Thursday, 4 March 2010
Monday, 1 March 2010
Monday, 25 January 2010
Research and Planning; Distribution
Thursday, 14 January 2010
Audience Profile:
The audience that i am targeting at LOVE music, they listen to it on thier ipods, with thier friends, at home, anywhere they can really. The audience care about which popstars are seen as cool and want to do what they do at the weekend, obviously they can't because of the age problem. Some of their favourite singers are; Miley Cyrus (great role model, rich, pretty, 'celibate'), Taylor Swift (i have no idea, but this audience seem to love her), Beyonce (a sweetheart, we all ♥ Beyonce). Although these are some of young girls' idols, i have discovered by asking a friends sister (13), that they also seem to like some slightly (i mean slightly) more indie stuff. For example, my friends sister, we'll call her C, said that her and alot of her friends like Chipmunk, he is a grime artist that has been signed now to a major label, but we can still recognise that his rose to fame was with and independent label.
Twilight. My magazine readers love Twilight. It is thier favourite film and they cannot wait for the next sequel to come out, they even know the date it come out, and have planned how they're getting to the cinema and back, even though its in six months. My magazine readers' other favourite films include A Cinderella Story, The Hannah Montanna Movie, the slighlty older end of the age range enjoy such films as Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. And, ofcourse, at some point in thier life they have loved High School Musical.
They watch television whenever they aren't Beboing/Facebooking, and they like to watch, Disney channel, mostly. Also Big Brother and Hollyoaks play a big part in thier evening schedule.
As far as radio is concerned it would probably only be done via the internet or TV (or in Moms car listening to radio 2 YAWN!), for example KISS radio on sky or maybe even SmashHits.
The readers of my magazine wear very fashionable clothes. They like to keep up with the style of thier idols, for example, New Look is perfect; affordable, fashionable and everyone else is wearing so why shouldn't you? An i deal outfit for TED day at school would be skinny jeans, dolly shoes (latest ones in New Look), the brand new top from the shopping center that you thought no-one would have but that girl Jenna is wearing it and told you that your copying her, the black cardigan, because thats a 'staple'. To the birthday parties you wear sparkley dresses or minskirts with a belly top, along with your sister's (alternitavley mothers) high heels.
As far as jobs go, you do jobs around the house to get your £5 pocket money whcih you spend on sweets, accessories, clothes and the upper end of the age bracket may even spend it on alcohol for the school disco!
You've probably already started your first diet after the boy in maths said you had a chubby face, you got the idea from your Moms Slimmers World magazine, and now your not eating carbs, although you still love to stuff your face with sweets, chocolate and roast dinner on a sunday. (This will only apply to the older end of the age range).
In your spare time you go to friends houses and talk about Hannah Montanna and how excited you are to see the next Twilight. You sing and dance in the mirror with your hair brush (or anything of the sort really), planning the moves you will make in clubs when your old enough. Your parents shout at you for the loud music, but they idolise thier precious little girl, FOR NOW!
Due to the age of my audience i cannot give them a reading on the jicnars scale but i can give one to thier parents; The parents of the readers of my magazine would be either suceeders or aspirers, they either have exactly what they want from life, or they are almost there. They have names like Mark and Karen, on the jicnars scale they would read from C2 to a B, they have quite well paid jobs such as a manegerial or administrative job. i believe that thier approach to parenting would be rather traditionalist, they would want to bring thier child up as they were brought up.
Summary of my research into exsisting magazines:
One of the most important things that i have learnt from this is that a front cover is the most important thing to attract readers. The layout, colour scheme and features inside noted on the coverlines, is what will enitially attract readers. To apply this to my genre i will have a picture on my cover that relates to modern pop culture with a bright and girly colour scheme, most probably including pink.
I have learnt that features inside the magazine attract readers. All of the magazines i looked at, in the genre i am directing my magazine to, had articles on boys or gossip, many of the things that i talked about at that age, so i think that this has really shown me that i have chosen the right genre and target audience to go for.
Despite the magazines i have looked at being a big help, i have also noticed that there are some things that i should be aware of, things that didn't make the magazine as attractive as it could be, for example, Smash Hits' front cover looked too busy, and it made the magazine connote that it might be directed at a lower class, becuase it looked tacky and disorganised, but, MIZZ's cover connoted formality, i don't think that a cover like that would attract a large audience. This is all very important to remember whilst producing my magazine as it will help make it more attractive to my target audience and would therefore, sell more copies and make me more money.
Sunday, 10 January 2010
Magazines in my genre: Sugar
Monday, 4 January 2010
Magazines in my genre: MIZZ
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
Magzines in my genre: Smash Hits
The title, 'Smash Hits' appeals to the audience by having onomatopoeia, the loudness of music, fashion and teenage life is almost immediately screamed at us using the first word, the second word again is a very powerful word which refers to something popular and successful. The title has also been rounded off by using a screamer, again backing up the loudness of the words themselves. The title is rounded off by being printed in a sans-serif bubbly font making it appealing to the target audience by making sure that it doesn't look too formal, as this isn't what the audience is about.
The pink colour scheme on the front cover connotes a bubbly girly atmosphere, also the continuous use of the sans-serif font connotes a youthful and modern front. Despite the cover being conventionally right, it looks very busy, this is something to be aware of and remember during the production of my magazine as this could make the audience believe that the magazine is disorganised and messy throughout, again despite this, Smash Hits was a very successful magazine running for 28 years!
Within the magazine we would expect to find articles on artists within the top 40, fashion advice on how to look like your favourite celeb (most likely cheryl cole or miley cyrus) and make-up, hair, nail advice etc. The musical and fashion advice is a main selling point of the magazine. These articles give the girls advice on how to be like their idols, and what to listen to in order to become popular, and like all the other girls in their age group, 'Tweens'. (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tween).
Smash Hits addresses it's audience by appealing to their youthful, girly and slightly cheeky side. It does this by connoting a slightly outrageous and wild lifestyle, this is done firstly by the layout of the cover itself, the pictures are on a slant, also there is lots of bleeding of the pictures, coverlines and other features on the cover. Secondly the use of sans-serif font connotes a generation that does not conform and doesn't want everything to look neat, this all appeals to a 'tween', as all they really want to do is fit in with the stereotype.
The photographs on the main cover are all famous. They are people which interest the audience of this genre, for example, Chantelle (blondie in the bottom left corner), she appeals to the younger generation of girls because she, to them, is a perfect role model, she is famous, blond, pretty and has rather large breasts. These people have been placed on the cover of this magazine for one purpose only, to attract the audience of 'tween'. Also, again, the pictures have been laid out in a slightly manic fashion, i think that this is to again connote an atmosphere of cheekiness.
The audience of Smash hits would be girls, 'tweens' this is relates to girls ranging between the ages of 9 to 13. due to their age it would be impossible to give them a reading on the jicnars scale, but we could look at their parents, the parents of Smash Hits readers, they would probably be between an E up to a C2. The parents of the readers of Smash hits would be Aspirers and maybe traditionalists, wanting to keep children as children and have everything the same way as it was when they were young. I also think that they would want to aspire to be more than they already are, they are not happy with their social place and would want to move up in the world. The actual readers of the magazine, the 'tween', has attitude and wants to have the same pencil case as the popular girl, and if she doesn't have 'that' skirt by next week she'll be a 'social retard', or so she tells her parents...
The contents page in the issue of the magazine that i have is a very boring and dull one. It is the Take That special, which we have to take into consideration, as it will not fit in with a normal magazine of Smash Hits. The layout has been designed in a simple three column form, on the left we have the whole column filled up with text, simply white text on a black background. The next two columns are filled with the actual contents themselves. The only colours used are red, black and white, connoting an incredibly boring atmosphere. Although there are some pictures on the page they are very well organised and set up just one on top of another. The contents page does have a couple of conventions that don't connote complete boredom, on the picture they have used a larger text to show page numbers, this shows that the producers aren't completely unaware of the age group that reads Smash Hits. But saying this, this is a special issue that is directed at an audience that like Take That, which would generically be older. Again to contradict this, the creators should have realised that an audience that reads Smash Hits, would still like something other than a boring colour scheme to look at.
Monday, 14 December 2009
Looking at different magazines: Mixmag
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
Looking at different magazines: Kerrang
Kerrang is directed at people who enjoy rock, metal and punk music. Kerrang includes many artist interviews, reviews, tour dates and even posters and calenders. The magazine doesn't really have a specific age group to target at, but as most of the featured bands are quite young (18-26) Kerrang aim more so to this age group. But after researching the magazine i have found that they also publish articles on older bands such as Metallica, which would include a much older audience. so we see that Kerrang targets different age groups but all of them will be interested in the same thing, rock music.
Kerrang is priced at (£2.20) which positions it next to NME, as price defines where a magazine sits in market. Kerrang is sold at this fairly cheap price because it sells a large ammount, therefore the price doesnt have to be too high.
A reader of Kerrang sits at around an E possibly up to a C2, but more likely a D. They are Post-modernists and Mareialists, they like to go out alot and work comes later. They would be Radicals and Underachievers, caring mostly about thier friday night. Kerrang would also be very passionate about thier music, they would talk about it most of the time, and when they're not talking about it they're watching top gear in thier mother's home, in the bedroom they've lived in since birth, mother has just put the roast dinner on after ironing your work clothes.
You look a little bit like this...
Looking at different magazines: Shout
It is mainstream and would only include globally famous people and artists signed to major labels...
It is definitely aimed at younger people, we can tell this by the colours, fonts and language used. Shout would be a good magazine to get ideas and tips from for my magazine. the readers of this magazine would be young and love Miley Cyrus, High School Musical and everything Disney. The exact age group would be around 9-14, female, reasonably middle class to upper.
Although this is a young teen magazine, we can say that the readers are most probably hedonists, with parents probably being traditionalists or post-materialists, and they would probably check the magazine throughout before giving it to their 'sweet' child, to make sure no sexual or offensive content is inside. With the readers being young people, school age, we can't really give them a jicnars scale reading, but their parents would be from C2 up to a B.
Ideas for my magazine:
Monday, 19 October 2009
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Monday, 28 September 2009
Ideas...
Influence from my research
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Research
The first things that i notice about this cover are the mast head, the largest strapline and the picture. The masthead is a sans-serif font and it is very large, drawing our attention to that immeadiatley. The girl in the picture looks very interested in what she is doing, the main picture obviously relates to the main strapline "Doing science at Beloit". The other straplines look rather insignificant in comparison. The cover suggests to us that this is a very academic college, and that the students are very intellectual. It also suggests to me that the students who read this magazine may care more about thier studies than anything else. The main picture causes us to sterotype, but on the other hand it causes us to challenge sterotype as society normally relates males to science, therefore this picture has a positive feminist effect, this may not have been deliberate. Also this picture may attract more female readers.
The masthead on this magazine follows a sans serif font, this dennotes a less formal type of magazine, which in turn connotes a tpyical college based magazine. The red/orange colour dennotes a sun like image with the blue background to give it that sunny affect, this cannotes an inviting colour as the red/orange portrays a more warm feeling to the magazine to go along with the main picture. The main sell dennotes a young girl playing tennis revealing a large area of her backside, behind the picture you see that the crowd is full of young males who are all eager to see this young girl. this cannotes a tpyical attitude of college boys which is to chase after girls. Notice that the teacher/ umpire has been blocked out by the writing maybe to portray a level of disobedience. The lady in the 'C' of college denotes an low dressed women who is wearing a mortar board. This maybe cannotes a different way of looking at education, a way of showing boys that learning isnt just for the stereotype 'geeky girls' however for the more attractive ones. This magazine also portays a very stereotypical view that all boys are gazing over the girl playing tennis.