Boj Raphael Gonzaga
Evaluation
Before creating my magazine front
cover, I first investigated real media text to get ideas and produce a
successful publication that was accurate to a real front cover. To do this I
did research and development into rock magazines.
After my research I created a
questionnaire and gave it out to 20 young people and 20 middle aged/older
people. The questionnaire had open questions like what kind of music do you
listen to elicit the audience first but then there were closed questions as
well which helped me create my front
cover, for example “What colours would you expect to see in a rock magazine?”
and then they would pick from the colours bellow. From the information I have
gathered my target audience ranges from ages 16-34 and considers of mostly
male. The questionnaire has also told me that the most they would pay for a
magazine is £4, because of this I have made my magazine cost £3.50. From the
data of the questionnaire the front cover will fulfil the target audience’s
expectations of a rock magazine because the colours they have expected to be
there are reds, blacks and greys which is what I have included into my front
cover.
When investigating other rock magazines I have
tried to copy similar codes and conventions as them to help my front cover look
as professional as theirs but also to help accurately establish what kind of
magazine it is. An example of this would be KERRANG! In their publication they
included competitions to get their audience involved. To engage with my
audience I have also included competitions to also fulfil the needs and
aspirations of the audience. I also included social media which goes against
the Hypodermic Needle Model because I am getting the consumers interacting with
us.
In my research of institutions, I have chosen KERRANG! as
my publisher. This is because my magazine front cover is quite edgy and has
this street vibe to it which lives up to KERRANG!'s values as an institution. KERRANG!’s corporate image is known in the UK for being very in your face and
bold. I feel that my publication also does this as it grabs your attention with
the colours and fonts. KERRANG! Also has a monthly reach of roughly
437 thousands, which mostly consist of young males 15+ which is perfect for my
magazine because that is the age group of my target audience as well. My magazine
is aimed at a ABC1 audience. This is the Lower Middle Class to Upper Middle
Class. My magazine is aimed at this audience because of their class. £3.50 is
affordable. The people in the ABC1 class also have good jobs which allows them
to spend money on items other than necessities they need. This social class
would be educated and will appreciate the appropriate language I have used in
my magazine.
I think my publication accurately
shows that it is a rock magazine because of the colours and font. I think it
also conforms with the codes and conventions of any magazine so people know
what the actual media platform is. My target audience is males 16+ who are
mature, because of this I have used formal language which creates a mature and
more grown up feel. Atypical read would be a 16+ male, they would be in school
or working in a city or town. This person would like to socialise and has a
busy lifestyle of some sort and also enjoys listening to rock music. I have
made my front cover appeal to them, for example the competitions engages with
them and persuades uses and gratifications. The star in the centre of the
magazine is being portrayed as this super famous artist because he is the
biggest image and all of the text surrounds him.
In my preliminary double page
spread, I have chosen the same house colours as my front cover so that the
audience can see that it is from the same publication. Originally on my mock of
the double page spread and front cover was just an image of Corey Taylor;
however this was not my own image, therefore I got an image of someone who
looked similar to him (my friend Danny Williamson). I then cropped the image
and made it into a long shot and put it on my magazine front cover. On my
double page spread I used a similar image of the same person, but instead it
was a mid-shot. On my double page spread I added in a number on the pages as
this was used in many real music magazines when I was analysing them.
Overall not much changed from my
draft to my final piece, but these minor adjustments really helped my magazine
look at a better standard. When I completed my final front cover and double page
spread I did a Q and A with a focus group. They said I should put an image
behind the text so that it didn’t look less boring. To do this I went into
Photoshop and made the Slipknot logo faded and less noticeable on my double
page spread. This helped me to refine and modify my final piece to make it much
better.
The star is dressed in black and is
playing a guitar, this target audience representation suggests the stereotype
of all people in black are into rock music. My model is similar to the band
Slipknot because of the model wearing a mask, just like they would, Slipknot is
a band associated with the rock genre so I thought the audience would like a
similar artist. That is why I have taken this photo. The uses of camera angles
also engages with the audience because the camera is looking up at him, it looks
like the artist is looking down directly at the audience which uses direct
address but also him looking down suggests that he is better than us which
again fulfils the target audiences expectations because they aspire to be like
him. My magazine offers a free poster inside, this could be argued as one of
the selling points because it conforms to the Reception Theory proposed by
Dallas. This is because the audience would use the poster to look on a wall or
something at which connotes that they aspire to that artist or respect them to
a degree.
During the creation of my magazine
front cover, I have used an image manipulating software called Photoshop. I already
had knowledge on Photoshop however, I’ve never done photography before and I learned
all about how to use a camera and learned about camera angles and the different
modes of address.
