LIIAR - Music magazine

As this this is the beginning of the main task I looked at how the media key concepts could be applied to produce a college magazine using the acronym LIIAR, Language, Institution, Ideology, Audience, Representation.

Language - I will use a bright colourful interesting masthead and headline to attract the readers. I want my magazine to look very simple yet effective to do this I will use a simple picture that doesn't look busy and bold colourful headlines.

Institution - NME magazine is published by IPC, NME is the longest published most respected weekly music magazine, in May 2008 it was redesigned to be aimed at an older readership with a less 'poppy' more authoritative tone. IPC would be suitable publishers for my music magazine because I am going to aim it at 16-19 year olds however it will have more of a pop/fashion theme to it, this is the opposite to NME magazine and there are no other magazines on sale like this, if IPC published a magazine like this they would appeal to a different audience to NME so will have a different range of people buying the magazine.

Ideology – The music magazine which I am going to create will appeal to an audience which most music magazines don’t already appeal to. I am going to aim my music magazine at 16-19 year old females, with the interests of music and the fashions in music. There are not already any well known music magazines in the shop so when creating my magazine I will be creating something different.

Audience – My magazine will be aimed at 16-19 year old females with an interest in music as well as fashion and celebrities.

Representation – My music magazine will represent bands and artists in a positive way with interviews with them rather than ‘celebrity gossip’ found in most female magazines.

Contents Page

Above are examples of contents pages which I would use in my college magazine. I wanted the contents page to be quite plain and simple but easy to use. I also wanted to keep the same colours of the magazine cover in the contents page.

Foundation Portfolio Evaluation

Media Studies Foundation portfolio evaluation My media product is based on fashion magazine Vogue. Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine published in eighteen countries by Condé Nast Publications. Each month, Vogue publishes a magazine addressing topics of fashion, life and design. I wanted to create a fashion college magazine in the style of Vogue because Vogue magazine attracts the audience which I am aiming my magazine at.

My college magazine is aimed at students interested in fashion however it features things happening in the college and subjects at the college related to fashion. I think that fashion is a main part of most students life’s and a college fashion magazine would be very popular as most fashion magazines are expensive.

The population of Wyke college is mainly female so my magazine is aimed at female students although it is suitable for males who are interested in fashion. Most people at Wyke college are interested in fashion and the way they look, the magazine also offers discounts, things happening in the college and trips and visits available, this is how my media products attracts its audience. Students like discounts and to do different things e.g. go on college trips to different places. If I advertise these things on the magazine cover then students will buy the magazine for the discounts inside.

I chose the name of my magazine as 'FUSION' because its meaning is to bring people together. I wanted my magazine to be about students coming together, different activities in the college and opportunities for students all linked with fashion. The name Fusion sounds exciting and interesting and will make people want to read the magazine. I chose to do a sub masthead 'the college fashion magazine' to show readers what the magazine is all about.

When first planning my media product I wanted to make it different from other college magazines and more like a magazine which you could buy in a shop rather than a college magazine about education however I still wanted to include information on education and courses at the college. I think that I have achieved that in my media product, the main picture on the front cover shows a student from the college with the topic being Textiles or Fashion?

After I analysed the 3 magazines I chose certain parts of the magazines which I thought were effective and decided to use in my magazine. I like the way Vogue magazine was very simple with just one picture of a model on the front, a bold title and inside contents on the side of the magazine. I also liked how Vogue magazine had a theme to each cover. This helped when creating my magazine and inside contents stand out I decided to do the main picture in black and white and keep the colour theme to pinks. If I was to create another version of this magazine I would change the colour scheme however I would still choose to have a black and white picture as it looks very effective and stops the cover looking too full and busy.

During the preliminary task I have learnt new skills for example how to edit pictures. This will hopefully help me to create the next media project.

Final Magazine Cover

This is the final product for my magazine cover. I changed the inside contents to the opposite side of the magazine as they were covering the picture too much. I also added the headline 'Is textiles becoming fashion' I kept the colouring of the headline pink so the magazine is all 3 colours. The pink writing and pictures stand out from the black and white picture and make eveything on the page noticable.

My college Magazine

This is The edited picture which I am going to use for my magazine cover. I edited the picture by changing the effect to black and white. I also cropped, re sized and rotated the picture.

This is the second step of my magazine cover, I chose to do the font pink so the masthead stands out from the black and white picture.

I chose to put inside contents of the magazine on the side of the cover, I kept the pink black and white theme on all of the pictures to make them look more effective.

Draft of a College magazine

I had several ideas for the masthead of my college magazine, the ideas I came up with were ‘boom’ because its attention grabbing and exciting. College life was another idea, it explains what the magazine is about in the title however I thought that it was too long and didn’t sound as fun and exciting as the other magazines. Another name I thought would be suitable for a college magazine was ‘Link’ the magazine would be the link with news education and students. The final idea I had for the title was ‘Fusion’ I am going to use this name for my college magazine as its meaning is bringing people together, connecting people and it’s a short, fun exciting name for a college magazine.

College magazines are often seen as boring and not many students read them so I want to make the cover of my magazine very alike to popular magazines which students read.

The main idea of my magazine is to create a college fashion magazine. The population of Wyke college is more female than male and lots of the females in college are interested in fashion. I am going to create a ‘VOGUE’ style magazine for the college. My main picture will be of a textiles student and information about the course. I will also include student discounts and ‘wyke clothing range’ in my magazine.

The main headline of my magazine will be Textiles or Fashion? the main topic of the magazine will be what students want. To make the magazine more educational I am going to talk to textiles students and see the reasons why they chose textiles and if its because they are interested in fashion as Wyke dont offer a fashion course.

Textual analysis of NME magazine

The New Musical Express (better known as the NME) is a popular music magazine in the United Kingdom which has been published weekly since March 1952. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart which first appeared in the 14 November 1952 edition. The magazine's commercial heyday was during the 1970s when it became the best-selling British music magazine. During the period 1972 to 1976 it was particularly associated with Gonzo journalism, then became closely associated with Punk rock through the writing of Tony Parsons and Julie Burchill.

The cover of this copy of NME magazine has a picture of Arctic Monkeys on the front, the picture is photographed in black and white this makes the picture different from all of the colourful writing and also makes the headlines, advertisements and masthead stand out. The photograph on the magazine cover isn’t a paparazzi shot unlike heat magazine it looks like it’s been taken by a photographer to fit in with the theme. There are a lot of puffs on the front of NME magazine advertising inside contents, these puffs have pictures next to them which attract the buyer because they don’t have to read the writing to no who the story is about or who the interview is with.

Unlike Vogue magazine NME magazine has a relevant picture to the main story of the issue. In the Vogue magazine below Kate Moss is pictured on the front however it doesn’t advertise a story or an interview on Kate Moss and it doesn’t say her name on the cover whereas the main story or interview in the issue of NME magazine is about the Arctic Monkeys, picturing them on the front of the magazine is going to attract Arctic Monkeys fans this way they will buy the magazine.