Personal Learning and Reflection

Front Cover Analysis

What I Learnt

In researching through lots of different front covers I found that lots of them use the same type of features which will be shown in the other box,. Some certain magazines which appeal to different audiences try to find their own independent way of setting out their front cover to try and appeal to people who want to find their own independent way of doing things. Lots of the fronts covers have bright colours but some have dark colours and this shows how it is very particular that only the dark colours on some magazines are particular to certain genres of the magazine. I will use this knowledge to have my front cover in bright colours and using the typical layout of a magazine as I think that it will mean I can appeal to the largest possible audience.

Typical Features

Text Dominant on One Side

Large Image in Background

Title At Top

Title Stands Out

Contents Page Analysis

What I Learnt

I found that the contents pages vary a lot depending on the certain audience and genre of the magazine. I found that for the magazines which have a more stylish look they will have the information spread out a lot more and have a image dominating the page, whereas others have a look where they try and fit all of the information onto one page. I will use this in my contents page as I think I will try and spread all of the information out over certain places to try and make the contents page seem more stylish rather than cramped in one page.

Typical Features

Numbers on Right

Large image in Centre

Title at Top

News at Bottom

Double Page Spread Analysis

What I Learnt

I found that with the double page spreads they have different ways of setting out the information depending on the topic and also depending on the genre of the magazine. It is similar to a contents page as the text can show a lot on what the formality of the magazine is, where the text is spaced out it means that there is more room for images which people may be more interested in especially if they have star appeal. I will keep my magazine in a formal style and space it out with a large title on one page and then images and text on the other.

Typical Features

Title which takes up half of one page

Image which takes up background of another whole page

Text is easy to read

Text is split up into different sections

Audience Research Analysis

What I Learnt

The audience results show I should aim my magazine at an audience of around an average age of 18 as these are the largest audience who read music magazines. If I can achieve a good magazine which can relate to this audience then it will mean I have a large audience to produce my product for
The music magazines showed that most people who I questioned like to read the iDJ magazines so I will be focusing my music magazine around the genre of house/ techno music as I believe that it will mean that I can achieve the largest audience possible.
The favourite band showed that they enjoy ‘Coldplay’ and this would be because the main genre of music for bands is ‘Alternative Rock’ and there are only music artists who work singularly in the genre of ‘House’.
The favourite music artists turned out as ‘Eminem’ and ‘Netsky’ who work in the rap and the Dubstep music genres and these will both be focused on in the magazine so that it means I have a very large audience.
The websites regularly used came out as the majority use ‘Facebook’ I will use this information for readers to be able to follow their favourite music artists on Facebook which means that popularity of the magazine and the artists will increase.
The festivals came out as reading festival was very popular so I may focus some of my work on what happens at reading festival and looking at features and artists who went there.
Accessing music came down to iTunes and YouTube and I think YouTube would be the best to use and advertise in the magazines as people can listen for free whereas on iTunes more people do not want to have to pay to listen to their favourite music.
TV channels and programmes and music channels had similar results as most of the top answers included music channels or shows to show how the music industry can dominate over lots of other popular TV programmes. The second favourite TV programme is a comedy so I will try and fit the aspect of comedy into my magazine.