Kyle Kingston Miles

Kyle Kingston-Miles AS Media Studies Critical evaluation.

Kubed Magazine.

For the final phase of my main project, I have been instructed to self-evaluate my production. I will propose a series of questions that will enable the examiner to gain a better understanding of what purpose my magazine serves. I will ask each question as a subheading and the answer will subsequently follow.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms or conventions of real media products?

I believe my magazine challenges the traditional conventions of a magazine.

However, I also believe that to design a magazine that would succeed in a competitive market, I had to conform to some of the conventions. For instance, the masthead on the front cover that reads ‘Kubed’ is placed at the very top of the page.

As with all magazines, this is of fundamental importance. However, when analysing my finished design I acknowledged the fact that my magazine challenges conventional publications with regards to leads and strap lines. As I wanted to attract an audience whose ages range from 16-24 years I have almost kept to a doctrine of simplicity when designing my magazine. I strongly regard this as the key to attracting my chosen audience as I believe these people are more attracted to image, rather than laborious, continuous prose. I have only included one main sell, which was the free gig guide. Again, with my contents page; I did have tried to keep the text to a minimum. I have used two main images that were original and embedded them in small amounts of text, which is concise, conservative and short.

For this, I have already given a reason. I believe that reader are not drawn to a contents page by instinct, so my personal aim was to engage the reader by presenting large images, with small amounts of prose. In relation to my Double Page Spread (DPS), I believe that I have detracted from the conventional forms. For instance, my masthead was running down the side of the left page, which I thought was very effective. My standfirst was directly at the top of the page. Further to this, I have only used one pull quote. I selected this portion of text as I believe that a witty extract would encourage the consumer to read on. I embedded this pull quote in the text, which does not detract from conventional forms. With regards to imagery, I believed that by using the free-transform tool re-size my picture, and then using the opacity tool to fade the picture was very different. I noticed in particular that when analysing a DPS this was not a commonality. I can justify these decisions as I wanted to create an alternative magazine, which I believe there is a widening gap in the market for, as the shelves are dominated by drug-related and sex-related magazines such as Mixmag, Kerrang and DJ.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representation, in media terminology, can be defined as product that can be identified with a particular group in a civil society. For example, KERRANG! Can be identified as having strong links with people who have a profound interest in rock/heavy metal music. Not only will readers identify with this, they will live their lives according to the group they follow i.e. the way the dress, the shoes they wear and the hair styles they have. These groups have names that have become common practice for today’s society. For instance, EMO’s are more inclined to dress all in black with long black hair and wear skinny jeans etc. This is known as ideology.

I believed that when ‘designing’ my band, the best course of action would be to invent a completely new and unrecognisable band. In this case, it was Future Love Radio (F.L.R). F.L.R is a band that has recently re-formed, after splitting ten years previously. For the purposes of my magazine, I chose to follow the preferences of the audience which was acquired through my audience research in the form of a questionnaire (see art book). I found that my audience of 16-24 year olds preferred indie/pop music. Therefore, this genre of music will be associated with F.L.R. I aimed to depict the band as being mature, talented role models for the younger generations to follow. I achieved this by taking a collective photograph, where no group member was secluded. I believed that a medium-close up was most suitable to achieve this. Further to this, I decided to shoot the two founding members of the band separately, which would feature on the contents page. I chose to experiment with a range of shots, and after a number of unsuccessful attempts with a series of shots, I found that a low angle shot was simple, but effective. I particularly enjoyed experimenting with the photographic equipment. As the band adopted an indie/pop genre, I believed that the clothes the artists were wearing were wholly appropriate.

Skinny jeans were a big feature in my photographs! With reference to my pull quotes, I believe the subject contents were appropriate. Although sex is mentioned, my magazine is aimed at 16-24 years of age. In biological terms, 16 onwards is where teenagers begin to find themselves in the world of sex and sexuality and I feel as the pull quote does not mention sex directly, there is no immediate detriment caused. Further to this, I believe that it does not bring the band’s name into disrepute. I took the fact that image is the ‘make or break’ feature in the music industry and I believe that F.L.R have a very credible image that provides an excellent role for young people to follow, particularly today, where extensive media coverage is on drug-related, knife-related or gun-related. It is my personal opinion that many people lack this image. Irresponsible artists such as 50 cent and Eminem continuously bring the music collective industry into disrepute. This is an issue that causes me grave concern. Therefore, this is the way I justify my chosen bands image.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your magazine and why?

In the media industry, there are many publishers that will distribute magazines for consumers.

For example, IPC media is one of the UK’s largest distributors and have affiliations with the likes of NME and many glossy magazines.

IPC Media is a leading consumer magazine publisher. Almost every two in three women will read a magazine that has been published by IPC and 44% of men will read a magazine that has been published by IPC. IPC is responsible for magazines such as NME (see below). NME is a magazine that was influential in my contents design. I analysed the contents of this magazine and decided to adapt some features and include them in my contents.

IPC may be a big and influential company. However, there are contenders, for example, issuu.com. Issuu.com is an online company that serves as a living library for individuals wishing to show and display their work, which is available either in weekly or monthly editions.

I believe that it would be more appropriate to be advertised on issuu.com for a number of reasons. The most important being no overheads are included. As intended, the magazine would be more likely to have a small following until it became more widely known or when it found a niche in the market. I believe this is the best possible way to gain recognition in the most cost effective way possible. Particularly in the current economic climate, it is wise to be thrifty where possible. Therefore, I justify my decision in this way.

Further to this, I believe that printing costs would be high. For example, the faded image featured on my DPS would be expensive to print. This is an issue that I encountered whilst designing my DPS, but as a resolution, I decided to launch, my magazine as an online magazine until the magazine gained enough recognition for it to go mainstream. I have provided some screen drags to further illustrate the use of online publishers and for further explanation.

4. Who would be the audience for your music magazine?

Before I designed the magazine, I had a rough idea of what the target audience would be. I believe that aiming the magazine at people is far too vague and would be difficult to cater for. Therefore, I aimed my magazine to all young people who were members of the 16-24 years age group. It is probable that the magazine would be purchased by people who are aged around 18 years. My readers value the freedom to express their inner-self. This could be ranging from mere dress sense to sexuality. My magazine would be read by liberal people, who allow one and another to follow people, or a particular group at their own will. It would be likely that many of my readers are in further education or recently progressed into higher education in the form of university. Further to this, the distribution company helped me decide what group of people my magazine would be aimed at. I believe we can connote this from the images that are featured on my front cover. Also, when decoding the text on the DPS, we can see that a lead member of the band has recently graduated from university with a credible degree; so therefore, I feel it is likely many of my readers are in further education. In their spare time, my readers enjoy following their favourite bands without fear of ridicule or belittlement. It is likely that many of my readers attend music festivals as ‘V’ or Latitude, which are due to commence this summer. I believe that many of readers will take a positive role in society and current affairs. For example, I have included an artist’s career that is damaged by the economic downturn. Many of my readers are interested in music of the developing worlds. To show this, I have included a concluding tour of East Asia in the contents page. Further to this, my readers are influenced by charitable figures such as Bono, Sir Bob Geldof and John Lennon.

These are figures that I personally admire. Finally, my readers will have alternative dress sense. Much like those depicted on the front cover of Kubed. Again, skinny jeans are prominent.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

To help illustrate my audience feedback, I have included a short questionnaire that comprises of eight various questions. To assist sales, I have included a free gig guide. I have advertised this in a yellow strip on the front of my magazine. However, I did not place this on the cover strategically as I will be advertising this magazine on the online publishers, issuu.com. This was my Unique Selling Point. From my results, you can see that many of my audience found a common fault with my magazine. The masthead of the contents page was slightly pixelated. This was down to the fact that I sourced the font from Dafont.com, which is a free font website that was available for extensive use.

The audience claimed that my magazine came across as representing the indie/rock/pop genres which is desired. From the audience, I found also the images were the best aspect of the magazine. One respondent claimed however that more main sells were needed on the front cover, which would assist on sales and make it more attractive.

These results are available at the end of this analysis.

6. What have you learnt about using Photoshop CS3 and digital cameras during the project?

I believe my Photoshop skills have improved greatly since starting the course. I feel more confident using the magnetic lasso tool whilst cropping pictures. However, I did have some trouble cropping the main picture on the front cover. I made good use of the multiply tool in Photoshop to embed text sourced from the internet. I used this on several occasions and found that I had no real difficultly with this. I found that my knowledge of Photoshop has grown considerably. I know feel more confident when using shop and aim to be as independent as much as possible with regards to work. I feel I have partially achieved this. Examples of my skills have been provided in the form of screen grabs that are located in my art book. Other skills I have learnt include: good time management, organisation, the importance of audience feedback and good technical media language, which is sometimes known as the key concepts.

I now have real appreciation for the wide range of magazines that are featured on the shelves as I now understand how difficult designing is and how talented media designers must be. I would like to think I have taken a professional approach with my magazine and for future tasks; I will adopt this approach with all media studies work.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK. From three females and three males I found:

1.

How old are you?

Five people were 17 One person was 16.

2.

What is your gender?

Three people were male.

Three people were female.

3.

Can you identify what genre this magazine is aimed at? Please state.

All respondents believe the magazine was indie/rock/pop.

4.

Do you feel should be mainstream or an online publication?

Three people claimed it should be online.

Three people claimed it should be a mainstream publication.

5.

What do you feel is the best aspect of this magazine?

Three people claimed the contents page was the best aspect.

Three people claimed the images used were the best aspect.

6.

What do you feel could be improved on the magazine?

Four people claimed the mastheads should be improved.

Two people claimed the main sells could have been on the left-third.

7.

Do you believe that I have designed an appropriate magazine for 16-24 year olds?

A unanimous affirmative answer was provided.

8.

Finally, on a scale of 1-10 (1=poor and 10= excellent) how would you rate the magazine?

Four people returned with an 8.

Two people returned with a 9.

Word count: 2,090.