7. Looking back at my preliminary task, what do I feel I have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?


My preliminary task and my finalised magazine are clearly of different standards. I feel this I mainly because I have learnt things throughout the process of making my magazine and using Photoshop more and more, which has helped me to give my product a more professional and effective design.

Preliminary Front Cover

Final Front Cover

Preliminary Contents

Final Contents

I used this for my double page spread as it is a landscape picture and was perfect for an image being spread over two pages. I also left enough room around my model so that I could include the text of my interview with him and some other aspects of my double page spread, without taking the attention away from the main focus of the image, which was the model/artist.

This image was used for my front cover, as it is in a portrait format and is what is conventionally used in magazines. I used this because the lighting was good, it is clear to see everything (like the clothes and face of my model) and it suits my magazines image.

The final thing that I feel I have learnt how to use effectively has been blogging. At the beginning, before starting my coursework, I was advised to create my own AS Media blog, at a website called www.blogspot.com. This helped me to display my coursework easily so that I could look back at it quickly.

6. What have I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing my product?


The hardest thing that I had to learn throughout the process of making my media product Was by far learning how to use the Mac computer systems, and in particular Adobe Photoshop. The first opportunity that I had to get to grips with this programme was when I created my preliminary task for my coursework. For this preliminary task I was instructed to create a school magazine. This was helpful for me because it gave me some time to adapt to using Photoshop to a good enough standard that I could begin constructing my media product.

This was the outcome of my first experience on Photoshop, and is my completed version of the preliminary task. I encountered a lot of frustrating and problematic aspects of Photoshop throughout my coursework. One of these things was that the programme will sometimes crash completely and just freeze, causing any work that I had done in that session to be completely deleted and would then cause me to have to start anything that I had done all over again. This was very frustrating as it happened to me twice whilst I was making my contents page for my media product and I decided that the best way for me to stop this from happening was to drag the document from my memory stick in the back of the computer and save it onto the desktop, so that I could just work from that. Besides all of these negative features that I found whilst using Photoshop, I did find some interesting and extremely helpful ones too. The tool ‘eyedropper’ was one which I found particularly helpful and I used it rather alot during the construction of my magazine. This tool allows you to take a colour from anywhere on the page and saves it so that you can use it in other places too. This helped me to keep my magazine looking professional and matching, as I ended up having a pattern of the layout that I used which was to have the cyan blue colour featuring as a block-background for many of my straplines, titles and other aspects of my magazine. The Macs that I used throughout this process were of this model:

Besides learning to use Photoshop, I also learnt about how to take pictures correctly and to get the desired effect of what I had planned to get before I took them. I needed to take my own pictures for my magazine so I planned before I took these pictures where I wanted to take them, who/what I wanted in my picture, what I wanted my model to wear, what time of day I wanted to take them and the lighting, which were all important factors of my overall final product. I decided that I wanted my model to be posing for my pictures in a street like environment, as my featured article on him was going to be in his home town and at this location, so I found a good spot for my pictures to be taken, which was at a brick wall near his home. I discovered that the best lighting for me to take my pictures was just before I was about to get dark, which, as I took these pictures in April/May time, was at about 6:30pm-7:00pm. The lighting at this time was good because the sun was not out enough to affect my camera and make it too bright to take the pictures that I desired, which were of a dull street corner/environment with dull, boring lighting. I decided this so that despite the surroundings, my model would stand out and look as if he was too good to be living in an area like this and that, being a successful celebrity indie artist, he should be living somewhere in a better and more wealthy location. After finding the right location and the right time of day to take my photos, I then found a model who fitted the right look for my magazine, which was of an indie singer, and then made sure he was dressed in the way that I wanted. So after all of this was sorted out and I was as satisfied as I could be with all of these aspects, I took my pictures. Some where good, some were bad, and I chose the ones that I felt best matched my magazine’s image and worked my magazine front cover, double page spread and front cover around them (not so much the contents page). The best pictures that I felt I took and the ones I used in my magazine are shown below;

5. How did I attract/address my audience?


Obviously the main way that I attracted my audience was by including the model on my front cover who is posing as a music artist and celebrity. This will always attract the fans of this musician, who are likely to just see him on the front cover of my magazine and will take a keen interest in what my magazine has to say about him, and possibly something that they didn’t already know about him. Another technique that I used was that I included a brightly coloured theme throughout my magazine. For instance, across the main image of my front cover I have the words ‘Double Page Exclusive With Mr r’, which I felt had to stand out more than other aspects of the page, so I placed it right in the middle of the page, across the main image and I highlighted two of the words that were in the middle and on a black background, which was the model’s t shirt. The two words that were highlighted in the bright cyan blue colour, which features throughout my magazine, were ‘page exclusive’. The word exclusive would attract people to look at the rest of sentence, which goes on to explain who the exclusive is with. I kept the same few colours throughout my magazine to make sure that it all matches nicely and is easy to look at. All of the writing on my front cover matches the logo of my magazine, which is a good way to keep it different from other magazines. I feel that this technique challenged conventions of other real life magazines.

4. Who would be the audience for my product?


The particular audience that I am trying to target my magazine to are late teens, around the ages of 16-17, to under 25’s, who are still in quite a young frame of mind. Obviously I would need this audience to like indie music and/or house music which are two quite controversial and contrasting genres of music, but there are a lot of people this age who prefer these two types of music in particular. I know this because I am 16 and know a lot of people of these ages who like these two genres of music in particular. House music is generally preferred by

those who visit nightclubs quite often that play some sort of house music, including artists such as ‘Swedish House Mafia’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoLKzfej0ok&feature=related this link will show the kind of music that this artist would produce. As my magazine is being aimed at this particular age group, who generally don’t have a lot of spare money to buy magazines, I have priced mine at a lower price than what other magazines of this type are charging, which is around £2 to £3. My magazine has been priced at £1.80, which is affordable for my target audience and will allow them to buy it quite easily. Also, being cheaper than other magazines, it may attract new customers who are looking for a cheaper magazine like mine.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute my music magazine and why?

There are companies that choose to buy certain music magazine brands and publish and distribute them around the country. This is the kind of company that I would need to see my magazine and buy the brand so that they could then distribute it around the country. For example, there is one website called MagazineSubscription.co.uk who give up and coming magazines a chance to be published by them and offer your magazine on their website for a price to customers. They promise that they have over 5000 subscribers on their website, which would give a good chance for my magazine’s target audience to find out about and subscribe for my magazine.

Another organisation that may choose to distribute my magazine would be the publishers of ‘Q’ magazine, BAUER. As my magazine would have a similar but not quite the same target audience to Q, this media institution would be able to guarantee that my magazine reaches my target audience as they would know how to reach the right kinds of. Also, as my magazine isn’t too specialist, it may be able to attract a few different types of people who it wasn’t even trying to target. Also, BAUER may actually want to publish my magazine and start distributing it in the same places as their other magazines such as ‘Q’ as they both are targeted at different audiences so my magazine shouldn’t in any way distract the target audience of Q and make them want to buy magazine instead, which would just increase profits and dominance in the market for BAUER.

2. How does my media product represent particular social groups?


My music magazine has been constructed to not offend any social groups or compliment any, my main focus was to make sure that my artist was dressed and presented as if he were in a band, dressed in casual clothes, and wearing what a typical indie artist would wear. The audience that my magazine is trying to attract are people aged from around 16 to 25, who like indie music and/or house music. People of this age tend to be offended less easily and generally tend to have very open minds, which allows my magazine to include the model that I used who is dressed in a certain way and is being portrayed in a certain way in the interview. An older generation perhaps might find this boring or offensive as they would probably like to see an older figure on the front cover or being interviewed, but as they are not my target audience I am not fussed about what that certain social group think about my magazine. My model has been dressed in clothes that are quite fashionable and smart, which my target audience would probably want to look like, so having a model on my front cover who is posing as a famous musician on the front cover of my magazine who is dressed in the same clothes as they would like to wear will help to target the right audience for my magazine. It will help that the way my model looks is a good representation of what a lot of indie artists look like nowadays, and fans of this genre will notice that my model looks like this and will be more attracted to my magazine because of it. For example one real life indie singer has been photographed below wearing clothes very similar to those of my model, which is a good link between my model and the genre of indie music;

                                          My Model                       Scouting For Girls (real life band)

3. What kind of media institution might distribute my music magazine and why?

There are companies that choose to buy certain music magazine brands and publish and distribute them around the country. This is the kind of company that I would need to see my magazine and buy the brand so that they could then distribute it around the country. For example, there is one website called MagazineSubscription.co.uk who give up and coming magazines a chance to be published by them and offer your magazine on their website for a price to customers. They promise that they have over 5000 subscribers on their website, which would give a good chance for my magazine’s target audience to find out about and subscribe for my magazine.



Another organisation that may choose to distribute my magazine would be the publishers of ‘Q’ magazine, BAUER. As my magazine would have a similar but not quite the same target audience to Q, this media institution would be able to guarantee that my magazine reaches my target audience as they would know how to reach the right kinds of. Also, as my magazine isn’t too specialist, it may be able to attract a few different types of people who it wasn’t even trying to target. Also, BAUER may actually want to publish my magazine and start distributing it in the same places as their other magazines such as ‘Q’ as they both are targeted at different audiences so my magazine shouldn’t in any way distract the target audience of Q and make them want to buy magazine instead, which would just increase profits and dominance in the market for BAUER.

Coursework Evaluation




1. In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real life media products?

Front Cover

In my front cover I used some conventions of real life media products. The image I used for my front cover was one that included a full-body shot of my main artist so that he was fully on display and so that any viewers will know that this musician is going to be inside the magazine. I decided that the image that I chose to use for my front cover had to be a full body shot so that my artist was fully on view to any readers, and so that there are no mistakes as to who will be inside the magazine. I didn’t want readers to think this was the only article in my magazine so I then included several other lines of text to show some other articles and features that would be included inside my magazine. This is done by many magazines nowadays so that people who see the front cover of their magazine are able to see the main articles that the writers of the magazine feel that they should know about and have a bias towards. I decided that I should use this technique on my magazine front cover as I feel it will attract more people’s attention amongst other magazines.

For example there is lots of additional information about what is inside around the sides of this front cover of the popular music magazine ‘Vibe’.

Examples of additional bits of information like this on my magazines front cover were all following the theme of being presenting with a cyan block background, just like the logo of my magazine, which contrasts well with it on the same page. For example, some of my additional information was presented as follows;

Also, much like this front cover of Vibe Magazine, in my front cover I used bright colours to make the more important aspects on the cover stand out to any viewers. This includes the name and title of my magazine, which is the big ‘TMT’ in the top left corner of my front cover, which is in bold black custom writing with a cyan blue block background. Many magazines use this as it makes their brand more identifyable and distinctive from their rivals and competitors, which is why I have tried to create the same effect on my front cover. A good example of this is on this front cover of Q magazine, where they have a similar layout to my logo;

The big red block background behind the bold white ‘Q’ makes it almost unnoticeable for someone who looks at the magazine. The reason for it being located in the top left section of the page is because this tends to be the first place that a reader will look if they are looking at a page, which is because it is generally where things begin on a magazine or any kind of reading material of this type. My magazine’s version of representing the logo and name of it has ended up finally looking like this;

This is brightly coloured, the two colours contrast well and it is easy to look at, but it also will catch the attention of my audience and is different to all other magazines of this type. This will help to create an original and individual name for my magazine and after a while people will start recognizing it a lot more often and easily.

Next, as these two front covers above have got, strap-lines tend to be located at the bottom of the page for the reason that readers will look to see what else is going to be inside the magazine one they have acknowledged the main image and what that main story is going to be about, and will look to the bottom of the page as it is traditionally what should be looked at last when reading something. This also doesn’t draw attention away from the main image as that should be the most important thing on a magazine front cover. For example, my strap-line that I used on my magazine’s front cover is located along the bottom of the page and looks like this;

Finally, I feel that overall, my front cover has used many conventions that current magazines use, but I also feel that some aspects were challenged by myself, mainly the fact that I used a full body shot for my main image, whereas many magazines nowadays use mid-shots or close-ups so that the reader feels as though the person on the front cover of a magazine looks like they are looking straight at them. I chose the full-body shot for my image as I wanted the readers to feel as though my main image of ‘Mr Spook’ was standing right in front of them, and also when an image is taken from further away, it gives the effect of the artist being a big name, and that they don’t need to use a close up of their face for the readers to recognize them, which I would use throughout my magazine.

Contents Page

In my contents page I used conventions of real life magazines of this type throughout. For example, I continued with the colour scheme that I had on my front cover, with the cyan blue colour featuring as a block background for many different aspects of this contents page. I made sure that there are no unclear colours that the reader can’t really read very well, and although the strike-through font used for the text at the bottom of the page makes it slightly harder to read, it is a technique that many magazines use nowadays as it gives the text something different and is an effect that I used because of this. The pictures I used are simply those of featured articles inside the magazine, one being my main article where I have an ‘exclusive interview’ with ‘Mr Spook’, who is my model featuring on the front page, double page spread and ofcourse that image on this contents page. I have included a header at the top of the page which reads ‘News.Reviews.Features’, which I have seen in many real life magazine contents pages, so I thought it would be a good addition to mine as it clearly explains what the contents page will consist of in a quick and simple way. I have in no way challenged the conventions of real life music magazines as I feel that they are very effective as they are and I don’t feel that mine would need to challenge the current conventions of real life music magazines contents pages.

Double Page Spread

My double-page spread is another section of my media product that follows the conventions and forms of real life music magazines, as once again, i feel that they do not need to be challenged. This is because they are effective enough as they are and i do not believe that they need to be developed or changed in any way. One example of the way i have used a convention of real life magazine double page spreads is by placing the title at the very top of the page, right in the middle and in bold writing. This is done so as this is generally the first place that a reader would look, and as it is the title and description of what the article is going to be about, its important that the reader sees this before reading the rest of the text on the page for them to completely understand what it is all referring to and about. Another convention that i used on my double page spread is to include a 'fact file'. This is simply a few facts about the person being interviewed (in my magazine it's 'Mr Spook', who is an indie artist), which fans generally find interesting, and may help them to understand some more of the article that is an interview of him. I would say if i developed anything on this double page spread in comparison to the conventions of a real life music magazine, it would be that my main image is only shown on a small part of the page, which doesn't tend to be done as often with magazines these days as they are seen as a very important selling point of the magazine. 

As well as the poll on my blog, i conducted another one to hand out to people in real life. This questionnaire mainly determined how my music magazine was going to be. The first question that i asked was gender, which turned out to be 1 more male than women (8 men, 7 women). After this i found out the the best theme for my magazine would be in the colours of red and blue, which are both conveniently unisex colours which would help me to attract the entire audience that i am targetting my magazine at. I thought that i should put a young artist on my front cover as my questionnaire results showed that the average age of people was about 16 or 17. My questionnaire also showed that people of this age dont tend to buy music orientated magazines regularly, so i will have to make my magazine relatively cheap i want people to buy it, and sell it in supermarkets, which as my questionnaire proved was the main place where people in my audience would buy a magazine. People said that they would pay up to £2 for a magazine like mine, so i am going to price it at £1.80, so that there shouldnt be any danger of people thinking its too expensive to buy. People then said that the main genres of music that were most prefered were house, indie and pop music. With this information i will diversify my magazine around these three genres. People then said that the main reason they buy magazines of this type is to find out tour/gig dates and for competitions that give tickets to giggs/prizes. I should probably include a competition with prizes like tickets or something music related and relevant to my magazine.

Fonts

I have lots of fonts that i could potentially use for my music magazine, including the front page and the contents page. Unfortunately i cant post the different fonts on my blog because the website wont allow it, but i have at least 3 different fonts for every aspect of my magazine, which i will decide on once i begin my front page, contents page and double page spreads.

Initial ideas for the front cover of my magazine

My initial ideas for my magazine will have to be based around something that my target audience can relate to. My target audience, as i have explained already, is a wide range of people, which doesn't make it very easy to grab the attention of them, as there are so many different types of people to attract. This means that i will have to find some common ground which all of these people share, and that is that music that i will have in my magazine. Popular music can covers a very wide range of music, it can be music from any geographical location, music from any generation and era, any genres, from rock to rap and rave to jazz music, any music can be popular, my magazine will just include these popular songs and artists that are well known so that a wider range of people will be interested in them and want to read my magazine.
My front cover is going to have to include a recognizable artist or place, which everybody will know of and will make them interested about what it/they have to do with my magazine. I will most likely use a large picture of a famous place so that people will take notice of it when they see it on the shelf amongst other magazines, but i want the layout to be in black and white or perhaps dark, with the icon within the picture to be in colour or bright colour, making it stand out even more and catching the attention of the readers. I will perhaps use a controversial image like this:

This would be a good image for catching the attention of my readers, but unfortunately i did not take the photo so i cant use it, but it is a good example of something that a wide range of people can relate to such as those of my target audience, it has nothing to do with the different genres of music that they like or the different artists that they will like, but would still just draw their eyes onto the front cover and are more likely to read the other features on my page. On my front cover i will also have a logo of my magazine, which will indicate to readers exactly what magazine it is. This logo should display what my magazine is called and create an image for my magazine. This should be located at the top left of my magazine, so that it is out of the way , but still noticeable on that page so readers will not mistake my magazine for a different one. In the centre of my page, i will obviously have my image covering the entire page, but on top of this i will have an enlarged quote that will relate to something inside my magazine, most likely one of my stories or interviews with an artist. This is a good technique that magazines use to draw attention to a certain story or something, usually one which they are likely to be interested in and can easily relate to. This enlarged quote will only be a couple of lines long. This makes it easier for a reader to just quickly glance at it and read it, and if they are interested enough, will hopefully make them look again.
Something else my front cover will consist of will be some smaller captions that relate to other stories inside, which will have small sub-titles underneath implying what the pictures relate to within the magazine, probably with a page number close by. These pictures will not be in black and white unlike the main image, because i need them to stand out on the front cover, i want them to show the readers what is inside the magazine and make them want to read further into it.
Lastly i want to have some sort of competition visible on the front page, with a chance for any readers to win tickets to a concert or something, which will be at a concert of one of the bands inside my magazine so that the readers actually want to win the tickets as they like the band(s). Obviously i will have a price, barcode and address of the printers somewhere on the page too.

Audience Demographics

Knowing how to analyze your audience is key when you are trying to create a media product, such as the music magazine that i am creating. There are factors that must be taken into consideration, and they are things such as the income, age, sexuality, type of employment, where they live, and anything else that should determine whether or not they will be able to buy my magazine, or choose to. It is vital that I can relate to my target audience, as this will help me to work out how to grab the attention of the people who could buy my magazine. The difference between understanding what my target audience prefer and not understanding what my target audience prefer is going to determine the success or failure of my product. I must target my audience, and compile to research about what they prefer and don't prefer.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Need.

Maslow's hierarchy of need is a theory in physcology proposed by Abraham Maslow. The theory can be represented in a pyramid with the largest and lowest levels of basic needs at the bottom and slowly working its way up to the more luxurious items. The theory can be used in media products, for example advertising a brand of food is a low form of advertising so would be on the bottom of the pyramid where as when the products need more creative skills to help the product sell such as a magazine cover then it would be higher on the pyramid. Basically, the theory is that on the lowest layer of the pyramid, there are the things that are needed to stay alive, e.g. food, water. and as the pyramid gradually goes up in levels, the products inside become more luxurious and are things that people do not need as much.

My Target Audience

My magazine is going to be built around the theme of popular music. Because it it quite a broad genre of music it can attract a wider range of readers. My magazine is probably going to consist of lots of different genres as there are lots of different artists that are popular with all types of people. My magazine will most likely attract a younger generation who keep up to date with all music that is being produced. My magazine will have lots of information about new bands and music that is trying to establish itself, and also bands that have established themselves within the industry already. My audience are likely to be mainly around my age, as the only adults that tend to buy magazines are women who read gossip magazines like OK and Hello! I will be looking to have as many different types of music within my magazine as possible, so that people who like several different types of music can read about all of the different artists and the information that i will try to include in my magazine. I will have features in my magazine that will be about music that is currently quite popular or getting popular in the charts, so people will know what i am talking about, and are more likely to be interested in what my magazine has to say about them, and any information and news that my magazine will have about them.

So in conclusion, the main people who are likely to buy my magazine are those which keep up to date with any music that comes out and is in the charts. They are likely to listen to a lot of music too, perhaps play a musical instrument and download/purchase music often.

Analysis

This Contents page is from the magazine 'Mojo'. The title Mojo is present in the contents of the magazines name. The font is consistent throughout the magazine it's all a 'sans serif' which is useful for a magazine like this as it isn't too mad and wild but is easy to read and is relaxed. Different colours have been used to outline different parts of the text e.g. gold for page numbers, red for sub headings and black for the actual content. The images are large and down one side of the page with the writing on the other and down the bottom. This is useful as it makes the page look more interesting and fun to look at and they all relate to the stories that are on the page and aren't just random ones. The colour scheme is bright and colourful which gives the page a fun look and makes it interesting to read. The background is white which makes the text stand out and gives it a professional look, i might use this idea on my pages although i will probably do the opposite and use black as the background and have the text in a bright colour. The layout is tidy and well laid out with the images on one side and the text on the other, the whole page is divided into two which is a good layout for a magazine page as it's simple and lets you lay everything out quickly and easily.

Analysis

This contents page is from the magazine published in America 'Hip Hop'. It's very minimalistic and uses one image to cover the entire page, which draws the attention of the reader to the page and intrigues them about what the articles are about and whether any of them are linked to the image that is being displayed. The typography on this contents page is much like the rest of the magazine, and is written in small, white writing with bold headings. This is meant to attract the readers to the titles which should be catchy and interesting enough to make them want to read the entire article. The date of the issue is also on the contents page so that it is obvious as to which edition they are reading and can know the clear date as to which it came out, which ensures the readers that the rest of the articles in the magazine are up to date. Therefore, the bold, orange image will draw attention to any readers who see it.

Contents Page Analysis

Analysis

The mast-head is at the top of the page and written in bold, white writing. Also the layout of the Mast-head is different to usual, as the word has been split up into 3 different lines. The top line says 'co' second says 'nten' and the last obviously says 'ts'. This makes it stand out and encourages readers to take more interest in it. Underneath, the features are written in smaller black font. Each 'feature' is written next to a number, which relates to the page number of the feature within the magazine. It then has a small sentence or two explaining what the 'feature' or article is about, the first is about the artist Ciara, the second is titled 'Boys to Men', and the third is about 'The white boy who turned you out'. The image on this contents page is of the artist Ciara, laying down with her legs up in the air and facing the camera side on. She's dressed stereotypically as a dancer and an R & B performer.

Kerrang! double page spread analysis.

Analysis

In the top half of the double page spread there is a headline that says "We're being the Best MCR we can be!". This is written in red and white writing thats bigger than any other writing on the page, to make it stand out as much as possible. The main theme of the double page spread is in red and white, with pictures of the band 'My Chemical Romance' in the background. The main area with text in is the top right part of the double page spread. The text is probably a story about the band, and above there is a sub title that says 'My Chemical Romance invites Kerrang! to their recording studio..." The text of this story is in a very small font and in white. This makes it just about readable but doesn't distract you from the pictures or headline. The rest of the page is just made up of pictures of the band members in a recording studio, presumably their own, and they have been displayed in black and white.

Centre of the page, there is a headline reading 'NME loves The Teenagers'. 'The Teenagers' is in bright blue block print with black writing, and is larger than any other writing on the page. This makes it the first thing you look at when you see the double page spread. Underneath this headline is a subtitle, written in black, bold writing and says 'Young, Dumb and full of.... Filthy tunes'. This is basically a summary of what the band is going to be portrayed as in the article. It means that most probably the whole article is going to be about how they are like what the sub title says. Bottom left, there is a box that has 'need to know: The Teenagers' written as the title above some text. The text is written in a format where there is a few words written in black and then a colon and an explanation in white. The usual format used in profiles. On the far right on the double page spread there is a black box with a few pictures inside, and a title saying 'Everyones talking about...'. This is followed by some band names which have pictures underneath them. This is obviously an article about what bands are doing well at the moment and perhaps why 'everyones' talking about them. Half way down the main article there is an enlarged quote. It has a block background which is bright blue and made to stand out as it is clearly one of the most important pieces of the article.

Analysis

Top right, there is a big red box with a Q inside, which indicates that the magazine is called Q and that is the logo that they use to distinguish there magazine from the others. Centre of the page is a big picture of Cheryl Cole standing in the rain, looking straight at the camera and seems to be licking something on her finger, probably a ring. This picture is almost guaranteed to catch the attention of all of the target audience of this magazine, and possibly another type of customer too. The banner at the top of the front cover reads “The UK’s Biggest Music Magazine”. This is obviously not a fact and is just an opinion of how the magazine sees itself and what they feel the status of the magazine is amongst its competition. This will also make customers who see the magazine think that they have won an award of some sort for a ‘biggest magazine in the UK’ competition. This will probably show the magazine to be good quality and show how confident they are about the quality of the content inside. Just below the picture of Cheryl Cole, there are 3 lines of writing, getting bigger and a different colour each time. The first line says “3 words”, which is obviously a song by Cheryl Cole and any fans that see the magazine will realise that, also the words are in medium sized red writing. The next line says “Cheryl Cole”. This is in large white writing and is very noticeable, and makes it pretty obvious that it’s related to the picture covering the page, of Cheryl Cole. The last line contains just one word, written is very big red writing; ‘Rocks’. This is insinuating that the magazine has an article or double page spread inside about how much Cheryl Cole ‘rocks’. Any fans of Cheryl Cole will see this and most likely buy the magazine just to find out about Cheryl Cole and why she ‘rocks’ so much. In the top right area of the page, there is an underlined sub title, which reads ‘2010 previewed’. It then goes on to explain in the same format; ‘introducing the 10 best new acts’ then another, smaller sub title which says ‘New Interviews; The White Stripes; Courtesy Love; U2; Paul Weller; Biffy Clyro and… a Hamster’. This is all pretty self explanatory, that there is going to be articles inside analysing their 10 favourite new acts, followed by interviews with all of the bands named above and probably something to do with a hamster. Below this is a grey circle, with the following written inside ‘John Lennon’s lost weekend, the untold story and the unseen pics’. This is pointing out that inside there will be an article or interview about John Lennon and something he did over one weekend. This will obviously attract any John Lennon fans and make them intrigued about what he has done and the pictures of him. Finally, on the left side of the page, there is six block printed lines all in the same format. The first is in red block print and says ‘Them Crooked Vultures’. The next one says ‘Vampire Weekend’ and is in white block print. The next says ‘Muse’ and is in white block print too, followed by ‘John Mayer’, ‘Midlake’ and ’50 cent & more’. All of these lines obviously mean that these are the things that will be inside the magazine with either articles, pictures or interviews on them.

Analysis.

Top left, there is the magazines logo so that their magazine can be identified by readers. The big red box will attract the attention of people who see it and the big 'Q' inside it is written in white, which makes it clear to read and also stands out.

At the bottom of the page, there is a block background, which uses white writing with a navy background. This makes it easier for reader to see as they wouldn't be able to read it on the white background which the writing would be on if the navy block background wasn't there. The writing inside it is just 4 different statements. The first one says Elbow, which suggests there is an interview or a story in the magazine about the band 'Elbow'. Then there is a red and blue forward slash which separates it from the next statement which says 'how to buy queen'. That suggests that there is going to be something inside the magazine about how the best ways to buy queen music is. Next, using the same eye-catching forward slash, says 'Pete Doherty'. This obviously shows that there is going to be an interview or article on Pete Doherty, which will attract any fans that he may have who see the magazine. Lastly there is a statement that says 'The hardest working corpses in music'. This is suggesting that there is going to be something inside that will tell readers their opinion of what dead musicians are having to 'work the hardest'. Across the middle of the page there is a horizontal heading that says 'Lily Allen', and just below in smaller writing it says 'and her wicked, wicked ways'. they colour scheme that this writing has been written in is half black and half white. This could have been done to try and represent her as a 'Cruella Deville' type character and obviously saying that she has wicked wicked ways is trying to say that there's is going to be an article inside proving that she has done something wrong. There are two panthers either side of Lily Allen, which is making her look dangerous and adds to the comparison of Cruella Deville. 

Top right there are 3 bullet points with big blue arrows pointing them out to readers. The first one is written in big black writing 'U2', and then next to it in smaller writing it says' Good lord, it's their masterpiece'. 'plus 181 more reviews'. This is making it pretty obvious that there is going to be 181 reviews about U2, and that U2 have had a concert or released an album recently that they have reviewed as their 'masterpiece'. The next bullet point, done in the same as the first, says 'I am a tiger, OASIS!' This is saying that there will be something about OASIS in the magazine and they have a new song called 'I am a Tiger', either that or there is something to do with the band OASIS and a tiger. The third and final bullet point says 'The 55 pint interview, Exclusive interview with The Stone Roses, Their own story in their own words'. This is showing that there will be an interview inside with The Stone Roses, and by the way its written it seems to be pretty casual and the '55 pint interview' is implying that there was 55 pints drunk throughout the interview. This will attract any Stone Roses fans. Last of all, to go with the theme of the front cover, there is a black and white circle surrounding text saying 'the 25 best rock movies'. This is again saying that there will be an article or a list of somebody's opinion 25 best rock films.  

Analysis

In big, bold white writing the Masthead 'Kerrang!' is written, as thats the name of the magazine and it needs to be obvious what magazine it is. At the very top of the cover there is a banner, reading 'Reading & Leeds 09, Rated! 8 page pullout! That shows that obviously there is going to be an 8 page pullout inside the magazine that rates the festivals in 2009. The main image on the cover is of the lead singer of Green Day with a Guitar, which looks like he's playing it. In green and black block print there are two quotes, one saying "this is the best show out there!" and under it says "Exclusive US tour report". That shows that there will be a report on Green Days tour around the United States, and that the overall theme of it is that its one the best if not the best show at the moment. To the left, there is a statement saying "WTF?! Harry Potter joins Gallows". Its pretty obvious what WTF means and thats the reaction to Harry Potter who has apparently "joined" a band called Gallows. Below this, on the left, there is a black box with inside written "New albums, The K Verdict, Muse, Megadith, All Time Low." and next to that there is a star with "Plus! over 20 more reviewed". That is saying that there will be album reviews on all of the bands named and plus 20 more inside. This will attract any fans that like the bands that are listed in the box. On the right there is a yellow box with a picture inside, presumably being Slipknot, as it says below it "Slipknot Storm Memory Line". 

The headline on this double page spread is a pull quote from the text, meaning that the headline is obviously related to the text below. The background is the same all over and is uncluttered and white which makes it easy for readers to concentrate just on the picture and the text. Lily Allen, covering the entire right side of the double page spread, has been dressed in a bright red checkered shirt, which stands out from everything on the other side of the page, and obviously its the first thing that readers will look at. The article is started off with a 'drop capital'. The text is separated into four identical columns, separated by gutters. Lily Allen is stood with her hands on her hips, with her wrists facing upwards to show the tattoo on her right one. This is done to make her look more rebellious, which people who buy this magazine would be interested in. Her face and eyes are directly looking at the camera, connoting a demanding and attention seeking image for her. At the bottom of each page is a the page number, the name of the magazine and the date. The name of the magazine is in the house style font and colour as it always is whilst the date is in a smaller font and is in italic. This helps to create a house style which is the magazine's design that distinguishes it from the other music magazines. The by-line is written at the side of the head line in the same style as the main coverline and Lily Allen's name in the lead. Lily Allen's name is written in the top right hand corner of the page in a black box. This tells the reader who the article is about.