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. 

Construction Schedule

Feature Article Photoshoot

Information On Publishers

IPC and Bauer are the biggest publishers and cater for the whole of the public between them with their wide range of mainstream products. Together they own roughly 46% of the industry and therefore have a lot of power. However there are smaller companies that are more specialised in the genre of magazine they publish. For example Future PLC that cater for young/male audience.

When creating my magazine I would have to consider what publisher I would want to use or wheather I wanted to go solo.

Pros of going with a company; ·         Costs ·         Establishment ·         Distribution network

Cons of going with a company; ·         Control

Basically if I went to a company, I would have a quicker establishment in the market as they would have to money and connections to get my magazine widely spread straight away, this could be seen as a good thing because you can achieve power quicker and easier or a hindrance because it doesn’t give you a chance to iron out the creases before a large part of the public. Also going with a company does mean you hand over part of the control of your magazine.

I would choose to go with a company for the guidance and help. I would choose Conde Nast. They are a publisher that produces a certain genre of magazine aimed at a cultural, middle/higher class demographic therefore my audience of my magazine would fit in as they are middle class teens aspiring to look higher class with a rebelling edge. I took into consideration what other magazine they already produced when choosing my company because if they already have a magazine aimed at the same audience as they are not going to want another to challenge themselves. 

Feature Article Analysis

The image is anchored by a caption, its posited high on the page above the main focus of the image so that it is easy to spot and read but small as to not interfere or distract from the image. The main text of the article in started with a drop cap, in a different colour, larger, behind the main text. Another standard drop cap is further below. There are no pull quotes in this article however there is a circle in the middle containing information on the article a bit like the side bar, at the bottom right of the main article this gives further information in relation to the subject of the article. There is a whole page dedicated to the image and title of this article. Under the title they use a kicker to summarise what the article is about.