EVALUATION - QUESTION IV
WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

Already from the beginning of my research I've been developing the 'image' of my target audience. I have particularly done this by looking at magazines such as Mojo, Q and NME in which I identified different elements of their target audience. This gave me a clear understanding to how my own audience should look like, especially because my final outcome is a combination of codes and conventions found within these products.

Looking back at my questionnaire results I have targeted my audience to be aged between the late teens and their mid twenties. This is quite a range but I believe the content within my product interests variety of age groups as at the end of the day all the readers are aimed to be interested in a specific genre of music. Although my questionnaire results showed my main focus was pop, I also took other genres into consideration which were high within the results range. Furthermore, I wanted to apply some of the knowledge of rock magazines as this was my main focus within the research I decided to create a magazine which will be focusing on people interested in alternative pop and rock which blends contrasting genres and musical styles together, making the music genre quite open to interpret meaning everyone can find something for themselves. I think this is a vital point as I am viewing my audience as people who appreciate the mainstream as well as classic music of rock and pop. This is why the age of the audience is not as significant as their interest and passion. I believe they could be categorised into aspires category who would aim to succeed in life such as presented artists. I can support this through the use of language within my DPS which is full of advises on how to succeed in life. Besides, I can link the idea of my target audience to the theory of uses and gratifications where the audience is aiming to follow a certain life style. This can be reinforced by the fact that my audience is relatively young and it can become easily influenced or inspired. 

Furthermore, my magazine is aimed at both males and females. In this way my magazine becomes open to a wider audience. I decided to focus my magazine on both genres due to the results of my questionnaire, which clearly showed that my target audience was fairly balanced. Besides, most of the magazines which I have analysed as part of my research were open to both genders. I didn't find it as a problem because I learnt how to create a neutral house style design which is aimed at both genders. 

Another way in which I can represent/ portray my target audience is through the choice of images. This includes the mise-en-scene (props and costumes but also hair stylisation). I have touched upon this aspect within the second evaluation question where I discussed my social group. For instance; within the front cover the model is wearing a leather jacket, a white top and a gold chain. Overall, this is a very casual and classical stylisation. I think my audience could easily imitate this look. While looking even closer at relations to the target audience the leather jacket reinforces the idea of their music interest as it's usually associated with people who are interested in rock style music. 

Although these stereotypical associations are fading away the leather jacket is often worn by young people within simplistic stylisations. This can be seen within another two images as  my model is wearing black jeans and black t-shirt. Besides, this is another colour which I assume my audience would like to wear as it's often worn by musicians who particularly focus on rock / pop music. Besides,it's a classical colour which is worn by many artists. Furthermore, I believe my audience is more likely to wear casual and simplistic clothing with dominated colours of black and white and maybe red. I would expect them to wear skinny jeans, converse shoes and a casual leather jacket. By this I can assume they would find interest in brands such as; Top Shop, Top Man, H&M and Footlocker. Although I mostly focused on a male appearance I believe female look would not differ a lot from that. The casual and plain clothing can be easily applied to both genders. I think even in terms of the hair stylisation there wouldn't be much difference, expect the fact that the girls would be more likely to tie their hair or create a fizzy pony tale. This again would empathize a sense of confidence and interest in alternative / rock music. 

In terms of the props I think the microphone and posture of the artist implies connotations about my target audience. I wanted to underline the idea of young people liking to party. I can specifically infer that because already in my questionnaire I collected responses from young people which expected to find out about upcoming events / gigs. This implies that my target audience would enjoy spending time at events such as festivals or concerts. Another prop which could be related to my audience are headphones. This helps us to associate the young audience with music 'maniacs' who like to feel connection with music everywhere they go. Whereas,guitar is a prop which suggests audience's love to instruments as well as acceptance and interest in different music genres as guitar is an instrument which is used wisely across many different genres. 

Last of all, my questionnaire research showed me that my target audience is willing to pay no more than £3.99 for a music magazine. Whereas, the average price which the target audience is willing to pay is £2.00. I came up with a price of £2.50 for my own media product. I think this a right and reasonable price for a magazine comparing to other products such as Q which is worth £3.99 whereas NME is only £2.20. This shows that the price of my magazine is fairly balanced while comparing to the prices within music industry. Another reason for this is the demographic of my target audience, which is based on BCD sectors. This is because the audience is still relatively young, building their experiences and skills. The aim for the price is to make sure the target audience can comfortable afford it every month. 

I wanted to conclude my target audience analysis by adding a brand eye for my music magazine (Stereo Beat) as well as an audience profile:

In addition to that, the MARKET SEGREGATION of my magazine can be found towards the end of question II! 

EVALUATION - QUESTION III

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?
 

EVALUATION - QUESTION II
HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUP?

My music magazine represents particular social group through the use of codes and conventions showed within my product. We can automatically infer this from the logo of my magazine which is titled 'Stereo Beat'. The combination of two music symbols creates an image of people who like loud and expressive music. This description matches well the stereotypical description of  young people who are just starting their adult life. This clearly supports my questionnaire results as I targeted my magazine at people 18+ who like to  be aware of the current trends and currently changing hits. Besides, we tend to associate young people with being open to different types of music. This is why my magazine focuses on alternative music, which is balanced with pop sound and touch of rock. I think I am clearly expressing this through the house style of my magazine which is focusing on white, red and black,  Q magazine inspired me to  portray the alternative music through expressiveness or red colour whereas the pop and rock sounds through vintage fonts. 

Another way by which I can describe a social group of my product is through the images. The choice of the model already indicates that I was tying to aim my target audience at 18+. The model himself represents this age group and this can be clearly seen, particularly due to the medium close up which reinforces the facial features. Another element of the image is the hair stylisation which again underlines the person's interest in alternative music or rock. This might also apply to my social group who can be associated with these kind of hair styles. In terms of the clothing, the model is wearing a red leather jacket which again can be associated with rock / pop stars. However, leather jackets can be worn in any age bringing more focus to the genre rather than specific age of the audience. Overall, I think the artist looks quite casual. He is wearing a white t-shit signifying the simplicity and regularity. He is not dressed as a stereotypical celebrity. The clothes are subtle showing that he doesn't differ from others and that the audience is more likely to appear like him. 

Another photograph which says a lot about the social group of my product is the image within the contents page. The model's posture is quite confident and relaxed. I think these associations can be clearly linked to my social group/ target audience. Again the simplicity of the clothing suggests that the magazine is aimed at middle class people, who like to dress casually and classically, as you don't need 

much to look good. However, the microphone prop significantly allowed me to apply the idea of young people loving to party, especially going to gigs and festivals. This can be strongly supported through my research which showed that people aged 17 to 25 want to hear about upcoming events such as festivals or concerts. I supported this perception of young people even further by adding appropriate features within my contents page. 

The last image taken from my double page spread portrays the social group of my product as people who have strong interest in music. This is supported through the use of props. The headphones can be seen as a symbol which is taken around by young people everywhere they go. This is why we tend to stereotypically associate them with music 'maniacs'. Another prop is a guitar which might also indicate young people's love for instruments and interest in classics, as it's an instrument which can be used wisely, across different genres of music. 

Another important element which shows relation to my social group is the use of language. Throughout my front cover, contents page and double page spread I've been underlining the use of language by placing a pull out quote ''My whole starting point is that I have nothing to lose''. I think this is a strong and aspiring quotation which would grab young people's attention. At the same time this could encourage young people to follow his life style, experiences as well as advises which he portrays within the interview. For example; in the DPS I've written 'I think everyone should have a plan B' or 'It's all about to be determined and completely fulfil your goals'. This again could portray the social group as aspires who take Jason Posner as a role model, especially due to the fact that my target audience is quite young meaning they need someone to look up to. 

Within the contents page I've also included features based on my Survey Monkey results. I've established my features on upcoming gigs and events as this was one of the main gathered results. This already tells quite a lot about the social group of my magazine which shows that my audience likes to view new places and be in a community with people with similar interests and passions. The social group could be also interested in 'keeping up' with famous artists lives such as Sam Smith or Ed-Sheeran as the results showed they would want to see and hear about famous artists. This is why I can interpret that they would be more likely to gather inspiration and treat the artist's as role models.

Moreover, the price of my magazine is £2.50. I think this is fairy cheap comparing to other music magazines, for example Q magazine is £3.99 while NME is £2.20. This shows that the price of my magazine isn't too high or two low, specifically while considering my  social group which is less likely to pay more than £3 for a magazine. This can be also linked to research (which was mainly carried out by young people) this showed that people are not willing to pay up to £4 for a magazine as it seems to be too much. Besides, this portrays that the middle class people, male as well as female expect quality for reasonable price of £2.50.

Furthermore, I would consider my social group to be at least partly educated with a high ambition to be an aspire. (They might be included in the BCD sector). Although the features reflect a lot of partying and going out, the text within my magazine shows that there is a balance. You should never give up on your dreams and aim to succeed, but there's nothing wrong with following trends and hits. 

To conclude the evaluation of my social group I came up with 

MARKET SEGREGATION:

DEMOGRAPHIC: As I mentioned above my magazine is aimed towards people around the age of 18/+. I would expect my target audience/ social group to be students or young professionals from a working or lower class with disposable income, who can comfortably afford to pay £2.50 a month of my magazine. In terms of the general registrar scale, they are more likely to be in the BCD sector which focuses around semi-professional jobs. They could be also in part time education but with high interest in alternative pop/rock music. The Stereo Beat magazine is aimed at both males and females, which can be supported through the house style of my magazine, particularly typography and colour scheme. 

GEOGRAPHIC: Stereo Beat magazine is mainly targeted at people living in the UK due to the included features of upcoming gigs and events which are mostly taking place around the UK. However, as I mentioned before I have chosen Bauer Media as my distributor which publishes magazines across 15 countries meaning that my magazine could be targeted at people from other countries. However, my edition of the magazine is particularly aimed at people living around bigger cities of UK such as London. This would be appealing to the audience as they would have easier access to attend upcoming events such as concerts or festivals which tend to be arranged in bigger cities. I can supports this through one of my cover stories titled 'Who? What? Why? Where? UK TOUR'.

PSYCHOGRAPHIC: In terms of the psychographic, my audience will tend to be a mixture of main streamers and aspires, as they will have disposable amount of money to pay £2.50 per month for the magazine. They will tend to gain inspiration from known artists who are willing to pass on their advises and life experiences. They could be considered as main streamers due to the interest in well known artists / bands such as Coldplay, Fall out Boy or Arcade Fire which they could consider as role models due to their fashion style, music taste or other individual interests. They are also more likely to attend live music performances such as gigs and concerts. 

Another way of presenting the social group of my magazine would be through audience profile, which I created in a form of a table:

In conclusion, I have clearly showed variety of methods which I used in order to represent the social group of my media product. I mostly accomplished this through  the mise-en-scene including costumes, props, body language but also other aspects such as hair stylisation. I also taken into consideration the market segregation which helped me to identify even more aspects about the social group of my magazine through demographic, geographic and psychographic sectors.Additionally, I created an audience profile which allowed me to portray different views about my potential social group.  

EVALUATION - QUESTION I
IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCT?

I also want to look back at my criteria grid where I identified other codes and conventions. I found this task very useful during construction as it allowed me to look back at what I need to include, where and why. In this case I will use it as a check list while annotating and identifying the codes and conventions within each page of my magazine. I will use Flicker in order to present my work. The annotations can be found under this link:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132203275@N02/shares/409g83

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132203275@N02/shares/409g83

From next week (starting from Monday 27th of April) I will be focusing on my evaluation. I already responded and evaluated some of the key information during my research, planning as well as construction process. This will make it easier of me to do a create piece of work where I will be evaluating different aspects learned throughout the course. I am planning to use different ICT skills including PowerPoint, Prezi, Slide-share and more. I am planning to complete my evaluation by Friday the 1st of May.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD - FINAL OUTCOME
This is final version of my double page spread. I am quite pleased with my the final outcome as I spent reasonable amount of time producing it. I was looking back at my planning as well as the codes and conventions of other music magazines, particularly Q magazine which focuses around a similar house style. I also spent a lot of time editing and choosing appropriate image for my double page spread. At first I planned to locate a portrait shot, however once I looked even further into my research and my own photographs I decided to place a medium long shot. This worked particularly well as I could reinforce the  subject of the interview using props. I could specifically highlight the guitar instrument as well which stood out within the rest of the dark costume. Furthermore, I spent a lot of time reading through different interviews in order to make improvements to my own text. This helped me a lot as I could improve and develop my use of vocabulary as well as the question structure. Overall, I am really happy with the final outcome as I created DPS based on my research that helped me make my final outcome look more professional and accomplished. 

CONSTRUCTING DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD 

I am planning to finish my DPS by next Monday (27th of March). So far I find my time management quite good as I already constructed my interview and made improvements to it. I placed the edited photograph, headings and captions. The only element which I still haven't completed, is typing up the text on Photshop (as I am using font which is not availabe on InDesign). During this process I wasn't sure how to apply 'Justify' option in order to create straight and equal paragraphs. I decided to look at the Photoshop tutorial on Youtube. This helped me a lot, as I solved my problem straight away. The link can be found below the paragraph;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTi69ZMfC-0

This is the  introduction paragraph which I decided to add to my DPS:

I'm sitting in a crowded cafe on the outskirts of London when Jason saunters through the open doors looking dazzlingly charming. When he walks in there is not a flicker of recognition on the faces around us. You guess he likes it that way. He is wearing a leather jacket, lose t-shirt and faded jeans. He's got the look of the pop star, but also a subtle swagger of a rock star. He sits down, gazes up with a striking look 'What shall we start with?' he says. 

CONTENTS PAGE - FINAL OUTCOME

This is final version of my contents page. I am really pleased with the final outcome as the overall page seems to be clear and minimalistic as I planned, I used simple and quite vintage fonts which reinforced the simplistic effect even further. The page doesn't seem to be too busy or overloaded, making it clear to read and more interesting too look at. I also think I made a good decision by not applying the photo collage as this would make the entire page look too 'overloaded', although I could link my contents to various contents topics. Besides, I followed the codes and conventions of other music magazines. I was particularly inspired by the 'Q'  magazine, and I hope this can be seen within my final outcome. Now I am looking forward to construct my DPS. 

Before starting construction of my double page spread I decided to look back at my research. I particularly decided to look at the Q magazine due to a similar colour scheme comparing with  my own magazine. This double page spread mood board will definitely help me in case I will feel stuck especially as I consider these designs as model layouts and I want to create a similar page. 

 

 FRONT COVER - FINAL OUTCOME

This is an image which represents a final outcome of my music magazine front cover. As you can see I have taken into account all the pointed out before improvements. I particularly focused on highlighting the cover stories which used to be blending in with the rest of the text. I decided to clean the inside of the letters in order to make the key stories clearer and more visible. To reinforce this aim even further I used bright, red colour which made the text stand out even more. In further improvements I significantly increased the size of the main artist's name 'Jason Posner'. During this stage I also decided to look at further research. This significantly helped me to make final decisions. Overall, I am quite happy with the final outcome as I managed to follow the codes and conventions of a music (pop/ rock/alternative) magazine. I learnt a lot from my research and I tried to show this within this construction. Now I will be applying my gathered skills to the contents page. 

This week I will be focusing on my contents page which I am going to construct using InDesign program, although I am planning to use Photoshop in order to work on my typography because of the special fonts that I already downloaded and used within my front cover. However, today I've been making my last improvements within my front cover. Here are some of the screen shots which I took during this process, as well as secondary magazine images representing some codes and conventions. 

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD - INTERVIEW DRAFT I

This is my first draft of an interview which I constructed in order to be prepared for next week practical work. Looking back at my layout, I want my interview to cover one A4 page, hopefully this amount of text should be enough however, I am willing to add more if needed. Within the interview I wanted to focus on introducing an upcoming star. I wanted to make the questions quite simple while I tried to develop the content by making it more personal, truthful and 'fresh'. I think this worked quite well. The next step will be based on selecting and manipulating appropriate images for my DPS as well as my contents page. 

FRONT COVER - CONSTRUCTION PROCESS 

FRONT COVER - DRAFT I