Questionnaire I used...

1. What do you associate with the name of the magazine?

2. What does the main image on the front cover make you think of?

3. Which of the cover stories do you think is most interesting?

4. Is the front cover appealing? Explain why or why not

5.  Which age group do you think the magazine appeals to?

6. Which gender do you think it’s aimed at?

7. What genre do you associate with the cover?

8. Is the layout of the contents page clear and easy to use?

9. Is the contents page attractive to look at?

10. Does the contents page resemble a page from a music magazine?

11. Is the content of the article of interest to you? Reason

12. Does the headline make you want to read the article?

13. Does the main picture represent the content of the article successfully?

14. Would you buy the magazine for the cover price?

15. How would you rate the quality of the overall magazine? 1 bad 5 good

Questionnaire Results

I produced a questionnaire to ask my target audience what they thought about my magazine.
I asked ten different people they're opinions both male and female.

FRONT COVER
From the questionnaire I have been able to analyse the responses, 60% of the people thought the masthead XTC had connotations with Drugs, which isn't the perfect response, however they also believed it gave the impression of excitement and had a strong link to the magazine name NME. In reflection I could have used perhaps a slightly more appropriate masthead which would have given a better impression.

70% of the people I asked believed that my main image for the front cover reminded them of a mainstream young music artist, 50% of the people I asked said they would buy this magazine purely for the artist on the front cover.

Out of the number of cover stories featured on the magazine front cover the majority of people were most interested in the awards featured at the bottom of the page along with the main headline, people were interested to see who would win these awards.

90% of the people I asked found the front cover appealing because of it's unique colour scheme and the amount of information found on the front cover.

Also once again the majority of people believed that the age group the magazine was targeted at was 15-20 year olds, which is the age group I was aiming to target.

Also everybody asked believed that the magazine was available both for male and females which was also my intention.

Also 90% of the males and females asked believed that the front cover portrayed the Indie/Rock genre, they could tell this from references to 'Rock City' and my the general look of the main artist.

CONTENTS PAGE

Everybody I questioned about the contents page believed that it was an accessible and easy contents page to use and if needed they could find everything they wanted too.

When asked if my contents page resembled any established music magazines, 70% of those asked believed it has a certain resemblance to kerrang magazines contents page.

ARTICLE

60% of the people I asked believed that my article would interest them, particularly because the article is about a home grown band from South Wales, and therefore there could be links to themselves.

Only 50% of the people questioned believed that the headline related well to the article, 'born and bred' refers to the new album and where they grew up as kids, the remaining 50% believed the headline could have been better.

Only 40% believed that the main image of the article coincided well with the main image of the front cover. They believed it showed somewhere in his hometown and also showed his creativity as an artist. The other 60% couldn't see the connotations between the article and the image.

80% of people said they would buy my particular magazine for its cover price especially if the main article appealed to them the other 20% believed that it was too expensive for a weekly magazine.

Out of the 10 people I asked eight rated my magazine as a 4/5 whereas the other two rated it as a 3/5 and decided that my magazine wouldn't be for them.

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

 Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel I have learnt a number of different methods and made a huge improvement on my first effort at a magazine front cover.

I have learnt that the main image is the most important part of the front cover is the main image and you can see the difference between the two images as my music magazine front cover looks more professional.
My main image on XTC looks more professional as the artist looks more engaged with the magazine. The image on my school front cover is in a natural area and doesn't look right in the context of the headline.

My layout has most definitely improved from the preliminary task, my masthead has been placed in a more conventional place in the top left of the page. Also the colour scheme has improved dramatically between the two tasks as XTC follows a strict three colours scheme whereas there is a clear clash between purple and yellow in 'Class Act' .

With my preliminary task there weren't that many sell lines and the cover lacked a price and barcode which were added on my music magazine, more sell lines were also added.

I have learnt to use a variety of camera angles in stead of basic camera angles. I have learnt to use software and develop my skills.

Therefore I believe in conclusion I have learnt to conform to the conventions of a music magazine and I have learnt to develop my skills in order to create a realistic example of a music magazine.

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

TECHNOLOGIES USED

Adobe In-design  -  I used adobe in-design to design the layout and general style of the magazine. It helped me understand the difficulties of creating a magazine, with the confusion of creating layers, using different fonts, organising the pages, creating text boxes and images.







Internet- The internet played an important role in the creation of my magazine as I needed to use it for finding ideas and examples to help create my own pages. It helped me follow the codes and conventions of a normal magazine. 

Corel Paintshop Pro - Coral paintshop pro made the important role of helping me create the perfect images for my magazine pages. It helped me remove backgrounds on images and make them look more realistic in music terms. 

Adobe Bridge - This was used to help bring photos from my camera to adobe in-design. 

Camera - The camera i used was also an integral part of the technology I needed to use as it needed to be at least 10 mega pixel to help make the images I needed to use look better. 

In conclusion, I have learnt that in the process of construction the technologies used provided a difficult challenge for me to overcome. I learnt that to produce 3 pages for a magazine took hours of time to create and therefore to create a whole magazine with certain technology requires an excellent amount of skill and time. 

XTC mission statement

XTC is a new music magazine which helps bridge the divide between rock and indie music. XTC will combine both these genres to bring you a new branch of information from the music industry. XTC will be produced for the younger generation who are devoted to the music world.

XTC is aimed at the attitudes of 15-23 year old mindset. XTC readers are intelligent, unique and have a passion for music and an original sense of humour.

XTC contains all the information any music reader would need to keep up with indie and rock music in todays world. XTC is proud to boast of its outstanding mix of reviews, interviews and brilliant articles for its readers.

XTC will give credit where credit is due both to its readers and artists featured in the magazine itself.

XTC is a new way in which the audience can communicate with the music industry.

5.How did you attract/address your audience?

Layout
The layout of the magazine provides an important role of attracting and addressing my audience, by creating a simple, effective and non cluttered layout I could attract the reader to my magazine easily. Without clutter it makes it easier to read and therefore the reader can find their way round the magazine easily whereas if there was clutter this could become difficult. The placing of my main image, masthead and sell lines prove vital when constructing a magazine so it can attract the reader. Certain aspects of the magazine such as these need to stand out in order to attract the audience.


Participation, trust, support and status
With regard to addressing my audience the language used needs to reflect on the audience I am trying to target. Making the reader feel involved is incredibly important. Advertisement therefore is essential, the chance to win gig tickets, albums or signed gifts can help sway a reader to buy the magazine to have a chance to win. Addressing the reader as 'you' establishes a certain amount of trust between the magazine and the reader. Establishing trust with the reader and helping build a personal rapport can help the reader feel socially involved. It can help make the reader feel belong and have a position of confidence with in the magazine. I believe my magazine does this through the layout, text and general look of the magazine. 


Images
The images can prove paramount in attracting a reader, as it is the first thing they see when they spot a magazine. Whether it be a female artist or male artist the image has to be unique and striking to attract its readers, and I think my images do this. My image portray both typical male and female artists, this should help attract both genders to my magazine. My magazine images help attract and address my readers in a number of different ways such as the gender and uniqueness of the images. 

4.Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience I would try to attract to my media product would have to be young and regular music listeners. The magazine I have produced can appeal to both females and males, however I would imagine that the majority of the readers I have targeted would be male.

These for example are the people I am trying to target - regular gig goers. 

My magazine will aim to cover the divide between Indie and Rock music, therefore the magazine would contain both rock bands and indie bands in todays world. There would be information for those who need tips on which albums to buy and which gigs to go too. There would be a large amount of trust and respect between magazine and reader, helping the reader feel involved and participate in magazine competitions. The reader would be able to rely on the magazine to provide the necessary music information for them to develop their own music taste.

            


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Divide between Indie and Rock to be closed...