Drafting

Front cover drafts:

I am happy with the font I have chosen for my first draft as believe it relates well to the pop genre because is fun and bubbly. I am not sure about the placement of the snowflakes as I think it makes the cover look to messy. However I do want to incorporate the snowflakes somewhere on my cover to link to the season of December.

Here I added in a borderline to make the cover look more professional by highlighting the main features of the article and making them stand out. Also I added in a top UK 40 cover-line, although I do think this will be a good feature to involve in my magazine I don't believe it looks right on the page.

I switched the last cover-line to make the front cover look more professional however still link it into music. I deleted some of the snow flakes and only left one because I believe that the snow flakes took attention away from the masthead. In despite of this, I still kept one to reinforce the season that the magazine is issued in. I also added in a puff and plug for a competition. I put it in a blue box to go with the colour theme and also make the text stand out more. I added a drop shadow effect to this puff and plug to make the magazine look more 3D. I also added in a barcode to give the magazine a more authentic feel.

Here i added in my main image of my model and made her centre on my cover so that she is the main focus. I kept my puff and plug however moved it to the stop of the page and shortened the writing in it to make it more memorable and easy to read. In the yellow box's I put in key words to make the readers want to read on. Yellow is a bright colour and attracts well to the eye. On the yellow box's I added a drop shadow to add empathises. I also added in another cover line, which is based on celebrity's because in pop magazines they are usually about gossip and pop stars. I also added in a tag line at the top 'THE UK'S NO1 MAGAZINE FOR CULTURE' to make the magazine look like the best.

In this draft I have changed my cover image because I was able to use my original photo anymore. I also added in another cover line 'This seasons fashion MUSTS' to give the front cover more content. Also I added in a pull quote from the double page spread.

In this draft I have changed a lot. I have changed the mast head font to a more bold text to make it stand out more. I also put a yellow box under most of the content to make it stand out more as yellow on pink makes the words more bold. I deleted the box that went under 'LOOK! its SHAUNA' and changed it to just 'SHAUNA' because then it doesn't block the image behind it and also I believe looks more professional without. I have added in a white circle box for images of clothes to go in there with the cover line 'DRESS LIKE LITTLE MIX!'. I have also added in a picture of the x factor logo by the cover line relating to x factor as gives the front cover more depth and a visual stimulus.


Contents page drafts:





















I have added in the mast head 'contents' in the same font as the masthead on the front page. I have added in pink lips to empathises the fact that its a girls magazine. I also constructed a box with the title "MAKE IT... GOSSIP" which my page numbers and a brief summary of their content will go.

Here I have put in the page numbers with a brief summary of the content next to them. I have also put in a little box with 'Ssh! Secrets' in it to make the reader believe their getting exclusive gossip. In the corner I have put in a circle shape with the cover line 'MAKE IT... FASHION' and I intend to put in pictures of fashionable clothes with boxes saying which famous celebrity wears them.

Here I have added in photographs at the bottom of the celebrity that appears on the front cover. I have also centralised the lips to balance out the page and to stop it blocking important content. I also added in 'MAKE IT...' before contents to reinforce the masthead of the magazine and continue the theme. I added in a screenshot of the front cover with numbers annotated around it to make the pages more simple for the reader to find. Another box has been made 'MAKE IT... COMPETITION' to make the competition stand out more. I have also added in quotes of celebrities around the page to give the reader a sneak peak of is what to come.

I have added in a blue box behind most of the content to add some more colour to my contents page as there was too much white. It also gives the page more of a dimension instead of it looking flat. Here I have played around with using 'INSIDE THIS MAG' instead of 'CONTENTS' but I believe that 'CONTENTS' looks better and goes better with the 'MAKE IT...' theme.

Here I have changed the font of 'MAKE IT... CONTENTS' to make it stand out more and be the first thing the reader sees. Also I have changed the font to link it to the font of the front cover, which will make the magazine look more consistent and therefore professional.

Double page spread drafts:

This is my first draft of my double page spread. I constructed an interview and added in pink circles behind the writing to make it stand out. I wrote 'cover story' as the title which I believe didn't make the text seem interesting. Also I added a picture of Shauna on the other page however it made the page look to plain and also the picture had a yellow wash to it. I believe my first draft looks really flat and needs some dimension to it.

In this draft i have changed a lot. Firstly, I have made the interview smaller so I could have a bigger and more eye catching title. My title is a pull quote which I believe with interest the reader to carry on reading. In the interview I have highlighted key quotes which I believe the audience will be most interested in. I have added in a page number and the magazines website in the corner at the bottom just to make the magazine look more authentic. I have made 'COVER STORY' a lot smaller but kept it so the audience knows that this is the main story of the magazine. I have changed the photograph of Shauna to a one of her pulling a silly face to allow the audience to feel like they are getting a different and more fun side to her. Also I used photoshop to back the background more white instead of having a yellow stint to it, which I believe makes the photograph look more professional. 

Planning For Main Task

Initial Ideas:

Proposal:

I am going to be aiming my music magazine at young girls from 11-17; I am aiming my magazine at this type of audience because stereotypically that age range of girls are the most interested and involved with that genre of music. Also conventions of the genre is pinks and purples which are mostly associated with being girly colours so thats what I chose this target audience.

For my main image on the front cover I would like to have a close up photo of either an attractive male that the target audience with fancy or a photo of a pretty female who is an excellent role model so that the target audience can look up too her. I will make sure the in the photo of the model they will be smiling to indicate that it is a fun and carefree magazine like the genre of music. Also I will make sure the model is wearing bright coloured clothes so that they fit in with the fun theme. To get this image I will get a plain yet effective background and ask the model to stand in front of it and smile. I will then get a close up shot because it is a convention of a pop magazine.

My magazine will generally be about everything pop. It will include features about pop artists, pop music and pop gossip. A convention of a pop magazine is to have gossip about pop celebrities in them because that is what the audience want to read about. I will also include tour dates of some of the pop celebrities for the slightly older end of our target audience. Finally I will include features about pop celebrity fashion and what they are thinking is 'hot' or 'not' right now; the target audience will enjoy that they are taking direct fashion tips from the celebrities who always look good.

Typical cover lines will include stories about the celebrities, from interviews to gossip. I will also include like I mentioned earlier stories about fashion tips and cosmetics for the slightly older girls. Also I would like to include tour dates for some of the celebrities. Another thing I will include is free posters of attractive celebrities so that the audience believe they are getting more for there money. A final idea of mine is to include stories linked in to the season for example for december I will include stories about  X Factor ( as is on near Christmas ) and include winter event dates like 'Jingle bell ball' and 'Winter Wonderland'.

The masthead I have decided on is 'Make it pop'. I like this masthead because I believe is a easy to remember, catchy and includes the genre of music. 'Pop' in this masthead means two things; first of all it means the genre of music so that the target audience know what they are going to be getting inside the magazine. Secondly it is a onomatopoetic word, 'pop' is a sound and therefore links to that fact that the magazine is about music and sounds. 'Make it' in the title is an imperative and therefore tells the reader what to do. The target audience will believe that they are being directly spoken to and will want to read on. Other titles I came up with was 'Pop mania' and 'Pop world', I did like this names however I believe that they where to similar to some other iconic pop magazines titles.

I am going to use the font 'serif' because it is traditionally used in magazines and therefore will give my magazine an authentic and professional look. The font 'serif' is also linked to looking like a girly font because is curly; this will link in effectively because my target audience are girls. Also for some of the more important words on the front cover I may use a different more bubbly font to grab the target audiences attention more and make them focus on the good parts of the magazine.

My magazine is going to issued weekly. This is because music news is always expanding and if it was issued monthly there would be to much news to fit into the magazine. Teenage girls will get bored reading the same magazine for a month because the content will be the same, so if it is out weekly they can read more recent music news. I will still link the seasons to the weekly magazine for example for all of the December magazines I will make a reference to winter and Christmas in it.

The dimensions of my magazine will be the typical A4 size. This is because most magazine are traditionally A4 so will look more professional. It also gives a lot of room to add more content and to make the font a bit bigger so it is clearer for the younger audience to read.

I will make the price for the magazine £1/1.50 because it is aimed at young teenage girls who won't have a lot of money to buy more expensive magazines. The target audience will most probably not have jobs and just be getting a basic amount of pocket money so making the magazine around £1 will it affordable for them to buy.

On my contents page I will have colours that link to the front cover to create a ongoing theme of colours, which will make the magazine overall seem more professional. Also on the contents page I will add pictures that link to the brief summary of the cover lines so that the target audience can visually see what or who the cover line is going to be about and not have to read it all.

Music Magazine Research

Here is a prezi I made which explores the different types of music genres and there conventions. This research helped me to decide what genre I believe is best for my magazine:





I also constructed a questionnaire about music magazines that I will ask a mixture of students to answer. I will ask 50 students this Questionnaire. The questions I asked are:

1. Have you ever read a music magazine?
    Yes                  No
2. What is your favourite genre of music?
     Pop                Rock             Indie           House
3. What is the most you would pay for a music magazine?
Under £1             £1                       £2                  £3 or over
4. What is your favourite genre of magazine?
     Gossip          Music           Sports              Fashion

The results are as followed:

Question 1-

Question 2-













Question 3-

Question 4-

To conclude the results show the clearly the most popular genre of music is pop and the most popular genre of magazine is gossip. A convention of a pop magazine is having gossip pages in there. I believe that I should choose to create a pop magazine because according to research is the most popular and therefore will get sold the most. I will charge my magazine at around £1-£2 because that is what the majority said they would pay for  a magazine and I want to keep it affordable for the target audience.


Analyses of a typical pop magazine contents page:

Analyses of a typical pop magazine interview page:

Preliminary Task: Brief

This was my first attempt at constructing a magazine using InDesign. I was able to place a photo, write text and change the font, size and colour and also place in shapes. These are the main tools for constructing a magazine cover so therefore should be able to confidently apply my knowledge to make the magazine better.

I done my initial ideas on paper. I will make sure I take a photo of it and upload it onto this page.

These are flat plans of my design for my college magazine. I will use these plans to construct a magazine using InDesign. For my front cover I have used the left third structure because it is the section the readers look at first and therefore will grab there attention.

I am aiming my magazine at students because it is a college magazine. It is a unisex magazine that is why I have used neutral colours that represent and link to the college. I didn't want to focus the magazine on a specific gender because all students should feel able to purchase it.

My magazine will be about college life in general. The content will include things solutions to general enquires about college life such as transport to college, the food in college and how to keep up to date with coursework. Also it will include cover stories like what enrichments are held at the college and special events that are happening that month. For example the 'October' issue will include features that relate to Halloween.

I decided on the name 'SDC' which means 'South Downs College'. I abbreviated this because I believe it is more catchy and also looks more professional on the magazine as fits well on the page. I thought of many names in the process of choosing one by narrowed it down to 'SDC' and 'College weekly'. I decided that 'College weekly' was to vague as didn't specify what college it was and also I wanted a magazine that came out monthly; this is because I believe the audience will look forward to it coming out every month as has to wait and if it was weekly they may not be able to afford it. Also more will happen in a month then a week and therefore the issue will be more packed with information rather than it being vague. Another point is I can make each issue relevant to the month that it comes out in.

I stuck to quite bold and bubbly fonts because I wanted to grab the readers attention and believe this can be done better with bigger text. Also I stuck to a main colour theme of green and blue ( college colours ) however added in irrelevant colours to make the front page look more interesting for the reader. I made the most important word in the cover line either underlined, bigger or a different colour to emphasise the meaning. For example for the cover line 'over 50 enrichments revealed' I made the number 50 bigger than the rest of the text to put emphasises on the number, which makes the reader believe that is lots of enrichments.

For my main image I used a picture of a student working at a computer. I believe this was a good choice for a main image as shows to the readers that it is about students and that they can relate to it. However if I had the time I would of maybe chosen a picture that had more space around so I didn't have to squeeze my cover lines into one corner. Also I would still make sure the audience can see its a picture of a student at college however make them dress accordingly to the month/season. Such as for this issue the month was October I would maybe made the model wear a witch's hat to indicate to the readers that it is a Halloween edition because its October.

For my contents page I stuck with the original colours of green and blue to make my magazine look consistent. I again did make some of the cover lines in different colours to match the story. If I had more time I would of added in pictures to my contents page that linked with some of the cover lines so that the target audience had more of a visual stimulus; this would of made the contents page look more interesting.

Overall I was pleased with my first attempt at constructing a magazine and contents page. However when I make another one I will learn with my weaknesses. For example I believe that even though I wanted to keep the font bubbly and bold for the target audience, it does make the magazine look unprofessional because no magazine covers have that style of font. Also as I mentioned previously, I would of taken more time to choose a picture because the picture I took made it hard for me to construct the magazine around it as have minimum space available; this made the magazine look messy and again unprofessional. 

Task 5: IPC Study

IPC Media is the UK's leading consumer magazine and digital publisher with more than 60 iconic brands.  IPC creates content for multiple platforms, across print, online, mobile, tablets and events. This company engages with 26 million UK adults, which is almost two thirds of UK women and over 40% of UK men; this is an huge majority of people who engage with IPC. There award winning portfolio of websites reaches over 25 million global users every month. 

Below is a list of some of the most iconic brands IPC Media supports: 

Chat
Essentials 
Look
Golf monthly 
Ideal home
Marie Claire
Now
NME
Nuts
Soap life
Pick me up
Teen Now
TV Times
What's on TV
Women's Weekly 

There is a huge amount of commitment between IPC Media and its partnership with its advertisers, business partners, employees and consumers; this is so together they can deliver exceptional service, value, creativity and innovation. 

There are three divisions during publishing and these are: IPC Connect, IPC Inspire and IPC Southbank. 


IPC Connect: Our mass market women's division comprises famous women's weeklies including Now, Chat and Woman; TV entertainment brands including What's on TV, TVTimesand TV & Satellite Week and the goodtoknow network. Our men's portfolio, IPC Inspire, has a wealth of leisure brands including Country Life, Horse & Hound, Rugby World and Decanter, as well as lifestyle brands including Nuts, Mousebreaker and NME.


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

Task 4: Essay

Conventions of a teen magazine

The first convention of teenage girl magazines is that the main image is of attractive, young, female celebritys who are all smiling; because they are all smiling it indicates to the reader that this magazine is going to be fun, which stereotypically is what the target audience want. Also, because they are all role models for teenagers it inspires there mood to change and become happy as they look up to them. I think they used younger celebrities to make the target audience feel like they can relate to the celebrities more as believe they will face the same problems/issues.

Another convention is the color scheme used throughout the magazine. In all magazines the color pink is used because is sterotypically assoicated as a 'girly' color and therefore appeals to the target audience of girls. Pink is used so that when walking into a shop to buy a magazine, the target audience of teenage girls with automatically look for pink magazines as it is a color they like. From a young age girls and boys are sepearted by colors; all girls toys were pinks and all boys toys were blues, so now we automatically assoicate the color pink with feminity. Also they all use bright tones of pink to make the magazine stand out and therefore urge the target audience to buy it as grabs there attention.

Also another convention of a teenage girl magazine is that they share similar coverline themes about fashion, weight, boys and gossip which are topics teenage girl typically are interested in. Teenagers don't normally have a lot of money so by using plugs and puffs on the front page it creates the effect that they are getting more for there money for example '382 ways to be irresistible' and '625 pretty looks for you'.

Serif font is another convention of teenage girl magazines. Serif font is typography and is a traditional font for magazines; the font is percieved as girly because the letter curl and therefore will appeal more to the target audience. Overall, the 5 different magazines I looked at all have the same conventions. This is because the magazine companies are trying to attract to the same audience of teenage girls.


For my essay I will be discussing to what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer. All magazines can be very influencial due to there re-interpritations of the truth, however the most influencial are teenage magazines because the target audience are more vunerable and therefore are easily influenced. Serious ramifications can apply due to these magazines; i will develop my ideas further throughout this essay.

Watchdog argues in the telegraph that 'teenage magazines are to blame for the "early sexualisation" of their young readers'. The article reveals that most of the content within a teenage magazine holds inapproiate and explict material such as naked men and coverlines that read 'Gang raped- for a mobile phone'. The coverlines link in with sex at least once in every teenage girl magazine; this introduces teenagers to the idea of sex at a young age and after repeatedly reading the material they will soon become interested in the subject and then become influenced. Also this article says that The Sunday Telegraph conducted a study of several magazines and found that they all contained sexually-explict material; they do this because the target audience are attracted to this topic and therefore will continue to buy the magazine.

source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/4990907/Teen-magazines-are-sexualising-readers-says-watchdog.html

Wales online states that there is a direct correlation with reading teenage magazines and teenagers with eating disorders. This is because in teenage magazines there are lots of photo's of celebritys with the 'perfect' body; by reading these magazines regularly it will start having a negative effect on the readers self asteem if they don't have this 'desired' body type. This could lead to skipping meals, being sick after eating or binge eating which is extreamly dangerous espically on young peoples body as they are still developing. A lot of people argue that the magazines should stop portraying skinny celebrity bodys, when most have been photoshopped, and start showing a wide varity of body types to reassure the audience that know spespific body shape is correct. Dr James White conducted a study to see if reading gossip magazines linked to eating disorders. His results were that most people who had a eating disorder were regular gossip magazine readers and they also stated that they felt under pressure by the unrealistic pictures in gossip magazines. Gossip magazines go into every little detail of celebrities lives and are frequently criticized for either putting weight on or looking less perfect then usual. Most gossip magazines include diet tips, some are quite extreame, making it even easier for the target audience to lose weight and become closer to looking like the idolised celebrity. However it is not just teenage girls that face this pressure of feeling they should look a certain way, recent studys show that there is a huge rise in teenage boys with eating disorders; this is because in magazines there is always pictures of attractive men with faultless bodys. This adds pressure to boys to become this way as society think its correct to look like the models/celebritys.

source: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/magazine-images-linked-teenage-eating-1914020

Overall, I believe that by not putting in pictues of size 0, toned celebrities in gossip magazines it will have a postive effect on the target audience because it will take away the pressure of trying to look like them. By replacing these photos with celebrities who have a healthy, normal and realistic weight will encourage the target audience to eat healthy and excerise to become healthier not skinnier. Also I believe that even though teenagers should be aware of sex, it isn't right filling gossip magazines about it because it will make them believe that they should be having sex and therefore may feel pressured into it.

Task 3: Magazines & Audiences

Part 1: Glossary of terminology

Masthead- Iconic ( recognisable ) name of the magazine
Price- Price of magazine
Bar code- To scan magazine for price
Issue number/date- To tell readers when its came out and which issue it is
Main image- Directly related to the featured article
Plugs- Give away, enticing the reader to buy e.g. competition
Puff- The graphic design around the plug to draw in reader
Main cover line- Main story line on magazine
Pull quote from- A small direct quote pulled from inside the magazine
Serif font- A traditional font, also can be perceived as girly
Interview- A celebrity has gave an interview inside
Cover lines- Tells the audience a brief sentence about a story inside
Left third- Magazines are in thirds, the left third has most cover lines on it
Code- Interpretations through what we know ( stereotypes )
Conventions- Widely recognised way of doing things

Part 2: 500 word analysis on a magazine

The target audience for this magazine is women aged 18-30; I think this because Beyoncé is the main image and she is an iconic figure for strong, independent women. However I believe that this image portrays her in a different way as Beyoncé is standing in a shy stance, hiding behind her shoulder, which makes her look more venerable and girly. I believe this is done to link in with the cover line 'Beyoncé in the bed room' as she has let out all her secrets and therefore left her venerable so she posed in a similar way. It will also interest the target audience because they are normally interested about sex and that's way a lot of the cover lines are about it. Another point is that Beyoncé is aged 32 and is respected for being a good role model to younger people; she is all about doing things for herself and being independent which a lot of young girls aspire to be like. Also she hit fame when she was 16 so a lot of the target audience would have grown up with her music and her being in the news for being idolized as 'perfect'. Beyoncé in this photo is smiling which connotes that she is happy and attractive, making the target audience feel like they should, as a girl, be that way too.  

I think that the target audience for Cosmopolitan is for women who work in an office, admin or sales that is professional but still has that carefree glamorous side to it. The magazine is £3.50, which shows that the target audience must have a fairly well paid job to afford this every month. The iconic masthead 'Cosmopolitan' means 'familiar with and at ease in many different countries and cultures'; having this word as the title connotes that this magazine is aimed at someone who sees themselves as well cultured and well traveled like the women in the program 'Sex and the city'. Like the program this magazine is greatly about sex, glamorous life in the big city and shoes; this is because the topics are conventions of what the typical young women is interested in. Because the women see themseleves as 'cosmopolitan' it is a very effective masthead as it will be easy to recognise and therefore will be more popular. 

Also I think that the target audience is for heterosexual women because that is what Beyonce is and therefore they will be able to relate towards her lifestyle more. A code that this magazine is for women is that the front cover is filled with pretty pastel colours, such as pinks and oranges, which are stereotyped to be more feminine. Furthermore on the front cover there is a thematic link between the colours used and what month it is; they do this because the target audience want to know the current trends for the current weather and by looking at the magazine they can link the colors to the season. For example this magazine is for April which is in spring and the magazine has warm, pastel pinks and oranges which indicates to the reader that the weather is going to get warmer and clothes are going to get brighter. Serif font is also used on this cover because it is a tradiontal font that is recongised for being linked to magazine, it is also a style of font which looks 'girly' because it words curl.

Overall I believe alot of codes and conventions are used in this magazine to make it appeal to the target audience of young, working women who desire the glamerous life style as they regulary read about it. For this magazine to be sucessful the publishers had to include many ideologies of what the target audience would like for example: fashion, gosisp and lifestyle.

Task 2: Getting to know Blogger

Things you can do with Blogger:
-Customise your own design
-Publish your voice: uploading text, videos and pictures
-Simple-to-use interface: change fonts, adjust colour and alignment
-Saves automatically
-Spellcheck feature
-HTML editor: lets you customise your blog
-Free website
-Upload pictures and videos: you can order prints and organise photo's into albums
-Earn money: putting ad's onto your blog
-Develop your community: add a follow button
-Feedback from readers by leaving comments
-New post notifications: subscribe to blog feeds
-Simple ID: log into blogger with google accounts- gives you access to iGoogle , Google Mail etc.
-Language: 41 languages available
-Pages feature: make links
-Post on the go: blogger is available on phones
-Group blogging: create a team blog ( allowing multi bloggers to one blog )
-Third party applications: create your own app

'How I think Blogger will be useful for my coursework'

Blogger will be useful for my coursework because it hosts a multi media platform where pictures, text and videos can be uploaded. This will be very useful as it makes the tasks more interesting and shows I have a wider range of media knowledge. Blogger saves automatically which is very useful with doing course work because if students are in a rush or forget to save there work it will save automatically. Another useful point of blogger is that people can view your blog and leave comments so if the teacher wants to assess our work they can leave constructive feedback for us to work on. Blogging on the go could be handy if you don't have acess to a computer/laptop as it's easy to log in using your phone to do your work. Another great feature of blogger is spellcheck; this is useful because students do not want spelling errors in there coursework and spellcheck corrects there mistakes for them. Finally I believe that the way you can make links on blogger is an excellent feautre because if doing research students will be able to put a link up from the website they got there research from. Also if they make a refereance to a story or type of media on the internet; links can be useful to make points.

Do more...

From this video I have learnt how to embed powerpoint presentations onto my blog. Also I have learnt how to embed videos onto my blog:

I have also registered for Prezi and learnt the basics:

Task 1: Skills Audit

This sheet shows what I am able to do on computers, camera's and applications. It also shows what I am not so confident with such as Mac's because they are complicated. Also I have never had a blog so I am very new to it. Hopefully by the end of Media the area's ticket no will become yes due to lots of practise and widening my knowledge on different types of media.