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

Conventions is a widely recognised way of doing something, it’s to do with the content style and form. For example most music magazines have a memorable title which can be easily seen making clear the title of the magazine. Most of the time there is one large main image showing a band or singer, they usually make eye contact to make the audience feel more involved. This is what the main article in the magazine is likely to be about. The contents page will usually have the title ‘contents’, hotspots, quotes and eye catching colours. Magazine conventions don’t exist because people want magazines to all look the same, it is just a basic outline, conventions don’t have to be followed but they usually are as people are used to them. Some magazines are more conventional than others depending on the subject matter and the audience.

The genre of my magazine is rock/metal. I did this because it’s the type of music I would listen to and so I know what the target audience would want. I took influence from magazines such as Kerrang! and Metal Hammer. As you can see from the pictures below my magazine is quite similar in terms of its conventions. The header of my magazine stands out from its background and I have one main image where the person is staring directly into the camera. Metal Hammer had gone against conventions by only including one image on their front page and not much text apart from along the top of the page, which Kerrang! and myself have also done, making it obvious this is a media convention.

Mood Board and Analysis

This is the mood board that is constructed for my target audience. It contains images that reflect their lifestyle, hobbies and interests. The pictures on my mood board show the type of thing my audience will be interested in, a lot of it is technology such as the laptop, games consols, ipod and the guitar hero game. I have put this game specificly because it is to do with music and will include the type of music the readers like. I have included three bands who are the type of bands that would regularly be included in my type of magazine and have put the Kerrang! logo to show that this is the genre mine will follow. The dominoes pizza logo shows that the age of the people who will buy my magazine is around 16 - 25 as they are still regularly eating fast food. I have put the t.v show the mightly boosh and the channel e4 because a lot of comedy is included in both of these and my audience will be the type who are not into anything serious or challenging. The guitar and music notes show that the magazine will be mainly about music and not really include lifestyle.

Questionaire

My findings from the questionaire I asked people at college.
1. would you read a college magazine?
    8 no
    5 yes   over 50% said no
2. if no, why? boring
3. what would you like to see in a college magazine?
    10 - sports
    10 - music
    13 - college events
    10 - jobs
     3  - competitions
     5 - promotions
        - other specify - college gossip.
4. How much would you be prepared to pay for a college magazine?
    over 50% said 50p.
5. How often would you like the magazine to be published?
    78 - 82% wanted it fortnightly

Initial Ideas

My magazine is going to be genre specific and will be simular to Kerrang! because it will revolve around rock music and any type of music that stems of it.

These are some fonts and colours I am debating on using. They are quite messy and most of them are quite bold, they need to be easilie recognisable and must stand out so my magazine will grab the attention of my target audience. The colours I am definatly using are red and grey this is because they go well together and red stands out whilst grey fades into the background and makes the red stand out more.

Analysis of a music magazine

 

Kerrang! Magazine is a music magazine aimed at those who listen to heavy metal and rock bands. This is a niche magazine as it aims to a distinct segment of the market, in this case the rock genre. However, this magazine also aims to use other bands from different sub-genres of rock such as emo, rap-metal, classic rock and gothic rock and they have put them on the front cover in order to attract more readers because rock is a very distinct genre. They also use fonts and images that seem violent and aggressive, this is what is associated with this genre. The masthead is in a font that is made to look cracked, this links to the idea of onomatopoeia that 'kerrang' sounds like strumming an electric guitar, giving an idea what style of music is included in the magazine. It also creates a house style that is well known so the main image can cover the title and the customer would still know that it is Kerrang! The black colour of the text also stands out against the white back ground. The band on the front cover ‘Biffy Clyro’ are an alternative rock/post-hardcore band. Judging by the front cover of this magazine I can assume that there is going to be information and articles about the band ‘Biffy Clyro’ as the anchorage text shows us that this is the main story in this magazine. Other feature stories are included around the article ‘Hayley starts a riot!’ is cleverly used pun as the band ‘paramore’ album name is riot! A key element on this front cover is the word ‘FREE!’ this draws in readers as they are offering giant free posters. Kerrang! Magazine is specifically aimed at the age group 14-21, those that have an interest in heavy metal and rock music. The offer of free posters indicates that this magazine is aimed at the younger generation, as you don’t really see many older people’s bedrooms with posters on the wall.The magazine cover has an informal layout, the central image takes up most of the cover, the front band member is wearing white and the two behind him are wearing black, the back ground is also black. This is to ensure that, he as the lead singer stands out more than the rest. The band on the cover appear to show an attitude and don’t seem to be friendly through their intense body language portrayed and their angry, uninviting facial expressions. However the image can relate to the target audience it is aimed at. The camera shot for the main image is a mid-shot, so you can still see the body language of the band, they all staring straight at the camera, they appear to be maintaining eye contact with the audience, making the reader feel more engaged with the band. For the contents page a house style is used again, the message from the editor is included in every issue and gives a personal touch to the magazine. For each article in the contents it is separated in to sections so it is easy for the reader to find, page numbers are on the left hand side of the article headline and underneath some of these is a bit of extra information in a lighter font so it does not draw as much attention. The cover stories have their own labels to show importance. There is also a small section about subscribing to the magazine, using different colours to ensures the reader’s attention is directed here.

Institutional Data 'Music Magazine'

The NME is the longest published and most respected music weekly in the world. Every week it gives its readers the most exciting, most authoritative coverage of the very best in contemporary music. The award-winning www.nme.com, launched in 1996, has grown to be the biggest commercial music news site in Europe.

NME is a weekly magazine which was published in 1952 at this current time is costs £2.20. It’s target market is men aged 17-30, the average age of the people who buy it is 25. It has a readership of 411,000 73% of the readers are male and 27% are female.

NME is mostly all music although it does sometimes include film and television. The readers of NME are all interested in music, and 80% feel that it is an important part of their lives, 79% like to listen to new bands, 63% like to listen to guitar/indie bands, this shows why NME include a lot of this type of music because a large percentage of their audience listen to it.

72% of NME readers have broadband internet connection at home and 67% have bought something online in the last 12 months, and 59% agree they like to keep up with the latest technologies. I think this shows that a large majority of NME readers are quite young (-30). In fact 34% work full time, 18% part time and 26% are full time students. The lifestyle of the average NME reader is widely revolved around music, 77% went to at least one pop/rock concert in 2007. Also, 67% have attended a music festival, this shows that they are willing to spend a large amount of money on music. The average expenditure on and off site is £770. This shows exactly the type of audience NME is aiming for and I think they achieve it as they have a lot of information of festivals etc. Also, the type of music they include in the magazine is what their readers expect and enjoy.

Institutional Data 'Overview of Industry'

IPC Media produces over 85 iconic media brands, with our print brands alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 44% of UK men – almost 27 million UK adults – while our online brands collectively reach 20 million users every month.

IPC's diverse print and digital portfolio offers something for everyone, with a focus on three core audiences: men, mass market women and upmarket women.

Our men's portfolio (IPC Inspire) comprises a wealth of leisure brands including Country Life, Horse & Hound, Rugby World and Decanter, as well as lifestyle brands including Nuts, Mousebreaker and NME.

Our mass market women's division (IPC Connect) comprises famous women's weeklies including Look, Now, Chat and Woman; TV entertainment brands including What's on TV, TVTimes and TV & Satellite Week and, online, the goodtoknow network.

Our upmarket women's division (IPC Southbank) comprises luxury fashion brands including Marie Claire and InStyle, lifestyle brands including woman&home and essentials and home interest brands including Ideal Home, Livingetc and housetohome.

This company covers a very diverse range of magazines from food, sport and home. They claim to reach 44% of UK men and 27 million UK adults. This company would be the type who would publish my magazine because they obviously publish a lot of different styles and would reach a wide audience and it wouldn’t look out of place if they published my music magazine.