OCR Media Studies – AS Level

Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media

Preliminary Task, Log Book and Evaluation

Name: Liam QuinnCandidate Number: 6476Center Name: St. Paul’s Catholic CollegeCenter Number: 64770

Set Brief - Print

Music Magazine – Production

Preliminary Task Progression, Log Book and Evaluation

Preliminary Task Progression– EvidenceFront CoverStep-by-step

Step 1: I created my heading using the font Varsity Regular that is found on dafont.com. I used the school logo to show that my magazine is aimed directly at St Paul’s Students. I also used the maroon and blue color at the top

of the page because that is the schools colors.

Step 2: I used this as my strapline because I wanted my magazine to seem like it is a must read on a regular basis. It seems like a really powerful strapline and contains alliteration – “Most Must” – to make it all the more memorable.

Step 3: This is my website URL. I used this because it seems simple for people to remember. www.saints.co.uk

Step 4: This is a picture of Stanley Revell, who is the main image of my front cover. I chose him because he looked like a smart boy. He is shot through the technical code of a medium close-up.

Step 5: Stanley Revell’s name had a stroke effect to make it stand out. I also positioned it by his chest because it was close to the center of the page and I couldn't’t place it over his face.

Step 6: All magazines need a bar code, so I took one off the internet to use for my magazine. I placed it at the bottom right of the front cover.

Step 7: This is the sub-heading for my main story of the magazine. It features Stanley and it was placed below his name on his chest.

Step 8: Here on the left is a picture of two of my cover lines that I used. I used this because I thought it had related to St Paul’s and would be 2 good topics to talk about. It was placed on the left side of my main image.

Step 9: Here is another secondary story I had used. It talks about A-Levels which relate to my target audience (Sixth Form Students). Place on the top side of the front covers head.

Step 10: Here are 3 more secondary stories that I had chosen to be in my magazine. They are all about the Sixth Form and are appropriate. They are placed on the right side of my main image.

Step 12: Here is a screenshot of my puff/promotion I used to help persuade and make people interested in my magazine. It is a competition where someone could win a free £30 gift voucher for WH Smith and is placed above my social networking sites.

Step 11: Here are my social networking sites that my buyers would need if they wanted to contact me. It also shows the price of my magazine that is important as they need to know how much it costs

Here is the issue number in which my target audience would want to know. They would want to know this so they know they’re up to date. This convention also ‘informs’ (Katz) them when the magazine was published and it is located below the School logo.

Preliminary Task Progression– EvidenceContents PageStep-by-step

Step 5: Above are my categories I had to split my stories. I used the same layout for both of them by linking the St Paul’s badge with the shape the duplicating the layers and adapting the text to save time.

Step 10: Here are my sub stories I was talking about. They we introduced on my front cover and had to have a brief explanation as to what it’s about. It is located on the right side of my page.

Step 1: This is the heading of my contents page. I wanted to keep it simple so I just called it contents. It is located above my magazine masthead at the top of the page.

Step 2: This is the St Paul’s badge that I included in my contents page. It is there to indicate that this will be related to St Paul’s. Located at top right of page.

Step 3: This is my issue date which had to be included just to remind my target audience when the magazine is published. Located under contents heading.

Step 4: This is my magazine name and was included on my contents page because it has to and to show the reader that it is the Saints mag. Located under contents heading.

Step 6: Here is the layout of the bottom of my contents page. It includes the strapline from my front cover, along with the website name and the page number.

Step 7: Picture of my promotion strategy. The promotion is that someone will find £30 pounds in the magazine for WHSMITH. Located under my editorial.

Step 8: Here is the proof that I have completed my editorial. I completed my editorial after most of my conventions because I thought it would be the easiest. It tells the reader more about me and the magazine edition. Located on left side of page. This was typed in word first, then copied and pasted into the text box created using the ‘Pen Tool’ (P) so it fit around the editor photo.

Step 9: Links to my magazine’s social networking sites, I put it under my editorial so it can be noticed much easily.

Conventions you need to refer to for step 10: Subline, use of the pen tool, eye dropper/swatches. Etc.

Step 11: Here are more details I added below my editorial so that if the readers wanted to contact me to give me feedback about the magazine they will know how to reach me. This is an example of my intention to build a ‘personal relationship’ (Katz) with my readers as well.

Step 12: The jpeg of my signature below my editorial is to show the readers proof that I am in fact the editor of the Saints magazine.

Section 1) – Log Book

Established Magazine for my Research

Masthead

Front Cover Image

Puff/ Competition

Main Heading

Barcode/Date and Issue –

Cover Lines

There are conventions missing such as a strapline. This should be included as it is a way for the magazine to attract the readers. The inclusion of Thumbnail images are another convention that has not been included in this Q magazine. It is not a major part of a magazine but could make the magazine stand out a bit more.

Web address

Target Audience – The target audience for Q magazine can be denoted as a rock/indie magazine from looking at the front cover, this is stereotypically personal identification (Katz). I would say Q magazine is aimed at ages 16-30, mainly a male gender (Hartley’s seven subjective). Another denotation is that it is normally aimed at social climbers as people are looking and trying to improve their lifestyle by listening to songs that actually are meaningful (Maslow hierarchy of needs). In social economic needs I would say that Q magazine’s class is from a range to A-C1. This is because they have a huge reputation.

What is the USP of this magazine? From the research completed into this media product, I think the USP for Q magazine is that they don’t just sell one genre, this makes them stand out in front of all the other magazines as they sell many genres such as rock/indie, hip hop. Their front cover is extremely impressive which persuades people to buy it. If a magazine has some very vibrant colors on the front cover and it is significantly laid out then they will get more readers.

Publisher researchQ magazine is very popular and has won many awards for best front cover of the year. Q’s editor is Paul Rees and their publisher is Bauer Media Group and is published every month since October 1986. Q magazine costs a total of £3.90, they don’t have a specific audience as it covers many different music genres, from heavy metal to rock, even hip hop. Bauer Media operates in 15 countries across the world and was founded in 1875. Q is UK’s number one actively purchased music magazine, there are mainly about quality and character. 97% of their readers rate the magazine to be quality, their audience are mostly young and affluent. They have a varied age group for their magazine as they are not specifically one genre of music. Majority of their audience are aged 15-24 with a percentage of 35.5%. 68.3% of their audience are males. The ABC1 profile is a chart, it means that 70% of that profile are Q readers.

Sources: http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/Q http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/brands/q

Music Magazine – Genre research – Hip Hop

• The chosen sub-genre I have chosen for my magazine is hip-hop. This is because it is widely targeted at ages 16-25.

• Stereotypically rap magazines are mainly bought and listened to by a male gender. This is because most rap songs have violence and abusive words in them, as well as misogynistic themes that female listeners might be offended by. People have come to know that males are the violent gender of the two and will most likely be the ones to listen to hip hop, whereas the women gender would most likely prefer Pop music.

Music Magazine – Genre research – Hip Hop

There are many hip-hop genre based magazines and I will be mainly looking at XXL and briefly on Vibe. This is because XXL has a really good reputation as a magazine as they release exclusive information on the top artists. Vibe is another magazine with great reputation, it is slightly less popular than XXL but is still up there. Rap as made and is targeted for ages 16 to mid 20s and the generation will still be growing up. XXL magazine is successful as they release around 11 issues per year which is keeping in touch with the audience. Vibe has a quarterly frequency which means it is published every other month which is roughly around 6 issues a year. It is a lot less when compared with XXL who are much bigger and successful music magazine business. Sources - http://10williamsm.weebly.com/xxl-magazine-facts.htmlhttp://www.newsstand.co.uk/555-Urban-Music-Magazines/5313-Subscribe-to-VIBE-Magazine-Subscription.aspx

Conventions of a Music Magazine – Front Cover

Masthead – This is effective as it tells the readers who this magazine was produced by, the font is huge and bold in front of a red background. The use of the colour red connotes danger which is what most people stereotype rappers to be these days.

Main Headline – The main story anchors the non-verbal code of the main image and is carefully positioned towards the bottom of the page. The verbal code “Living the Good Life” connotes that rappers in the industry are living the fast life, earning tons of money from their rap albums. Most rappers are also stereotyped to be extreme when they get hold of money, they usually get dragged into illegal stuff.

Cover Lines – The low opacity “name dropping” of other ‘star’ figures in the rap genre is effective because it is giving the insight of what artists to expect inside the magazine. If they have big and bold names in the background it would attract fans from those artists. I would repeat this convention as it makes the magazine look unique from other magazines as the background really stands out

Main Image – This is positioned in the middle of the page and takes up the majority of the page, including slightly overlapping the masthead. This picture is unique and effective because of the use of the props across the side of his face. There could be some effects already applied to the image such as a small drop shadow to the side of his face.

Barcode – Lets the audience know how much the magazine costs and has been rotated to fit along side the magazine so it doesn’t interfere with the image too much.

Strapline – There is a strapline used on the top left side of the magazine, the strapline is used to connote how good the magazine is by saying “Hip-hop on A higher level”.

Conventions of a Music Magazine – Contents Page

Headline – The headline of the contents page is “the A-side” which is effective as it connotes as if the rap industry is on top of all other genres. Being called the A team is usually related to being the best team. Here it is calling rap the A-side being the best genre. It is in a huge bold black font which stands out at the top of the page.

Issue – Date of issue release in front over attractive black box below the headline. This is great for the contents page is it is reminding the audience when this issue was released, for this magazine it is November 2010.

Cover Lines – The cover lines on the side of the picture is well structures and for each cover line there is a bold title to connotes what it is roughly going to be about. There is also a pen tool being used to position these cover lines to the side of the picture, this is so it doesn’t overlap the main image.

Cover Image – This cover image is really effective for this genre of the magazine, it is an image with a caption in the middle of it. They look gangster which connotes how most rappers are seen to be like with their “gangs”. Both characters have an intimidating look to them as they look towards the camera.

Page numbers – The page numbers are found at the bottom of the page and next to the cover lines. It is good that the cover lines have page numbers listed next to them to present where to find them. It is important that the page numbers are in order so it is easier to find what page.

Website address– The website of the XXL is located at the bottom of the page in a black box. It is located to the right of the page number where it could be seen easily.

Conventions of a Music Magazine – Double PageMasthead – This is effective as it tells the readers who this magazine was produced by, the font is huge and bold in front of a red background. The use of the colour red connotes danger which is what most people stereotype rappers to be these days.

Page Numbers –They are important so that the readers know what page they are on, contents page will normally show what is on each page so the reader knows what to expect.

Main Image –This is effective as it is normally always a picture of the artist that is being interviewed. Effective pictures can give off a sense of intimidation which is good as rappers are stereotypically meant to be “hard”. The colour red connotes danger and evil, this then could mean that possibly the rapper can be dangerous in certain situations. Maybe a danger to the rap industry and other rappers.

Quotes – Quotes are used in magazines to present and inform the reader of what the rapper had said in the interview. Normally they are inspirational quotes for the reader, this one is also inspirational as it connotes the fact that anything can be achieved if you work at it.

Differentiation – This is because in the interview there are different colours used to present who is talking. For the interview he is presented in white writing when asking questions, whereas the rapper who is P4trick is presented in blue. This connotes the importance of the colours when in a interview as it is a must that the reader understands who is talking.

Target Audience – The target readership for XXL magazine can be denoted to be targeted at a age group of 16-25 (Hartley), this is because its genre is hip hop. ‘Personal identification’ (Katz) is evident on the front cover deconstructed becuas emany of the readers may be able to identify with some of the issues Big Sean will discuss in the interview – both personal and professional. The rap music genre is culturally very significant and some people around the world want to be like their favorite rap artist so they dress similar to them and follow the trends they are setting (Social Climbers – Maslow). In terms of socio-economic needs, XXL’s target audience would be stereotypically put into the ‘D’ categroy. The ‘D’ section stands for semi-skilled to unskilled workers. This is because rap has a lot of abusive/violent words involved within the songs, because of this people will think that only unskilled people would be using language such as this and listening to music about hardship, poverty and other tough social issues.

What is the USP of this magazine? Having completed other research into this media product, I think the USP is that they focus a lot on the amount of rappers they have to show. To have a lot of rappers to talk about in their magazine engages a huge target audience, this is because there are many fans of different rappers. Also the main story could fit well with the USP of this magazine, this is because the main headline is usually presented in the middle of the page and occasionally uses the verbal code “EXCLUSIVE” to grab the customers attention, in particular a pass along audience, because they will get curious as to what the main story will be about.

Publisher research

• XXL Magazine is an American hip-hop magazine published by Harris Publications which was founded in 1997. It is an bi-monthly magazine which means that it is published every 2 months. XXL is a music magazine that is read mainly by males than females. This is because the genre is hip-hop and is very explicit in different ways. It is majority based at young adults because the genre appeals to them the most. There are 11 issues per year, the readership of XXL magazine consists of; 78% male, a median age of 27, with roughly 5.3million views on their page www.xxlmag.com and a circulation of 205,000-210,000. You can also subscribe to XXL magazine, you can have all magazines in a year for $24 or you can pay for 2 year subscription which is $36

Source - http://10williamsm.weebly.com/xxl-magazine-facts.html

Audience Feedback -

This is question 1 of my survey, the question was about what people thought was the most important feature on my front page. It came out that 54.55% of the people who answered said that A powerful Image would be the most important. Because of this percentage I will try my hardest to capture a powerful image for my front cover.

For question 2 I asked what would stop people from buying a magazine. I got 22 replies back and 14 of those replies voted for price. 63.64% of the audience targeted for price to be a problem with magazines. Because of this I will try to keep the price of magazine low and affordable for my targeted audience.

Question 3 was me asking what genre they all preferred. I got 22 replies back after sending the survey to a wide range of different people. The results were pretty close but it came back that most people liked Pop music, 8 people responded for Pop which is 36.36%. But personally I don’t like pop music as much so I chose to use the second most like genre which was Hip-Hop.

This is my question 4 of the survey I had uploaded, the question was entirely about me asking what my age group should be. This was a good question cause it really determined what kind of language I was going to use in the magazine. The percentage was high for the age group which was chosen, the age group was 15-19 with 77.27%. Because of this I have decided that my age group will be old teenagers to young adults and will use the language suitable for them.

Question 5 is about what my USP for my magazine should be, because of this question I have decided to use promotion as my USP. Promotion had 40.91% of the responses and I will now have to think of good promotions to attract customers to buy my magazine.

For question 6 I asked what should include in the double page spread, 72.73% of people chose interview which connotes the importance of a interview in a double page. I needed to write up an interview anyway for my double page and had decided pre-hand that I was going to do it. This question was fully dedicated for me to get more ideas to put onto my double page, history of artist would be included into my interview.

Ideas for my Music Magazine

Brainstormed names for my Magazine

Gash

Smash Up Hits

Bash Up

Swag UpNew Sounds

Swag

Rap AttackReplay

Old Skool

Chiddy Bang

Bang Pure

Ideas for Magazine

• My magazine will contain an interview of a up rising rapper. I will be placing many different pictures of artists posing on my front cover around the side for cover stories.

• I have chosen my magazine name to be “Pure”. I have to buy a magazine of inspiration for this.

• I will only use a maximum of 3 colours for my magazine as it keeps the magazine professional and simple.

• I should have a promotion to persuade people to buy my magazine. Maybe they get a chance to win tickets to see a rapper live.