Planning and preperation

For my A level media coursework I have been asked to create a front cover, contents page and DPS (double page spread) for a new music magazine. I have already completed a preliminary task which was to create a front cover for a new sixth form magazine. From the preliminary task I have learnt a lot which will help me create a better product for my main task.


I have several ideas on which type of music genre to base my magazine on; my first idea is a magazine for people in their late teens and twenties who are interested in classical music and modern composers. The magazine would have a modern outlook of the classical music world and would challenge the conventions of stereotypical music as it would be aimed at a younger age group which is normally associated with the classical music genre.



I also have an idea to create a magazine aimed at males who like rock music and music festivals, this would mostly include information about up and coming events and reviews of festivals that have already passed. I would also include competitions to win the tickets.



My final idea is a teen to mid twenty, female based magazine which focuses on 'Alternative music' and centralises on Bohemian ideas and traditions. I think this would be the best magazine to create as I have identified a niche in the market as many music magazines are focused on current music that is in the charts and the popular genres of the current time.




I have created a questionnaire and pitched my three ideas to ten people, five male and five female, ranging from 12 to 30. I have asked them each five questions and then have asked which idea they preferred.



The five questions I asked were....



Which Genre of music do you prefer? Classical Pop RnB Indie Rock Other




How often would you buy a magazine? weekly fortnightly monthly other




Out of ten how important do you think the image on a front cover is?




Which of these is most appealing in a magazine? Interviews Reviews Competitions







Would you prefer a magazine that follows conventions of other magazines or one that challenges the conventions?



I then asked each person to rate each of my ideas and write comments on each. My results clearly show that females in my targeted age group were fond of the idea of a magazine for independent women that was different to the stereotypical conventions of life for teenagers that has been created by the society that we live in. Most of the people I questioned answered that they listen to many types of music and would buy a monthly magazine, and would most likely read interviews. I also asked them which idea they preferred, four out of the five women said they would rather read the last magazine about alternative music, all of these women were under 24, the other woman who was 30 said she would read the magazine about festivals if it was aimed at women as well as men.



Three of the men I asked said they would opt for the magazine about rock music and festivals, all of these men were 20 or under, 1 man said he would opt for the alternative music magazine if was targeted at men and women, and the other man said he would read the classical music magazine.




My research shows that the alternative music magazine for women is the most popular. Most of the women felt they would buy this magazine as they believed they would be interested in the subject, one girl aged 16 I asked said "There are so many girl magazines that are poppy, I would prefer a magazine with a different approach because I believe I am different to most other teenage girls". The classical music magazine was unpopular and many if the people questioned said that they would rather read about modern music than classical. The their magazine idea was quite popular with the men Interviewed, however one of the people interviewed said that they had seen many other magazines about music festivals that are quite popular and therefore, it would be difficult to try and introduce a new magazine similar to the others. An example of another magazine like my idea wold be Relix magazine which offers information about events and is similar to my idea.


After looking at my results I have decided to produce the Alternative music magazine and aim it at women aged 15-24. I believe this is the best choice as there are not many other magazine like this and as I am in the target age group I believe I would buy a magazine like this if I saw it.



For my alternative music magazine I have decided to aim it towards two men aged 16-24 who are interested in 'alternative' Bohemian style of music and way off life. I will therefore include things such as star signs. My magazine will mostly be about female music, however there I will include other male acts.


I have thought of many names for my magazine and now have three options. I haves asked five females in the targeted age group to analyse and decide which title they prefer.


My three titles ideas are : OutBreak, Strike, and Revolution.





I have chosen these names as they are all linked to my idea of going against the conventions and stereotypes of our society and I think that all of these would appeal to my target audience.


Of the five females I have asked 3 have said they would prefer a magazine named Revolution. Charlotte who is sixteen wrote "I think this links well with the subject of the magazine, it shows how females can be independent and are strong". 'OutBreak' got one vote, "I like this because the use of the capital B shows rebellion, however it makes me think of an outbreak of something bad" this shows how people can get negative connotations from the title. 'Strike' also got a vote "This is a good title as it is short and sharp so people can remember it, however it makes me think of a worker strike and is not linked to music".





From this feedback I have decided to call my magazine 'Revolution' as I think people would respond more positively to this name and I think it reflects my ideas for the magazine better than the others. I think 'Revolution' represents my target audience well as it shows how females, are Revolting from, the conventions and stereotypes of the music industry and in other aspects of life. I think it also shows that women can be independent and free to be themselves without having to be a stereotypical women.



My magazine will be aimed at women and therefore I believe that to relate to the target audience I should use females models to appeal to my audience, so they can relate to the piece.

Having deconstructed several magazines, contents and DPS's I know that I need a strong bold masthead so that people will be able to recognise my magazine and know what they are looking for. I also know that I need a theme on throughout the magazine as too many different colours and fonts can be confusing and therefore difficult to target one group of people. I also know that most font covers use a rule of thirds to make the front cover more appealing for my target age group. From my deconstructions I also know that the main feature of the magazine should be made obvious, eg if the main article is an interview of a star that is on the front cover then their name should be made obvious. I have also noticed that many successful magazines have writing along the bottom of the front cover indicating what is inside the magazine eg on the front cover of Cosmopolitan at the bottom of the page there is a 'ticker tape' saying "Interviews-Quizzes-real life-stars". This allows the reader a quick and sharp insight to what is in the magazine causing them to want to buy it.
Having deconstructed many contents pages I recognised that many magazines do not write what is on every page, they mostly say where the features displayed on the front are and the other most important features. In one 'Mizz' Magazine I looked at the contents page only had 12 lines, this makes the reader flick through the magazine rather than skipping pages to find a certain features.
After deconstructing DPS's I know that most have a large picture about the feature, and that they also take quotes from the interview and make them larger on the page often putting them inside a shape and using large speech marks, this emphasises the quote and entices in the reader as the quote is interesting to the reader and they therefore read trough the piece to allow them to find out more.
I hope that i can create a magazine that will follow the successful conventions of a magazine such as the rule of thirds, emphasising important features and using quotes, I will also use the basic conventions such as a bar code. However i also intend to challenge these conventions, to appeal to my audience and reflect my initial idea.

Comparison to Preliminary task

I think learnt a great deal from my preliminary task. From the first task I learnt that I needed to create a masthead that would catch peoples eyes, that was easy to remember and that ties in with the theme of the product. I also learnt that I needed a more interesting product that would stand out from the conventions often seen in magazines especially in the age group I was targeting.

I learnt that I needed a more striking picture as in the preliminary I had a quite plain picture which did not really draw in readers and therefore made the magazine look a little boring, the model I used also fitted the conventions of a stereotypical teen magazine and therefore looked like many other magazines and did not look any different, because of this I took a different style of picture that challenged the conventions.

I also learnt that I needed to add a drop shadow to make the writing stand out and to look more professional as in my preliminary task the front cover looked boring and looked like a flat image.

I think my final finished product is a great improvement from my preliminary as I had something to compare and improve from. I also used my research (questionnaire and deconstructions) to alter my product.

What have i learnt from the technologies?

Throughout this process i have learnt a great deal from the many types of technology i have used. I have used a wide range of technology to create my product.

I have accessed the internet for my reasearch and for my blog, i have used a camera to take my pictures and then used an apple mac computer to edit the images and to then compose my piece.

When using my camera to take pictures i learnt how differant camera angles can connote a range of moods and can either follow or challenge the convention of magazines, for example all of my photos in my product are either in sepia or black and white, which challenges the conventions of a stereotypical magazine.

Before i started my coursework i had only been on photoshop a few times and had never been on a mac, so i learnt a lot about how to use the macs and how to download fonts from http://www.dafont.com/, i also learnt how to use photoshop to crop the pictures and to change the images and add text.

Target Audience

My target audience for my magazine is strong minded independent girls/women aged 16-24 who do not wish to conform to the stereotypical, lifestyle of their culture. These women have an interest in things that are separate from normal conventions, e.g interested in star signs and are superstitious, also artistic.



I think my magazine appeals and addresses my audience successfully, as the name of the musician on the front is Orania which is an unusual name of a Greek goddess which ties in with the the theme of superstition. The masthead looks very ornate which again goes against the conventions of normal magazines, the mention of your top acts of 08 suggests that the magazine does not look entirely on the music that is currently popular instead looking at lesser known acts and alternative music. This therefore shows that the magazine does not conform to the conventions of current music.

Media Distribution

My media product would be sold in most mainstream shops such as Whsmith and other newsagents, I would also sell the magazine online and allow customers to subscribe to the magazine where it will be delivered to them monthly.
I would do this so it was easy to acquire and find on the Internet and in shops so customers did not have to search for it as it would be with other music magazines and therefore target audience would not be put off.

Representation of social groups

I think my product represents people particularly teen girls who have an alternative taste in music and do not want to conform to the stereotypical teen music, style and fashion.

I think it represents this audience as the magazine does conform to some of the conventions of media, therefore it is not completely different and isolated. I think this represent the target audience well as they have different tastes in music compared to the normally stereotypical 'pop' music, however they are not totally against the conventions of teenage life.

Evaluation- Coventions of media products.

I believe my product both challenges and follows certain conventions of music magazines; I believe that my magazine challenges the stereotypical conventions, as my magazine is based on alternative music and does not conform to the 'pop' style of music that is often in the music charts. My magazine is called revolution, which connonets that people buying this magazine do not conform to the usual stereotypes of music, Revolution means radical change connoting that the magazine is a change to the normal type of music and magazine.

However in some ways my magazine does conform to the conventions of a music magazine, particually ones that are aimed at teenage girls, because the font of the word 'Revolution' looks very feminine as it looks natural like flowers. The masthead is also pink, the theme of pink, cream and purple run throghout my Cover, Dps and Contents, which also conforms to the conventions.

I have also followed the conventions by the way i have set out the pieces. For example on the front cover all of my text is on the right handside with the masthead at the top of the page, following the style of many other popular magazines. i did this because as my target audience was a niche audience i still wanted it to look like a magazine so pepole would not be put off by the fact that it was different to others.