Final music magazine pages

Front cover

Contents page

Feature article

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your magazine?

Here is the short video that shows how I created my front cover.

First I added my key image which had already been edited, followed by the masthead which I added a shadow to to make it stand out. I put the date and price in the first letter of the masthead so that it could be easily seen.

Next I added the cover lines, which also have shadows on them, and made sure that they were in the correct fonts and colours.

Then I added all other text, including the ‘plus’ section at the bottom of the page and the free posters with a few listed artists. I also added a barcode in the bottom right corner, and then my magazine cover was finished.

Contents page:

Feature article:

I edited my key image on the feature article by firstly changing the eyes to be brighter, as they are the first thing you will see when looking at the magazine, therefore they needed to be as bright as possible.

I used the dodge tool to brighten the iris.

Then I used the burn tool to go over dark areas, such as the pupil, around the edge of the iris, and the eyelashes. I also made the eyelashes slightly longer with this tool.

Here you can see the difference between the edited eye and the unedited eye.

Once both the eyes were edited, I edited the photo as a whole, changing the brightness, contrast and the curves, making the photo even more striking.

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your music magazine?

The target audience for my magazine would be teenagers to young adults, around the age of 15-24. They would be both male and female, and would be music lovers. Specifically, they would love the indie genre, which is a little unusual and ranges from electro, acoustic and a soft rock, with a lot of unknown artists.

Here is a mood board showing what the stereotypical person buying my magazine would be interested in:

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your magazine and why?

Question 2: How does your magazine represent particular social groups?

Question 1: In what ways does your music magazine use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real music magazines?

These are my final pages to my music magazine after I had taken into consideration the feedback that I got. I feel like my magazine has really improved from my first drafts.

Here I have used Thinglink to show how I have used, developed and challenged conventions of real music magazines.

Music magazine feedback

I posted my draft version of my music magazine on Padlet and asked people to give me feedback on what is good, what is bad, and what could be added or improved.

Front cover:

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

I found the feedback really useful and they gave me a lot of ideas. Padlet was a good website to use as it was easy for everyone to add their comments and see the image at the same time.

Colour scheme selection

I have thought of different colour schemes that would look good in my magazine. I would like it to stay similar throughout, so I will obviously have black and white as two of the main colours, along with different shades of another colour.

I like the idea of different shades of a cool blue, as I think this goes well with my genre being a lot of relaxed music. Having the colour blue is going with the music magazine conventions as many feature this colour.

Magazines also feature a lot of red, however I think this goes better with the heavier, rock genre. I think red is a bit too bright and I would like my colour to be quite pale and soft. If I were to use a red, I would want it to be more toward a cherry or pink colour, and not too harsh, like these.

I also like the colour green as I think it is unique and goes against conventions, as I have not seen it on any magazines whilst doing my research. This, too, is a nice soothing colour, and would fit well with my genre.

Planning fonts

Planning original images

Here is an emaze of my original images that I would like to include in my magazine:

Looking at media theory

Today's lesson was a theory lesson, in which we have explored Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Uses  and Gratifications theory.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:

Human behaviour reflects a range of needs, and when one need has been fulfilled the next need emerges. The unsatisfied needs are what motivate our behaviour. Magazines can come into this as we may have a need to be accepted into social groups or for self-esteem/self-respect, therefore we look to the media to find out how to fit in. This theory offers a useful insight into the reasons why we are attracted to certain products and advertisements.

This pyramid explains the theory. It starts from basic needs such as food and water, continuing onto social needs and finally the need to develop all of your potential to the full.

Uses and Gratifications theory:

This theory suggests that audiences actively use media to meet some of the needs identified by Maslow. McQuail, Blumler and Brown defined four major areas.
These are;

• Diversion: an escape from our routine and problems, an emotional release
• Personal relationships: companionship, feeling part of a social group
• Personal identity: exploring our own values, through the comparison of with others' values (e.g. media producers and celebrities)
• Surveillance: the need for a constant supply of information about what is happening in the world.

Mode of address:
This is used to create a bond between the magazine and the audience, however this is done differently depending on what the genre is and who the audience is. For example, words such as taboo language and heavy rock pragmatics would not be right used in a pop magazine.

Key learning points:

• Maslow's hierarchy of needs is important as you can target the audience in the right way, depending on what they want
• You have to make sure the mode of address is correct for your particular audience and genre, otherwise no one will want to buy the magazine
• Looking at the gratifications theory has made me realize how to target certain people in different ways

Planning ideas for music magazine

by livsrose97

I think it is really effective to have something unique and unusual as the key cover photo as this will draw the reader in and make them want to read on. I have found a few examples of unique front covers that have inspired me.

Magazine covers from oliviarxse