Media Magazine Coursework Evaluation

Media Coursework Evaluation – Forms And Conventions

Conventions in a magazine are very important. They are what make a magazine, a magazine, without them a magazine would not function well enough for a reader to buy. The genre of the magazine is Indie. Indie music would include bands such as “Vampire Weekend, The White Stripes, Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand”. Music magazines such as NME, Rolling Stone and Wire, These magazines influenced the way the magazine looked. Using similar fonts and colours and also using some of the language techniques used, for example, ellipsis.

My Coursework magazine cover was influenced a lot by a NME magazine cover, although the two covers don’t look similar things like fonts and placing of text has been replicated. The reason i chose to do this is because I think the NME cover is very appealing to “Indie kids” meaning they would want to buy the magazine due to a good looking front cover. The title of the magazine I created is “MANIC”. The reason I chose to use the name “MANIC” is because I wanted a name that will stand out and that will be easy to remember. The name “MANIC” Connotes that the magazine is going to be busy and that there will be plenty of thing to do and read inside. The colours for the title were influenced by the NME magazine also, the red filling and white and black outline make the title stand out and become more appealing and attractive to the reader. The masthead being placed at the top makes the magazine very typical meaning it fits in with the other music magazines in its competition. The date line is in white so it’s in contrast to the darker back round, this makes it stand out more but at the same time is has a thin font and is also in a smaller font to the masthead. This is so the masthead is the first thing people look at, and not the date or selling line which is also in white above the masthead with a slightly thicker letter size but still the same font. The mise-on-scene of the image on the front cover is constant of only one thing and this is a girls face screaming in to the camera. The main image takes up the hole of the page with a face of someone screaming which relates to the masthead “MANIC”. The screaming face relates the masthead because it shows that the person is stressed out and is obviously going through a hectic situation. The cover lines are all on the left side of the page so that the main image doesn’t get covered in the wrong places. The titles of the cover lines are intentionally disorientated and some are larger than others, this is confusing and strange but the intention was to attract readers and by changing font size and colour, the reader should be attracted more to the front cover. The colour of the writing in the cover lines starts of as a dark grey and then as the cover line goes down the page is become lighter and lighter to the point of the last sentence being white. The type of language used in the cover lines is very short and to the point, this is so not all the information is given away but enough is given for the reader to be interested to read on. A barcode has also been included on the cover page of the magazine placed in the bottom left corner.

The costumes and props in the photo are very casual, due to the fact that people who follow indie trends tend to dress quite casually for the majority of the time. She is wearing a grey and pink scarf and a kaki coloured coat. There are no props seen in this photo but in actually fact the model is kneeling on a table, but the table is not visible because it was not seen as necessary. The model in the photo is made to look around the age of 18 because the target audience has the age of 16+. She has a very obvious attitude and it’s quite an “in-your-face” photo. She has an obvious problem and is screaming about it, this relates to the title, “MANIC”.

The contents page was influenced by a fashion magazine contents page because i thought the look of it was quite mellow and a little less loud than the front cover but still has attitude about it. The layout consists of the writing being on only one side of the magazine (like the front cover) and is in a grey font (like the front cover). There is again only one photo but this time it only covers one of the sides of the pages. This keeps the page tidy and also simple. “Contents” is written at the top of the page so the readers know exactly what they’re reading, it is also written in bold block writing so it’s clear. The sub-heading on the contents page is enlarged so the reader doesn’t necessarily have to read all of the writing underneath the sub-heading. Also the colour of the sub-heading is slightly different.

The double page spread was influenced by a music magazine double page spread (NME). The NME double spread is more indie/rocker but it looked quite interesting and pulling so I chose to try and replicate some of the features for example the picture in the background, the layout of it consisted of the picture covering the whole two pages and it’s the only picture on the page, nothing else is included in the picture apart from a group of men standing in simple positions on a white background. The caption on my double page spread has a brick background and also has only one guy and three girls in but covers the whole of the page. There is one thing that covers the picture apart from the text and pull quote and that is a side bar, it has a black back ground and white writing and has information on the interviewees band album (the stating topic of conversation in the article). Gutters and a drop cap are included in the spread. I only used one pull quote as I felt this is all that was necessary. The writing is a different colour to the background of the pull quote and caption to draw the reader in. The body text is all the same size to make it look even and is also all the same colour, black. The language used is semi-formal because the majority of people reading the article will use semi formal register. Also because the article is an interview the people speaking have a certain idiolect which in this context was purposely used. The idiolect used is not completely different to the majority of people’s speech due to the fact as I want people to still be able to read the text and not have a difficulty. Things like ellipsis, modal verbs, polysyllabic lexis and face work are all used in the interview to increase interest.

The house style of this magazine is created when all of the above is put together. I believe that this magazine will appeal to people who have an interest in Indie music. This Magazine fills a gap in the market because it targets an audience that not many other music magazines have tried to target. The few that do target an indie audience do not seem to be sold in large stores where NME and WIRE are being sold. These two magazines are aimed at people who like rock music. The audience for my magazine is unfortunately a popular age group because the age group of 16-24 years old is when the majority of people seem to purchase magazines.