Origional and Manipulated Images

Front Cover Finished Product

Contents And Feature Article Finished Products

Kerrang Case Study

Content/Genre Kerrang is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music and Heavy metal covering music from Metallica to Muse, Foo Fighters to Fall Out Boy

Publisher Spotlight Publications (United) / Emap / Bauer Media Group.  It is sold weekly.

The target audience for my music magazine are young people, aged between 18 and 25 years, who are creative and fans of indie and acoustic music. They are from a middle class family and aspire to make in big and be taken seriously in the arts world.

My mood boards show things such as brands, shops and hobbies my audience would have. They are creative, social people who like going to gigs and festivals and making memories.

My advertiser’s mood board also reveals information about my target audience, as it shows products and companies they would be interested in. The apple logo suggest that they are technology savvy and wealthy, and the designer labels and make up show they are fashion conscious within their own group. The hair dye shows the slight rebellion and wanting to be different. The starbucks and tickets again shows wealth and that a social life is important but they aren’t the type of people who hang around on street corners. 

My magazine represents the social group of my target audience: young people who are fans of indie and acoustic music. These teenagers are from a middle class background but aspire to do better however maybe not in a academic way so they aspire to be musicians or artists. The content of my magazine reflects this, as it contains articles and features which would interest them, but also the language used and colour scheme help to represent this group.

I used an artistic textured background as my masthead and contents page to relate back to my audience, I also chose the magazine name ‘IBIS’ which is a colour. The bright clothes worn in the front cover catch attention and draw the eye. The calm background colours clashed with the bright colours of the title and costume represent my target audience as being stable but somewhat unique and restless, as opposed to the sense of open rebellion portrayed by rock magazines such as Kerrang! The language used in my magazine is informal and uses slang as although my audience want to come across as higher class they are still teenagers.

My magazine is stereotypical in that it assumes the target audience will know who the bands and artists featured are. It stereotypes the kind of person who would listen to them through the content.

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

Conventions are an agreed set of conventional norms which form a custom. Conventions often change through different societies, countries and stereotypes. Like you wouldn’t see a ballerina in a rock magazine.Through its use of existing media conventions, my products look authentic and features style points similar to real magazines.Firstly, my front cover has a main image that takes up the whole page, masthead containing the magazine title at the top of the page, bar code, website and dateline. The masthead also creates a house style for my magazine, since it will be the same on each issue. There are few cover lines on my magazine this could be seen as challenging the conventions however the magazines I used for inspiration that also appealed to my demographic had simplistic front covers. Although I included a some coverlines to give details of the features inside and persuade to audience to buy it. These lines conventionally wrap around my main image. On my main image my models are not making eye contact with the audience this again challenges conventions but the fact that the image is taken off people of the genre that would read this magazine follows the conventional rules.
My contents page also features some magazine conventions, in that it is divided into regulars and features and contains page numbers and information about what is in the magazine.

Finally, my feature article conforms to conventions as I have used a larger image on the left had side of the page, a pull quote next to the heading and a side bar these are common conventions of real magazine feature articles, so they make my double page spread look authentic. Although my article is not set out in a way you would conventionally see in a magazine.