Magazine Questionnaire

To ensure my magazine posesses the correct features for my target audience, I must ask the audience themselves. Their answer to these questions will influence how I will publish my magazine.

1.       What magazine name do you think would be appropriate for my target audience? Why?

2.       Which format would you prefer the magazine to display information? For example: Articles, interviews and questionairres. Why?

3.       What sort of central images would you like to see featured and why?

4.       Would you prefer the articles to be about niche bands or well-known bands?

Initial Ideas/Pitch

My initial ideas for a music magazine are that it should be something different, something that stands out from the over-crowded market that is music magazines. Since there is a shortage in psychedelic & alternative music magazines, perhaps I should create one based on those. I believe that my genre will be psychedelic and hippy; and therefore somewhat niche. Although there is a relatively small audience for my magazine, there is also a very small number of psychedelic magazines, creating an easy market for my potential magazine in a market of over-crowding and repetition that has little representation of the hippy-esque genre.

Bands that could be included in my magazine are:
Tame Impala, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, The Clash, The Cure, David Bowie, Fleece, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Hawkwind, Here & Now, Pink Floyd, The Scorpions.

The institutions that would be interested in publishing my magazine are:

• Bauer - Publishes MOJO and Q, which usually contain rock & post 90's music.
• The Wire - Publishes independent, not so well-known magazines.
• Wenner Media - Publishes the Rolling Stone, a magazine known for its rock & roll genre.

I'm thinking of creating something similar to these magazines; not only will the bright colours catch the attention of the potential buyers of the magazine, but the psychedelic & post-1980's hippy style will also entice my target audience.

The collage pictured below is a collection of the sort of vibes and styles I want my magazine to capture. This includes tie-dye, peace symbols, space and psychedelic pictures with lots of bold colours and patterns. A very vibrant, artistic and carefree feel.

Research of Music Magazines

From searching for various music magazines and analysing their appearance, I have gathered that the majority of music magazines are of rock and pop genre, and made up of fairly recent releases. Every cover page features one well-known artist filling the majority of the page, each one rather dramatic & serious. Coverlines are plentisome, filling most of the page. They contain titles such as "THE 10 BEST NEW ACTS" and "Unseen Photos", which would persuade the audience to want to read the magazine to find out the information advertised. There is usually a contrast of bold & dull colours, such as orange and white, red and black, etc.

Plan

Our task is to create a front cover, contents page and double page of a new music magazine.

Research & Planning
We must provide research of similar magazines and a potential target audience.
There must be excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes and props when creating images for our magazine.
There must also be excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting and storyboarding. We must also take care in the presentation of the research and planning.
Our time management should also be punctual, making sure not to miss deadlines.

Production
We must produce material that is appropriate for the task and target audience.
We should show understanding of conventions of magazine layout and page design.
Awareness for the need of variety of text size and fonts should be shown.
Language and register should be accurately used
ICT should be used appropriately for the task set
We must appropriately integrate illustration and text
Photographing, drawing & editing should be copious in variety of material appropriate for the set task
Manipulation of photographs as appropriate to the context for presentation should be made, including cropping and resizing.

Evaluation
Use of appropriate digital technology and ICT in the evaluation.
Understanding of issues around audience, institution technology, representation, forms & conventions in relation of production
Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and the outcomes of them
Understanding of their development from the preliminary to the full task
Excellent communication abilities

Dates
5th of October
- Introduce the main task & post action plan
- Present initial ideas for magazine on blog
- Post institution research
- Analyse two front covers from chosen genre and post on blog
12th of October
- Analyse two contents pages and two DBS from chosen genre and post
- Begin to develop pitch using Prezi
19th of October
- Present pitch, post pitch & audience feedback
- Complete rough magazine pages
- Produce a style sheet which reflects the brand identity and house style of the magazine
2nd of November
- Produce magazine
9th of November
- Design front cover, with experimentation with layout, colour, font, language and photos
16th of November
- Likewise as above
23rd of November
- Design & develop a double page spread, experiment with layout, colour, font, language and photos
30th of November
- Develop design work in response to audience feedback
7th of December
- Finalise design of all pages
14th of December
- Develop draft evaluation
4th of January
- Develop evaluation
11th of January
- Complete evaluation
- Final blog check
Deadline: Friday 29th of January

Student Magazine Evaluation

1.      In what ways does your student magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Before creating my own student magazine, I made sure to research professional magazines similar to that genre. I did this so that I gain knowledge of what a student magazine should look like & the main features that student magazines share; such as what sort of fonts, colours and coverlines they use. During my research, I noticed that most student magazines contain a large central image of a young person or student, ususally giving eye contact, creating a direct mode of address. The fact that the portrayed person is young would also be appealing to my target audience, which are young students aged between 15 and 21. The colours of student magazines vary between being very serious (black, white, blue) to quite lively (green, red, pink). I wanted to create a sensible yet interesting magazine that doesn’t bore nor patronize my audience, so I used a variety of greys, yellows, blues and pinks.

2.      How does your student magazine represent particular social groups?

3.      What kind of media institution might distribute your student magazine and why?

4.      Who would be the audience for your student magazine?

5.      How did you attract/address your audience?

6.      What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the student magazine?

The Finished Cover & Contents Page