A selection of the pictures for my magazine.

These are some of the pictures that I thought were the best fitting to be included in my magazine. Prior to the shoot I had a plan for what shots I wanted to take, which in turn made it far easier and more efficient to do the actual photo shoot itself. For the cover page I took a lot of inspiration from the pictures placed on my initial draft, and for my contents and double page spread I didn't have a particular  picture for inspiration, but I did, however, have a certain idea of what the models should be doing.

What have I been doing this week?

This week I have been exclusively planning writing my interview which will feature in my music magazine. I have thought of what questions to include and if they fit in with the 'feel' of my magazine. But before I started writing the interview I had to think of the tone of which this interview would take. Formal or informal? I decided to look at Q magazine for inspiration. When we looked into (and read) the interview that was featured we noticed its informal tone straight away. It was less 'a straight Q&A' and more of 'a chat amongst friends'. I felt more comfortable reading that interview as it felt far more personable, and as that is one of the main things that draws me to a magazine, I want to use that tone in my magazine also.

Draft of double page spread

This is the draft for my double page spread. I wanted it to uphold the same theme as the cover page, so I included the same colours, font and overall layout, as to keep consistency flowing through my magazine. Consequently, I believe, the consistent layout throughout makes it look far more professional and 'put together'. Again, as this is a draft, changes will inevitably be made, and the pictures of Panic! At The Disco's Brendon Urie, will be replaced with my own. Also the context of the interview will be changed to fit with the artist pictured, when my own pictures will be featured.

Front Cover (Draft) for my Music Magazine

This is the draft version of my front cover for my magazine Amped Up!. Once I have taken my own pictures, they will replace the ones I have used here. I chose blue as the colour for my magazine as it reflects the mood of it- laid back and relaxed. The contrast of the white against the 'darker' background however; pops; and adds a bit of 'fun' to the cover itself. As I mentioned in my 'magazine/publication plan' post, I wanted to include a section on the instruments itself (as well as the artists), and that's the reasoning behind the 'best electric guitars on the market' article. As time goes on improvements will be made to this (i.e. looking more professional etc.), but for now- this is what I've done.

What have I done in Media Studies this week?

In Media Studies this week we have focused solely on Photoshop and InDesign. For the two weeks previous to this we have collected data concerning the media field of... music magazines. We have formulated our ideas for what our magazine is going to look like, and details such as, "where will it be distributed?" And "How much will this magazine cost" etc. As well has that we have also been planning the pictures for our magazine. Our other concerns have been- who, where, how and why? Who is going to be in our magazine, what models will I use? What age will 'said' models be? (in conjunction with the magazines specific target audience). Where will I shoot? And what location is best for my magazine? How will the pictures be taken and what kind of shot type will I use? Bird's eye view, mid-shot? Close-up? Full body shot? And lastly, why? Why am I choosing to position them in that way? What would this represent/symbolise? All these things are points that I've thought about whilst planning the pictures I've wanted to take for my magazine. Before the 'picture taking' itself we've practiced on Photoshop and InDesign, formulating a first draft for the music magazine (either cover or contents page). It's taken a bit of getting used to, and slowly but surely, it'll get there.

My Questionnaire Analysis

This is the PowerPoint presentation containing the analysis of the Music Magazine Questionnaire that I created, here are the results:

Questionnaire analysis from katieduttonmedia

Pictures I'm planning to take for the Music Magazine

For the cover shot, I am going to take a picture of my 'model(s)' against a white background. I believe this will look professional, and will not take too much attention away from the headline, tag lines, and the text relating to the article. As it is a double page spread (cover and contents page), other pictures will be needed. To add more interest to the contents I ideally want to take pictures of the 'model(s)' in a location aside from the white back drop. The poses I want my models to be in is standing, doing the typical "rock" poses. To add some drama to the shot, maybe some hair flips would be appropriate for the 'vibe' I'm going for, as it is fun and energetic. As props are concerned, I would like to get hold of some real electric guitars, and have my model(s) use them, as I believe it will add authenticity to the magazine if I feature instruments used by people in bands themselves on the front cover.

Double Page Spread Essay

‘Q Magazine’ and ‘We Heart Pop’ are two opposite magazines, in terms of the target audience. ‘We Heart Pop’ is targeted more towards tweens and people interested in pop/chart music, whereas Q Magazine is aimed towards people who enjoy the rock n’ roll type music and are (generally) of an older age. Taking this into account the language used in both differs, with Q magazine taking a more serious tone, you could say this is due down to the target audience.

The language used in the two different magazines vary, this is all dependent on the age of the readers. In Q Magazine the interviewing style is more ‘chatty’ and ‘relaxed’, almost like a conversion between the interviewer and the interviewee’s. The subject material in the interview is mainly based around alcohol and other controversial issues, which you could say links to the chatty approach to the interview itself. The language in the interview also links with the article title, with Q Magazine opting for ‘A Round with Biffy Clyro’. The word ‘round’ could link to the subject of alcohol throughout the interview, with the saying ‘a round of drinks’ often being used when describing alcohol. In ‘We Heart Pop’ the lexis is more specific. In order to understand the language, you need to know the relevant information associated with the genre. They also pulled quotes from the article itself such as “People are so judgemental” and “There was nothing creepy about Harry and Caroline at all”. This would only ever appeal to people who like the genre, and know the ins and outs of the pop culture, which makes ‘We Heart Pop’ more specific in terms of language.

In ‘Q’ and ‘We Heart Pop’ use pictures in different ways. Both use posed pictures, but ‘We Heart Pop’ uses more conventional model pictures whereas ‘Q’ uses more controversial and “out there” pictures. This is reflective of the target audience, but also the magazines ‘mood’ as a whole. The pictures also link in with the article; as the band pictured (Biffy Clyro) are drinking and displaying massive amounts of alcohol, which relates to subject matter of the interview. In ‘We Heart Pop’ the pictures don’t directly relate to the article, but add to it. I believe that this magazine only uses the pictures for effect rather than for relevance.

In conclusion, I have looked at the linguistic and visual conventions of both magazines and decided that I want the pictures (that I will use in my magazine) to be relevant to the article in some way. I am going to take more inspiration from the picture in ‘Q’ magazine rather than ‘We Heart Pop’, as I think it would be more fitting in my Rock/Alternative style magazine. And linguistically I want it to be, again, like ‘Q’. The chatty style of the interview itself is more relatable in my opinion, which is one of the characteristics that I want to uphold throughout my magazine.

Publication Plan

Name of magazine: Amped Up.

Font of name: This is the kind of font I want to use for the headline. 

Positioning statement: "For the rocker in you..."

The frequency of the publication will be every fortnight (2 weeks). I believe this is the perfect time between issues. It won't over whelm the reader, making them want to buy a new copy every week, but it isn't too long a period of time. This would prevent the reader getting bored waiting for the next issue to be published.

The price for my magazine will be £2.99. This is neither too expensive, nor too cheap. And for a regular reader (and purchaser) of the magazine, it would equate to just over £5 a month if you were to buy both issues monthly. 

I believe it should be distributed widely around shops/supermarkets/newsagents. I want it to be readily available to people who are interested. I also think a good place to advertise the magazine would be in retail chains who use the rock/alternative style of music through speakers in their stores. This would invite a new audience into looking at the magazine, as it might bring in casual shoppers who weren't thinking of buying the magazine initially- but like the background music that was playing.

The rationale behind it is that it is a fun magazine; aimed for those who like listening to rock/alternative styles of music, and who like to be informed on the latest tours and "things" going on in the rock/alternative music scene. I also think, that in every issue, there should be an extra 'gift' which would be guitar chords (or something of that nature) to a popular song of that genre. Not only would it be of interest to people who play instruments themselves, but it may be of interest to those who want to take up playing an instrument (that would be used in a rock band). As it would be released with every issue it would motivate people to try and learn a new song every fortnight- developing on their musical skills.

The style of the magazine will be fun and eye catching, but also professional looking. As my target audience ranges from the ages of 15-30, it would cater to the younger and the older part of my age bracket. 

Regular content would be that of the extra gift (that was mentioned in the rationale part of the publication plan), section (which will be regularly updated) on tour dates of relevant bands. 

Feature content of my issue will mainly consist of the pictures of the band/artist that will be referred to later in the magazine. 

I believe it is important to keep the font consistent throughout the magazine, as (at least to me), it looks more professional. 

Preliminary Task - Picture and Analysis

This was my sixth form magazine cover titled 'The Sixth Form Enquirer'. This is the first time I have ever used the Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop programme to produce anything like this (a magazine cover). I found it fairly straightforward to edit the photographs I had taken on Photoshop, mainly due down to the geometrical shapes of the objects/items that I ended up using on the cover itself. One of the pictures I found hardest to edit was the photograph of the student, as her hair needed to be intricately worked on, and this proved tricky and fiddly, but once I'd got the grasp of this task it progressively became easier to edit and I could tell I was becoming more efficient in terms of Photoshop editing pictures. The one thing concerning editing photographs that I could have done better is to concentrate on the outlines of the various pictures, as it doesn't look as proffesional as it could be capable of being because of the rough outline work. When stepping back from the editing itself and critically evaluating the preliminary task it is clear to me that I need to control my space management, as there is a lot of blank space visable and the font isn't very big.

Essay for Contents Pages.

Essay on the contents pages

Although these 4 different contents pages; are from different magazines; and are targeting different people as a whole- they all hold the conventions of a typical music magazine. In order to draw in the attention of a perspective reader the contents page needs to be attention grabbing, with attention grabbing article titles, to make someone want know the rest of “the story”, and in turn this will (hopefully) result in the purchase of the magazine (which is the main aim).

            One of the things that the contents pages have in common is the headlines are all bold and in capital letters. This is one of the typical conventions of a contents page, to capture the attention of someone who is going to buy the magazine. Also the headlines are either in black, white or grey which contrasts against the background tremendously- and as the purpose of a contents page is to inform, the bold titles are needed to do so.

            The use of high quality and interesting pictures is also another technique used to capture the attention of someone wanting to read more into the magazine. The layout of these pictures is another similarity that all pages share. There is always one big (main) picture situated in the middle of the page, with smaller ones either side- directly relating to the article title beside it. The use of these pictures is to add another dimension to the contents page itself, and also to be a visual representation of the article.

            Another way in which these contents pages can be compared is the way in which all of them use vague tag lines to give a taster into a specific article. This is a technique that is widely used to engage the reader; without giving too much away, and if that interests them enough- it might be a reason for them to buy the magazine. Such examples include “Someone’s gonna have to go to the hospital” (in NME magazine) and “It’s gone better than anybody ever expected- even me.” (Q magazine), these ambiguous taglines suggest a little to the reader, but not too much- leaving them with a little bit of mystery behind each article.  

            In conclusion, each of these contents pages holds certain conventions, to inform and persuade the reader in equal measures. The use of article headlines, tag lines and attention grabbing pictures throughout the contents page itself are the main similarities that all these magazines share; regardless of the target audience-whether it be for 12 year olds or even 70 year olds. 

Questionnaire for my Music Magazine

This is the questionnaire that I created: 

I wanted to get the opinions of music in general from other people, to aid me in creating the perfect magazine for my target audience. Firstly, I needed to see whether my target audience enjoyed the rock/alternative music style. Out of the 25 people I gave the questionnaire to, 18 people preferred 'Rock/Alternative' to 'R&B/Hip hop', and out of those 18, 2 people were aged 21 and over- which leads me to conclude that the 'Rock/Alternative' style of music is popular among a wide range of ages. On Question 3 which states 'Least favourite band/artist', all of the people who answered 'Rock/Alternative' on Question 1, tended to write an artist who fit more into the 'R&B/ Hip hop' category, and people who swayed more to the R&B genre tended to write a rock band/artist for their least favourite. This shows that there isn't many people who like both polar opposite genres, and that a 'Rock/Alternative' style magazine would certainly not appeal to those who prefer pop/chart music as a whole.

Main Magazine Publishers

These are the main magazine publishers that I will be researching

-Bauer Media
-National Magazine Company
-Future Publishing
-IPC Media
-Conde Nast
-BBC Worldwide

Bauer Media is 'multinational media company', with its HQ based in Hamburg, Germany. They publish well-known magazines such as FHM, Kerrang, Q and others. Bauer Media is Europe's largest privately owned publishing group and they offer over 300 magazines to 15 countries within Europe. Their ethos, which is posted on their website; states- "We connect people and communities with compelling and quality content, whenever, wherever and however they want."

National Magazine Company was established in 1910 by William Randolph Hearst. This magazine company takes an interest in, magazine, newspaper and business publishing. They publish these consumer magazines throughout the UK 

All About Soap, Best, Company, Cosmopolitan, Country Living, ELLE, ELLE Decoration, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar, House Beautiful, Inside Soap, Prima, Red, Real People, Reveal and Zest. 

Future Publishing- this magazine publisher mainly focuses on Technology, Entertainment & Video Games, Sport & Auto, Music and Creative genres of magazines. Future attracts over 38 million monthly visitors to their digital properties website. Their most successful products (magazines) include:

TechRadar (the UK’s number one consumer technology website), T3, Total Film, BikeRadar, MusicRadar, Classic Rock, GamesRadar, Digital Camera, Mollie Makes and Official Xbox Magazine.

IPC Media- has over 60 media brands over many social media platforms. IPC media engage with over 26 million UK adults and IPC's media website reaches 25 million users from across the globe every month.

Conde Nast- was founded in 1909, and its HQ is based in New York City. Conde Nast publish magazines, mainly focusing that of fashion. A few examples include- Vanity Fair, Vogue, GQ, Glamour and more.

BBC Worldwide- is a self-funded media publishing company. Their sole purpose is to help maximise profits on behalf of the BBC. These are BBC Worldwide's leading global brands: Lonely Planet, Top Gear, Dancing with the Stars, Doctor Who and BBC Earth.

Explanation of Target Audience

I believe that the appropriate target audience for my magazine should be between the ages of 15-30. I know from personal experience that people in their late teens; as well as adults, enjoy the rock/alternative genre of music. Taking this into account, I belive it is apt for me to model my music magazine around this target audience, encapturing a sense of youth into the music magazine- but also a sense of maturity (to cater for the older readers). The reason why I decided on 15 years rather than early teens (12-13) is that I believe that the conventional 12-13 year old in society today; would not be as into rock/alternative music as the older teen would be. Also (as some rock music is controversial at times), it is more appropriate to increase the lowest range of the target audience to an older teenager rather than children entering their adolesence.

Music Magazine Moodboard

This is my mood board for the music magazine I will be producing. The purpose of this mood board is to help represent what content will be on the cover and contents, and what genre of music magazine I will be going for. I, (as you can see) am into rock/alternative music, and this mood board is reflective of that. I believe it's important for me to make my music magazine on bands that I'm interested in as there would be more validity to the information I decide to put inside. I believe the best publishing institution for my magazine would be IPC Media. The reason for this is because they publish NME magazine. I personally really enjoy reading NME, and I believe that this is one of the main reasons for my choice to go with IPC Media. Another reason being that I like the layout of NME, and I believe I will take some inspiration from that, to form my own music magazine cover.

Compare the covers of two music magazines

These are the two magazine covers that I was analysing:

In this essay I am comparing the covers of two music magazines, NME and Total Guitar. Both follow the conventions of the typical music magazine, with both being aimed at an audience who enjoys the rock/alternative genre of music.

The target audience for both magazines are that of people who like rock/alternative music types, but it is not constricted to a certain age bracket- as people from all ages can like the bands advertised on the cover. With the band ‘Muse’ being the cover star of NME, and Billie-Joe Armstrong from ‘Green Day’, you could say; (stereotypically); that both music magazines would attract a younger audience (though that would be subject to certain stereotypes).

Both magazines use bold colours and fonts to attract the attention of a perspective reader, purely because of the persuasive nature of a magazine cover itself. NME and Total Guitar differ in the way colour is used. Total Guitar uses a wide range of colours such as bright pinks and yellows, contrasting on white and grey- whereas NME chooses to use orange, black and white throughout. Although the use of colours isn’t as dramatic in NME’s cover, the main picture used on the front cover stands out- popping out of the page. Also the angle that the photo is taken, and the way that the band members are positioned, make it look as if they are coming out of the page. This can be suggestive of it being more personal to the reader. The picture on Total Guitar also stands out, with the picture taken from a low angle, which makes the cover star appear taller and more dominant.
NME and Total Guitar use superlatives frequently in the cover lines. In NME they use “The world’s most insane band ever unveil their most ridiculous tour ever” and in Total Guitar they use “Europe’s best-selling magazine”. The use of superlatives on the magazine cover makes enhances the persuasive nature of the magazine, with the strong words such as “most” and “best”.

What I have learnt from looking at, comparing and analysing the magazines is that rock/alternative music magazines or almost any music magazine in general follows many conventions. NME and Total Guitar use bright colours to attract the attention of the audience, and the pictures of the cover stars (Muse and Green Day’s Billie-Joe Armstrong) also can have the same effect of a perspective reader. In my own magazine I will use bright colours and eye catching pictures to bring in a certain audience. I believe this is essential, to make my music magazine cover more persuasive.

School Magazine Draft

  This is my draft for the school magazine. I much prefer my front cover to my contents page, as I believe my contents page is lacking in visual interest (i.e pictures). Although it is structured in the way the title is placed on the page, and the font is professional looking- I believe pictures will be an added "something" to make my contents page more appealing. I also think that the use of page numbers next to the text on the cover will make the actual magazine itself far easier to nagavigate. I will take all of this into consideration when I present my final piece.

Pictures I will include on the front cover and contents page of the Sixth Form magazine

The pictures I will use for the Sixth Form magazine will be representational of the school, but also give an insight into what the articles inside the newspaper will be about. I believe this is paramount to add to the cover and contents page of a magazine as this is what; (ultimately); would draw in the attention of any perspective reader. 

On the front cover and contents page I will include pictures of the sixth form itself, showing people what the working environment for the sixth form students is like- but also the common room and the leisurely facilities available. Of course this is what (I think) anyone should add to a new Sixth Form magazine. Purely because someone would be more inclined to read more into the magazine if they knew what the school itself was like. 

I will also include pictures of students 'getting up' to their school work and extra curricular activities. This will not only present to whoever's reading, that the students are hard working and determined; but also show what a typical routine for a "sixth former" is like. 

I believe that the pictures I choose to include in my magazine, will serve one main purpose- to inform, and help to do one thing for the Sixth Form- represent. 

Photoshop Practise.

Throughout the duration of this AS we will be delving more into Photoshop, really unlocking its capabilities- but to get ourselves into "the swing of things" if you like, our task was to produce our own copy of this practise poster.

 I have a fair amount of experience with Photoshop itself, but I had never made a poster spread using the programme, so this was all new to me. All in all, this piece of work took about an hour and a half to produce, from a blank canvas; to what you see here. With step by step instructions it makes it far easier to complete the task in hand, and I think it'll come in useful when I produce the both the preliminary task magazine (the school magazine), and the final piece (the music magazine).

The bit that was the most tricky was definitely erasing the background from behind Amanda Seyfried and Gerard Butler's figure. It was intricate, and it required a lot of patience and time. Thankfully, due to the previous experience I had, I found it less difficult than I thought. The only real problem I experienced was getting rid of the grey and white blocks that covered the page. Katie, just get rid of them?! Yes. But how to do that will forever remain a mystery to me.

 I will include a step by step guide on how to achieve the finish product in my next post. But for now- bask in the glory, that is my practise poster.

School Magazine Mood Board

This is my school magazine moodboard, and it is showing the different aspects of school life. Such as the community of the school as a whole, after school activities, proms and the stuff that the children would be studying in school. I also decided to specifiy what the school specialises in, so that it could reach a certain target audience (those who were interested in Maths and Computing). I also wanted to include the aesthetics of the school itself, so that people would get a feel for how the school looked. This pre-judgment may be the difference between wanting to go to the sixth form or not.

Signs and Signifiers- Colours.

As I briefly mentioned in my last post, colours can signify a lot of different things. Certain colours can convey a certain message; to a certain audience. When (for example) you pick up a magazine; whether it be new and fresh, or years old-- you never really think about why they might have used that colour, it never really crosses your mind. The reason being, it isn't human nature. It's only when we look into it, and see what moods they possibly could convey; that we really see the reason behind it. 

Red: can signify romance, love, danger, fear, heat, horror or even passion. It is a bold colour, which may be used to highlight something which could be seen as urgent. It could signify blood, and may be used in horror movies, and things of a medical nature.

Green: this colour is commonly used when describing something to do with nature. It's a "fresh feeling" colour, and could symbolise new beginnings, regrowth, or a start of a new life.

Blue: is associated with something being calm, and mellow. On the opposite side of the spectrum though- blue can signify sadness and depression, so is often used for posters; for the commonly named "tear jerker film".  The same as green, nature can be associated with this colour too, obviously being linked to the sea and sky.

White: a whimsical colour. Very light, airy and neutral. Magazines of this nature, or those that are light hearted, may opt for the use of white throughout. It's common knowledge that a bride would wear a white dress to her wedding- so wedding magazines would heavily feature this particular colour. Also, religious imagery may come to mind with the colour white, as angels are seen (in many a picture) to be wearing white gowns, floating over white clouds.

Yellow: a bold, bright and happy colour. Commonly associated with that of the sun, and summer in general. As yellow is so in your face, it may be used for catching the eye of someone passing by; so magazines use it often to capture the attention of someone. Often to a big news story of the present day.

Gold: as the olympics have just finished here in the United Kingdom only a few weeks ago, it comes as no surprise that gold would signify that of a gold medal. Wealth also comes into it, which then links to jewellery as a whole. 

Silver: again, this symbolises both wealth and jewellery. Silver is often used in engagement/wedding rings, which could link to it being heavily used in wedding magazines (which could be said for gold also). It is also shiny, and metallic, and could grab the attention of a specific audience, or any passer-by in fact. 

...and lastly

Black: black is a bold colour, but when used; sets a serious tone- especially when it's being read by someone. It is often used in newspapers (and magazines alike), but as more "serious" newspapers such as, The Times or The Guardian use black text throughout, it is clear that it is trying to convey the message of being, as has been said, serious. Also as black is dark in colour (obviously), it may be used for movies that contain darker material (such as horror movies).

So, as you can see, colours do have hidden meanings, and can convey a lot of emotions to you; me; or anyone in fact. Even without knowing; colours may influence the way you perceive the text in front of you. And even though; really, it is just a colour-- it sends all sorts of messages. Without you even realising it.

An Introduction to Media.

Media Studies. An A-Level; delving into the world of social media, TV, Film and everything in between. And we land here- the grand old Web-Log, or to put it in simple mans terms- Blog. And; (which comes as no surprise) blogging is one of the many social tools which helps media grow and grow.

Magazines were the first thing on the agenda. Example: Here we have Mr Robert Pattinson in all his glory. And amongst the sea of words covering the front page (well- maybe a slight exaggeration) we ask the questions- Why is there BIG BOLD RED WRITING ALL OVER THE PAGE? Any symbolic meanings? Love, fear, danger; even romance? Who knows, but there is always a reason for everything.


I digress, magazines are little shiny booklets of information, serving certain purposes.

- To inform
- To advertise (companies and products)
- To make money
and most importantly
- Educate.

And for something with such few pages they contain quite a few different things, these include:

Advertisements, reviews, interviews, columnists, real life stories/events, celebrity gossip, agony aunt advice, free samples, recipes, horoscopes, fashion posts...etc etc (the list goes on).

So really, when you think about it, that is a LOT to go in one booklet of wonderment, isn't it?


So, as I finish off my introductory post on my media related coursework blog- we went into depth (as a Media Studies A-Level group) about what really makes a magazine, not just what we see on the surface. Uncovering things you wouldn't really even think about. Not everything is what it seems at first glance, and that goes for every magazine. Whether it be OK!, Women's Health or even National Geographic.