Readership Profile

Check out the NME readership profile to give you an idea of how to describe your magazine's readerhip. Be as specific as possible. The you can discuss the ways in which this information impacts on content and design.

http://www.nme.com/mediapack/pdf/nme_media_information_full.pdf

Laying the Foundations

But not like that. Time to get serious about your foundation portfolio. Your research and planning should be complete by Christmas holidays. You can choose any of the following tasks in your research and planning, or you may choose to create tasks of your own. I would advise that you complete both the items in yellow before branching out into any other research and planning tasks.

ü  Questionnaires for target audience (qualitative and quantitative research) about magazine content, buying habits, hobbies, interests etc.)

ü  Mood boards and annotations explaining design choices

ü  Target audience profile, including demographic and psychographic information from other research

ü  Analysis of similar products (front covers, contents pages and double page spreads) with annotations about housestyle

ü  Pie graphs/bar charts from questionnaires

ü  Research into articles that are similar to the one you plan to write for double page spread

ü  Analysis and annotation of mastheads (both of similar products and other magazines)

ü  Shortlisting design choices and showing them to a sample of your target audience. Get feedback from focus groups and adapt your approach as necessary.

ü  Mocked up/hand-drawn versions of your cover, contents and double page spread. Flat plans of all three sections.

ü  Colour swatches/planning colour schemes

ü  Survey of language that is appropriate to your target audience, through analysis of similar magazines. E.g. frequency of buzz words

ü  Analysis of mise-en-scene, camera angles and shot types in a range of photography in similar products

ü  Plans and sketches of photo shoots

ü  Plans for costume and set design for photo shoots

ü  Experimentation with fonts

ü  Take photos and annotate them. Comment on what worked well and what needs to be improved. Take more photos and make those improvements. Evaluate again. Compare your shots with those featured in similar real media products.

Evaluating Your Preliminary Task

These questions are the evaluation questions required by the exam board.

You must answer all questions as separate posts on your blog.

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

·         Break down the different elements of your magazine (images, fonts, colours, layout, language).

·         What industry conventions have you used? Create links to actual magazines to show you understand the conventions and how they help a magazine reach out to its audience.

·         Have you thwarted any of the conventions? If so, explain why you did this. Why would this help you to attract your audience?

·         If you haven’t been able to use a convention, but know that you should have done, acknowledge that here – explain what the problem was (technical expertise; resources; time.) At least you show you know it should be there!

·         Always use REAL magazines as a reference point for the analysis of your own magazine.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

·         What social groups are represented in your magazine?

·         In what ways are they represented – through what kind of images/connotations?

·         Is this a positive or negative representation?

·         How does it compare to the way these groups are represented in other media – provide links.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

·         Most magazines belong to one of the big publishing houses, and get distributed via their extensive network. What publishing house would you use? (You need to fill a gap in the market.)

·         Do you envisage your magazine being independent or part of one of the big publishing houses? Explain your choice?

·         If it is an independent title, how are you going to get it to your fans? You’ll need a third party distributor.

·         Where will your magazine appear? Music shops (be specific on which ones!); general newsagents – how will you make sure you reach your target audience there? Music venues? Anywhere else?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Outline in detail the demographic of your target audience. This should include:

·         Age

·         Gender

·         Class

·         Race/ethnicity

·         Profession

·         Lifestyle (hobbies and interests)

·         Youth Tribe

·         Attitude and beliefs

How did you attract/address your audience?

·         You need to justify every decision you made in relation to attracting an audience.

·         This should include:

o   Colours

o   Fonts

o   Images – mise en scene; framing; camera shots and angels

o   Language

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

·         Photoshop

·         Fireworks

What do you feel you have learned about the following?

·         Creativity

·         Originality

·         Technology

·         Photography:  layout and shots. Planning a shoot.

·         Layout

·         Colours – what works; reflecting audience; keeping the colour palette limited

·         Fonts

·         Writing articles

Homework Due Week Beginning November 7th

By now you should all be cracking on with your preliminary task. Your homework for the next two weeks is to complete the front cover, contents page and double page spread for your preliminary task.

For both 12C and 12A the due date is Friday 11th November.

If you are having trouble meeting this deadline, please come and see me well before the due date to make alternative arrangements.

Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.