Evaluation/Production Report

Evaluation/Production Report
My magazine is called ‘Musical Express’, the target demographic for my magazine is 25 to 40 year old men and the genre is classic rock. My magazine is based on classic rock; it is a factual guide for classic rock music fans and those who are interested in the music and the quality of it. The reason as to why I have chosen the target demographic to be 25 to 40 is because I want my magazine to be serious and mature and by choosing a demographic of an older age it means that the readers will know what the magazine is talking about.

I conducted research in order to help find my target demographic, the genre of my magazine, the layout and design of my magazine. The first research conducted was quantitative, this was in the form of an online survey and I used this research to figure out my demographic, the genre of my magazine and the sort of artist should be the on the front cover. The reason as to why it was in the form of an online survey was because it is a faster and cheaper process when collecting data and finalising the results. It meant that it was also easier and cheaper for participants to take part in the research and it was not time consuming for respondents to take part in the research. The survey involved ten open and closed questions; I sent the survey to 87 respondents and out of this 62 completed the survey. This research helped me finalise my magazine because I found that there was an audience for classic rock and that they were willing to buy music magazine based on classic rock.

The second research which I conducted was textual analyses of existing music magazine pages; this was because by analysing current magazine pages I was able to find the codes and conventions which exist in nearly all magazines. This meant that I would be able to create my magazine in terms of existing successful magazines which will mean that if I follow the codes and conventions of successful magazines I will be able to create a successful magazine of my own.
The final and third research which I carried out was a qualitative questionnaire, this was in order to find the interests of my target demographic and so be able to create a magazine which fulfilled the standards of that demographic. This research involved creating two templates for my three pages (front cover, contents page and double page spread) and then I asked questions based on what the target demographic thought of each template and what colours the would have used and so forth. This task helped me finalise my magazine because I knew what colours to use for my magazine, what layouts and what topics to use.

The reason as to why I have named my magazine ‘Musical Express’ is because the word express gives a sense of clear, quick and precise, the reason as to why I have chosen this to be a part of my magazine name is because it would give the connotations that my magazine is about music and that it is a fast process of communication of facts on music and musical artists. The typography in a magazine is very important this is because you need to use a font that is suitable for your specific demographic and so it is the reason as to why I have chosen to use the font Calligraphy. It is because it is a script font and this is an old style of writing and so I have used it for my magazine name because it has connotations of old and it gives the sense that the magazine is new but it is not forgetting the main roots of music. My magazine name is in white because I want it to stand out as much as possible against the green background, the connotations of white are hope, this is important for my magazine is because the readers would someday hope to be in the magazine as the magazine has successful people featured are celebrities which gives them something to desire for. By placing it against green and the connotations attached to green are nature and liveliness. This gives it a sense of meaning (i.e. hope and liveliness) which shows that the magazine is full of hope and is lively. The reason as to why the masthead is placed on the top left hand corner is because we read from left to right and so making it clear for the audience to read the magazine this is one of the conventions of magazines (conventions are rules within the magazine which can be broken but are the norm for a magazine).

For my front cover I have used the colours black, green and purple as my three main dominant colours to be used consistently across my magazine pages. The reason as to why I have used the colour black as part of my dominant colours is because it is a strong and powerful colour; it has a sense of masculinity and this is important in my magazine because my target demographic are men. I decided to use the colour purple because it has a feel of royalty this helps to build meaning to my magazine because the colour purple is not generally associated with other things as much as with royalty and so I have used it to give my magazine a sense of royalty of its own. The final main dominant colour green is associated with rock and is one of the most used colours in the genre of rock and so I decided to use this colour because I felt that it is important to follow codes associated with the genre of music. These colours create my brand identity, this is important because it makes my magazine different to other magazines and it would be easier for the audience to identify the rest of the magazine pages because the brand identity is consistent.
I have used the British flag in a circle on the front cover of my magazine is because within the circle its self it says ’50 BEST BRITISH ALBUMS OF ALL TIME’, I found that it was important to do this because I wanted to link the words with the meaning of the symbol, this means that the word ‘BRITISH’ is linked to the flag and by putting it in a circle means that it is almost like an instruction to the audience to look for this inside the magazine. This is a symbiotic relationship between the sign and the meanings attached to it to make meaning of both the sign and its connotations.

The typography used in the magazine are bold and in capitals, this gives it a sense of command, power and masculinity and this is important because my demographic is 20 to 25 year old men and so it has to be suited to the target demographic in order to be successful.
On the double page spread I have placed the second image in a frame, however I have given it the effect of it popping out by placing it in front of the strong, powerful and royal frame and I have deliberately done this in order to give it the meaning that the magazine is new but with old traditional roots. Picture frames also have connotations of memory as photographs are inserted in to them this links with my magazine as we are trying to keep our old music in memory it is very important to us as our modern music. By doing this it gives the image a more useful placement within the meanings attached to it. By attaching a meaning to this I creates Mise-en-Scene, this is a French term that means everything in the scene. The words “FRESH TALENT” is in a musical symbol, this shows that the words are to do with musical talent and this is also Mise-en-Scene.

The reason as to why I have placed a featured story going across the middle of the front cover is because it is a vocal point of my magazine and is shown significance over other featured articles even though it is not my main article this is because the rolling stones are an iconic rock band who are known by many people and so drawing in the audience’s attention towards the magazine.

On the front cover I have placed an explosion shape and inside it says ‘PLUS FREE DOWNLOADS’, the reason as to why I have chosen to place these in a explosion shape is because it is an additional incentive (is a free item given when you buy the magazine) which has to be clearly defined within the magazine for audiences to notice it and so it is another way of drawing the audience in. This is because it is a promotional product and so promotes the magazine.

The line ‘YOUR SEX IS ON FIRE’ is used because it is a pun; this is because it is a line from the song ‘sex is on fire’ by Kings of Leon who are one of the very well known bands in the music genre of rock. By using the song line in this way, the audience reading the magazine text will be able to connect to the magazine because they can identify themselves with the magazine (personal identification) because they know what it is about. Personal gratification is one of the uses and gratification theory. This theory helps define what people do with media rather than what media does to people, this theory suggests that members of audiences are not in a passive position but that they have an active role in understanding and putting media into their lives and so this approach assumes that people use media in order to fulfil specific gratifications. The theory has four explanations as to why we chose to consume media; the first is for entertainment purposes this means that the text provides pleasure and often being escapist, the second is for social interaction; this means that we consume media because the media includes topics which are key vocal points to discussions, the third is personal identity; this is where we can identify ourselves with film characters and we may even use these characters as role models, and finally the fourth is information; this is where we consume media due to the reason that it is full of information which we are at liberty to use. The fact that my magazine is informational means that audiences may use it for information purposes and this means that they can find facts about bands and artists. My magazine has entertainment because one of the main featured stories is ‘YOUR SEX IS ON FIRE’ and the tagline is ’20 THIINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT KINGS OF LEON’, this featured story shows that the magazine is full of interesting topics and articles which are for the purpose of entertainment. My magazine may be used for the purpose of social interaction because the readers can discuss the articles and information with their friends and their families. The theory of uses and gratifications help to make my magazine successful because the readers will be buying the magazine for different purposes and the fact that my magazine involves these theories will mean that nearly anyone can buy it because it has so many different uses and it will fulfil different gratifications.
At the bottom of the front cover I have placed a yellow box with the words ‘Win Tickets’, these words are in a different colour to the rest of the sentence because the word win is a buzz word and these help to draw the audiences’ attention.

The featured stories have a code that the featured story is in purple and the tagline which goes with it is green, this is because it helps to make the reading of the text easier and this is important because the reader has to be able to identify the different articles which will be within the magazine itself (in order to draw their attention in).

On the double page spread I have included a website for my magazine; this is to use multiple plat forms and the result of this is that by having the website you are promoting the magazine and encouraging audiences who do not buy the printed copy to find comfortable ways of accessing the magazine themselves. By having this I am creating a symbiotic relationship between two forms of media. By having the website my magazine is following the technological changes which have occurred.

The reason as to why new media is very important these days is because digital technology has led to increasing uncertainty over how we define an audience, with general agreement that the notion of a large group of people, brought together by time, responding to a single text, is outdated and that audiences now are ‘fragmented’. This means that media audiences use other consumption methods and so the traditional media (television, radio and newspaper) forms are not the major only way of media consumption. The introduction of the internet has meant that audiences can access any information anywhere and anytime, this means that traditional media forms are losing audiences due to insufficient funding and loss of audience interests. Magazines such as ‘Smash Hits’ were unable to keep up with the needs of their audiences and so they were unsuccessful with new media changes and new consumption methods. The impact of digital technology on the magazine industry was that it has been used in order to present stars as perfect, ideal role models of beauty and success by airbrushing images to create a hyper real vision of success and wealth within the publics eye view. The term hyperreality means a state in which images and simulations take on more reality than the state they represent, so that the distinction between reality and representation is no longer sustainable. The reason why The NME is still one of the best selling music magazines in Britain today is that the NME took the changes in music into account and changed its music choice as new modern music came along and using the changes in digital technology into use for the magazine by using new technology in order to improve the format of the magazine and develop images and texts. If Smash Hits had taken into account the changes in music taste of the public maybe it would have still been successful.

In order to meet the needs of the modern society I would need to use multiple platforms. In order to do this I have decided to have a website for my magazine, give free downloads and have a mobile phone copy of the website because internet on the phone is different to internet on the computer. This is in order to promote the magazine and it will provide multiple platforms in order to provide different methods of access to the magazine and so allowing a wider audience. I will also use viral advertising and this is because it is free and it will place my magazine in the conscious of audiences. The reason why I want to use multiple platforms is because audiences have become fragmented, audiences have been shrinking for the old media (i.e. radio) and this is because people are turning to new media and so I want to use 360⁰ commissioning. It is important to use interconnected marketing and distribution of media products across a range of platforms and sectors which is known as synergy and it is important because of the fragmentation of audiences.

Finally if my magazine is unable to keep up with these new media changes then it will mean an end to the future of my magazine. This is because it will mean that audiences will not be interested in something that is hard to access.