Audience Profile

My Cover Photo

I chose to take pictures of my friend Rosie as my model. I dressed her up in clothes that a typical college student would wear, I made sure she looked comfortable but ready for work. I put her against a blank wall to make sure she was the centre of attention, I chose this wall because it's the wall of a college which fits in with the theme. This image portrays the exact style and attitude that I would like to achieve with my magazine and general magazine appeal. My model is of the same age as my audience so they can relate to her. I will put this photo in photoshop and brighten some areas to meet my final aim for my magazine cover.

'College Crash' Magazine Press Release

This winter, Bauer Media Group want to launch 'College Crash' Magazine for full publishing beginning in January 2014. 

Taking a look at indie and alternative music, College Crash is created to provide the best of what these genres of music has to offer, without all of the 'boring bits' you usually find in magazines.

'College Crash' will include exclusive interviews, pictures, articles, and everything the readers want to know about their favourite bands. This magazine will bring the readers closer to the musicians as well the releases, interviews, gig reviews, gig listings, competitions, posters and photoshoots.

The magazine is aimed at students between the ages of 16 to 17 who listen to music and surf the internet in their free time.

Also, so that it appeals to the correct audience, 'College Crash' will be published as an online version on computers and mobile devices for reading and will also have links to social networking to reach a wider range of people.

'College Crash' will be distributed across newsagents in cities of England.

Kerrang! Double Page Spread Analysis

Kerrang! Contents Page Analysis

NME Double Page Spread Analysis

NME Front Cover Analysis

NME Contents Page Analysis

Top of the Pops Double Page Spread Analysis

College Magazine Front Cover Evaluation

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

My front cover uses conventions of a magazine by having the normal aspects of a front cover – masthead, photo, anchorage text, sell lines, barcode, etc. The front cover also uses media by having a photograph covering the whole page. It makes the cover stand out more to readers and passers-by, they see the colours and the brightness and they stop, look and pick it up. One of the conventions I used is having a barcode on the front cover; this shows that it’s a magazine and not a book. A book’s barcode is usually located on the back. On the cover, I have included the convention of sell lines. Sell lines allow the customer/ reader to show what’s inside, this might intrigue them to pick up the magazine and want to buy it.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine represents the social group by having a college student on the cover, which is who the magazine is actually aimed at. Having this student on the cover will attract other students to pick up the magazine and want to buy it. The sell lines also represent this social group because it’s about things they want to know about. I did a survey and these sell lines reflect the things that students wanted to read about such as; tips for saving money, gig listings and student discounts.

How did you attract/ address your audience?

To attract/ address my audience, I used a college student on the front cover wearing a band t shirt so the audience could relate to the cover already. I also used the conventions of typical conventions of magazines that students around college read, such as Kerrang!, NME and Q. I also attracted the audience by using sell lines which they relate to, including how to save money and what gigs were on and when.

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

I have learnt a lot about Photoshop from constructing my magazine front cover. This was interesting as people who work in the media use this regularly. Prior to making this front cover, I had no idea how to use Photoshop at all. However, now I know how to make parts of image transparent, how to layer images, how to make a photo a certain size (I made my front cover A4) and adding in text and changing the colour of that text. Another thing I learned how to do is alter the brightness of an image as the image I used was quite dark so I had to learn.

Contents Page

Magazine Front Cover

Audience Profile

Survey

I asked people to do this survey around college so I could understand my audience and build an audience profile.

Definition of a Magazine

A magazine is a periodical print publication containing articles, pictures and lots more covering a particular subject. A magazine can be brought out weekly bi-weekly, monthly or even annually. There are lots of different types of magazines and these types are called genres. There many different genres such as; music, animal, sport, craft, hobbies, films, photography, fashion, lifestyle, etc.

All About Me

My name is Amy, I am an A-Levels student at City College, Norwich.
This is my Foundation Portfolio in Media.