My EvaluationBy Tobias Pugsley

During the construction of our magazine, I did some constructive research into the codes and conventions of different music magazines. I mainly covered acoustic music magazines but did have time to look at other magazines such as ‘Rolling Stones’ and ‘Billboard’. This gave me a clear idea of what is conventional in Acoustic music magazines. The codes and conventions of an Acoustic music magazine include:Main image – The largest image on the page and usually only one on the front cover. This image will most of the time be the person or group that the main article/exclusive is about.• Cover lines – Usually used to entice the reader and to show them what is inside.• Issue Number, Date, Price, and Barcode – Usually located in a corner of the magazine.• Strapline – • Masthead – • Lures – From this constructive research, I learnt that the main image was the most important feature on the front cover as it is used to entice the reader and gives off a certain atmosphere. The fact that it is the first thing the audience looks at adds importance to it. To make sure the image was as enticing as it could be, I had to make sure none of the cover lines or other features took away the impact the main image was giving. To ensure this didn’t happen, I had to carefully place things like lures and cover lines in places that wouldn’t impact the main image negatively. I wanted my magazine to appeal to the ‘middle-class’ so I decided to use Formal text and a main image of the latest Acoustic Musician known as Oakley Alvarez. I strongly believe after all this constructive research that I achieved this due to the fact the majority of the main codes and conventions are there. In addition, from my audience reviews, I got positive feedback with a few comments stating that the magazine fitted well with the genre. One area for improvement was the actual main image itself. I had feedback saying that the main image wasn’t as enticing as it could be. To overcome this hurdle, I decided to swap the image on the front cover for the main image on the Double page spread. This is because it was a more appealing image and gave off a better impression. Overall, I am very happy with my front cover.

The next stage was to look at the codes and conventions of a contents page. These consist of:

Title – Variety of images – Page numbers – List of articles – Subtext - Editors Review – Columns - Websites/Contact information –

From this second piece of constructive research, I learnt that some codes and conventions for a contents page are more important than others are. I found out that it was key to have the article numbers and actual article names bigger then the subtext as it was conventional in all the magazines I looked at and also makes it clear and stands out for the reader. My aim was to conform the conventions in my genre to appeal to our middle- class audience. We, as a group, believe that we achieved this as we kept the conventions the same as our researched magazines. One way I could have improved this is by doing more research to get more of a range of codes and conventions used in different magazines.

For my double page spread, I found these conventions:

Title of article Standfirst – Main article – Main image – Other images – Page number – Pull quote – Anchor – Editor/photographer credit – Website/social media

From this research, I quickly learnt that my contents page had to look professional and could not have loads of different shapes, which will not give it that professional feel. As a group, we decided to stick to these conventions listed above, as we wanted our magazine to look as professional as possible as well as enticing to the reader. As we used all of the conventions listed, I believe my contents page was very successful in giving off the acoustic atmosphere due to the colour scheme and layout being sophisticated and alluring. To improve my contents page, I would have used a wider range of images to entice the reader that little bit more.

Question 1:

When analysing the acoustic magazines that already exist, there were certain features that were clearly represented across them all. For the acoustic genre, there are certain stereotypes that are fulfilled within the magazines towards the traditional idea of an acoustic musician. Stereotypically, an acoustic musician will fit these criteria:

Middle Class Male Young (twenty-five to thirty) White Male

These are shown as the typical ideals for an acoustic artist, such as Ed Sheeran, James Bay and Passenger. All these are young white male artists who may not always fall into the middle class social group, but the other criteria will be filled.

Our magazine attempts to recreate this through two of the three artists used on the cover designs for the individual acoustician issues. Oakley Alvarez and Matt Stephens fit this criteria as young, white and middle class males. This is shown through the use of mise-en-scene within the photoshoots through their costumes and the locations being naturalistic or suburban, which both have connotations within the genre. We chose to use these ideas for our models and photo’s as they fit the typical conventions of an acoustic magazine and is what would be expected. However, on the third issue design, the front cover depicts an artist named as “Skye Page”, who does not fit with the typical conventions displayed due to the fact she is female. This is an attempt to show variety within our construction designs and the use of a female artist gives more diversity within the magazine itself.

The micro codes used to display the social groups for our magazine all point towards the acoustic genre. The colour scheme used throughout is very natural and include oranges and reds, colours closely associated with the acoustic genre and acoustic guitars as a whole. The guitar itself is very consistent throughout the images used as when people think acoustic artists, they tend to almost immediately think of acoustic guitars, so an important factor when planning the photoshoot was the inclusion of this prop. Another use of the mise-en-scene is the costumes, which were previously mentioned. These are in all cases meant to look smart-casual with both men wearing waistcoats and the woman dressed in smart clothes without looking too sophisticated. The editing of the images very simply aimed to emphasise the importance of the main model. The use of the spotlight to dull all the backgrounds except for that surrounding the model helps to show their significance and importance. When the photographs were taken, an important decision was towards the camera angles and the levels of which the main model would be. In every cover image, the camera angle was taken as a wide shot, but always kept level with the model. This keeps them all on equal ground and corresponds with the idea of status. A tilt down would give the impression of the artist being beneath the reader, whereas a tilt up would suggest the model is superior to the readers. An eye line shot like this shows a middle class level, which is the social group most associated with the target audience.

Question 2:

The production company for the magazine “Acoustic” was Future PLC, a small company with about six hundred employees globally but their magazines reach one hundred million consumers globally. Their offices are set up in three areas: the UK, the USA and Australia, which are probably some of the best production locations reachable. Since 1985, their company has grown from one magazine to over two hundred. These are a variety of different magazines and digital media form, but there is a few that fit the acoustic genre also.

Future PLC would be a good choice to publish Acoustician as they already publish “Acoustic” and another guitar magazine, which is aptly named “Guitarists”. This means that they have a large amount of experience with publishing music magazines as well as ones more specific to the acoustic genre. As a company, Future PLC is responsible for two hundred magazines and counting so they would probably be looking to publish more and expand their business further. As an entertainment magazine, it would be a popular choice for readers compared to educational magazines and would be more widely accepted and wanted.

The reasons against Future PLC publishing our magazine would probably be its genre. It already publishes one solely acoustic music magazine so it would not want another published under their label, which would be potential competition to their already existing brands. As well as this is the work of Young and Rubicam on whether a genre is niche or mainstream. Our argument is that although we would not claim that the acoustic genre is niche, it certainly would not be considered mainstream either. In a market where there is already one main acoustic magazine, Future PLC and potentially other publishers would not feel the need or a public want for another.

For distribution, it makes sense to go for a more online route. It is not only cheaper to publish online than a physical copy as well as making it available to a larger audience through the internet. However, there is many people who would much rather prefer a physical copy. This is a route that should be attempted for all magazine products, so potentially starting with an online and a small-scale publishing attempt so if people prefer physical copies, they can be expanded within distribution.

Question 3:

The main audience for our Acoustician magazine was always teen/young adult. This was the choice because of the artists themselves not being much older, so they can be role models for their generation. Their gender is not specific as there is appeal to both male and females with acoustic music. The images used are never sexualised for women or men, so Mulvey’s male gaze and the female equivalent would not apply. The content for acoustic magazines usually refer to the songs themselves, which focus heavily on love and break ups, topics that typically appeal to women. On top of this is the social group of the reformer. Young and Rubicam coined this idea to refer to those who go against the mainstream and that fits this category nicely. As for the demographics, the magazine itself has a formal structure but informal writing style, making it very specific for our target audience.

Question 4:

My magazine appeals to my target audience because of the variety of colours used, the informality of the text, the layout, the style of font and the images used. All of these features used are the main conventions for an acoustic music magazine so therefore I tried my best to relate my magazine in a similar way to the way the publishing company known as Future PLC does. These key features are relevant as they entice the reader and catches the readers eye. Also in the magazine are different social media platform links to the musicians social media accounts which can update fans on when the up and coming concerts are and also what the musician is up to. I believe the social media side to this was very important because in today’s society, the younger and older generation are starting to use new forms of technology which is an easy way pf accessing such useful and entertaining accounts. In my specific issue of the ‘Acoustician’, I am trying to put across the message of not giving up on your dreams and to always do what you love doing. For example, the fictional musician known as Oakley Alvarez didn’t give up on his dreams even when he was performing to as little as two people. Now look at him. He’s a worldwide sensation. The message is clear throughout the magazine through the images used and the informality of the articles and texts.

Question 5:

Question 6:Throughout the construction of this magazine, a few certain technology types and software have been of great help and use. These are:

Microsoft Publisher Microsoft PowerPoint Adobe Photoshop Slideshare Padlett Survey Monkey Sound Cloud Prezi Blogger

Along with this was the use of photography and a variety of camera choices. Most common of these was the use of an IPad along with other mobile devices. The skills we had for each of these have developed over this course. Considering how often people tend to use the Microsoft software’s, it was not until designing our magazines that we developed understanding of these. The use of basic photo editing and constructing a presentable layout was important and achieved thanks to the skills we had developed through trial and error. Our final construction pieces are evidence of this since they were almost solely constructed through Publisher. The other main tool was adobe Photoshop, which helped to edit even the worst of our photos to become presentable. The spotlight effect on all the covers was developed through this and is one of the few details that has stood out as a positive development.

The rest of the tools were all completely new to us and were helpful in the presentation of our work. Blogger was our main tool where we collected all our work and although nobody was happy with how it worked or the difficulties that arose from trying to use it, we developed the skill necessary and now have a stronger understanding of how the software works. All the other tools were alien to us, but we developed skills in all of them swiftly and produced different sections of our coursework through these different methods.

The cameras were probably the most difficult part of the technology to work with as there were times when we tried using proper cameras that they just wouldn’t work. Charging, temperature and other factors were issues here but if we couldn’t sort them, then we would use a substitute device like a mobile phone which was just as able at taking photos, then using Adobe Photoshop to develop them further.

Overall, it has become obvious now more than ever of the role technology plays within the media. The production alone was difficult and the process was long and hard to tackle with at times, as well as the editing stage taking a lot longer than expected. As society has advanced, so has technology, as well as the dependency on technology within the media especially.

Question 7:From the start of my preliminary task, to this evaluation, my understanding of magazines and how they are made/published has grown immensely. I know fully understand what it takes to make a magazine have that professional feel to it and also what context the subtext and articles have to be in to suit my audience’s needs. Technology has played a key and vital role when it came to constructing my magazine ‘Acoustician’. I have had the opportunity to edit my photos using Photoshop, which was key to making the photo more enticing. One thing I have learnt that will always stay with me is the idea that sometimes ‘less is more’. This means that you don’t always have to edit your pictures hundreds of times with different lighting effects and shadow effects to give it that professional feel instead you could just use one filter that may work for you. From my contents page, I gained an understanding that there cannot be any unnecessary gaps. There will always be something that can fill in a gap. For example, an image could be a vital asset to filling in an unwanted and less appealing gap in your work. For my double page spread, I learnt that columns is always a good way to go. This adds a professional feeling to the magazine and makes it that one step closer to looking like a published magazine.

From the start of this project to the end, I have learnt how to successfully manage my time in the least stressful way possible. I was very precise on how much time I spent on certain tasks to make sure I do not fall behind in class. From my successful time management scheme, I manage to overcome the amount of work I had to complete in a non-stressful manner and managed to complete every task to its highest standard possible.

My knowledge of roles in the media production has also grown as I now know the names of famous publisher companies and what genres would match with what company. This is mostly because of my research done into looking at different publisher companies to find out what company would be most likely to sell my own individual issue of ‘Acoustician’. From this, I found out that Future PLC was the most likely to publish my work.