College Magazine Research- Using Photoshop

In today's lesson we learnt how to use photo shop.This was to help us move on with our practise task of creating 2 pages for a college magazine (front cover and contents page). We used both pictures of music artists and past photos, that past students have used for their college magazines. We were asked to edit certain features of the photos. Here are the before and afters of the photos I edited as practise, to learn how to use the tools on photo shop:

For this photo I edited the photo on the right, to turn it to a single poster (below left). I did this by a simple crop and turned this establishing shot into a single poster shot.

 For this photo I edited out the red eyes. This changes it from a average photo to make it look more professional, like a extreme shot that would be included within a magazine.

I took a varity of photos around campus to use for my college magazine, here is the link below to the photos I took and some of which I edited to live up to the standards of a photo that would be included within a real college magazine. They are in capzles to make seeing them easier:

Audience Research

The purpose of this questionnaire was to find out what students would like to read, what parts of the college magazine are likely to be popular and to find out a little more background on our audience. I asked different students to complete this questionnaire to hather different opinions and to do an observation as to what results I get.

For question 1 I got more male students then female students interested about a college magazine, which proves that the stereotype audience of a magazine audeience is not mainly for females. This question was aimed to find out if all students would be interested in a college magazine despite their gender and thier age. As for question 2 though I mainly got 17 year olds it shows that the students here are 16-18m and that the college magazine needs to apply to a young audience and what they are interested in.

For questions 3, 4, 5 and 6 I was looking a bit more on the background of our audience and what thier enjoyments, goals and hopes are. I found that many do have religious beliefs and actually want their beliefs to be respected, this would mean not highlighting one religion and dismaying any other religions as a sign that everybody is equal no matter what their beliefs. I also came to find that many of the subjects that stuedents are taking are more academic than career goaled, this suggests that many students are still unaware of what they want to do right now and need more support in knowing and finding out what career would be best for them to do. I've also found that many students don't take part in enrichment activity this suggests that students are either focusing on their studies or enjoy doing activities outside of college then inside of college. This could be for many reasons that, the activities are based on their want to be careers, a way to stay in touch with friends from other colleges or they just don't get the activities they want inside college as they get outside college. Finally I asked what was their favourite type of music pop and RnB were the most popular options as they are the most sell able genres in music in modern society today. However some students did select and brought up other genres, such as house grime, indie, rock. This suggests that though many are belongers and follow in being part of the large group that enjoy today's most sell able music, there are also other people that enjoy different varieties of music and maybe that different genres of music should be made more aware of.

For questions 7 and 8 I was looking to see what students would like to see in a college magazine most, as if there are articles in the magazine that students actually want to read that is using uses and gratifications theory. The majority of students wanted a social/fun sections and careers advise section included in the magazine. Also for there to be reviews on the newest music, films and technology. This is uses and gratifications as students would be using the magazine to learn about social/fun activities happening, places to go for careers advice and what are thoughts on new music, film and technology. It is also hypodermic theory as these sort of articles are passing on ideas to the students and may even influence them.

Also within the group of belongers I found that when it came to social grades many students were within social grades B, C1 or C2. Grade B is Intermediate managerial, administrative, professional. Grade C1being supervisory, clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional. then grade C2 being skilled manual workers. This suggests that students have goals of going into these social grades, as from many researches made whatever social class/grade that the parents was in the children are mostly likely to be in the same class. Students may want to be within the same or higher social grade as their parents to have a decent living and have a good future.Also with social grades comes how many opportunities students may get and how well they do with their studies. For example a student who's parents occupation in social grade B may do better and have more opportunities than a student who's parent is within social class C2. This comes with the media constantly labeling the lower social grades as too unqualified and unskilled or have high positioned jobs with decent pay.

For question 10 I wanted to find out if students became interested in a college magazine would they continue to buy it, if it brought out new issues on a regular basis. For this question I asked the students if they were brand loyal, this means do they but the same product/subject if they found that their use of it was of good use. All students said they were brand loyal, this means that students have fallen for hegemony, and believe that if a product/subject is this good then they should continue to purchase it.

Finally for questions 11 and 12 I asked more questions about what students would like to be included within the college magazine. These were my main types of questions as the purpose of a college magazine is to sell it to college students. This makes them my target audience, and if i want the magazine to be successful with students I need to know what students really want to be in the magazine. For 11 and 12 I found out that students are interested in getting help and advice on college by hearing stories from struggling students that received good help that made an improvement. However students did want the magazine to be more a entertainment based subject than on college life and wanted to hear more stories from sport personalities as it has been the summer of sport in Britain this year, thanks to the Olympics and Paralympics. This shows how students are falling for hypodermic theory and use sources of media to help give them advice or to help influence them to go and do new things such as a new sport.

Overall I have found out that if I were to create a college magazine, students would want to use it as a source of entertainment to take a break from their studies, but also as a source to help them if they are struggling as well. This shows that magazines use hypodermic theory and uses and gratifications to help young people in any way they chose to use the media.

Photo Analysis

The purpose of this Photo Analysis was to explore the techniques and tools used in an analysis and explore the stereotypes, representations and meditations. Also to develop ideas for the photography and general look (aesthetics) of my music magazine, it should help to research and analyse the photography of key artists.

Music Magazine Case Study

This is a power point I created to help me discover how a music magazine works, what it needs to include and what other conventions of media it uses to help sell its magazine to its traditional and incoming larger target audience.I have studied the past, other media conventions and work done on and behind the magazine itself.

I decided to use Q Magazine as it is one of the UK's most popular selling music magazines with a high success rate and large varied target audience of music lovers.

Introduction

Hi, I'm Emily Wears.

I'm a media student creating a blog to plan, research, create and evaluate a music magazine. I'm looking to create a music magazine that appeals to young music lovers, who enjoy a variation of music genre's. There are many music magazine available in the current market all different styles that are aimed to a certain audience.  Such as Q Magazine is aimed for music lovers, who enjoy rock music more then any other genre of music. As every cover which any artist of any genre of music has posed for is given a very heavy metal, rebellious, rock feel to it.

I'm a big fan of all music genres myself from pop to RnB or Indie Rock to Classical. I enjoy all types of music. That's why I want to create a magazine that is very versatile that every young music lover would be interested to read. Meaning a magazine that isn't very hard rock and rebellious or to simple with that laid back feel. This means I need to create a music magazine that has the correct balance between too much and too little. While still following the conventions of a music magazines, such as including a masthead, anchorage, ears/plugs, main copy etc.

I will be looking at Q Magazine and The Music Factory for inspiration for my magazine as both are very different styles, but still fit the conventions of a music magazine. Which is what I'm looking for I want to create a style between these 2 styles of magazines that would create a wide range of a target audience of serious young music fans wanting to explore favourite genre and other genres of music.

Through finding to create a magazine that will appeal to a wide range of music fans. This may include changing the imagery of the artist. Such as on Q Magazine Cheryl Cole has changed from her usual colourful, girly image to a dark, rebellious and rock image.

By changing her image Q Magazine has made her more appealing to a wider range of different music fans. Creating this magazine means I will be creating a music magazine that people will want to read.