4. Forms & Conventions
In what ways does your magazine use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real music magazines?
FRONT COVER:
I think that my magazine conforms and also challenges the forms and
conventions of real music magazines which gives it an originality factor .
My front cover conforms to the conventions of real music magazines
because it includes the basic forms of a magazine which are the;
Masthead, sell lines, main image, slogan, barcode, feature article, price
& date.
Although You will notice that my front cover also includes a bible verse at the
bottom of the page as an inspirational message to the target audience instead of
a sell line which adds a religious element to the genre of the magazine which is
Urban Gospel. My front cover also challenges the forms and conventions of real
music magazines because the masthead is in front of the main image because
put I into consideration that this is the first issue of my magazine, so its not at
the stage where its a very well known music magazine yet, whilst most real
music magazines place the masthead behind the main image because its already
well known to the majority of the public. Another way my front cover challenges
the forms and conventions of real music magazines are that I kept and did not
crop out the background of the main image as I felt this contributed to the
urban feel of the magazine and most music magazines use one or two people in
a close up shot as their main image but I feel have challenged this by using
three people in a mid- group shot which in my opinion takes more effort in
terms of positioning to fit the page.
5. CONTENTS PAGE: and conventions of a real
My contents page conforms to the forms
music magazine as it includes the editors letter and the page numbers
of each topic. Although the page numbers are in different colours next
to the information to clearly stand out to the readers. And the topic
subheadings are also in a bright pink colour to indicate the different
topics featured. This subverts from normal music magazines as they
usually stick to one colour.
6. DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD:
My Double page spread could be said to adhere to the forms and
conventions of a real music magazine because the main image covers
approximately 40- 45% of the copy on one side with the text covering
about 55 % of the copy , simultaneously matching the house colours of
the magazine ( blue, white and black). The spread also conforms with the
normal conventions by including page numbers, the name of the person
who took the photo and wrote the article and a by-line about the feature
and page numbers .However, even though my double page conforms to
the conventions of a real music magazine by including a caption, it uses
quotes instead of it common purpose of sell lines to show to the
audience interesting information mentioned .
7. Presentational Issues
How does your magazine represent particular social
groups?
My magazine represents the Urban Gospel view with a demographic of middle/ late teens
and young adults.
My magazine uses three young black African girls. They represent the young black youth of
today , as they are often stigmatised for being a negative , dangerous influence to the
community , in reference to drugs, alcohol and gang/ knife crime. The fact that these young
black female artists are the features of a Gospel magazine which is commonly viewed as
righteous and holy may show that they are subverting from that stigma in a positive
manner.
Also the fact that the artists are wearing plain bright coloured clothing also subverts from
the stereotype that all black gang youth wear hoodies, baggy jeans and sneakers.
8. Institutions
Where would my magazine be distributed?
I think that since my target audience is reasonably wide, its fair to suggest that I
distribute my magazine in places where they are most likely to visit . My
magazine would fit into big institutions where the market sale for reading
sources are fairly high. The first place I would suggest for my magazine to be
distributed would be at churches, because the genre of my magazine is Urban
Gospel so it s a natural institution where many people of the Christian faith
would go to purchase my magazine.
The second institution I would place my magazine to be distributed would be
at youth groups because they are my main target audience so they would gain
easy access to buy the magazine , if it was available there. I would then move
on to bigger institutions such as WHSmith, where very many people go to
purchase such products as stationary and magazines because they supply a
wide range .
9. Institutions
continued...
As well as WHSmith , I would distribute my magazine at the well known
retailer Water stone's which is also another well trusted institution where
it specialises in only books and magazines, where some of my target
audience would go to purchase a textbook for the subject they are
studying.
Finally , another institution I would place my magazine for purchase would
be at big brand supermarkets such as Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s because
they do supply a good range of magazines on their stands and a lot of
people go to shop there on a regular basis for various needs and a few of
those people could be potential target audience .
10. Target Audience
Who would be the target audience for your magazine?
The target audience for my magazine would mainly be
teenagers up to young adults from 15 – 25 of any ethnic
background living in middle- low class areas in and about
London.
My target audience would have some type of interest in
Gospel / attend church
And/or watch programmes like KICC or listen to radio stations
like Premier radio to give them a sense of the Christian way of
life.
I carried out a questionnaire to find out what topics my target
audience would be interested in reading and finding out more
about . Which would help me know what to include in my
Urban Gospel Music Magazine.
11. Addressing the readership
How did you attract / address your audience?
For my target audience to be attracted and buy my magazine, I made sure that I young
teenagers (youth) as the front cover so that when they look at first glance, they can
already tell that the magazine is possibly targeted at them.
I also made sure that I included colloquial language in the text such as ‘LOL’, ‘ Is prayer
really that important?’ so that they could relate to the context and feel comfortable. I
also included words such as ‘you’ frequently to make the reader really feel involved
with the magazine.
Through the Questionnaire I carried out I found out that my target audience equally
preferred bright and dark colours in the magazine, so to appeal to this I used a mixture
of the colours in the text, especially the contents page to make it look more bright and
interesting to read , and not dull enough to overlook and keep back on the stack.
I also found out through the questionnaire the popular topics that my target audience
would like to read about, this gave me insight into what I should feature in my music
magazine, which would attract both male and female target audiences.
12. Technical/Construction Issues
What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing your magazine?
Even though I used a 12 megapixel Kodak Easy share C143 camera
to take the photo’s for my Music magazine, I have learnt that
using an SLR camera, would be the most suitable camera to take
better high quality pictures.
I have learnt how to remove a background e.g. (White) from a
heading from another website such as Urbanfonts.com, by print
screening the font , then copy and pasting it to Photoshop,
followed by the magic eraser icon to remove the white
background leaving me this just the heading.
Also, if when I'm working on publisher and I want to transfer the
whole page to Photoshop, I simply group the page with my work
and save it as a Jpeg and transfer to Photoshop.
13. Technical/Construction Issues
continued...
Using an editing site called Picnik, I was able to modify the
colour and brightness of my photo’s to make them look more
attractive.
Finally, I’ve learned through repeated drafting, to try and
apply colours for my text that complies with the background
of the page for my magazine so that it is not difficult for my
target audience to read.
15. Front cover comparison
I have learnt a significant amount between creating my (preliminary)
school magazine and my (final) music magazine.
In the school magazine, the masthead/subheading covered part of
the faces of my main image which is not conventional in a real
magazine. This taught me for my music magazine that I should place
the masthead behind the main image or if I still want the masthead
in front I should make sure it doesn’t cover the face so it allows the
readers to see who is on the front cover clearly.
I also learnt that in a real magazine, the front cover will always have a
barcode and in my preliminary magazine I did not include a barcode
or the year in which the magazine was published which subverts
from the conventions of a real magazine whereas in my final
magazine I made the effort to include these conventions.
16. Front Cover comparison
Continued...
In my preliminary magazine the sell line covered
a lot of the main image with the background
colours and shapes I used to accompany it.
From this I have learnt to ensure in my final
magazine that the sell lines do not take up a
significant amount of space on the front cover,
but can still be seen, using bright colours and
bold fonts.
In conclusion I think my final magazine is better
than my preliminary magazine, because it looks
more like a real magazine.
17. Contents comparison/conclusion
I have learnt from my school magazine
contents page that I need to produce a
house colour for my magazine so that it
matches and looks appealing to the eye.
I have also learnt to make my photo bigger in
my final contents page in my music magazine
so the readers can see the photo clearly. In
conclusion I prefer the contents for my final
music magazine, because its more detailed.
