Timetable Organised

It has come to my attention that I am behind schedule for my coursework. To combat this and finish coursework on time I must organize my time efficiently, therefore I have conducted a timetable to work out how much time is allocated to study each subject at school and at home.

Criteria Grid for magazines

Double Page Spread Analysis : Mix Mag

Double Page Spread Semiotic Analysis : MixMag

This double page spread featured in MixMag is the main feature of the magazine, because it was promoted on the front page, as the CVI image was this DJ, the Black Madonna.

The majority of the left hand page is the picture of the black Madonna, with her hands in the air and sunglasses on. Black sunglasses and a black cloak convey an air of mystery, and the black colours themselves reinforce the black, white and silver brand identity of this magazine, which was previously explained on the front page and contents page semiotic analyses. 

The right hand page is the page in which the body of text is located. It is on small white, non-serif text. The text style is aligned left, whereas the body of text as a whole is featured in the centre of the page. On the top left of the page is a pull-quote from the article in white underlined text, significantly larger than the rest o the body of text, encased in quotation marks. This is a quote from The Black Madonna, which helps the audience to empathise with her and to really understand her more.

The background is again black which contrasts with the white text. This reinforces the brand's prominent black and white colour palette which in turn emphasises a powerful brand identity.

In the bottom left of the right page is small white text which shows where the jewellery on the the image is from, and the text is rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise. On the far right hand side is a section in which a columnist showcases some facts about a music venue.

MixMag Contents Page Analysis

Contents Page Semiotic Analysis : MixMag

The contents page reinforces the white and black colour palette featured on the afore-mentioned front page. This creates brand identity which increases customer satisfaction because they become more involved with the brand image. The background is a solid black shade, and the white text creates a stark contrast, therefore the white text is clear and easy to read and understand. 

The top of the page is a horizontally aligned silver rectangle, and inside it reads "JANUARY 2017" which shows what month this issue was released. On the right side of the rectangle is  " c o n t e n t s" in lower case silver font. This tells the audience that this is the contents page, in which they can find which article is found on what page.

The CVI for this page would be the image in the top right, with the caption "KHRIS COWLEY", which is an image that relates to an article featured later on in the magazine.

The contents are split into three sections. " Front" (which is on the left hand side, and features the articles found in the first section of the magazine), "Features" (which is in the centre of the page, and features the featured articles that are not recurring monthly, such as the front page artist The Black Madonna) and "Back (which is on the right hand side and features articles found in the latter stages of the magazine).

For each article on the page, the article title is written in a bold silver text, and a brief summary of what the article entails is shown below in a plain silver text. The recurring use of silver coloured text creates a subtle but effective medium between the black and whites used previously on the MixMag brand identity colour palette. The page number that relates to each article is found to the left of the article title and description, in a white text.

MixMag Front Cover Analysis

Front Cover Semiotic Analysis : MixMag

The centre of visual interest that is most prominent on the front page is the main image of "The Black Madonna" a DJ who is featured within the magazine. She weas a black cloak which contrasts with her gold bracelets and gold head decoration. The colour combination of black and gold have connotations of luxury and prestige, therefore suggesting that this magazine itself is premium and high quality, two characteristics that create a strong brand identity.

The masthead, which here is the title of the magazine, is at the top of the page, which is its usual conventional place, this is where it was in the Louder Than War magazine as well. The title reads "MixMag" which is the name of the magazine. It is in a non-serif white font which has connotations of purity, innocence and clean things. Therefore this masthead suggests that this magazine is pure and therefore one of a kind, unique.  The masthead is the largest font on the page.

Situated above the masthead is "dance music + club culture " which are the two main music genres featured in the magazine. This is shown on the front so that customers can see before they buy it whether or not they are interested in the genre on offer. People that like dance music and club culture would be inclined to purchase the magazine because it says so on the front. The text is lower case, non-serif, and gold, which reinforces the luxury theme introduced by the CVI image.

The gold on black colour palette continues on the right hand side, in which "The Black Madonna" is written in gold text, rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise. This is the name of the artist featured on the main image to the left of the text. This shows the audience what the name of her is, to provide context and give the audience a better understanding.

Above this is a gold square, which inside writes "THE DJ OF THE YEAR" in block capitals and white font. This relates to Black Madonna, and this in turn entices the audience to read the magazine because they want to read more about here, because she must be good if she had been proclaimed as the DJ of the year.

The barcode is in its conventional place in the bottom right of the page, which is also where it was on the Louder Than War music magazine that I previously researched. It is tilted 90 degrees anticlockwise. Below the barcode is the banner, on which the date of issue, price and website is shown. The inclusion of the website link is beneficial to the overall efficiency of the magazine because it promotes exchange, in which readers of MixMag can get in touch and react to the magazine on the internet.

On the left hand side of the page is a vertical white stripe 7cm in width. On here in small black, block capital text is the photographer of the main image's name, Uli Weber.

MixMag Target Audience Analysis

Target Audience Analysis for MixMag

Product Analysis

Price - £4.95

Advertisers - voidacoustics, blocks shape music, yolkax clothing, drum and bass annual 2017, awakenings festival, lost and found festival, hmv vinyl, native instrument machines, LTN beats, o2 music management, sonof8 music, mixon4 high performance hybrid controller.

Content - Big tunes, London's brand new 50,000 capacity venue, New artists, Scene / Clubs, Scene / Live, Scene / Festivals, The life, Sneaker love, Best of 2016, Hottest gear of 2016, Albums, Label focus, Dj history, Industry insider.

Market Segmentation:

Demographic - Nothing to indicate that this magazine is aimed at either gender, therefore it is unisex. Readers may be in the age bracket demographic of 18 -30 because this magazine's music genres are primarily dance music and club culture - two genres which are above the age of 16 (because you have to be 18+ to attend most clubs in the UK.

Geographic - This magazine is distributed internationally, because on the banner on the front page, there is a price for the UK and INT (International) . In the UK, this magazine would be presumably popular in all the major cities e.g.  London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds etc. because it is aimed towards those who like club culture, and all major cities have a dance scene.

Benefits - The target reader will read this magazine because they want to know more about the new and upcoming artists and albums from the dance music & club culture genre. The benefits are that they know more about upcoming events and festivals due to the advertisements listed previously.

Psychographic - Presumably still in university, as lots of people that study in university have prominent, outgoing social lives which usually involve clubbing and drinking. Rather mainstream, and might share a flat / apartment with friends because they can't afford an actual one.

Behaviouristic - More of a mainstream audience than the audience for Louder Than War. They follow the latest trends and don't want to go out of style, therefore they follow this magazine religiously in order to stay up to date on the latest artists, festivals and albums so that they can stay ahead of their peers. Would purchase the magazine monthly in order to satisfy their need to stay in the know and on top of trends. Spends time in clubs within major cities in the UK.

Survey Analysis of Magazine Survey

Survey analysis 1-3 from Sam Williams

Publishing House for MixMag

For MixMag the originial publisher was Disco Mix Club, who owned and distributed the magazine from 1983 until 1997, when it was bought out by the British Media Group EMAP. 

In 2003, after a noticeable falter in sales figures, the magazine was sold again to "Development Hell, a publishing house also responsible for "The Word" music magazine.

Publishers of Louder Than War

The publishing company for Louder Than War is "BIG CHEESE PUBLISHING LTD 2016" . There is not alot of information on the internet regarding this fairly elusive publishing house, however I have found out that they also published a magazine, aptly titled "Big Cheese Magazine", which stopped production in 2016.

This shows that once the Big Cheese magazine went bust, the publishing house turned their attention to producing another magazine, in the hopes of being more successful than their prior venture. This may turn out to be costly, as the magazine industry is dying.

Mix Mag - Brand Eye Analysis

Next Magazine : Mix Mag

The next magazine that I will be analyzing for the research and planning stage for the main task of this course, is MixMag magazine, January 2017 edition.

 

 

 

My Survey

I have now completed my survey, and uploaded it to SurveyMonkey. This is the link for my survey :

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/7JDJTC8

Survey Aim

I will shortly begin constructing and distributing my survey. The purpose of it is to find out information from my target audience regarding the content and mode of address for my magazine.

I want to find out what content they enjoy, so that I can produce a magazine that is perfectly tailored towards a certain demographic audience. I also want to grasp an understanding of what the popular music genres currently are, so that I can ensure that my magazine will attract a large audience. The respondents of my survey, aka my target audience, will be within the age demographic of 13-24, or 'teenagers to young adults'.

To distribute my survey I will use surveymonkey because it is easy for respondents to answer questions because it is online and available on mobile phones. This means that they can answer questions when they are out and about, meaning I will garner more potential information. On surveymonkey, it is also straight-forward and helpful when compiling the data into graphs and charts to showcase my findings. I will only produce one survey because one survey is all I need to successfully acquire the desired information.

For ease of access and a higher respondent rate, I will use social media platforms such as twitter, whatsapp, snapchat etc. to promote my survey, because my target age demographic audience - teens to young adults - use these sites often.

Double Page Spread Analysis - Louder Than War

Double Page Spread Analysis - Louder Than War

This specific double page spread is about a band known as "Ocean Colour Scene". The layout and content of this article is conventional in terms of other existing double page spreads. The article is spread over two facing pages. Firstly, the main focal point, or the CVI (Centre of visual interest) is the image of the band members of ocean colour scene. This image takes over about 3/5 of the left hand page, and bleeds slightly into the right hand page. This shows that the image itself must be important and integral to the article itself. Without the image, the reader (assuming they had no prior knowledge of the band) would not be able to visualise who the interviewer was talking to / about. There is a caption in small white text rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise on the left hand side bottom corner of the featured image, which states the members of the photograph.

The headline of the article reads "Seasides and Freerides" which could relate to the band's name - ocean is synonymous with seasides, and freerides could convey how the band have had a free ride, or the opposite in fact, that their journey to success has been a struggle. The headline rhymes, which is catchy and stays in the reader's head, which means they think about it later in the day even when they're not reading the magazine anymore. The typography is in block capitals, and the I in "Seasides" bleeds down vertically and becomes the first R in "Freerides" which could symbolise a slide going downwards, which are common at seasides. The colour is a pale kind of yellow-green which is different to the colours used on the front page and contents page. This reinforces the idea that Louder Than War change their colour scheme throughout the progression of the magazine to keep readers engaged and stop them from being bored by the same colours each time. This same colour of green is used in drop caps, briefly on one word in the stand-first subheading, and on the filler on the right hand side. The typography also features drop shadow to make the letters stand out more, and makes it easier for it to attract the eyes of readers browsing through the pages.

Beneath the main image and headline is the stand-first, which is black text on white background, again in block capitals. The text size is bigger than the copy text size and smaller than the headline text size. The stand-first here is  useful because it provides some background context to who Ocean Colour Scene are by briefly stating "Celebrating their 20th anniversary of their breakthrough hit album Mosely Shoals". This tells the audience that this band are 20 years old, therefore established. They now also at least know one of their albums. Now they are able to read the article because they know the basics of who they are. Within the stand-first subheading, the editor reveals his name to be Ian Chaddock, therefore he did not announce his name using a byline, which is what conventionally happens. This reinforces the idea that this magazine is not wholly conventional. 

The first line of the copy (text of article) is not arranged as a kicker, in which the first line of text is in a bigger font size than the rest of the copy. This once again shows Louder Than War's lack of convention. However, the copy does start with a drop cap of the letter F, in the same yellow-green colour used for the headline. Another drop cap is also used in the 5th column on the letter F. There are 5 columns of copy, and the alleys between each column are approximately 0.5 centimetres each. The font of the copy isn't serif, therefore its rather soft, and easy to read. The text itself is flushed left, therefore its aligned to the left hand side of each column. This is the conventional way of writing bodies of text. 

On the far right hand side, bleeding down from the top is a large rectangle, the same green colour used throughout this page. It is a filler, to fill space that the body of text isn't taking up. This rectangle contains facts about Mosely Shoals, the band's breakthrough album. The top of this rectangle features a vinyl record, which reinforces genre, and the genre of this magazine is music. The name of the magazine is shown at the bottom of each page in small black writing, which is often conventional in magazines.

To conclude, these pages feature a conventional image that sets the scene for the article. The headline is reflective as a play of words on the band's name and their struggle on the journey to success. Musical terminology and imagery (vinyl record, album cover) repeatedly appear, reminding the audience of the genre, Music.

Louder Than War Contents Page Analysis

 Contents Page Analysis - Louder Than War

This is the contents regular page for Louder Than War magazine issue 7. The evident main colour scheme for this page is red and white, which contradicts the brand identity established on the front page, which was predominantly yellow and white. This shows that the magazine isn't afraid of switching up their brand to adjust to new scenarios. The red here has connotations of passion, strength and love. The strength relates back to the strong characteristics established from the masthead on the front page. The passion and love represent the somewhat agapeistic love that the editors, writers and most importantly the readers have for music, in particular, indie and punk music. The colour red is the most predominant colour featured on this page, as the somewhat disjointed border goes to show. The border of this page consists of one thick red line beside a thin red line that go around the contents of the contents page. However, the border does not go along the top like conventional borders do. Instead it bleeds straight into the top of the page - this shows that this magazine is not wholly conventional like others. This adds to the unique brand identity they have already established.

Unlike the front page, there is text here that isn't all in capital lettering. For the most part it is, its featured in "Contents" at the top and "Regular" beneath the images, however the descriptions for the pages themselves are in lower case. The main focal point of this page is the title "Contents" in the top left sector of the page. This informs the audience that this is the contents page, in which they will find the guide to where articles are throughout the magazine. This makes it easier for the reader to navigate and ultimately read it. "Contents" is in block capitals with a white font, which contrasts powerfully to the red background. The red horizontal rectangle bleeds into the left edge of the page. 

Beneath this title are 6 images of various artists / bands that are featured within the magazine. Each image has a page number circled on the bottom left, so as to guide the reader to the exact page that that artist / band is featured on. Some of the images, for example the image of Kristin Hersh in the top left, is listed in the contents list below, so any readers can understand what exactly the article is about, without even having to take their eyes off the page. This ease of access throughout the navigation of the magazine means readers will prefer it to others, and they could spread word to friends through word of mouth, therefore the magazine becomes more popular. Therefore it is important to make sure that the magazine is easily navigable.

The "Regular" title is the same as "Contents", in white block caps encased in a red horizontal rectangle. This repetition sticks in the readers' thoughts, meaning any time they see that sort of arrangement they know it is Louder Than War, thus creating a prominent brand identity. Beneath "Regular" are 7 subsections each describing individual articles within the magazine, which is the contents list. These are the regulars, meaning these are the articles that are found in every issue. Regulars are important because they promote customer loyalty, because readers may enjoy a certain regular, ergo purchase the magazine each month in order to not miss out on the part that they specifically enjoy. The text here is bow (black on white) because that is the easiest to read, and it is important that the audience can easily understand the text, because then there's more chance of them returning each month to purchase the magazine.

To conclude, the contents page differs in terms of colour from the front page, introducing the powerful colour of red to change things up, and keep the audience engaged. The border isn't complete, representing the uniqueness and risks that Louder Than War take.

Louder Than War Front page analysis

Front Page Analysis - Louder Than War

The first noticeable aspect of the front page is the masthead, which reads the name of the magazine : "LOUDER THAN WAR" in capital lettering. The typography is rugged and worn, which has connotations of erosion and violence, as if something or someone has been hitting it and wearing it down. This signifies strength as despite its violence, it is still there, bold and large. This shows that the audience are reading a magazine with strong views and they won't back down, which creates a powerful brand identity. As a denotation the colour of the masthead is white, which has connotations of purity, innocence and peace. This contradicts the afore-mentioned characteristics of violence, strength and wear & tear. The word "LOUDER" is larger than the "than war" text on the right side, which is contextual imagery to physically represent how this magazine, and music in general is "LOUDER" (in this case bigger) than war. The main colour scheme for this front page is yellow, black and white, which creates brand identity.

The second most prominent feature on this page is the two models standing in the centre as the main focus point. The pair form the duo "Sleaford Mods", the name of which is shown in a handwriting style of typography on the front page around their waist height. The duo look very masculine, with short hair and one wearing a working shirt. The man on the right smokes a cigarette which shows he doesn't care about damages to his body, implying he is strong. This relates to the masthead, which idealises being strong and pushing through pain and harm. The men seem successful as one must be slightly successful at least to feature on the front page of a magazine. Therefore, the men that read this magazine will aspire to be like these two because they are fans of the indie / punk music scene and would want to be successful also. The image itself has various smudges indicating dirt and tear, such as superficial dirt marks on the man on the left's jacket and right hand. This represents the grunge and underground theme of the magazine, its different and alternative compared to the clean-cut, politically correct mainstream magazines.

The subheadings along the left side show what artists / bands are featured withing the contents of the magazine. The main text is the name of the artist e.g. "Pixies", which is a paintbrush - type font, in capital letters, in yellow. This is encased in a horizontal black rectangle, to bring out the yellow of the text. The text below is a very short piece of text briefly explaining why the artist (s) are featured in the magazine. This is in white text, also in caps, for example "We are a viable band". These help the audience to decide whether or not they want to purchase the magazine, as they want to know who is featured, and they may look at these headings and like the artist (s) therefore they purchase this magazine instead of another. On the right hand side is another heading which is also comprised of yellow font enclosed within a black box, which reads "New album new danger". This would apply to the image of the Sleaford Mods in the middle, and the heading of their name in the centre. This is important to the front page because it adds more information to help the potential customer decide whether or not they want to purchase it, they may be persuaded by the promise of the new album. "New danger" also relates to the masthead in the sense that it is about violence and harm. This reinforces the dangerous and edgy brand identity of the magazine.

The bottom section shows the names of other artists featured in the magazine, to further entice customers to read the magazine. Each band / artist name here alternates between yellow and white coloured font, to reinforce the brand's colour palette which in turn promotes the brand identity. A similar set up is featured at the very top, with three names of artists / bands. In white coloured font beneath the masthead is "Indie... Punk - Weird !" , the text between indie and punk is blocked by the right model's neck. This shows the audience that this magazine is aimed to punk and indie music, therefore they can attract the right, subjective audience. This ( like every other piece of text on the page) is in capital letters, which reinforces the brand identity. There is also a silver circle pull - out with the text inside that reads "Albums of the year " in blue and "Your essential guide" in black. These two colours have not been used for text anywhere else on the page (unless for small black text near the bar-code) which means they stand out and attention is drawn to it, especially the blue because it is a bright colour. This will also help to attract customers to the magazine because they might want to know the albums of the year, so seeing this pull out will entice them to purchase it.

On the top right, rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise is white text that promotes "WWW.LOUDERTHANWAR.COM" - the magazine's website. This in turn promotes exchange because readers will go here and react with the editors and writers, which is much easier on the internet than it is if they were to send mail. This feature is also important because magazines are a dying industry, therefore adapting and moving over to the internet is a viable option because that is where the future of news is. This way, avid fans can stay up to date with Louder Than War even if they don't have the magazine. The bar-code is in its conventional place, bottom left of the front page, as it is not in the way of any images or information, but the reader knows where it is because that is where it typically is on most magazines.

Target Audience Analysis - Louder Than War

Target Audience Analysis for Louder Than War

Product Analysis

Price - £4.99

Advertisers - Snuttock Rituals Redux album, The Stranglers Tour, Placebo Tour, Spinefarm Records, The Wonder Studd tour, The Fratellis tour, The Twang concert, Public Image concert, Jeff The Brotherhood album, Memphis industries, Curse of Lono EP,  Dr.Feelgood Vinyl, Liines tour.

Content - Interviews with popular or up & coming indie / punk artists and bands. Top 40 list of the best albums of the year. New albums on the scene. DVDs and books related to the punk / indie scene.

Market Segmentation:

Demographic - Probably within the demographic age bracket of 16-24. Fans of the indie scene are typically of a younger age and become more mainstream as time goes on and they grow older. The artists in the magazine are of that sort of age group as well, therefore those within the age bracket will aspire to be like them. The magazine does not openly sway one way or another in terms of gender and which gender it is more predominantly aimed towards, however most of the photographs within the contents of the magazine are of men, ergo it is safe to assume it is most likely aimed at male readers. Louder Than War use images of men because the male target audience will see these men their age performing indie music and they will want to aspire to be like them.

Geographic - Vaguely speaking, would be aimed towards those in the UK, as their Facebook page states that that is where the magazine is compiled and distributed. There is nowhere specifically in the UK that this magazine would be aimed directly towards. However, taking into account the typical location of indie trends, it would be safe to assume that this magazine is popular in the regions of Camden, Shoreditch, Hackney etc, which are alternative, hipster and certainly indie places.

Benefits - The target reader will read this magazine because they want to add to their already established knowledge of indie and punk music. They want to know the whereabouts and timings of upcoming concerts and tours involving artists within the genre. From reading this magazine they will find out about new and upcoming artists that they may not have heard about previously. They will also benefit from the top 40 album list, as they can add more music to their collection.

Psychographic - Probably are busy people with blossoming social lives, especially if they do live and operate in and around trendy locations such as Camden. Could still be in university with musical aspirations. They presumably have a trendy, alternative style to their lodgings, which is probably a flat because most young people (especially those leaving University) wont have sufficient funds to purchase a house. 

Behaviouristic - Maybe described to be like a Hipster in the sense that they are always ahead of the trends, they don't want to go out of style. But at the same time they are alternative and individual and they follow their own styles and preferences. Would probably not purchase this magazine on a monthly / bi-monthly subscription, but instead once every 3-4 months or so as an infrequent, somewhat luxury purchase. Spends time in the unique, underground scenes in London or Manchester.

Music Magazine Analysis - Louder Than War

Music Magazine Analysis

Magazine : Louder Than War

Approx Age Range of Audience : 

16-24. This is because there is nothing to insinuate that it is for the older generations. The ruggedness of the masthead implies it is for younger generations, as they are stereotypically more violent, somewhat less gentle.

Gender of Audience : 

There are two very masculine looking men on the front cover might imply it is aimed at men, because they want to be as ‘manly’ as them. Scrolling through the pages shows that there are significantly more men featured in photos than there are women, therefore it may be that the target gender in mind for 'Louder Than War' is male, as the men that read the magazine obviously like indie / punk music, therefore they will undoubtedly want to aspire to be like the successful male indie / punk artists featured in this magazine.

Genres of music they like : 

The audience would definitely like genres such as indie and punk because those words are featured on the front page in white writing beneath the masthead. The genres are alternative because there are evidently no mainstream artists featured within the contents of this magazine.

Examples of favourite bands/artists : 

Bands / Artists featured (therefore favourites among the punk / indie music community) include : Flaming Lips, Slaves, Pixies, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Breeders, Echobelly, The Pop Group, Throwing Muses, Las Kellies, Goat, Wardruna, Gang of Four and Peter Doherty,

Types of clothes they wear : 

Because the audience of Louder Than War are evidently part of the indie / punk community they would wear what any other punk / indie fan would wear. These include : 

Types of jobs the audience might have :

The price of the magazine is £4.99, which is not overly expensive, therefore those not earning lots and lots would still be able to purchase this bimonthly. The adverts within the magazine do not advertise anything remotely professional, therefore it is not straight-forward to gauge what jobs the audience may have. Seeing as their culture style is different, they might not be inclined to work a 9-5 office job, therefore they may have more alternative, lower paid jobs such as working in shops or maybe even manual labour jobs. On the other hand, they will probably have the same jobs as others despite their different music tastes, These include; teachers, auditors, policemen etc.

Hobbies / Interests : 

Over the course of this research and planning phase, I have got a basic overview of the characteristics and lifestyle of the target audience of Louder Than War - indie / punk interested people. Their hobbies would presumably include going to indie / punk concerts to watch their favourite artists mentioned prior. They would also be interested in fashion, shown two questions earlier. But ultimately, seeing as they are readers of a music magazine, they would first and foremost be interested in punk and indie music.

Brand Eye - Louder Than War

In order to create my magazine aimed at certain audiences, I must first grasp an understanding of different audiences of various music magazines. Firstly, I created a brand eye to analyse what types of consumers will read this magazine.

Louder Than War

The first music magazine that I will be analysing as part of my main task research and planning exercise is an indie/punk magazine called "Louder Than War", in specifics ; Issue 7. This photo shows what the front page looks like, photo taken by me.

What I will do

In order to progress well throughout my main task, I must undergo extensive research and planning on music magazines. I will analyse two music magazines in depth.

Action Plan

The preliminary task acted as a practice for my main task. Any mistakes I made during the preliminary course will be helpful because I can hopefully learn from them and improve whilst completing the main task.

My previous blog post showcased how I would mark my own preliminary task using the marking criteria for G321. It is evident that some of the aspects of the work that I could have improved on were how I used various technological platforms to explain and evaluate my work. I can build on this for the main task, as I could use screen recording software to record videos of the exact step-by-step way that I produced pieces of work. I could also use voice recordings when evaluating because that would differ from the usual slideshows and presentations.

Another idea that would benefit my coursework in the main task would be to shoot better composed, more thought provoking, and indeed higher quality and resolution photographs for my magazine pages. This is because in the preliminary task I shot photos on my mobile phone, therefore they were neither professional nor decent quality. For the main task I will hopefully use a DSLR camera to take better photos, and arrange my models in different ways.

Marking work using criteria

In the previous lesson, I marked other Media AS students' work using the marking criteria. Now, I will mark my own work using the same criteria. Because I have not started the main task, I will only be addressing the preliminary task.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Social groups from Sam Williams

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

In order to create a good front and contents page for my college magazine in my preliminary task, I undertook research in order to make sure my magazine was conventional, in the sense that it follows the codes and conventions of usual college magazines. To do this, I modelled the template of my own pages on established, existing pages.

 This is the original front page that I modelled mine on. As the construction became more detailed, I decided to stray away from the original model. The masthead of the title at the top is still the same, which is at the top and pushed to the left. However, I changed it slightly by putting the features on the bottom, and not on the left hand side.

On the left here is the existing college magazine contents page that I intended to model mine on. It is still similar in regards to where everything is, however the details themselves are different, which shows I kept to and followed conventions of college magazines. For example, the contents masthead at the top is in a similar place however mine is slightly centred. The contents themselves are on the right, while the images are on the right, which is the same as the original. However in the original the page numbers are on the left of the contents names, whereas in mine they are on the right. The colour scheme is also similar, which is beneficial because my colour scheme matches the brand identity of the college that this magazine is aimed at.

How did you attract / address your audience?

How did you attract your audience from Sam Williams

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation

I will now begin evaluating the front page and contents page of my preliminary task. I will be evaluating separate sections by trying to display it on different technological platforms such as a slide show.

Final Prelim Magazine Pages

I have now completed my two magazine pages, the Front Page and the Contents Page.

This is my Front Page :

This is my Contents Page :