My Evaluation - 7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From looking at my preliminary task I feel that I have learnt a great deal of knowledge to do with not only creating magazines but on what I believe in. When I finally decided on who I was going to aim my magazine at I started researching many different magazines that are aimed for young girls. When I realised the connotations of some of the headlines of the articles I was astonished. The media clearly use very indecent play on words that the innocence youth of today do not understand. For example pictured right is Top of the Pops  this is a young girls pop music magazine. And the main story is ‘In bed with JLS’. I think this sums up what I mean by indecent play on words! When I was younger I use to be a consumer of these magazines and a victim of the offensive phrases that are now used for the younger generation. I now have had my eyes opened on how the minds of minors are exploited by the media and I now hold very strong views on what is appropriate and inappropriate for young boys and girls to witness.

Compared to my audience for my preliminary task I didn’t have to do any research on them I just knew that they were students, teachers and parents. But with my actual magazine I had to research into what colours my audience would like, what typography they like, what type of additional incentives they’d like, what type of music they listened too etc. Because I researched my intended audience in more detail it allowed me to contrast a more focused and more appropriate mode of address. I now value good questionnaires and believe that my qualitative and quantitative data has made a major difference comparing my preliminary task and my main task.

By analysing existing magazines I have gained knowledge about what magazines are the ‘norms’ of magazine and what codes and conventions work well with each other. I have also gained technical skills that have developed with the practise I have been undergoing. Before this project I didn’t know my way around a publisher document, know I feel confident in using publisher.

My Evaluation - 6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?


Throughout the process of forming my magazine I researched extensively many questions about how and what I wanted my magazine to look like and to represent. Many of the questions resulted in using different tools to produce a good looking magazine.

(Above) This picture is of the website 'picnik'.
This is the website I used to construct my front page.

To produce my front cover of my magazine I used a website called www.picnik.com and for the rest of my magazine I used Microsoft Publisher. I chose to use www.picnik.com for the front cover because I found the website easy to use and it produced many great image tools in order to create a better picture for my magazine. When I first started to construct my magazine I used a programme called photo serif to help construct a more sustainable look for my magazine. I didn’t like the way this programme adapted my pictures so therefore I started to use the website ‘picnik’. With this programme I was able to modify the colour of the picture, making the picture look more exposed and saturated. I also managed to change the look of the temperature in the picture and I varied the contrast of the picture.

(Above) This picture is of the programme ‘photo serif’ which
 I chose to stop using as I did not
 like the way it was constructing my magazine.

Pictured right is why I did not like using photo serif, the sky ended up looking overly photo shopped and this  is what I wanted to steer well clear from. This is why I decided not to use photo serif to adjust any lightening what so ever on that programme and leave everything up to the website ‘picnik’. Additionally I also cropped the image above my model Rose’s head. I cut out some of the sky of the picture to focus the meaning of my picture. The meaning was that Rose is the key point of my magazine she needed to be the centre of attention for my magazine, I think I achieved this well. 

Continuing with the front page I was able to add the title of the magazine and I was able to add colour to the magazine. A criticism that I do have about picking the colours of the text is that the user has to get the colour right every time which is very time consuming. It would be a lot easier if we could type the number in a box and the colour would change instead of having to use the mouse and find the colour. (Pictured above). I picked a font called ‘Broken ghost for the title as I thought it stood out well and was quite soft and curvy which is a good connotation for young girls, this is because young girls are stereotypically soft. I chose it because it was curvy as if it was solid and straight it would be more for a boy, but the girls are opposite they like the curvy, loopy style and that is how I personally would associate girls. Another aspect that I looked upon is that because my consumers are girls the title of my magazine is in low case letters I did this because I wanted to give the magazine a softer look.

I chose a different type of font for the front cover to the rest of the magazine, I did this because I thought that the front page should stand out and I think that the fonts I used ‘Broken Ghost’ and ‘Love Ya Like A Sister’ worked well in doing this. 

I have also learnt that the creator of the magazine has the power to construct any particular representation because they have the power to create any article, front page, etc.

My Evaluation - 5) How did you attract/address your audience?

I have tried to attract my audience in many different ways, one of the ways I have attempted to attract my audience is by including two additional incentives. An additional incentive is a free give-away, and I have chosen to give away two pots of nail varnishes to try and attract my audience to the magazine.

I have also advertised JLS concert tickets on the front cover of my magazine. I have done this because JLS are a very popular boy band of the moment and the majority of my audience adore JLS. The advert promotes that the consumer can win the tickets, and this is how I will get the consumers to engage with my magazine, this would be a form of synergy.

The model on my front cover identifies with my audience, because she is female, she is young, and she is pretty. This makes my model identify with my audience because they are also female, they are young and they too are pretty. Although obviously I haven’t met any of the consumers of my magazine I know that all young girls are pretty in their own way. Furthermore my model Rose isn’t the average size zero model that all the girls get shown throughout every magazine that they read. This helps Rose identify with the young girls because not all young girls are small and skinny, especially at the age of what my demographic is. Most young girls carry ‘puppy fat’ so it is nice to show the young girls more curvaceous models. 

There is also a Facebook page that the consumers can become a fan of. This helps my audience not only interact with my magazine but it will help the audience interact with each other. Along with the Facebook like page there will also be a website that the consumers can log on to frequently and there will always be updates, on whom the editors have met and who will be appearing in the magazine soon. The magazine will be full of competitions that the consumers will hopefully get involved in, which will therefore get them to engage with the website and the magazine. I also have a letters page within my magazine which will give the readers a chance to contribute to the magazine. This helps the consumers feel as though they are part of something. Obviously as the consumers are only kids there is parental control throughout the Facebook like page.

Another way I have tried to attract my audience is by relating my magazine as a need compared to by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs triangle. This is part of the ‘self-actualization’ section of the triangle. This is the sector that illustrates that we need dreams and lifestyles that we aspire too. I have attempted to create dreams and lifestyles that my readership will want to aspire too. This will therefore make my demographic more likely to buy my magazine because they will feel like it is a need.  

Another way I have tried to attract my audience is through the theory of uses and gratifications; this theory explains why we use the media. I have tried to attract my audience by entertaining them, by providing my audience with information, by promoting social interaction and by presenting the idea of personal identification.

I have tried to entertain by including pictures and an article for my readership to read. The article also contains information surrounding Rose my artist and model on the front page of my magazine. I have also included a fact file about Rose thus resulting in certain facts being informed to the audience. I have included the link for the magazine’s website and for the magazine’s Facebook page. There is also a link on Rose’s double page spread of where to find more pictures of Rose, the rest of her touring dates. This comes under the social interaction and the entertainment value. In the 21^st century we use the media in an interactive way, known as web2.0. This enables user driven content – known as exchange, the audience can create their own little films, songs, lyrics, poems, pictures etc based on the magazine or something featured in the magazine. The idea is that the audience are no longer seen as a passive recipient of a text, they are now able to engage with the product for a long time after the magazine has already been brought out. Although my demographic is a young demographic, most of them have a Facebook account, if a member of the demographic then update their status discussing an article or a picture from the magazine they will be exchanging information about my magazine.

The magazine also presents the ability to escape from everyday problems and routine, this is by reading Rose’s article. Because the article is split between ‘questions and answers’ it could be seen that the person reading the article is asking the questions so therefore is interviewing the famous person which is something that doesn’t happen every day – this is why the reader is able to escape from their day to day routine. Personal identification enables the reader to find themselves within the texts, this could be while reading Rose’s answers as to what she likes to watch, what she likes to eat etc.

 

I have also created a TV music channel in order to try and entice a bigger audience, this could be seen as another form of horizontal integration.

My Evaluation - 4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

Before I constructed my magazine I thought long and hard about who I wanted to create a magazine for. I decided to make a magazine for young girls because as I was growing up I would frequently be a consumer of ‘Smash Hits’ and ‘Top of the Pops’ but unfortunately both of these magazines have stopped. I didn’t want to create a magazine that would be in competition with anyone so therefore wanted to stay clear of any magazines that mirrored the NME.

The audience for my magazine are young girls, aged between 11 to 15. I chose this age range because in my personal opinion from the age of 15 onwards girls become ladies and although they listen to music their interests change to celebs and fashion and so they buy magazines such as OK, and More.  

I created a questionnaire on the website www.questionpro.com and uploaded it on to Facebook. Here I discovered my audience and it made it easy for me to communicate with them in order to see what they thought and expected to get from a music magazine. Through this questionnaire I found out how much the audience would spend on a magazine, how they consume music, what radio stations they listen too, and how often they buy magazines etc.   

In order to assess the results from my questionnaire I made graphs to make the results more visually friendly. My questionnaire determined many of my decisions about my magazine.

Through my questionnaire I found out that the most popular ‘girl only’ magazine that my audience consume is ‘sugar’. This is a magazine based on boys, fashion, celebrities and real life stories. Firstly this proves the point that the media have filled young girls heads into thinking that all there is to young girl life is boys. And secondly, this shows that in order to attract my magazine I have to show a similar interest to what Sugar does, clearly I will not be focusing on boys etc but like Sugar who give away additional incentives such as nail varnish I am too. Because I am promoting no photo shopping and I am not having scantily-clad young boys in the magazine I think parents would be a lot happier to buy my magazine for their children compared to magazines with inappropriate pictures of young lads and presumptuous article titles.

I found out that the majority of my audience buy magazines every other month. Although this is what the majority of my audience do I do not believe it to be realistic to release a magazine every other week. Instead I am going to release the magazine monthly. 

The majority of my audience listen to London based radio stations – as the majority of the participants of my questionnaire are based in London. The most popular radio station is Kiss FM closely followed by Capital FM. These radio stations play mainstream RnB and Pop music. These radio stations are commercialised stations, very popular in London so many people listen to these stations and less people listen to the less known stations such as Platinum radio station, this is evident as a small amount of people listen to it. This has made me realise that I have to include artists of Pop and RnB genre in order to fulfil what my audience like.

I made an audience profile which includes what I think that my audience would be interested in. Things involved in my audience profile will include the smart phone - Blackberrys. I have included Blackberrys because many young girls have Blackberrys, and they communicate with each other through Blackberry Messenger. My magazine will have its own Blackberry application. It will not have an iphone application as my demographic will not have possession of an iphone so the application would be pointless.

The second thing that I put in my audience profile was Barry M make-up. Barry M is a new make up range that is very suitable for young adults. I think this because the colours are very bright and sassy. The range consists of eye shadow, nail varnish, mascara, lip gloss, etc. I think that all of the young audience will enjoy playing with the make-up as they constantly see models wearing it. The consumers of the magazine will want to be like the models in the magazine and this make-up is perfect for that, as the small amount of make-up I used was part of the Barry M range. This is why my additional incentives are two bottles of Barry M nail varnishes.Another item that I have put in my audience profile is sweets. I have included sweets because no matter how old you are everyone loves to snack on sweets. I have chosen the sweets that are normally sold in River Island or Top Shop as I think these promote maturity to the consumers and promote some sophistication that other sweets may lack.

When I first started my magazine, the artists I added to my audience profile were Cheryl Cole, Justin Bieber, The Wanted, The Saturdays, JLS and Pixie Lott. Initially I thought that these artists were good representatives for my demographic, however after much consideration I realised that some of the artists are really not suitable for my demographic, and what they stand for is not what I want to promote within my magazine to my young girl audience. For instance, The Saturdays do not write their own music, they just get told what to do via their management, this promotes idealism in a bad way; young girls should not aspire to become skinny bimbos who wear little clothing. The Saturdays represent no strong will, no supremacy and seem to have little control on their careers. They represent everything that myself and this magazine do not believe in.

Unlike Justin Bieber who writes many of his songs himself, even though there is much controversy surrounding Justin I believe he is a true inspiration to the young girls who will read my magazine. He is only 17 and has already collaborated with many famous stars such as; Usher, Ludicrous, Sean Kingston etc. Not only does Justin get involved in all of the many things involved with his career, but many girls find him attractive as he is quite young which works well with him and my demographic.

JLS have been watched throughout their career, the public love the band and because of this they have become an extremely successful boy band. JLS have also written many of the songs that appear on their albums. This is another reason why they have been added to my audience profile.

Cheryl Cole is another artist that has controversy surrounding her. She was at one point hated by the nation due to her assault on a toilet attendant, but after being repeatedly cheated on by her husband she received a lot of sympathy by the British public, Simon Cowell snapped her up and made her into the nations sweetheart. Cheryl then started singing her own music, following a solo career and because of this there has been a lot of speculation around whether she writes her own music, or is as perfect as everyone once thought. Even though many do not see Cheryl as a suitable role model, due to her lack of clothing and bad miming skills, I still believe that she is a strong-willed character and I think that many young girls would benefit in wanting to be a strong willed character. Cheryl represents that hard work does get you somewhere, from whatever background you come from you can make something of yourself and I want my demographic to believe in this. I just hope that they don’t get to big for their own boots – like some!

The Wanted were added to my audience profile because they are new, young and innocent just like the girls of my demographic and I believe that they can relate well to each other.

I added Pixie Lott to my audience profile because I think she is a good inspirational role model for the young girls of today, she writes all her own music. Pixie has a lot of power when it comes to her career and what she likes and doesn’t like. Pixie also has an edge about her which I think is always good for the young girls. Pixie doesn’t strike me as a stereotypical ‘blonde bombshell’.

The qualitative data and primary data that have contributed to my magazine research was when I had a meeting with a small focus group. I handed the focus group different templates for my magazine and they were asked what colour schemes and templates they preferred. This has helped me shape my magazine due to the focus group; the majority of the focus group liked the purple based templates. They liked them because they thought that if the base colour was purple I could work around the different shades such as lilac, plum, violet etc. The focus/group also thought that if the base colour was purple white and black lettering and outlining would contrast well together. A criticism of my templates would be that for the double page spread I needed more than just a picture on one side of the magazine.

The quantitative data I gathered include a questionnaire that I posted on Facebook. 32 people completed my magazine questionnaire. Many of the participants that answered my questionnaire were aged between 16 and 17, and although this is not the correct age for my demographic I still took on board what the participants of the questionnaire said as some of the participants were of the correct age of my demographic. The quantitative data indicated to me how much I should sell my magazine for, what genre of music to include in my magazine, what other magazines my demographic are interested in, how often I should put my magazine on sale for, whether or not live concerts are popular, what website I should advertise my magazine etc. Most of the decisions I have made about my magazine have been formed around this questionnaire. I am selling my magazine for £2, because it was the most popular price throughout my questionnaire question.

I continually researched other magazines of my magazine genre and magazines that are aimed for my same demographic, this was part of my secondary data research. I scrutinize many different ‘Top of the Pops’ magazines, ‘Bliss’, ‘Shout’ and ‘Sugar’. The most popular magazine that my demographic consume was Sugar, this has made me examine the magazine Sugar closely to provide my demographic with something that they can relate to and something that they are willing to buy.   

My Evaluation - 3) What kind of media institution will distribute your media product?

There are many media institutions that could possibly distribute my magazine.

A Major Publisher could distribute my magazine, many key magazine use the ‘big’ publishers in order to distribute their magazines.  Major publishers have ownership and control of a large proportion on the market, and therefore are powerful magazines, this is a theory discovered by Karl Marx. One major magazine publisher is called EMAP. EMAP distributes many magazines, and a few music magazines including; Kerrang, MOJO and Q, they also distribute More, Grazia and Closer. Another major magazine publisher is IPC, IPC distributes few music magazines the main music magazine they distribute is NME. IPC also distribute Now, Look and Marie Claire. What you can notice about these magazines is that they are very familiar. Comparing the two different distributors the same two do not distribute the same type of magazine. For example the magazine NOW is very similar to the magazine Closer, they are both filled with celebrity stories. There are bullet points on the front cover of the main story, pictures in at least 3 of the 4 corners of the magazine of other stories, the date, price and website are all situated above the magazine title. These two magazines are practically twins and are in competition to sell the most magazines because they are so alike, because of this it would be ludicrous for IPC or EMAP to distribute both of these magazines because they are in direct competition with one another. If you review the difference in the magazines that the different companies distribute, you realise that there isn’t much difference between the magazines that are distributed by different companies, but that there is a difference between the magazines that the same companies distribute. Therefore, if I did go down this route I would need to find a major publisher that does not have a title that is in direct competition with mine.

Another way I could publish my magazine would be through a small publishing house. Small publishing houses publish niche market magazines; these magazines have a small target audience. A magazine such as ‘Little White Lies’ is published through a small publishing house company - this is due to its niche market audience. It is a niche market because there isn’t many consumers who buy the magazine. However some major publishers do cater for niche markets such as fishing magazines. Unfortunately independent publishing houses are not able to compete with major publishing houses. The independent publishing houses cannot access the same level of horizontal integration, this is because small publishing houses do not own other ranges of different media. Although the internet does allow some possibilities, I don’t think it would be relevant for my young demographic.  Unlike the major publishers who have access to horizontal integration as they are more than likely to own more than one range of media. So if my magazine was published by a major publishing house it would be easier for me to advertise my magazine due to the horizontal integration that exists in major publishing companies.

I could also use self publishing which could be done on paper or online. However to make my magazine successful now-a-days I would have to publish it online. This would be a good way to distribute my magazine as now we are in the 21^st century many people are constantly logging on to their computers/laptops and accessing everything via their phone/internet. This would benefit the environment because I wouldn’t be using paper, so therefore I wouldn’t be cutting down trees. As well as this the process of buying the magazine wouldn’t take as much effort as it would be with you on your computer, therefore there would be no requirement to go out. Furthermore due to the access of internet on the majority of people’s hubs (phones, iPads, notebooks etc) in this day and age it would be a lot easier to have access to the magazine if it was on the internet. The consumer of the magazine wouldn’t have to carry any extra materials around as the magazine that they wanted to read would be already on their person downloaded on their hub, so whether they are on the train, the bus or on the move they will have the magazine by their side. Another problem with publishing my magazine online would be that I would have to completely change the form of my magazine; this would be very time consuming. I would be happy to do this if it would definitely mean that my magazine would be popular but it doesn’t. Another drawback of self-publishing my magazine is that having a printed version of the magazine makes the magazine a bit more formal, more impressive. As I weighed up the pros and cons I believe that the cons out-weigh the pros.

Nevertheless I have decided that the media institution that I want to distribute my magazine will be the major publishing house, because I think that my demographic is wide enough to be distributed in a big way.

Although getting my magazine published via the internet would be a great, easy option for my demographic, my demographic in my opinion are too young to be walking around with iPads, notebooks and upmarket smart phones. This is the reason why my magazine will not be distributed via the internet, (although I will have a website.)

Although the girls will not be travelling everywhere with one of these hubs to ensure that they have the internet on them, the consumers will be able to carry the magazine around with them. However the magazine will have apps for the older consumers of the magazine to engage in the magazine through digital media, this would be available on the mobile device Blackberry as many young girls have a Blackberry enabling them to keep in contact with friends and family. 

A reason why I chose to get IPC to distribute my magazine was because there is a gap in the market for young, girl music magazines, and luckily IPC do not distribute any young girl magazines so they should easily be willing to distribute my magazine. Although EMAP also do not distribute any young girl music magazines I think that IPC do such an excellent job, especially the NME which is the best selling music magazine of all time and because they have the facilities and the resources that smaller, independent companies don’t.

My magazine will hopefully have a big following online, due to the massive increase of social media. More than 500 million active users are on Facebook so hopefully many people will become fans of my magazine and view the magazines Facebook profile. Due to web2.0 many people have a lot better access to the internet and are able to converse in using the internet. On a recent survey it was found that most people during their leisure time spend more of their time on the internet, when before the web2.0 most people were constantly watching TV.

When distributing my magazine I will have to ensure that everything goes through the advertising standards authority (ASA). Because my demographic are children I have to be extremely cautious about what they are exposed to. The additional incentives cannot mislead my demographic of how big they are, or what the capabilities of the products are.

My Evaluation - 2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Due to my demographic being young teenage girls, I have aimed for all my pages to reflect a young, girlie look. My model Rose on the front page has; long flowing hair, is accessorised with bracelets, a necklace and a belt, is wearing a pretty, girly dress, has her nails painted, and her makeup is minimal. This picture was purposely chosen because I think that it symbolizes innocence. Mise en scene is everything that appears before the camera, the props, the scenery, the costume, the lightening etc, this helps the image to create meaning and contrast representations, these are all visual metaphors.

I think that in this day and age the society we live in promotes children to grow up faster than they should. Most young girl magazines not only encourage young girls to grow up too fast but they also advertise sexual innuendos on their magazines to lure young girls into very premature sexual fantasies. In my view this is an appalling, disturbing way, for a magazine to stoop so low in a bid to sell magazines. This is why I do not have half naked men sprawled over my magazine; I do not think that it is a suitable way to promote males to young females, yet alone a way to promote magazines for young girls. However, a way I am going to try and attract my audience is to give away two small bottles of BARRY M nail varnish. I want to promote a positive representation and I prefer to attract young girls with a few youthful pots of nail varnish instead of having half naked young males sprawled across the front cover of the magazine.

I believe that Rose is a good recognisable character and links well with my demographic. I purposely chose these pictures because I think that they symbolise a young adult like look that young girls could aspire to. There is nothing fake about the pictures that were taken. There are no hair extensions used, there are no fake nails everything you see in the pictures are real and can easily be replicated by the young demographic that will buy my magazine.

Even though I want the young females buying the magazine to be independent and to not let the media brainwash them into thinking that only pictures that are in line with the Male Gaze are attractive. A Male Gaze research study was carried out, showing girls aged 11-12 a variety of 6 females in pictures, some of these pictures were majorly in line with the Male Gaze and others not as much, and then there were a few pictures very far from the Male Gaze. The majority of the girls asked stated that they thought that the ladies who were majorly in line with the Male Gaze were the most attractive, and that the ladies who were very far from the Male Gaze the least attractive. This proves the horrible fact that girls across the country are being convinced that in order to take an attractive picture they have to follow the rules of the Male Gaze, which include posing in a recumbent position, bringing a face and hand into contact with one another etc – this clearly is not true. The theory of the Male Gaze suggests that a model must pose in a certain way to be seen as attractive to an audience.

However, to strike a balance between a positive representation of women and a positive representation of the girls buying my magazine I chose a picture for my front cover that was in line with the Male Gaze but not in a noticeable way. The picture of Rose on my front cover is in line with the Male Gaze as she is seen in a slight timid way, her head is turned away from the camera, it is vaguely titled downwards and her eyes are looking down. Rose is avoiding eye contact with the camera; this suggests that she is in line with the Male Gaze.

However, Rose’s body is in an upright position, she looks like she is in control. And although there is no eye contact with the camera, the camera is in a medium, low angle shot. This makes the camera look up at Rose, therefore making the audience look up at Rose – this instantly gives Rose a powerful, influential character to portray. Hopefully this will encourage young females to not present themselves in a vulnerable way, and that they want to be seen as an assertive figure.

I think I am representing my audience in a believable way as I have said before Rose isn’t a size zero like many models that feature in young girl magazines. And because of this Rose offers a true inspirational image that young girls can compare themselves too. I haven’t airbrushed any of my images that feature in my magazine, not to make my models thinner, or curvier, or to give them whiter teeth or eyes. I feel like I have represented a true representation on REAL women. I think this represents my audience because the girls that will consume my magazine are REAL girls and they will grow up to become REAL women. That’s why I believe that the girls should grow up in comfort knowing that it’s a good thing to not be what they see in the other magazines, and that it’s an even better thing to aspire to be something REAL – and that is what my magazine presents.  

I have attempted to represent my readership in a feminine but also powerful representation. I have done this my mixing the typography with upper and lower case lettering. The lowercase lettering resembles a sense of femininity and the upper case lettering resembles power. I have done this because I want my audience to appreciate that it is a good thing to be girly and to be seen as feminine but I also believe that it is important for young girls to want to be domineering and seen as powerful, I want to prove the hegemonic values wrong.

At the start of the process of making my magazine I wasn’t 100% sure on what representation I wanted to promote. So I carried out many photo-shoots, representing all different types of demographics, this can be seen through my contact sheet as many images were captured. One artist is called Hazzza (Harry), his picture is on my front page. I chose Harry’s picture to go on my front page because I thought that his pictures worked well for the magazine’s mode of address. The picture of Harry is in line with the Male Gaze, Harry is positioned in a recumbent position. His hand is touching his face and the camera is looking down on him as the camera is positioned in a higher position. Here I am reversing roles positioning a male in the ‘Male Gaze’ position.

My Evaluation - 1) In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

All magazines follow forms and conventions of how a magazine should be portrayed, for example the form of a magazine is a rectangle shape that contains numbered pages. A magazine that doesn’t contain any pages, or was circle shaped would definitely challenge the form that is a magazine. A form could be seen as what the ‘norm’ of a magazine should be. For instance it is normal for a magazine to be in the shape of a rectangle. A magazine that is not rectangular would be challenging the form of a magazine, such as the picture (right).

This is a cover of the magazine “Little White Lies”; it breaks the form of a magazine as it is shaped in a square. A magazine convention is something that is always on a magazine such as a tagline, a headline, a title etc. However, the conventions are codified in order to create a mode of address that is appropriate for the target audience. For example I have changed the conventions of my magazine design in a way that will hopefully appeal to my demographic. Due to my audience being young I have chosen to construct my magazine in a conventional way, if the magazine was not laid out in a conventional manner then my young demographic may not become attracted to it.

I have followed many of the forms and conventions of a magazine, one of them being a tagline on the front cover of the magazine. I put this on the front cover of my magazine because I thought that consumers would be more willing to buy my magazine if they knew that it was the ‘best selling’ magazine. I think this is because the consumer will automatically think ‘if this magazine is number 1, then everyone must be buying the magazine and therefore I will be the only one NOT buying it, and I’ll be missing out!’

Another convention that I have used on the front cover of my magazine is to have the issue number and month on the front cover. I have done this so that collectors of the magazine can keep track of what issue they read.

I have also added a banner with four listed famous male artists and groups to entice consumers to my magazine. It informs the consumers who else features in my magazine. Due to the young girl demographic of my magazine they will no doubt be attracted to the males because they are young, fresh and contemporary.

I have an additional incentive to attract customers to my magazine; the additional incentive consists of two bottles of nail varnish. This links very well with my magazines demographic due to young teen girls not having a lot of money to spend on nail varnish so getting two free bottles is a bargain for them.

 

One more convention that I have included in my magazine is to give the opportunity to my consumers to win JLS tickets. This also works really well with my demographic as JLS are a very popular boy band at the moment especially with young girls. Furthermore live music is becoming more and more popular, as most artists are losing money through people illegally downloading their music. A definite way for artists to make money at the moment is by putting on concerts and shows that will provide a big crowd and a big profit. However, the music aimed at my younger audience is very popular at the moment, and a big reason behind this is that the younger audience are a lot less likely to download their music illegally.

When applying for the tickets the audience will be engaging with the magazine, this could be through the website or through posting letters into the magazine. My aim is to get the website and the magazine working together in order to promote the brand of my magazine, this is an example of synergy.

All magazine creators believe that magazines should be portrayed in different ways. Personally I wanted my magazine to be portrayed in a believable way; I wanted to show real life pictures, to real life girls. A lot of issues have arisen due to how women are portrayed through the media, and one of the biggest issues are size zero models. This is an extremely sensitive subject that is irresponsibly waved away; it is seen as an insignificant issue. This is a ridiculous view as it has a huge number of self image concerns attached to it.  Because of this, I haven’t photo-shopped any photos that appear in my magazine. I believe this challenges the forms and conventions of a real magazine. I have purposely done this because I do not agree with young girls comparing themselves to photo-shopped females. Photo-shopping promotes idealism; it is fake and the producers of the magazine are essentially lying to the consumers of the magazine. I believe that this advertises anorexia, bulimia and depression on young girls. This links well in my opinion with hyperreality, this is when many digitally enhanced images create a hyppereal (not real) representation of women. These representations easily create impossible aspirations for young girls in relation to self image, this could possibly damage young girls self confidence, self image and self esteem.

 

In every magazine photos are airbrushed to hide imperfections, young boys look at these ‘perfect’ models and presume that this is what girls should look like. This puts added pressure on girls to conform to look like ‘the girls in the magazines’ and due to this girls become obsessed with how they look, and how they want males to view them. They try and become someone that is impossible to pull off because they do not exist in the real world; the pictures imitate an impossible aspiration.

However the picture on my front cover is some way linked to the theory of ‘The Male Gaze’. Even though I do not want the consumers of my magazine to be lured into the ‘Male Gaze’ look, it is evident that young girls are more attracted to females in line with the Male Gaze than not. This was proven when my class conducted a Male Gaze research project in finding out whether girls the same age as my demographic would be more attracted to woman in a Male Gaze position or in a complete opposite position to the Male Gaze affected. When we carried out this research task the girls were asked to compare 6 pictures of woman and put them in order of who they were most attracted to and who they were least attracted to. The pictures varied from the picture to the left and the picture to the right. The girls order the picture on the left as the most attractive and the picture on the right as the most unattractive. When asked why they had these opinions they said that the woman on the left looked more girlie, and that’s what they expect to see pretty celebrities pose like. The girls went on to say that the woman on the right looked ill, and that you wouldn’t come across this picture in a celebrity magazine. When the girls were told that both women are in fact models they were dumbfounded. This is proof that girls are attracted to women who are in line with the Male Gaze. Keira Knightly has her head leaning on her hand, has a lot of her skin showing, is wearing makeup and is certainly a lot more in line with the Male Gaze than the other model who is perfectly symmetrical in herself and within the page. They are both very beautiful pictures, but are clearly looked upon in different ways. 

When women pose in a Male Gaze position they seem to be situated in a weak, vulnerable look. The model will look helpless in the eye of the ‘male’ camera, and therefore to the audience. Although the camera is seen to be a male, it is the women who are in control of the gaze. The female model is seen to be good at coming across as weak and vulnerable, and the female audience aspire to be good at pulling off the look too. As found in the theory of the ‘Female Gaze’ it is thou  that the gazer directs his or her gaze to the member/s of the same gender and compare themselves to the same sex person, i.e. their body image or their clothing. Due to the theory of ‘Male Gaze’ the dominant hegemonic values within society are reinforced, this symbolises that women are weak and that men are strong.

Because of the results of my research study I have placed my model Rose in a ‘Male Gaze’ position. However they way in which Rose positioned herself in the picture is not necessarily so noticeably in line with the Male Gaze.

Rose is not looking into the camera, and her head is turned indicating a subtle shyness. This is why she isn’t obvious in line with the Male Gaze.

Furthermore, as seen in the pictures Rose isn’t a size zero model, she is a size 12, this is one size smaller than Britain’s average female’s size. I believe I have managed to construct many beautiful, real, inspiring pictures of Rose without having to shave off half her body to make her look so thin that she looks terminally ill. Like the woman in the advert above, it is not physically possible for this lady’s back to be that artificially curved. This image stands for all that’s wrong with photo shopping, and why it should be stopped. However, due to some of my pictures being in line with the male gaze I have learnt that there is a balancing act to play when trying to attract your audience by using subtle male gaze positions as well as trying to promote a more moral representation.

Along with refusing to photo-shop I have tried to incorporate a summery feel to the magazine. Throughout my main pictures in the magazine there is a brilliant blue sky scenery. I incorporated the blue skies because I thought that due to the connotations of sun being associated with happiness, joy and fun it would attract young girls. I think that all young girls want to be seen as being happy and having fun. I also think that the sun represents a social sense, many people are a lot more social when the sun is out due to there being a lot more to do when the sun is out. Because of this I think that more people will be attracted to buy the magazine and then interact with people and the magazine itself. I wanted the joyfulness of the sun and what it represents to be carried out throughout my magazine. The sun and the blue sky all show connotations of freedom, young girls do not have the authority to have the freedom that they desire, however they are starting to grow up and are starting to be given a little more leeway which as they grow older will turn into freedom. All girls want to grow up fast, they want to be seen as a young adult, and this is what I think the freedom represents, freedom is what the young girls aspire to.

I used two fonts on the front cover of my magazine; this consisted of ‘Broken Ghost’ and ‘Love Ya Like A Sister’. I used ‘Broken Ghost’ for the title of my magazine because I thought it stood out well and it was a soft font. Young girls have a connotation of being looked upon as soft and innocent and I think that the typography of the word ‘Obsessed’ shows a soft, innocent look that I am trying to signify. I also made the letters in the title lower case, I did this because the magazine is for young children, and when a child is young it knows the letters as big or baby letters, this is instead of upper and lower case. I wanted to signify the youth of my consumers, moreover I also think that because my audience are young girls the lower case letters are softer and therefore represent a soft innocent look. However, on the rest of the cover of the magazine all the words are in upper case letters. I have purposely done this because the young girls are turning into young adults, but on the whole they are still little girls which are what my magazine represents. The title never changes, however the stories around the title does, this mirrors the girls as they may think that they are adults but it will never change that they are a minor to the rest of the world. I have also incorporated semiotics, this is the study of symbols and shapes. I have designed my typography to convey meaning to my audience. I believe that my typography has connotations that my readership can identify with.

 

I have reinforced my mode of address through another balancing act as well as a business decision. I have tried to promote a soft, feminine side to the girls through my typography – using upper and lower case lettering. On the other hand I have tried to promote the girls to be authoritative and domineering by refusing to airbrush images, and yet still managing to keep the images in line with the male gaze. I am trying to appeal to my readership’s aspirations, I was aiming to do this with the inspirational pictures of model Rose and yet I was subtly offering the readership positive representations by refusing to photo-shop my pictures.  

For my double page spread the picture I used represented the beautiful scenery that surrounded my model. My model looks extremely happy and I wanted to show off the smiles that I captured during the photo shoot. I used ‘Berlin Sans FB Demi’ as the title for my double page spread, I used this font because I think it captured what Rose was trying to represent, youthful fun. Throughout the article I used ‘Arial’, I used this font because it is an easy-read font, and looks professional.

For my contents page I used the fonts ‘Berlin Sans FB Demi’, ‘Arial’ and ‘Arial rounded MT bold’, I used these fonts for different reasons. I used ‘Berlin Sans FB Demi’ as the title for my contents page because it is a bold font and it is youthful. I have used ‘Arial’ due to it being easy to read and it is professional. I only used ‘Arial rounded MT bold’ for the titles of the articles to let them stand out from the captions, I also used this for the new look voucher – this is so it stands out. I used a black and white picture of Rose on my contents page. I did this because I liked the way it was different from the other pictures of Rose, it is an example of the faint use of male gaze theory I used, as Rose’s head is tilted slightly.

I have used many of the magazine conventions on my front page, these include the masthead on the cover, I didn’t cover the main image over the masthead because I am not 100% confident that Rose will sell the magazine because she is new on the music scene. I have a tagline which indicates to the readership that the magazine is the best music magazine in Britain. I have a main image, banners both at the top and at the bottom of the cover. I attempted an ear pierce on the top left corner implying to the audience that they receive free Barry M nail varnish when buying the magazine. On the contents page I have used the magazine conventions of different sections in the magazine, for example regulars, features etc. I have also included a memo from the magazine’s editor, a voucher for money off at New Look, and a reminder on what channel the music channels are on cable TV. On the double page spread the conventions are kept simple, columns separate words, quotes are highlighted.