Findings towards my questionnaire

Summarising my findings

Within my findings, 16-18 year old would describe urban as underground street music such as grime and rapping, whilst people over the age of 18 would describe urban as music which reflects truth within a song no matter if it’s singing, rapping or grime.

I found out most people would only pay up to 50p for a magazine as they are quite expensive, in addition to this most people would rather have a unisex magazine than gender specific, reason being as it’s interesting to read what the opposite gender are into. Because we live within a multi cultural society, one of my questions is based on religion (Due to religious reasons what do you want to see and not want to see within a magazine? E.g. amount of skin being shown), I found out a small amount of people would not like to see religious symbols associated within the magazine. Finally I gave my target audience the opportunity to pick a name for my magazine out of 3 different options (SWAG magazine, urban is fresh and Lego) the majority have picked SWAG magazine which I’m going to be using.

I posted my questions on survey monkey which has given me a range of responses. I decided to use survey monkey as it is simple and I can easily post the questions to my social accounts such as Facebook and Twitter where most of the people I am connected to are within my age group. Knowing this I’ve also printed a few questionnaires to give to people over the age of 18 as my finding would not be accurate.

Does the data support my original thoughts/plans?

The data which I've gathered does support my original thoughts to a certain degree.

My original thoughts were that people under the age of 18 would relate urban to underground street music whilst people over the age of 18 would consider urban music with honesty. This means my plans on how to make and layout my magazine does not need to be altered, however within my findings some of the data goes against my original plans, for example most people want an urban magazine with relation to mainstream music. To improve upon this I will need to research artists which are known to a wide audience to get involved within my magazine project.

Magazine so far/ improvements

From my survey so far, I know how to layout my contents page, how urban is seen within my target audience, what to include in addition what not to include.

To make my magazine strong and relate to my demographic target audience I plan to make further surveys about feature articles and the language to be used, the reason for this is because most people under the age of 22 argue that the feature article and language does not relate.

The colours to be used I still haven’t decided upon due to me maybe changing my mind after my photo shoot, I would like everything to link and not be out of place.

Anything further that has been revealed through my research

I found out most people are up to date with music artists through social sites.

My target audience would appreciate links to artists which I may cover in my magazine as there are many false social sites . This is because we are on the website more than ever before; we even have magazines on websites.

More research as I progress into my magazine

As I progress into my magazine I plan to have a focus group discussing particular parts of my magazine, I plan to do this for my whole magazine before I make my final product. The focus group will involve people from the age of 16 to 22 years of age.

Music Magazine questionnaire

Using my new found knowledge and understanding of music magazines, I have now created a new survey for my official music magazine. Through what I've learnt from my preliminary survey, I intend to make sure my questions are not confusing but broad in its variety. The questions asked range from religion to gender and age.

Within my questionnaire I tried to keep focus on my demographic target audience which is 16-22 year of age. Since I’m making an urban magazine, most of my questions are aimed at how my target audience would describe the term "urban".  By doing this, I will have a core understanding of what type of urban articles would feature on my magazine as this would relate to what conventions I would use.

Overall my questions are designed to inform me how my target audience portray urban, why they are into urban music and to see if this will attract them into magazines. In addition to this how my front cover is going to look like, my feature article and content page.

 

 

Conventions of a music magazine and Analysing a music magazine

 

 

 

 

Analysing a music magazine

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working title films (Specialised and saturation)

Johnny English Reborn  (saturation)

This working title film has been released as saturation due to how famous the movie Johnny English is world wide. Reborn is the sequel to Johnny English which grossed $160,583,018, in comparison Reborn did not do as-well as it only grossed $160,078,586.

In addition to this I think this movie was a saturation release because, the gap years between the movies made the fans want to go watch Reborn as the first one came out 8years before.

Reborn was released on the 7th of October 2011 in the United Kingdom and on the 27th of October 2011 in America, due to the movie being released at this time where most of the world is either at work or at school the movie could not be released as specialised because no-one would have the time to travel to a specific screening to watch the movie therefore being a failure at the box office.

A World Apart

 

 

This film was a specialised release as it was only screened in the United States, United kingdom, Australia and Hong Kong. In total A world apart grossed just over $2million dollars, due to the timing (1988) the movie has done considerately well. I think the main reason for this movie being a specialised release is mainly down to the fact that people went cinema once a month or on special occasions so by making this specialised more people wouldve gone to see the movie than saturation.  

City of God

Comparing initial release vs International release

What the movie is about

Two boys growing up in a violent neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro take different paths: one becomes a photographer, the other a drug dealer.

City of God is a 2002 Brazilian crime drama film directed by Fernando Meirelles and co-directed by Kátia Lund, released in its home country in 2002 and worldwide in 2003.

Initial release vs international

Within the initial release we can see the movie grossed over $10million compared to international release the movie did better as it only grossed an addition of $12,777,311. I think this is because the movie and storyline is more famous within brazil compared to other countries.

Music Magzine Research

The music magazine i looked into is Vibe.

                                                             Why was the magazine produced?

Vibe is a music and entertainment magazine founded by producer Quincy Jones. The magazine was produced for the black community within American society, the magazine has features about black culture such as black history month, music and other topic such as art in addition Quincy Jones launched Vibe in 1993, in partnership with Time inc because he felt as if not many magazines were available for the black community.

                                                                    Who is the target audience?

When the magazine launched and the company was within its primary stages, the target audience was for the black culture (1993) but as time went by and society developed the target audience has expanded into other cultures whether it be: white, Asians even religion furthermore the target audience for this magazine at this time of age is mostly for teenagers, people interested with music, films fans and finally art lovers. In conclusion the magazine's target demographic is predominantly young, urban followers of hip-hop culture.

                                                                              Amount of adverts used for the magazine?

Vibe magazine is now advertising at an international stage, the company is expanding making it one of the top music magazines, the company is based upon New York and a few examples of different adverts we consume come from music channels such as Channel AKA, MTV and 4MUSIC, posters on subways in America and buses, flyers in corner shops and music based stores such as HMV, social websites such as twitter, facebook and tumblr which have a massive fan base (millions upon millions)

  

                                                                    Market rivals? Who has the edge? How?

Vibe magazines closest rivals are The Source Magazine and XXL which focus more narrowly on rap music, so in order to be on top vibe expanded by including film reviews, celebrity gossip, wide ranges of music and art. Comparing the magazines vibe has the edge because they’ve developed to make sure the target audience expands, the magazine features more articles to read, bigger magazine due to more information about a wide gap which you consume (films, music, art, celebrity, new releases)

                                                                     Text ratio-image ratio?

Within the primary stages vibe consisted mainly of text with less pictures now the magazine Consists of large amount of pictures with text to compliment the images, since the magazines target audience is mostly urban, new layout has come into place, this is pictures with a slogan, this links to social websites such as tumlr websites where more pictures are portrayed and used instead of text which tell many things.

                                                                     Language used?

Modern English, very simple no big words used, plain and gossipy and gets messages across for the urban class because it just focuses on the message the magazine wants to get out, there target audience wouldn’t want to read big words

                                                                         Layout is it successful?

Per new magazine that comes out a slight improvement to layout takes place in other words the layout changes slightly per magazine nothing of a big scale just a little adjustment, i think this is good for people who collect magazines because each magazine is original and shows how the magazine has changed over time.

  

                                                                                       What does the magazine cover?

 (News, reviews etc) covers music, films, art, reviews, tv eries, Eps, documentaries, celebrity gossip

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

What went well / Improvements?



What went well and improvements.

What went well?

The positives about creating my preliminary magazine are: Sticking to my original idea about fashion, throughout my magazine. I used the same colour scheme for consistency; I also used the same fonts and sizes. By having consistency it will give your magazine a professional look rather than being messy. I used a range of pictures so my image ratio compared to text evened out.

Improvements

There are many improvements for my preliminary magazine. First of all I would have learned how to use programmes such as fireworks, so I could’ve made a real magazine rather than using Microsoft which made it lack, it looked poor. I would’ve taken more pictures and use my own picture rather than just copying one from the internet, to do this I would’ve planned a photoshoot, this would benefit me as I would be aware of what I needed to do rather than thinking on the spot. I would’ve used a better house styling, challenging conventions by merging pictures into the white background does not work a you lose the depth of the picture, it looks unprofessional. I also would not duplicate pictures; this makes it seem as if it is a school task rather than a proper magazine.  In my contents page, I edited the text by twisting it, this is hard to read so my demographic audience would not be able to navigate, I would’ve improve on this by keeping it original, for my feature article, it looks like a normal newspaper article due to its layout, if I had more time I would’ve researched into magazine and gain an understanding of how similar magazines use their layouts. Overall my preliminary was rushed near the end due to deadlines. To improve on this for my music magazines, I will research music magazines, see the conventions they follow and test, the reason for this is because then my music magazine will be more professional and be related to what type of magazine I make.

Evaluation 7

What do you feel that you have learnt about the following?

Creativity:  I learnt that to make a high standard magazine, high levels of creativity is needed because the magazine industry is big, and making magazine which are different from one another is hard to maintain, also a good understanding and knowledge is needed because you need to be aware of the different conventions to include.

Originality:  I learnt that when making a magazine, you would want you’re magazine to be new and not a copied article, the reason being as audiences like to see something new rather than the same layout of magazines being portrayed in every issue.

Photography: I learnt that before having a photoshoot an in-depth planning should be done before carrying out your projects, the reason for this is because of the hassle that comes with a photoshoot, having a plan will save you a lot of time, as you wouldn’t spend time on looking for locations and thinking of the angles, meaning you will have more time to spend on your magazine.

Layout: I learnt that different magazines have different layouts; the reason for this is because of the target audience, it has to be appealing; the layout is also affected by the size of puffs, pictures and the masthead that is included.

Colours: Magazines follow the 3 colour rule, the reason for this is because magazines should not contain heaps of colours as this will prevent someone from purchasing a magazine, this would look untidy, it should follow a pattern e.g. Vibe follow red, black and blue, you want to attract people for the right reason and have a consistency throughout, most importantly you want to make sure your magazine is readable. You also need to keep in mind that certain colours are associated with a specific demographic target audience, e.g. pink being for females so you would not use this for a male magazine.

Fonts: This is one of the most important convention as it will be targeted to an audience, for example Vibe use a bold, urban and gritty masthead as they have a demographic audience of urban and hip hop fans, the font will need to be easily readable.

Writing articles: The feature article is one of the most important pages in a magazine, this is what the audience buy the magazine for, it is to read the article about a specific subject e.g. Rihanna and Chris Brown.  I learnt that a feature article will included exclusive interview and news; I also learnt the type of information that is included in a feature article and the reason being. 



Evaluation 6

      What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I Have learnt many helpful tips from constructing this product, I learnt that different programmes work in different ways, Photoshop and Fireworks function in different ways, I learnt this the hard way as I thought you can easily transfer work. Because I didn’t know how to use the programmes properly I stuck to my comfort zone and used PowerPoint to do my preliminary task, this limited my options as I wouldn’t have been able to carry out some of the task such as mastheads and close editing. Even though I didn’t use the programmes for my preliminary task, I learnt about the different ways to use Fireworks playing around with creating images and fonts, this improved my knowledge for next time I used the programme.

Evaluation 5

                                           How did you attract/ address your audience?

I attracted my audience using different conventions of a magazine; I used a range of colours, different fonts, and a range of pictures.

Colours: The main colour of my magazine is white, however my preliminary contains a range of different colours from the picture, I decided to be creative and merge these into the white background as it will be testing conventions and be something new. In addition to this, my magazine contains the Ashcroft Logo, this relates back to my audience as they will be familiar with the logo therefore be more appealing because it is made for the students.

Fonts: I used contemporary fonts; the main one which features throughout my preliminary is Calibri (Body). The reason for this is because the font is clear, sophisticated and seems more professional. I decided to do this because students in sixthform would like to be treated as adults, therefore crazy fonts wouldn’t relate as it wouldn’t look professional.

Image: My preliminary contains a range of images, because my feature concentrates on fashion. I took the pictures from different angles, to show the different fashion views of students. High angle shots, low angle shots and mid shots, the reason for this is to engage my audience, because my photo's are off students who go the sixthform, this will relate to them as they are aware of the students featured. Also because nearly everyone in the sixthform has to follow the same dress code ( smart casual ), this is more appealing rather than taking pictures of a different age category. 

Language: My preliminary magazine is engaging, it’s formal and gets straight to the point, and it’s informative. I decided to do this because heaps of unnecessary information is not needed in a magazine, I included rhetorical questions which students ask everyday and answered them.



Evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

 

My magazine is aimed at 16 to 18year olds who attend sixthform at Ashcroft Academy, my magazine also relates to people in year 11 who need information for the upcoming year as they might join the sixthform. It is a unisex magazine; the reason for this is because Ashcroft is a mixed school, so I wanted to represent both genders, this also touches on ethnicity, as Ashcroft is a culturally diverse academy it’s aimed at a wide audience. Since most people who attend the sixthform are either working or middle class, it relates to them as it only features information they need. Looking at my magazine it mostly attracts students, who want to get involved in extra curriculum activities, and helping other people such as charity events (Kenya charity trip). I wanted my magazine to have a positive attitude, so that my demographic target audience know what not to do and what to do, how important school is and working hard to make sure they achieve the best they possibly can.



Evaluation 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Even though my magazine appeals to all students across the country that work or are just in education, my version was specifically made for students at Ashcroft Academy, the reason for this is because I have a firm understanding of what the students are into, so making an independent magazine would be easier for me rather than making a global magazine. I would have a small team to write and distribute Ashcroft VI. The sixthform magazine will be available in the common room, this is so that it is within easy reach for students as most people are busy working, so for the 10minute breaks they take, they can read the sixthform magazine. If I decided to write a global issue my magazine could be distributed by any magazine which covers fashion. I wouldn’t publish this in magazines such as ELLE or Fashion magazine as that’s just targeted at females, for this reason I would publish the magazine within XXL as they also cover fashion on top of music.

Evaluation 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Since I was making a magazine for sixthform students, I aimed to target my audience by using information which only relates to them. My magazine is a unisex, I didn’t want to do separate magazines as I wouldn’t be able to do a whole magazine on females due to me not knowing what they would like to read within a magazine, doing a unisex magazine means I could cover both genders and cover information on what both genders need to be aware of, I planned to do this using Images and information, since we go to state school (Academy) most students who go here are either working class or middle class so within the magazine I wouldn’t cover anything that didn’t relate to them. My magazine doesn’t cover any racial articles as I did not want to offend anyone and within a magazine, not many people would want to read anything about religion in the survey I carried out for my sixthform magazine. The social groups which are represented in my magazine are both year 12 and 13’s, it includes different topics which cause a problem for the year groups. The most important being dress code, Most of sixthforms professions are students, some have jobs and for this reason my feature article was about fashion as fashion relates to everything (both genders can read the magazine, working students can read the article and education students can read the article). Fashion has many definitions and everyone sees fashion in different ways.My feature article agrees with the representation that dress code is an important factor which affects most students.

This also challenges the way young people from the ages of 16 to 18 are represented in the media because, this age groups is seen as under dressed, not looking smart and being trashy, the way students dress is put into negative ways which society believe affect our behaviour. There is a stereotype that most students wear hoodies and stand in street corners after school, and females where really small skirts and show more skin. People cross the road when they see a bunch of students just because of the way they’re dressed. So to have a positive affect on students I decided to challenge these conventions which society has placed upon this social group.  

Preliminary Magazine

magazine analysis

The target audience for this magazine is for people who are carrying on with education (further education) (sixthform or college) This is the target audience for this magazine as it mainly focuses on student tricks, in other words preparing for A-level exams.

The convention represents sixthform students as hard working, thriving, young mature adults, the reason for this is because the cover is mainly focusing on a student who is surrounded with nothing but books, a pen and a blackboard, which we portray as revising. 

The magazine enlightens students with positive attitudes, the main objective for the (STUDENT MAGAZINE) is to focus on successful people who have thriving careers, therefore the magazine will inspire students to follow within the footsteps. On the other hand, the magazine does scare you a little which also is good news because you wouldn't want to work office hours (9-5), i personally think this is a good point because it will give students that extra push to put more effort into their work because no-body would want to do that. The magazine does cover life styles, its giving you information on how to sleep well, having a good diet balance and to do exercise which all will have an input on your exams (positive input). 

Within the magazine people are made to look natural, however the magazine has pages were its covering media and not school related work ( television series, gaming and celebrity gossip) were the characters are made to look amazing, nothing differs as they all have positive body language ( you wouldn't want to have negative body language in a student magazine as it might have negative effect on students) the background of the magazine is plain, nothing spectacular, (normal dark colours), which relates to the styling of the student magazine, the whole magazine has nothing but dark colours, with a small feature of light colours such as (white, green and blue)

Deconstructing a media text (advert calvin klein jeans) describing an image

My eyes are drawn to the frame because the actors/models within the advert all look good, having fun, within a modern house with normal chair, the background is normal and nothing fancy.
The camera angle is a medium straight shot presenting a normal scene and nothing spectacular, all that the shot is focusing on are the models wearing that Calvin Klein product.
The ad is set in a living room it suggests that people who buy or are into calvin klein like being comfortable because of the different positions that the models are in ( most people who wear jeans wouldn't be in the positions that the models are in because it wont be comfortable).
The product is placed right in the middle putting all the attention towards the product plus the color coordination clash so the jeans really stand out from that money green color.
The logo (Calvin Klein) is really simple but you don't recognize it being simple because you automatically think Calvin Klein and jump to conclusions thinking this is a really good product. The size of the logo is really small and is placed in the right bottom corner.
The color clash i think the reason being for this is because (1) they want the jeans to stand out and show how they are all sitting or laying in different positions and look comfortable (2) the colour of the chair and the depth of the green representing maybe money and you need money to buy comfort.
The only symbol within this advert are the models, they all look super amazing, tanned, in really good shape , and this portrays Calvin Klein because even in society its all the good looking, tanned people that buy Calvin Klein therefore calvin klein portrays there customers in their ads. (you wouldn't see a very big or fat person in Calvin Klein)
The overall message that the adverts mainly suggesting is how uncomfortable most jeans are and with our jeans you are secured comfort,but also the styling and the different range of colours to choose from. also  people who buy Calvin Klein like to go out, are into fashion and like having fun.
I think the target audience ranges from 16+  because most of their clients are young, good looking people that like to have fun and are into fashion and mature older people would not be interested with the advert at all, they would just skip past and not notice anything. 

online student magazine

This student magazine website I've come across is very interesting and as a student myself i like how the magazines layout is made to look mature, the magazine is very appealing, i like how it engages you as a student, it talks about activities that relates to me and nothing else such as topics and revision techniques (not your standard magazine full of gossip), also the magazine has other fun information and not just work related which is very appealing because most students just don't want to do work 24/7, there are one or two pages were the magazine does talk about celebrity gossip and talks about different range of topics but the bright side is it doesn't do this for the whole  magazine. It’s a Unisex magazine so it has information for boys and girls, it covers topics from education to technology and fashion to television series and overall i like how the magazine is made out to be, and i will base mt ideas upon this magazine. http://issuu.com/thestudentmagazine/docs/april_20121/1

Magazine research evaluation

Reflecting on my media survey

So far I've done an online survey using Survey Monkey for people in sixthform/college to answer about a student magazine. There are 10 questions asked, which in addition relate to what a student would like to see furthermore what a student would not like to see if we made a sixthform magazine. I posted the questions onto my networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter which in return I received a bunch of responses (38 responses). I posted the questions on to my networking sites because of the many contacts of people roughly my age.

What didn’t work in my data collection?
The layout and the order of the questions are wrong (e.g. I should ask people what they don’t like before I ask what they do like). Some questions are not clear for e.g. question 6 I asked if they preferred a unisex or separate, instead I should’ve asked would you prefer a unisex magazine or gender specific.
The majority of questions asked were decent but can be improved upon. The questions are very simple and should have more explanation towards them. (How often do you read magazines? 1 being regularly and 3 being once a month) The question is narrow, instead it should give the person answering wide options for their answers, an improved version would be (how often do you read a magazine? Hardly, weekly, monthly or once a year, could you also state what magazine plus the reason being) This improved version would then give me a better understanding of what people my age are interested in and why they are interested within the magazine they have stated.
This is for all my questions as they are very plain and the survey should be more in depth.

What worked in my data collection?
Asking questions such as what gender people are, is a strong data collection because I can find out what gender reads magazines more, or if both genders read the same amount. Using this information I could then find out what their differences would be, another good point is asking people if they would prefer an online magazine or a printed out version since nowadays people are more on the website than ever before, furthermore asking what people would like to see within a magazine instead of me just publishing heaps of information that they are not keen on is a very strong point. Finally considering the survey was only uploaded for 24hours the responses were really helpful in making me understand what to base the magazine on.

What I would change if repeated?
If repeated I would ask crucial questions such as age because sixthform students range from 16-18 which is a wide gap and students are interested in different topics (e.g. 17 & 18 year old might be interested in university whilst 16year old might want information towards A-level) I would make sure my questions are very clear plus be in depth, I would make sure the person answering my survey has options for their answer and not make it narrow. Finally I would make sure the order my questions are set within the right order.

The student magazine and questionnaire

This magazine is more attractive, furthermore appeals to teenagers around my age more than your normal widespread magazine (NME being for example) the reason for this is because the magazine relates to teenagers containing crucial information such as: exam techniques also healthy eating to prepare for exams. In addition the magazine's fun (includes information on new technology and TV shows such as the big bang theory). Students in further education such as myself would favour this magazine to your Americanised teen gossip magazine. (Not keen on celebrities as it doesn’t interest us in any way).I’m going to use this magazine to form a questionnaire for a sixth form magazine I plan to make. The survey would give me an understanding of what a student would like to see plus what they wouldn’t.
 http://www.thestudentmagazine.co.uk/themagazine.php


This is my online questionnaire using survey monkey, the research is for my sixthform magazine. It will inform me on what my age group is interested in and what they are not keen on within a magazine. Survey Monkey  is a very easy site to use as it is very simple. there are 10 questions to answer and once you finished you paste the URL on your social sites. Finally i will use the results to make my sixthform magazine mock. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YKQKFRB