives to subscribed members. The website would also offer a basis of the digital release of the magazine.

Another factor that I could have developed in terms of technological input for the magazine, I would have also created a mock up application for an android/smartphone such as the iPhone. I had ideas of how to show my initial app in the thumbnail format that they are seen.

Here is the bSide image that is used for the content page as well as what is seen in the masthead on the front cover. This is the image that I would use an application that would be usable for news and updates on smartphones/androids. Opposite is the Facebook image that is the image used for the application to access Facebook on smartphones/androids. I have used this to compare how the thumbnail image for my bSide music application and the Facebook application and the thumbnail format.

I would also like to change some aspects of the magazine, should I have had more time/ another opportunity to redraft my music magazine. On my content page, I would have liked to refine the cutting out of the image of ‘Dane’. If we look at the image of the model used on my cover, we can see a slight glow around the edge against the masthead on the front page. This indicated that I have not accurately erased all of the background from the image on Photoshop, which creates a slight ambiguity about the image. Also on the front cover looking at the hand that is holding the guitar, it is slightly darker in contrast to the rest of the image and has a shadowed effect on it, I believe that this aspect was done early on in the final draft process of the magazine, where instead of using the ‘blur’ tool to soften the rough edges, I used the ‘burn’ tool which darkens a part of an image when it is used. This is another imperfection that I have noticed on my front cover.

Moving on to the content page of the magazine, we can see an imperfection in the main image of the magazine, at the bottom right part of the image and just to the left of the models head. This was due to me not using the ‘erasing tool’ yet highlighted this area of the background and changed the level to fully white. My reason for doing this rather than using the eraser tool was that I thought this would give a cleaner image, rather than using the eraser and risking the jagged edges on an image. The parts that are still shown must have been from where the ‘quick select tool’ did not recognise these areas of colour, therefore dismissed them. I should have used the eraser tool rather than doing this, which would have potentially increased the accuracy of deleting the background of this image.

On my double page spread, I faced a similar problem with the background still noticeable on the image background. Looking at the top right of the main image on the double page, towards where the crease of the page would be, we can see this. I believe that this was due to wanting to include the background on this page, otherwise it would be a plain white page, therefore had to attempt to use a blend effect, yet this failed. I believe I attempted to use the blur tool to create a subtlety for the blurring of the background. I should have erased the background to curve around the ‘D’ then blurred the background into the white, like this:

I believe that this looks much cleaner compared to my final image background of my double page spread. These small details may not be vital yet make a difference visually. 

Another aspect of the cover that could have changed on the double page spread is the opacity of the large ‘D’. I believe that the capital ‘D’ on this is too opaque and looks too light, which was set a low opacity on the percentage slider. I think a darker and more clearer pattern of the ‘D’ would have emphasised the model that was set within the ‘D’ and attracted much more attention to him, which would be more effective to the audience’s attention.