Double Page Spread Plan

In class today, we were asked to create a basic layout for our article which will feature in our music magazines. I used a program call In Design CS3, which is a program which allows you to manipulate a lot of things from the colour of the text, to the way in which it is displayed. I used the shape tall to show the basic layout of where things will be, in example, the image. I will attempt to re-create this design when doing the double page spread, in more detail.

Market Research

Today in class, we were asked to create a questionnaire, asking people music magazine based questions, both open question, which means it is free for interpretation and closed questions, which means it's either a yes or no answer, for instance the most common general question, is what gender are you? Although this question seems unimportant, for my magazine it will be vital for me to know my target audience, as i will need to incorporate things into the magazine, that will talk to this audience/type of gender. In doing this market research,  have found it is vital for me as well other media based company's to research into the market, as for anyone to be successful in the industry, you need to know the market and its current  situation, and what type of things are in fashion, and what speaks to them and interests.

Psychographics Of My Magazine

In class today, we looked at the different psychographic segmentations within a society. We found that there are seven main aspects that intertwine to create a person. The segmentation that someone falls mainly under, is the type of person they are. These seven aspects that media based company's use to target a certain type of person, all differ however, they can be associated with how someone is feeling at a certain point in life. For instance,  there may be a point in someone's life , say after university, some one will want to take a gap year, this may be a realization, an enlightenment that they want to explore the world making them fall under the psychographic of the Explorer. I think the main groups that i will be aiming to address will be innovators, these are the kind of people that are looking for new things and will be more likely to buy a new product on the shelves. I would also be aiming my magazine at main streamers: I think these people would buy the magazine because they are the type of the people who like to live for the day and concentrate on routine and domestic activities.

Cultivation Theory And The Adorno Theory

The cultivation theory, is the idea that the image on the front of the magazine opposes a stereotype.therefore attempting to change the stereotype over time. For my magazine, I used an image of someone from a different ethnic background to the stereotypical image of the R&B which is that of a mixed race or black person being the only ethnicity involved and good at that genre of music and showed them in a positive light, by using a person of different ethnicity I going with the cultivation theory and challenging the stereotype.

The Adorno Theory states that with media magazine, its only aim is to entertain and that is all. However,I believe this theory is completely wrong, although when making a magazine you hope it is entertaining for someone to want to read and buy, but the is not the only gratification that is offered and explored by a magazine. For instance,when a magazine is telling you about what is going on in someones life via a article or news update, you are offering the reader the surveillance,which basically offers insight in to the lives of a celebrity. Another way of gratifying the audience, is through personal identity, which gives the reader the ability to compare ones own life to the subjects in the magazine, it also gratify's the reader by allowing them to talk about what the subjects doing and allow them to talk in groups about the subject in the publication.

Use of Language In Music Press

Today in class, we were asked to use our advanced knowledge on the language that is used within the music press. We were asked to take a look at sort of language conventions that are included in the articles we were given, I took a close look at an article about the singer Ray J, that is known in the industry of R&B, for both is talent but his personal life also.

The overall language in the article is rather informal, and this is to gratify the reader through using the sort of language they use everyday, this is a form of personal identity. An example of many in the article is " nah, Im just playing" the article offers and insight into his life, and the chance to hear what he has to say about his closely followed personal life. This gives an extra-dimension to the reader giving them the opportunity to get a further understanding of the man himself, giving them a form of surveillance, "well, we hung out a lot" offers an insight into his life that many may not have known about him.

This article is clearly aimed at the audience of young girls who have an interest in the industry R&B, this article gives them a chance to diverse and come away from the troubles in their life, it also allows them personally identify with them, as he mentions in the article " I like older women because they know what they want" this may give some women of the older generation who are interested in him, the hope of being with him.

Evaluating Blogs

In class today we were asked to evaluate other peoples blogs, to get a further understanding of the conventions involved in creating a blog, and understanding what goes into it and what sort of things we should be looking to incorporate into our own blogs. After looking at some peoples blogs, I have concluded that a good blog will include a clear layout that will allow the reader to clearly read the post without difficulty, clear easy to read font that corresponds with the background colour of the post itself. It will also need to include a well thought out theme that will correspond both with the overall mood to your blog another factors such as font colour.

I also took closer inspection in to the blog of http://petesmediablog.blogspot.com/. I found that his blog had a very clear and easy to navigate blog that, some one with minimal skills in using computers could easily use, this was down to the sidebars not being visible, and being located at the top of the blog under a drop down menu, which in turn just made the whole overall layout look a lot tidier.

Music Magazine Mastheads

Today in class I used www.dafont.com to download fonts to manipulate fonts and test out which will be best for my music magazine.