November 11th 2008

I typed my questionnaire out on the computer. The teacher then asked us to print 20 copies off in our own time and get them filled in for Monday.

November 10th 2008

We discussed task seven, which is about audience research. I needed to construct a questionnaire ensuring it included questions about the design, content, price and frequency of publication, aimed at my target audience. I then began and finished the draft for my questionnaire.

November 7th 2008

In today’s lesson I began my next slide on the next category – Frequency of publication. This is how often the magazines are sold (e.g. weekly, fortnightly, monthly). I had gathered this information with the prices research, by looking at magazines in stores. I entered this info into my slide with my conclusion (this time comparing it to the price). The results for the frequency of publication for each of my competitive magazines are:

Kerrang! - Weekly
Q – Monthly
NME – Weekly
Mojo – Monthly

November 6th 2008

I started the research task, beginning to make notes on the first category: Prices. All research obtained was to be put into slides. I laid out my slides in the manner of a slide for each category, other than a slide for each magazine with each category listed beside it, as I thought comparisons I could make would be easier to conclude this way. I used the internet and the local shop to find the correct prices:

Kerrang! – £1.90
Q – £3.90
NME – £2.20
Mojo – £3.95

November 5th 2008

Today we wrote down notes on the codes and conventions of a double page spread for a feature article:

1. One page: Big text image of artist/band [usually left page]
2. One page: Text/Article
3. Image may bleed onto text page
4. Column layout – 2, 3 or 4
5. State who wrote the interview
6. Image can take up whole page or whole of DPS with writing over images
7. Creative use of framing
8. Lighting is carefully considered
9. Mise-en-scene is carefully considered
10. Image conveys an image for the artist
11. Direct address for image
12. Headlines – Largest text
    - Creative – don’t tell the story, e.g. use puns to intrigue the reader
    - Font used is only used for the headline and sometimes on the standfirst
13. Standfirst – Introduction to the article
    - Directly below the headline
    - Usually includes the byline
    - Tells reader what the article is about
14. Byline tells us who wrote the article
    Byline can be separate
15. Drop capital – signal where to start reading
16. Other techniques can be used e.g. capitals for first line, first two words, colour, first paragraph slightly larger type size, bold type.
17. Quotes – Extracted from article
    - Provocative, sensational, interesting quotes used.
    - Can be used on pictures, in standfirst or inset into the layout
    [to break up the text and make it look more inviting to read]
18. Simple colour scheme
19. Plug at the end of the article [music magazines]
20. Page numbers and name of magazine at bottom of the page
21. Strap lines at the top of the page
22. 11/12 pt type size
23. Bold usually used in Q&A articles to separate the Q from the A – lazy journalism
24. Creatively written – personality and opinions of the journalist come through the article, often subjective
25. Reported speech used as well as quotes

November 4th 2008

We had a lesson on the significance of typography, and how there are only two types of typography: Sans Serif and Serif.
SERIF fonts are ones which are formal/traditional
SANS SERIF fonts are more modern and youthful.
Each of these fonts can be used to link to a certain genre of music.

November 3rd 2008

I began the Main Task, starting and finishing task one. For task one, I needed to make the decisions of what type of magazine I intended to produce, and the target audience. I had already decided this, having looked at many different magazines and decided based off my creative interest. I have chosen to create an ‘Indie’ style magazine, with the target audience being teenagers and young adults (age range about 16-25 year olds).

Our teacher then started explaining task two to the class: ‘You now need to conduct research into existing music magazines. If there are magazines already produced which would be competitors to your magazine then you should focus on these.’ I focused on magazines such as Kerrang!, Q, NME and Mojo. I chose these magazines in particular as they all deal with independent music in some way within their selection of interest.

There are five different categories of research we need to make notes on:
Prices
Frequency of publication
Issue size (number of pages)
Regular content
Feature articles