pitch

My music magazine pitch from Ian orttewell

analysis 2

analysis 1

evaluation

1.      In what ways does your student magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Before i started producing my own magazine i researched other student magazines to try and find similarities and generic conventions between them. what i found was that most of them have a medium close up image of a student, the mastheads are usual just one word, and also include lots of blues, greens and other natural colours.

my product uses many of the same features of a mainstream magazine. Such as  the way my magazine is presented i.e. my masthead, main image and other key features are where you would expect to see them on any magazine. Also i have tried to incorporate my main image within my masthead by laying it over the top, this is also something commonly seen within most magazines. I have also tried to develop the factor that magazines should have unity within them by incorporating  a gradient from blue to white which develops the idea of my titles "horizon", this is something that mainstream magazines may try to achieve but may not fully develop. Another similarity between my magazine and other student magazine is that I use lots of blues. I think the colour blue gives a very 'free', and 'open' appearance to the magazine, it also makes it seem innocent and non-biased which  may attract people to buy it.

However I have tried to approach a more simplistic style as i have not included a lot of features found on a conventional magazine such as a pug, puff or price as i think this make the magazine look a lot more clean and professional. I have also tried to develop the fact most student magazines have a very boring central image, so with my shot i have tried to capture some excitement which may attract more people to get my magazine as it seems more lively.

2.      How does your student magazine represent particular social groups?

     my student magazine represents teenagers as a whole I think in a positive way. I have tried to represent that students are not kid like, or idiotic by making my magazine have very plain text and other features which on the other hand may seem to be patronising, i.e. using the word LOL. However I have tried to keep my magazine quite energetic and bold as this i think represents the entirety of teenage life, e.g. there is a world outside of college and school, and we need to go out and enjoy ourselves.

3.      What kind of media institution might distribute your student magazine and why?

     In my opinion i think that my magazine would my magazine would be beneficial as a free insert in any tabloid magazine as it something designed for the age range of the readers of most tabloid papers. I think my magazine would encourage younger people to start reading the news as this is something that young people do. I also think it will be beneficial to the newspaper as it would widen the target market for them so they could be able to add different types of articles, that may engage younger buyers. 

4.      Who would be the audience for your student magazine?

     My target audience would be students between the ages of 16-19, this would be my audience as this is the group of people my own age and because of this i think I would be able to use the best content  as I would know what other teenagers would enjoy.

5.      How did you attract/address your audience?
 
The ways that I tried to attract an audience is by trying to make my magazine look different, the way I tried to do this is by changing some of the conventional features of a student magazine such as the central image which is usually a medium close up of a student, doing student things however I have tried to develop this idea as I have used an action shot which makes my magazine look a lot more exciting. I have also tried to address my audience by adding a specific title to the issue, "what to do outside of college" this shows there would be different topics on each issue. 

6.      What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the student magazine?

  
      Through the construction of my magazine I have learnt how to use one specific program,      Adobe Indesign. I found this program difficult to use first due to the layer function                  however using my prior skills of photoshop i soon got the hang of it. I have learnt that this      program is the best program in the industry as it allows full control to manipulate the look      of the magazine, e.g. you can easily add gradients to the mast head and other  key                features. 

My worlde

There are 100's of music magazines for all different types of genres however there are lots of magazines for the same genres i.e rock. However there are not many magazines for specific sub-genre's such as Acid Jazz, because of this there are some gaps in a very crowded market.

My Action Plan

5th oct:
introduction and initial ideas for my coursework

12th oct:
analysis of other magazines from same sub-genre

19th oct:

produce a mock up and think about the pages for my magazine i.e house style, brand identity and other aspects of my magazine

26th oct.
complete outstanding research and planning

2nd nov.
magazine production

9th nov.

develop front cover 

16th nov.

develop contents page

23rd nov.

develop double page spread

30th Nov.

develop work in response of feedback

7th dec.

finalize design of all pages

14th dec.

develop draft evaluation

21st dec./28th dec.

draft evaluation

4th jan.

develop evaluation

11th jan.

complete evaluation + final blog check

18th jan.

finish up

29th jan.

final deadline!

My introduction to my main coursework task

                  My Main Coursework Task.

For my main coursework task I am going to be researching, designing and creating and evaluating a music magazine that has a front page, contents page and a double page spread, that is designed for a specific target audience and that I think has a place for in the market.

my finished magazine