Music Magazine Evaluation

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I researched NME and knew that it was a well known magazine that has been running since the 80's that people still read. It is one of Britain's most popular magazines and has new readers every month as well as it's loyal readers that get it every week. Although being a magazine it does have an internet version that you can pay to read online and a subscription option so that you can get it delivered straight to your door. NME has is owned by IPC and it one of there most loved magazines. NME always has the same layout for it's name, red and white, and normally has the same colours consistent through out the mag. I looked at the NME readers profile and found that it has an average of 69 to 31 ratio of male to female readers, of the average age of 24.

I have used NME as a base for my magazine, I read it so therefore I know what sort of music is featured in it and how they address their audience. But I have challenged it by making my magazine more aimed at women, although still aimed at men. I have also aimed mine at the age group 18 - 24. I have used the same genre as of music that NME focuses on, indie, rock and pop, and used similar colours and layouts as NME. I have done this because I want my magazine to fit into the market, I do believe that there would be a space for it as it is like a female version of NME, therefore IPC would be likely to own and publish it.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I am aiming my magazine at the age group 18 -24. Although aimed at men and women I want it to be aimed at women mainly, 70 - 30. I want it to be representing strong, sexy, independent women and show that it's okay to be different. One of the reasons that I have my act on the front of my cover, Ailsa, smoking is because I wanted it to show that smoking isn't just for men and that she isn't living life by the rules people set her, the cigarette makes her look strong and intimidating, showing young girls that we do have power and that it's okay to be different.


What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think that IPC would consider publishing Enchantuer because it is like a female version of NME. I think that there is a gap in the market for a female indie rock magazine, indie is the sense at the moments and people follow crowds so therefore I do think that IPC would benefit from my magazine.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
I am aiming my magazine at 18 - 24 year olds, mainly girls that want a magazine to give them information of the indie, pop, rock genre of music. I asked 10 people who said they would want to read my magazine what they did for a living, their hobbies, if they were a student, their age and their gender, so I knew what to put in the magazine and what they would be interested in reading about.

Living	Hobbies	Student	Age	Gender
Cafe	Dancing	A Levels	18	Female
Plumber	Football	Uni	19	Male
Call Center	Music	Uni	21	Male
Pub	Dancing	Drama College	18	Female
Shop	Going out	Uni	20	Female
Teaching	Music	A levels	18	Female
Pub	Football	No	22	Male
Cafe	Going out	Uni	21	Female
Music	Music	Uni	25	Male
Shop	Going out	No	19	Female

How would you attract / address your audience?
Enchantuer has very bold features, such as the colours and fonts that are very eye catching and interesting to look at. I have used a lot of reds and blues that are continues through the magazine. I believed that these colours suited the genre I was going for and because the magazine is mainly aimed at girls in the sense of the acts and how they are addressed in the writing of the magazine, I decided to to the colours of a more manly design, although women would still find the blues and reds attractive to look at. As every magazine, I put the most exciting features of the magazine on the front like the acts that had been interviewed for that months addition, such as Tinie Tempah and Ailsa, and then on the contents page it is the things that feature every month. I made the contents page very simple in that the back ground colour is very plain and easy on the eyes, yet there are still the convention colours on the page. The mode of address that I has used is very light hearted, I wanted it to be like the reader is just talking to a friend rather than something serious and boring, it therefore is more likely to get the right audience that I have aimed it at.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I had never used photoshop before I started media back in September. I found it very difficult to use at first and got very frustrated with how bad I was at using it, I didn't know what any of the tools were and it took me quite a while to get the hang of what everything was and how to use it all. When I finally managed to work it I found it easy and tried several different ways of doing things before deciding on what one I liked best. You can see how much my skills have gone up on photoshop by looking at my school magazine compared to my music magazine.


Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learn in the progression from it to the full product?
I have learnt how to use photoshop. I had never used it before and I wasn't very good at that at all until I had used it loads of times and figured out what everything was and how to use it all, you can see that by looking at the difference from my school magazine then looking at my music magazine, there is a big difference. Also what people look at when buying a magazine and what makes them buy them, I understand what magazines do to make sure that they sell and to keep their readers interested. I also learn about all the picture sizes of pictures and that you always have to have the person in the main photo on your front cover to look into the camera as it makes the reader think they are looking at them which makes them more interested in buying the magazine/reading about the act. I have also learnt all the names of the different sell lines on a magazine,such as sell lines, cover lines, main article and so on. I think if I made my magazine over it would be even better because I now understand photoshop and would try different things, whereas at the time I didn't.