my media product (front cover, contents and double page spread)

Idenity and Ideology check

Ideology and idenity in the music industry:
Values, emotions and passion are the key elements of identiy in the music industry. These key elements complete the main aspects of an artists idenity in the music media, clothes lyrics, behaviour are the main aspects of an artist's behaviour.
Idenity is important for any artist in the music media as they are trying to make their 'mark' in the history of music. By acheivng this, artists must stand out from the crowd with their musical talents and their indivdual key elements of idenity.
an indenity could come from the passion of an artist, or from a remake of an older artist. Lady GAGA is a perfect example of an modern artist who uses her idenity to appeal to her target audience and many many more.

Lady GAGA is famously known for her continous of wacky outfits which has continously won her a number of awards for music and fashion alike. However though, could it be that Lady GAGA's wacky style could be a cover up? A way of hiding away the true Lady GAGA.

With extreme form of indenitys like this, it's always questioned whether the arist is trying to hide from the public, or if they're really just trying to prove a point.

Defining Indenity:

. Clothes, appearence ( hair, make up etc)
. Behaviour, different aspects, behaviour in public and behaviour at home
. Express ways through fashion and lyrics
All the above bullet points are the main key ways of defining an artist, strip all the above away and w're just left with the average joe.
Eminem is a great example of idenity of lyrics. Eminem is a famous rapper who uses his past life and events as material for his lyrics.

Eminem's form of idenity is lyrics and behaviour. His lyrics are so controversial that has inpsired thousands of young rappers to make it to the top.

Eminem's race and skin is a economic form of indenity. Untill Enimem, there were hardly any other white rappers, only black, until Enimem came along. Eminem made his way up to the top with his two major form of idenitys and has stayed and surrived in the music media.





Ideology:Ideology is studied for the same reasons as institutions, some groups, mainly relgious, want to share their values with other people. This happens in the media industry all the time.
Something that is often  Mediated often occurs because they wanted their audience to think about something in their own way.
Ideology is a world view, a system of attidudes and values. Different people have different values, like family, or work.
Every production in the media, has a base of values, every story written in the media whether its tabloid or broadsheet, has values in mind.

Values:
In the media industy, values are considered when writting or performing to an audience. The difference betwen values and ideology is ideology tends to be a more pejortive term aimed at those values which differ from other people's values.

Reader Profiles NME CHECK

The NME readership proflie is used so the NME can get to know their audience more. What they buy, what music they listen to, jobs, gender etc. This infomation and research can then help the people at NME to expand and change their magazine so it appeals more to the  target audience.
The first section on the readership profile is all about main products which the target audience have and would buy. Acording to this readership profile, the average reader would spend '£372' on clothes per year, a further '£667' on audio equipment, ipods, docking stations etc. So this section in the reader profile tells the advertisers that the main audience of NME would be full/ part time employees who have the 'cash to splash'.
Because this is the first and biggest section on the reader profile, this shows the advertisers the exact products that NME readers would be interested  in buying, therefore advertisers would know what kind of products to advertise in their magazine.
The second section in the NME reader profile is all about the readers intrest in technology. This section clearly tells the advertisers what kind of hobbies and intrests the reader's inkeep, whether it's sport or gaming on the Xbox.  This section includes statistics of how much the average reader uses the internet, what they do and do likes, this keeping the advertisers informed of what to advertise to the readers. This section shows that the readers like to enjoy themselves, likes to be informed on knew products and most importantly, shows the advertisers where to advertise, internet: 'Spends an average of 24 hours per day-That's almost 29 hours per week!'
This infomatio clearly shows the adverstiers where to advertise their products to their readers.
The third section on this reader profile is general infomation, genders, average age, working status etc. This infomation gives a general idea of the sort of readers that read NME magazine. The main infomation that would grab the advertisers attention would be ' Male- 69%, Working full time- 52% . This shows the advertisers their main audience, male and that judging by the statistics, their prodcuts that would be advertised by NME, would be sold due to a range of readers.
Then, below the third section is contact details for NME. I like how they've arranged this page. Letting the advisters, readers etc, read the infomation letting them know the statitstics of certain infomation, then placing the contacts below. Therefore after the readers of this page have read this infomation, they can easily make a decison or can contact NME, knowing all the certain infomation that they need.
Above the image is a range of different images, this showing the tabled infomation in a more publicised way. I think that this brightens and lifens up the page making the page more attractive to the audience of the page.
In conculsion i beleive that this readership profile is successfull in many ways. The layout of the page, how they place the infomation carefully, important, less important etc how they use images to lifen up the page. This reader profile tells exactly what the readers of NME are into, who they are, and how they will come across this infomation.

Questionaire

I decided to ask 20 people out of my target audience to fill out my questionnaire, so i could find out in detail what would appeal to them in a magazine. The questions vary from cover appeal to the ideal price.

Question 1, what kind of music genre do you listen to?
Punk   Rap    RnB   Pop     Heavy metal   Rock     Indie   Techno  MC       House  Hip hop   Reggae   Dance I asked this question first as the type of music which appealed to my audience, would be the base of my entire magazine, right down to the bands who appeared in my magazine. The answers i got back were, 2 people said Pop, 12 people said Rock and 4 people said indie.
I did not place this question onto my questionnaire but when i asked the interviewees about their choice, they agreed that it was based upon the artists they like. Katy Perry, My Chemical Romance, Blackout, The Drums and Florence and the Machiene.
In conclusion to this question, Rock is the most popular genre of music listened to from my target audience.
 From the extended question, i can also gather that this has to do with the diferent types of artists that belong to that genre.
Question 2,   What kind of music magazines do you read?
Kerrang!     NME     Empire    Q      Rolling Stones        MOJO        Rock Sound mag                 
 I asked this question because i can then understand their type of music more and explore the different layouts of the appealed magazines and apply them to my own music magazine.
The results i got from this question were 10 people said Kerrang!, 5 people said NME, 2 people said Q and 2 people said rolling stones.
I believe the reason behind the popular choice of the Kerrang! Magazine was the appealed choice of music. Kerrang! Is a specialised rock magazine so therefore I could have my magazine appealing to one type of music genre.


Question 3, who is your favourite artist/band? This question is somewhat linked to question 1, I asked this to gain an understanding of the music and the fans of the band.
The results I got back were 2 people  said You Me At Six,  3 people said Katy Perry, 3 people said 30 Seconds To Mars, 5 people said Rihanna and 4 people said  Kings of Leon. 

Question 4, Do you copy the artists fashion look?
This question was of course a yes or no mulit choice.  I asked this question because I wanted to see what kind of influence bands and artists have over their targeted audience.  All interviewees agreed that they didn’t copy their favourite band’s fashion, however has bought from their clothes line and sometimes  have a replica of a top worn in a music video or from an awards show.
In conclusion I have learnt from this question that the fashion worn by bands do not have a added effect on their audience, however the merchandise I.E clothes line, dose have an appeal to the their fans.
Question 5,  Would you catorgised yourself in any of these stereo –types?
Chav    Goth   Emo    Mosher    indie   pop princess       none       
Most of the interviewees had fun with this question, trying to categorise themselves appropriately in the  given stereo types.
10 people placed themselves in Mosher, 6 people placed themselves in Indie, 2 people placed themselves in chav  , 1 person said none and 1 person said Pop princess.
It helped them to place themselves in the stereotypes when I explained that it was mainly to do with the music they listened to. I.E Kings of Leon, Rock= Mosher,   The Neon, Indie= Indie etc.  However all interviewees emphasised their choice of stereotype was nothing to do with the fashion, just the music.  
In conclusion, I have learnt that the the most popular stereotype is Mosher, however only for the music and not for the fashion.

Question 6, What part of the magazine cover would appeal to you the most?
Image of the band         Freebie          interviews                  
I asked this question to see which part of the magazine appealed most so I can therefore, emphasis and sell that part of the magazine with more graphics and effect.
My feedback was a 8 people choosing freebie  and 9 people choosing the interview an 3 person chose the image of the band. However, most of the interviewees were intrigued to know what the freebie would be so when I explained it could stretch from a free download of an album from iTunes to chewy fruity sweets, they gladly chose that answer.
I again, had to clarify that the image of the band would be a free poster worth A3/ A4 which helped build the popularity of the answer.
In conclusion, the freebie was the best selling answer in this question. Therefore shows that best selling magazines are those who gives away best freebies.

Question 7, would you prefer a monthly or weekly magazine?
I asked this question to see how popular my magazine would be if either weekly or monthly.  12 people preferred it to be weekly while 8 people preferred it monthly.   When I asked why, the people who had chosen weekly explained that music charts and released singles could be easily updated and would be easier for the buyer to find out Information about the new released albums and singles.
In conclusion, a weekly magazine would be ideal for my target audience, as it would be easier to read about new releases of albums and singles.  From this question, I then had the idea to do a weekly magazine however have special editions at the end of every month or on special occasions, i.e new year or just have special editions three times a year to show  whats been happening in music so far from that point in the year.

Question 8, How much would you pay for the magazine?
For this question, I decided not to place multi choice answers because I wanted to see what would be ideal price to pay for the magazine.
The  prices I got ranged from 50p to £2.60. However more than one person chose £1.20- £1.50 as an ideal price for the magazine. The reasons for this was because the price wasn’t that expensive an wasn’t that cheap for the magazine.
In conculsion, the right price for my music magazine would be £1.20 to £1.50.

Question 9, what would appeal to you most on the front cover, the dominant image of an celebrity or the publicised interviews of artists?
This question was mainly to do with the style and ideal layout which would appeal more to the targeted audience. The majority of interwiees ( 14) chose the dominant image of  an celebrity while a minority of 6 chose the publcised interview of artists.
However all agreed that if the interviews was publicised with ideal buzz words an in graphics which made the interview stand out on the front cover and if it was an exclusive interview, then that would also appeal to them.

Question 10,
What would be a suitable name for a music magazine?
This question I believe was the most important question on this questionnaire. I believe that the name of the magazine is important as it’s the most important piece of information on the front cover, if it’s a really bad name, then I believe most people would not consider the magazine.
Most interviewees agreed to this question however only 4 people could not think of a name:
Micca                                       M.B (Music Beat)
Play Back                                             Music
Sound System                                     M.T.1 (Mic, Take, 1)
M.L.L (Music Life Love)                     Live beat (L.B)                       
M.S (Music Suicide)                          L.S.D ( Love sex drugs)
M.S.L (music Suicide Live)                 Make out  
?                                                           Live Kicks
Sound beat
Legend

In conclusion, I have learnt many things that would appeal to my audience if placed in a magazine. I have learnt about what would appeal to my target audience on the front cover, what would attract my audience to my magazine i.e. freebie etc. I believe that if I place all this information into my magazine, my magazine would appeal to the ideal audience.

college magazine

Magazine Front Cover Analysis


Because i started to create my magazine near Halloween i decided to base my front cover on a gothic halloween theme. I chose a black background to resemble the gothic theme of my front cover, also the colour white on the dominant image placed in the center of my magazine front cover, would contrast against the blackness of the background instantly making the front cover stand out on the shelves making the cover more appealing to the audience. I think this works effectively for it's suitable purpose, the colour black used for the background, creates the right theme for the magazine.
At the very top of the page is the phrase 'Halloween Special!!!' This is in a red italic font to again link in with the theme of halloween. The  colour red is constantly linked with blood and danger and the italic font creates a chilling style of writing which joined together links in with the theme halloween; This style of writing is perfect for this phrase as it physically shows the theme of halloween. This phrase and it's design effectively shows the theme idea of the mgazine, making it easier for the audience to understand what the whole layout of the magaazine is based on.
The dominant image is an image of the priory at Guisbourgh. I took and minulpiated the image my self, changing the contrasting settings on the image darkining the main object of the image and brighting the background light so the image itself has contrasting colours inside the image and creating a sense of mystery surrounding the main object in the dominant image on the front cover. This surrounding mystery of the image creates a theme of mystery and directly grabs the audience attention as they would want to find out why the image has been displayed and minulapted like that. This image is the most important object on the front cover, because it shows clearly the theme of the magazine. It's also one of the main sales point for the magazine as the audience will want to know the story behind the Priory.
 I chose a different option to display the name of my magazine. 'Prior' is placed at the left hand side of the front cover going downwards. I have used this  effect for the  originality, normally magazines place the name at the top of the magazine so it can be seen clearly for the target audience, however by placing the title of the magazine on the left hand side of the cover, the audience will Immediately want to read this magazine as its a fresh look upon the shelves.

On the opposite side of the magazine are the mini tasters showing the audience what is featured inside the magazine. The tasters are in a size 12 font so can be clearly read. The colour of the font is red again linknig in with the idea and theme of Halloween.  I think this works effectively on my magazine as the font colour is very bright and stands out to the target audience.  The taster are set out like a contents style, one after the other so the audience can read the tasters one after the other.  This again works effectivly because the tasters are grouped together so its easier for the audience to look and read them.  However, to make my tasters appeal more to my target audience, i would have added in images for the different tasters, again making them more appealing to the audience.
Below this is a quote used from one of the stories featured in the magazine, the quote is used as a hook line.
This quote is used in the same colour, red, to show that the quote is linked in with the theme of halloween.
The colour again, represents the point that the tasters and quote are both linked together, however the  quote is in a different font, again showing the audience that the quote is taken from a different story, and therefore isn't entirely linked with the tasters. The quote is placed above the barcode at the bottom of the page,giving the quote a sense of orginality. 

The barcode is placed at the bottom of the page, so the barcode isn't in the way, but is yet visble for the leagal requirments.
At the bottom of the left hand corner, theres the quote, 'prior's got talent!!!!'.This is in a bright yellow font so the phrase stands out to the audience. The bright yellow font shows that the phrase in't linked to any other of the magazine. The phrase is placed below the name of the magazine so the audience will directly see the phrase and so their eye contact will be immedatily drawn to the phrase.  By placing the quote in another bright colour, the quote stands out and creates a sense of idenity visible to the reader. By the colour of the phrase, the audience can easily see that the phrase 'Prior's got talent' isn't linked to any of the other text displayed on the magazine and therefore creates a feeling of suspense. By only having the phrase kept to a minium, it creates a sense of mystery and suspense what with the reader wanting to find out more about this 'talent show'. I beleive that this phrase is one of the most successful selling points of my magazine. This phrase alone creates suspense and on its own could acterually be described as a buzz word and a hook line, hooking the reader into finding the details about the talent show.
In conculsion, i think that this cover is successfull as it catches the audience's eye,  completes the aim and target set for the college magazine and shows a complete theme throughout the cover. The minlipuation of the dominant image on the front cover completes the front cover and brings the theme of the magazine together. The phrase 'Prior Got's talent' is a successful hook line, hooking the readers into finding out more about the details.
However, i beleive that this magazine front cover looks average. The front cover looks a bit bleak, because of there only being one image on the whole cover, the main background image.  To add a bit of colour onto my front cover, i could have added more images in, linked to the mini tasters placed on my front cover. If the tasters had images linked to the tasters, then the tasters would have appealed more to the readers of my magazine.

Photography

For this image, i chose to use a straight angle to make the passage way look bigger then it already was. This image also contains Juxtaposition balance, where the archway of the 'X' is bigger then the passageaway. Again by using a stright angle, it captures and creates Juxtapostion and gives the image a new sense of meaning and possible ideas created by the audience.
What I like about this image is the light at the end. It could be like whatever the audience's imagination decides it should be.





For this particular image I have zoomed the camera in so only the contrasting colours of the flowers will be the only objects that would appearing in the image. I have tried to cut out any unneeded background so the attention can be focused on the contrasting colours of the flowers.
I have chosen to focus on this particular image because of how colourful and eye- catching the image appears to be.  Stright way, this image can capture the audience's eye.
In one way this image has a frame. The frame is around the flowers, excluding anything else that would appear in the image. The frame has been added to, again, exclude any other background which not be necessary in the image.