Contents Page: Second Draft

Contents Page: First Draft

I have now started on the contents page. I have placed a screen grab of the front cover on this page with the featured articles and page numbers underneath. I have also used another picture of the cover person on this page with more information about the interview.

Fifth draft

This is my fifth draft, I have reorganised the cover lines and added a new one, as well as a new competition and the bottom of the magazine, this will appeal to the target audience as One Direction are a hugely popular band among the audience. I have also added another of one of my own pictures to the Taylor Swift cover line.

Fourth Draft

This is my fourth draft, I have added another cover line and removed some things. I have also added some more of my own pictures in the bottom left corner, these are christmas/winter themed and I have changed the season of the magazine to winter. I am going to add photo to the cover under the Taylor Swift cover line and I will add more information about the cover person.

Third Draft

I have now added a cover photo and rearranged the format. I have also changed the style of the cover lines and added a new one. I have also added one of my own pictures to a plug in the top right corner.

Second Draft

This is the second draft of my music magazine, I have added some more cover lines and plugs/puffs. I will add the cover image before I add anything else. This is the autumn issue so I have used pinks and blues on the cover. Jessie J is a popular artist so this will entice younger readers, as will the offer of a free one direction poster.

Early drafts: Music Magazine

First Draft
This is my first draft, I have changed the masthead that I originally made. I decided not to use the original masthead as I didn't think it would appeal to the target audience of my pop music magazine. The font has been changed to one more suitable to the genre of music. I will change the colours and maybe the layout.

Second Draft

This is my second draft, I changed the colours to make them more suitable. I have added a shape at the bottom that I will put a plug/puff in.

Main Task: Music Magazine, Proposal

Popular Music Magazine Proposal

My magazine will be aimed at young girls aged 11 - 15. The image on the front cover will be a head and shoulder shot of a cheerful girl, this will follow the conventions of pop music magazines as they usually have a pop artist on the front cover with a photo of their head and shoulders, they always look cheerful and happy. I will take a photo of one of my friends with a light coloured background with no pattern. It will be a popular music magazine. The typical content will be about popular artists in the pop industry, with fashion articles, competitions and interviews. Some cover lines I may use are: "Win £100 of make up!" "Jessie J solves your problems!" "Guitar tabs of your favourite pop songs!" "Posters of your favourite boy bands!" "Song lyrics decoded!" The title I have decided to use is 'Volume' and underneath I will put the tagline 'Turn it up!' I have decided to use this title as it is music themed and a lot of the time music is better when played loud. The fonts I will use will be simple but eye-catching.

This is a first draft idea of my masthead, I will probably change the colours and alter some of it before I finish the final copy. The magazine will be published once a month and the covers style and colours will be based on the current season/month. In summer the colours will be bright and summery, like greens, blues and yellows. In autumn the colours will be darker, blues, reds, oranges. The magazine will be A4 sized. On the contents page I will put another picture of the person the main article is about and will put a short interesting part of the interview over the photo, the colours will be similar to the front page. I will also put smaller pictures I have taken of other bands/artists that are featured on the front cover. My magazine will be prized at £2.00. This price is suitable for all classes (working class, middle class etc.).  

Main Task: Music Magazine, Initial Ideas

Photography In Magazines

The Rule of Thirds

This rule is based on the theory that the human eye is naturally drawn to a point about two thirds up a page. A photo may be more pleasing to the eye if the object, or focal points, are located around one of the intersecting points.

Lines that can be found in images are powerful elements, with a little practice they can add dynamic impact to a photograph in terms of mood as well as leading a images viewer into a photo. 

Diagonal lines create points of interest as they intersect with other lines and often give images depth by suggesting perspective.

The uses of photography in these two magazine covers are very different. 

Vanity Fair has used the rule of thirds while laying out this front cover. Lady Gaga is on the right side of the magazine, leaving the left side for the articles featured in the magazine though some articles have been printed over her as well. Her head is just above two thirds up the page. She is looking slightly down at the camera meaning it has been taken from a slightly low angle. Her demeanour is relatively calm looking at her facial expression and the way she is sitting. 

The Source magazine cover is completely different. 

The rule of thirds has been ignored and the cover person is directly in the centre of the magazine with articles featured either side. The nature of this front cover is a lot more frantic than Vanity Fair. The man on the cover's facial expression comes across as scared or worried. His face in the middle of the intersection making it the focal point. The photo has been taken from the same eye line as the person on the cover and is a close up showing his emotion.

The Conventions of Pop Music Magazines

Web-based research and report into the target audience

In this post I will research the target audiences for different genre music magazines.

Pop Music - 

Top of the Pops, 

Billboard

The target audience for Pop music is mainly young girls, around the ages of 11 to 15 years. They could be from all classes. This audience would still be in school. They would probably like artists/bands like One Direction, Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift, these are the artists that are featured quite a lot on the covers of Pop magazines. The girls that are fans of these magazines are probably quite girly and might dress in pinks and purples and blues. The fans of these artists are often very dedicated to them, their rooms covered in posters of their favourite artists, owning all of their CD's, seeing them live every chance they get. This is very common with One direction and Justin Bieber fans.

Rock Music - Kerrang

The target audience for Rock magazines like Kerrang are mainly boys, though many girls read them. Taken from the Kerrang! Website I have learned that 54.7% of their readers are boys and 56.1% of the readers are aged from 15 - 24. These readers could be from all classes as it is an affordable magazine priced at £2.20, from working class to middle class.The audience will probably like heavy metal or rock music and will want to read rock music magazines to find out about new, up and coming rock/heavy metal bands. Artists/Bands that are frequently feature on the cover of these magazines include: Green Day, Paramore, Fall Out Boy and Muse.

Indie Music - 

NME, Q

The target audience for Indie music magazines is both boys and girls, made up of mostly 16 - 24 year olds. The magazines are aimed at all classes, from working to middle, with NME priced at £2.40 and Q £3.99. The audiences of these magazines will be interested in up and coming artists as well as current popular indie music. Artists/Bands that frequently appear of these types of magazines are: Florence and the machine, Amy Whinehouse, The Gallagher brothers, The Arctic Monkeys and The Stone Roses.

Mastheads & What they mean

This is the Masthead for the Rock/Heavy Metal music magazine Kerrang! It is based on the onomatopoeia sound of a power chord on an electric guitar. This matches the style of music as electric guitars are the main instrument of rock music. The font has jagged edges with lines through the letters, this stands out. The exclamation mark at the end of the word also stands out, it grabs attention. The white word on a black background matches the colours based around these magazines, dark and bold.

This is the Masthead for the Pop music magazine Top of the Pops. It was published along side the television show 'Top of the Pops' up until the shows cancellation in 2006. This magazine gives all information about current pop music. It is aimed at young girls, the Masthead matches this by being coloured bright pink to red. This stands out to young girls as a lot of young girls like the colour pink. The font is bold and eye catching and the swirl in the S at the end appeals more to young girls than boys.

Music Genres - Mind Map

Magazine Mind Map - Initial Ideas

Practice Magazine design + Student Magazine

This is my Student Magazine made on InDesign, I have used shapes to add backgrounds to the cover lines to make them stand out.

This is my first try at making a magazine cover on InDesign, I have taken an image off of Google and copied it onto Indesign, I then fitted it to the screen size. I then managed to add text to the image and change the colour using the colour swatches. I changed the colour to make the text more suited to the image. I added text using the text tool.

IPC Media from webbinor

Skills Audit

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

In this essay I will be discussing the impact magazines have on teenagers and how much they should be to blame for any social ramifications.

There are many issues surrounding magazines aimed at teenage girls and their content, many say it is one of the reasons that girls are growing up a lot faster than they used to, most articles in these magazines are about makeup and hair styles and boys, these all appeal to teenage girls and may be the reason young girls are wearing more makeup, are more obsessed with boys and are always wanting to keep up with the latest fashions.

An article on The Telegraph states that 'Teen magazines are sexualising readers'. Ed Mayo, the chief executive of consumer focus claimed that magazines are 'pushing the envelope' and said that parents would be shocked at some of the content in the magazines their teenage daughters read. A study by The Sunday Telegraph looked at several magazines and found they contained sexually explicit material which may be crossing the line and breaching the industry's editorial code.
Bliss, Sugar and Top of the Pops, who all have readers aged around 11 - 15 on average, are all magazines that have been found to contain inappropriate material for that age group, including photos of shirtless male models, articles on kissing and sex and one included an article titled "Is it a crush or are you gay?"
The Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel, which includes publishers and editors has the responsibility of ensuring that "the sexual content of teenage magazines is presented in a responsible and appropriate manner". The Guidelines that apply to magazines who have than 25% of their readership under 16 state "readers will always be encouraged to take a responsible attitude to sex" and "editorial content of the magazines will reflect the typical concerns of the magazines readership."

I also looked at an article on Yahoo discussing how popular teen magazines are having an effect on teenage girls. In this article the writer talks about the many magazines aimed at teenage girls and how most features are about looks, "...you will see that a majority of the headlines revolve around making yourself look better. 'Dress to impress.' 'Easy hair makeovers.' 'Find the perfect hair, make-up and style for you!' 'Be a knock-out!' The writer states that this gives the impression to young girls that the way you look is extremely important and there is not much more to life that beauty. The writer analysed three magazines and most articles featured on most the these magazines were about looks, fashion and celebrities. They also talk about the overuse of the word 'Sexy', "What does sexy mean to teenagers? Do we really want our teenagers walking around trying to be sexy?" Is the word sexy inappropriate for magazines aimed at teenagers? This may make teenage girls want to behave in a 'sexy' way but the way magazines portray 'sexy' may not be the best behaviour to be shown to girls at this age.
The article also states that these magazines could influence the way teenage girls view people and things."...Sexiest Guys in the World Issue." Here we go again with the sexiness. Do we really want teenagers, or in this case girls, as the title of their magazine says, to be looking at guys in a sexual way?" 
The article also discusses the amount of adverts featured. Most are advertising beauty products and clothing lines, this once again conveys the idea that there is not much more to life that how you look and the latest fashions. It then concludes stating that magazines should be more aware of the ideas they could be giving to younger girls and the way they are influencing them.

Though there are many arguments against the contents of these magazines there are some who defend them.
An article on eHow states that magazines can inform, educate and entertain us, they discuss Teen Magazines saying that most of these magazines focus on 'fashion, grooming and movie and music idols' and that these are blamed, along with other media plaforms, have a negative effect on 'body image and self esteem', and the many airbrushed, unaturally skinny models featuring are putting pressure on young girls to have the perfect body. They defend this accusation by stating that magazines like 'Seventeen' and 'Teen Vogue' listened to these complaints and have now begun to feature images 'more reflective of the average women' and have many articles like ones on healthy eating, relationships and exercise that guide teens through their life struggles, and also motivate and encourage teenagers in their work.

There were not many articles on the positive effects of magazines, this shows that most people believe that these magazines have a hugely negative impact on teenage girls. 
I believe that these types of magazines do contain some content that is quite mature for the target audience, there are too many articles on beauty and how to have a skinnier body. This conveys a very bad idea that could really effect some girls self esteem, seeing size zero models in clothes that may not even go above a size 10 can make girls feel like they're not good enough, or not normal. An example of this is the recent issues surrounding the designer clothing brand Abercrombie and Fitch, a brand heavily features in teen fashion magazines. The CEO Mike Jeffries stated in a 2006 interview "That's why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that." These may make girls feel inadequate, the brands clothing sizes don't go above a woman's' large or a pants size above 10. This may exclude many readers of these magazines and make them feel like they're over weight or not good-looking enough. 
Removing adverts for clothing brands like these and articles that are all about looking good and keeping up with the latest fashions and replacing them with adverts featuring normal sized woman that are not airbrushed and features that are about more than looks may have a much more positive effect on these magazines target audiences. 




References:
The Telegraph: 'Teen magazines are sexualising readers, says watchdog'
Yahoo Voices: Popular Teen Magazines and Their Possible Effect on Teenage Girls
eHow: The Positive Influence Magazines Have on People
DailyMail: 'Thin and beautiful' customers ONLY: How Abercrombie & Fitch doesn't want 'larger people' shopping in its stores

Analysis of 'Teen Vogue' and other magazine covers

This issue of Teen vogue has all the right things to attract its target audience, Teenage girls. It is a fashion magazine so like its partner magazine 'Vogue' which is for older women, it has plenty of fashion advice but it is displayed and written in a brighter and bolder way to interest younger girls. This is the november issue, it was released during the autumn, the cover matches the season by using autumn colours: browns, blues, peaches and light pinks. As it is a fashion magazine most articles are about looks, fall fashions, hair style tutorials, and makeup advice from a young actress. It uses the ideologies that teenage girls are very caught up in how they look, what they wear and if it is in fashion. The magazine uses this to appeal to them. It also appeals to those interested in fashion journalism, they will read this to see what a job in the industry includes, this magazine offers advice on this career, offering tops from 'stylists, editors and interns too!' It also includes an article of friendship troubles, the article will help you 'deal with feeling left out' this appeals to the target audience because arguments between friends are a common problem and teenage girl magazines often have plenty of well needed advice. The font used on this magazine is simple and not too fancy, it's modern, bold and eye catching, they have used colours that compliment each other and make them stand out. Its feature article is an interview with Alexa Chung, she is a well known fashion model and a contributing editor and Vogue. This may appeal to teenage girls as some may be aspiring models and will want to know if she has any advice. The target audience of this magazine have been represented as girls extremely interested in their looks and the latest fashions. The target audience of this magazine are made to seem very feminine, the colours and articles all display the main interests of the target audience successfully.

All of these magazines stick to the conventions of normal teen girl magazines. All issues have articles advising girls on fashion and makeup. This sticks to the ideologies mentioned above of girls being obsessed with looks and fashion. All covers have famous young actresses/singers on the cover, this appeals to young girls as they are popular and are role models for many girls. They also have advice on friendship troubles, a common problem among teen girls. All of these covers have bright eye catching colours and articles, the articles advertise sales and vouchers that they give out, they show celebrities and what they have been wearing and what is coming into fashion next. All of these cover have used subjects they know will catch teenage girls eyes. 

Terminology associated with Magazine design

Terminology

• Copyright - The legal ownership of a creative work
• Format - The size, shape, style and appearance of a publication
• Header - Information line at the top of a page
• Publisher - 1. The person responsible for the profitability of a publication. 2. A publishing company
• Readership - How many people read a magazine as apposed to how many buy it
• Body Copy - Main text on a page
• Brand - Marketing term for a company or a product name or logo that evokes certain 'values' or reactions in customers that encourage them to buy other products bearing the name
• Call out - Text from an article that is displayed on a page to entice readers and break up a page visually
• Centre Spread - The middle two pages of a stapled magazine. Often sold to premium advertisers or used as an editorial feature
• Consumer magazines - Titles aimed at the general public covering a broad range of topics
• Corporate Advertising - 
• Layout - A page design
• Keyline - Line of space around an image to separate it from other elements
• Subs - Subscriptions
• Affinity Sales - Magazines sold in specialised shops where the title may have some relevance, e.g. A history magazine being sold in a museum
• Audience Duplication - Two magazines that reach the identical audience 
• Bimonthly - Published every other month
• Bound-in - A sheet of paper of card that is attached to the magazine during the binding process, e.g. subscription cards or a special advert
• Puff - Something that is placed on the cover to make the magazine stand out
• Colour proof - Representation of how a colour page will be printed
• Masthead - The Main title of the magazine, always on the front cover
• Secondary Images - Other images on the front cover that may not be as important as the main image
• Kicker - The story designed to stand out from the rest of the page
• Editor in chief - The top editorial position at most magazines

Things you can do with Blogger and How will it be useful?

Things you can do with Blogger:

• Add photos and videos to your posts
• Customise your blog
• You can blog by phone
• You can add widgets 
• You can have a personalised domain name
• Can be used in education for teaching
• View other blogs and post comments

 How I think Blogger will be useful for my coursework

• It will be easier to post my work
• It will be easier for my teachers to see my work
• I will be able to show how and where I have done my research

How to add a Powerpoint presentation to your blog

• Create your presentation
• Upload to www.slideshare.net
• Get the 'embed in webpage' address information
• Go onto blogger and create a new post
• Copy and paste the address information into the post