What kind of media institution might distribute your magazine and why?
IPC Media produces over 60 iconic media brands, with print alone and reaches almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men. IPC's diverse print aims to please everyone, with a focus on three main audiences: men, mass market women and upmarket women. The 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. And the mass market women's division (IPC Connect) consists of famous women's weeklies including Look, Now, Chat and Woman and others magazines. The more upmarket women's division (IPC Southbank) comprises luxury fashion brands including Marie Claire and InStyle, lifestyle brands including woman&home and essentials. The company has a wide range of audiences, which I believe would benefit Obsessed magazine, as Obsessed would attract a range of audiences’. People looking for music, fashion and an interesting magazine to read- will have all their needs fulfilled by just one magazine! IPC may distribute Obsessed magazine, as it will attract a large audience. The audience will hopefully buy the magazine repeatedly or subscribe, which will ensure the company a small yet important amount of income. The company has proven successful with a range of different types of magazines, so should be able to successfully distribute Obsessed magazine.
Who would the audience be for your media product?
The audience for Obsessed magazine are young women aged roughly between 16-25. The magazine is aimed at music lovers, who are obsessed with music as well as fashion. The audience is starting their working career, university or college, also they may have part-time job. Their career is likely to involve music or the music industry or possibly at a magazine. She is independent but also enjoys having fun and relaxing. Having her friends over, listening to music and reading the latest issue of Obsessed magazine is something she does often. Also she goes out to parties, clubs and concerts, as well as bars to spot the new talented artists. It is likely that the audience plays a musical instrument themselves, as their love for music is an important factor in their lives. The audience are hard working and well educated- with a high disposable income, which enables them to be able to afford small luxuries such as magazines. Most have grown up with music playing an important part in their lives, often they were part of their school choir or band. Technology has assisted them in being able to listen to music whenever possible as well as sharing music they love through 'twitter', 'Facebook' and other websites. Music relaxes them after a busy day at school or work, also they go occasionally to the gym, where once again they listen to their favourite music while being healthy. To sum up the audience they are young and fun loving women, who absolutely love music and want to be surrounded by the music world and its influences. They wish to dress similarly to their favourite musicians or even work with them in the future if possible. They are obsessed with music and will be obsessed with Obsessed magazine once reading it!
Beth Porch and Zoe Smith would be examples of the audience.
Beth plays a range of instruments as well as sings- and posts videos on the internet of her singing her own songs she has written. She is a true music lover! Beth attends college and is completing her a-levles, she does not have a full time job, but aspires to work with music in the future. Beth does not buy music magazines often- only when one of her favourite artists are on the cover! She does not have a lot of free time but when she does she spends time with her friends or at music festivals. When Beth is not listening to or playing any instruments she watches music based television programs such as 'GLEE', 'High School Musical' sometimes even the 'Euro-vision song contest'.
Zoe is also ambitious and attends college, she does not play an instrument herself but enjoys all types of music. Zoe is more likely to buy a range of different music magazines, as she loves different types of music. Zoe likes to discover new types of music but also loves to listen to older pop music. Also if one of her favourite artists are on the cover she would be inclined to buy the magazine. Similarly to Beth, she also enjoys having friends over and dancing to music, enjoying having fun. Going through the day without listening to music would not be possible as Zoe is truly obsessed with music. She may buy Obsessed magazine once or twice to see what it is about and should be hooked once she has read the first issue. Zoe shares her love of music through her profile on social networking sites such as Facebook and twitter, on theses websites she can also contact her favourite artists and see what they are up to.
How did you attract/address your audience?
Bright colours was the main 'device' used on the masthead and sell-lines to gain attention. In other music magazines such as 'Q' and 'NME', bright, bold mastheads are made use of, I saw how successful this approach was so used similar colours and fonts to ensure my magazine would have a chance at being as successful. During feedback, I was told that the previous masthead looked similar to 'KERANG' and that i should soften the font or change it. I followed the advice after asking a few other people for feedback they agreed that the masthead could be 'softer' to represent pop music more successfully. The sell-lines have a 'outer glow' which makes them stand out from the background more. A puff is placed in the lower right hand side of the magazine, where the eye is not drawn to usually, however placing a bright, large puff draws attention to this area. The puff highlights that the magazine is giving away '2 free posters' which is likely to entice the audience to buy the magazine as they are getting something absolutely free. Cover mounts are used to entice audiences to buy the magazine, however as it is a music magazine I felt it better to advertise that the magazine is giving away 'two free posters'. Just above the puff is an 'advertisement' of a competition included in the magazine. The use of a rhetorical question 'LOVE MUSIC?' will automatically attract the target audience as they do love music. Also the caption underneath this 'sell-line' reads 'win tickets to the hottest concert!', again the audience will enjoy going to concerts, and winning them will add to the excitement- so the target audience is likely to want to find out more and see if they can win tickets.
Another rhetorical question is made use of 'Obsessed with fashion? Get this seasons must have looks!' This is not typical of a music magazine to talk about fashion but Obsessed will relate fashion to music artists. The target audience will want to have this seasons must have look, as well as find out what their favourite artists are wearing. The two sell-lines beneath this include the name of famous artists, which should draw the readers to the magazine, as it will show them that the magazine has connections with the latest artists. The magazine adopts a friendly tone, as if it is a friend of the reader, it aims to give advice on how to improve themselves, their confidence, their style and knowledge of music. Relating to Maslow's Hierarchy of needs the magazine will aim to provide all needs as well as entertain and educate the readers.
The contents page provides a similar tone and employs the phrase 'what we are obsessed with this issue..' letting the readers know what the magazine is 'obsessed' with presents the idea that the magazine is almost sharing a secret with the reader about what is important in the music world. A list of the top ten songs this month, educates the readers on what music is new and popular, as well as exposing them to new songs or new artists that they may not have discovered otherwise.
And finally the double page spread contains a 'light' interview with the cover model of the magazine, an introduction is placed at the top of the page giving the reader an insight into the life of a writer as well as a music artist. The interview contains short simple questions and aims to cover all areas of the artists life, including personal, family, career and relationships. The questions and answers contain things that the readers can relate to making them feel as if they have something in common with the artist. Pull quotes are employed to draw the readers attention, and encourage them to want to find out more and then go on to read the article. Feedback received for the double page spread was positive, people liked the questions and answers in the interview and found it amusing, they said they would want to read something similar in the future.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? And looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Compared to the preliminary task, i feel much more confident using programs to edit images and to make the front cover, contents page and double page spread. I worked very slowly during the preliminary task, trying to remember which tool does what and figure out how to work the system. Previously if I did not know how to use a program I would gain help from anyone close by, but after completing the preliminary task and the final task I am more likely to take a risk and try and figure out how to use a program rather than giving up almost straight away. I used the internet and asked teachers for help, watching Youtube videos provided me with some extra skills that I did not end up making use of, but I am glad that I learnt so much. In the preliminary task I did not edit the images enough, so they looked amaturish however I think I may have been to ambitious and not concentrated on lighting enough. If i focused on the original images more then I would have to do less editing.
During the preliminary task the images I used were not of the best quality and my photoshop skills were not the best either, so I believe that the final task was more 'proffesional' looking as a result of my imporved skills. Also I thought about the location more as pop music magazines tend to have a plain background with a lot of colour found on the sell-lines and masthead.
Watching videos on the internet as well as searching for new techniques to use, improved my skills and taught me things I would not have known if not doing some extra research on how to use certain tools.
The healing brush is the tool that I 'discovered' through watching videos, I used this tool a lot more than I thought I would mostly due to lighting issues. Below and above are screen shots of videos I watched on how to use the healing brush tool.
During the preliminary task the images I used were not of the best quality and my photoshop skills were not the best either, so I believe that the final task was more 'proffesional' looking as a result of my imporved skills. Also I thought about the location more as pop music magazines tend to have a plain background with a lot of colour found on the sell-lines and masthead.
Part of the evaluation was made using Windows movie maker and Youtube. At first I struggled to use the programs as it was the first time using them. However each time I moved the video to youtube I learnt how to improve the video, so ended up repeating the process multiple times before deciding on a final video to publish to youtube. Also it being the first time I was using youtube it took me a lot longer than expected to publish the video, I discovered how to pause the video to enable people reading the annotations, extra time. I am pleased with the new knowledge I have about technology, even though it took a while to learn how to use it.
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