College Magazine: Contents Page

College Magazine: Front Cover

Research & Planning: Comparisons with other music magazines

'Lyric', my own designed magazine, is quite similar to the magazine I am comparing it with. This was not intentional but I will probably make some alterations so that there are much more differences. 'Rock Sound' is a rock/emo/alternative genre based magazine that has an audience of teenagers+ and particularly the white race. Although my magazine is a rock/alternative genre, music is changing so much in this generation that 'emo' may slip into it the category, depending on publicity and fame. I have also aimed for my audience to be 14 year old+ and will most probably attract the white race as the majority of white people listen to these types of music. Although, I want it to be of a wide range and any race can read it but everything is stereotyped nowadays.

I have planned to have my front cover's main colour scheme as black, white and blue whereas once again, Kerrang is very similar. Fortunately, Rock Sound change the colour scheme of their front covers most weeks but they have used black and white a fair few times. I have looked at many of their magazines and they change weekly; one week it'll be a theme of black, white & yellow, the next it will be white, green, black & yellow whereas another week it will be blue, red & white etc! I, on the other hand, would personally keep Lyric with the same background every week even though Rock Sound have used a very clever and eye catching technique by changing the cover several times. The advantages would be of keeping the readers interested, guessing what the colour schemes would be next and Rock Sound can relate the colours to the features of the main bands. The disadvantage is that because it changes so often, the audience would not be able to identify the magazine very easily. 


I also want a big, bold heading of my magazine's name whereas Rock Sound have theirs this way too. The difference would be that I would prefer mine to be grammatically corrected with a capital L and the rest of the letters lower case whilst Rock Sound has chosen to have it's name in all capitals. This is a good way to have it as it's eye-catching and very bold but quite boring at the same time. Also, their main images overlaps their heading and I want to have 'Lyric' at the front and nothing to overlap it or for it to overlap the main image either - this is also an example of an editing style. Other editings made are of images tilted to the side, jaunty and different angles that you would not expect which I hope to use in the future with my own magazine.


Rock Sound contains several advertisements, reviews, features and images just like I hope my magazine will contain. More images that are contained are big and 'in your face' so that the audience is able to see some of the best pictures of those bands and the language used attracts the audience to read on and buy more magazines. I hope to use both these techniques in my magazine so that it comes out in the best quality. The features and reviews, in Rock Sound magazine, also take up a few pages which is what I am hoping to do with my own magazine as well as sections for the advertisements. It gives the audience a pull perspective about the bands and due to having a large amount of space, gives an excuse for the magazine to get as much information about them as possible.

Research & Planning: Ideas development

Brain Storm

• Music Magazine:
• directed at a teenage+ audience. (14 - 25s?)
• interviews of bands - 'clever' titles? - band/music/lyrics related titles?
• maybe contain gossip.
• advertisements - clothing, piercings, gigs/concerts etc.
• features - whole page on a band
• genre: rock/alternative
• a few bands: Paramore, Stereophonics, Muse, Snow Patrol, Keane, We The Kings, Evanescence, Foals, Nickelback, Flyleaf, A Day To Remember, Enter Shikari etc.
• names: rhythm, tunes, plec - may research parts of guitars, amps etc.
  
  

About Music Magazine

I plan to design and make a magazine based on the music genre/s rock and alternative that would be directed at a teenage+ audience (14 - 25s) of both sexes. Rock and alternative are some of my favourite genres and my magazine specifies this audience because most young people listen to these genres of today.

Rock is a form of popular music arising from and incorporating a variety of musical styles, especially rhythm and blues, country music, and gospel. Originating in the United States in the 1950s, it is characterized by electronically amplified instrumentation, a heavily accented beat, and relatively simple phrase structure.
On the other hand, alternative music (also called alternative rock, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. Alternative rock consists of various subgenres that have emerged from the independent music scene since the 1980s, such as grunge, Brit pop, gothic rock, and indie pop. These genres are unified by their collective debt to the style and/or ethos of punk rock which laid the groundwork for alternative music in the 1970s.

My magazine will contain several advertisement articles for subjects such as clothing, body piercings and gig/concerts coming up in the year. I hope that it will also have several pages of gossip, features and interviews. The reason is chose to include these articles because they are all very popular nowadays, especially for young people. I will make sure that there is a certain section of pages, in my magazine, for advertisements so that the audience can either skip or head straight to that section if they are in need of contact details for that marketing or want to have a look at what there is to offer. It will not contain too much information on these advertisements but enough for a person to be able to contact the businesses. I have also decided to include gossip, features and interviews in my magazine because they are also very popular to the audience I have targeted my magazine towards. I am hoping to have music related or 'clever but funny' headings for the features and interviews so that they are still related to the band/music and they will capture the audience.


I'm planning to use a colour scheme of mainly black, blue and white as well as big, bold writing for the heading that hopefully will capture the eye and become recognisable. I want my magazine to look 'trendy' as well as having a formal structure that is easy to read. If you were to stereotype my magazine as a colour, you would automatically think black because of the genre/s of music and the bands used so I'm going to continue with that stereotype. I've chosen blue and white too as I like the idea of bright over dark so that it stands out and captures the audience more. Although doing this, it could be considered slightly masculine despite my aim being towards both sexes. 


I have considered several names for my magazine, such as; Rhythm, Tunes, Crunk, Plec and have researched parts of guitars, amps and several other instruments/technology that relates to the genres of music I have chosen to base my magazine upon. I originally chose 'Amplifier' as my magazine title but unfortunately another magazine had called it that. In the end, I chose Lyric as my magazine name, although I may change it soon as I'm still unsure. I chose this because lyrics are the meaning of a song, the story behind it. Lyrics are very important in a song to express their feelings, stories etc.


I have several bands that I have considered to be in my magazine, bands that are obviously within the rock/alternative/alternative rock genre/s. Some of the bands I have chosen will also advertise (in the advert section) their merchandise, gigs etc and others also help charities which can also be mentioned. Charities such as 'To Write Love On Her Arms' (TWLOHA) will also be considered and mentioned in my magazine to help promote, this will most probably be in the advertisement sections. Bands such as; Paramore, Stereophonics, Muse, Snow Patrol, We The Kings, Evanescense, Foals, The Killers, Linkin Park, Nickelback, Flyleaf, A Day To Remember, Enter Shikari and many more.

Everything we have learnt in our Media lessons so far;

As well as everything we have done so far in my past 2 blogs, we have also learnt...

• Ideology
  - the way in which people think about the world and the ideal concept of how to live in the world. (single)
  - shared beliefs of a group of people (everyone)
  
  
• Newspapers
  - how to analyse
  - headline - puns; comical words, headlines, joke in headline
  - font
  - images
  - quotes
  - exaggeration
  - target audience
  - stereotypes
  - who/what/where/when/why
  
  
• Jobs in the media industry
  - Broadcast journalist
  - Radio Traffic Manager
  - Radio Presenter
  - Camera Operator
  - Editor, etc.
  
  
  
• Stereotypes - an assumption made that people are the same as each other rather than different .i.e. drink beer to act like a man or look presentable and have your legs crossed to be lady like.
  
  
  
• Richard Dyer
   - an ordering process (helps us make sense of society)
  - a short cut (macho man; strong, muscles, tall, brave etc.)
  - a way of referring to the world (identify with a group of people they don't know)
  - an expression of "our" beliefs
  
  
  
• The definition of 'news' and understand what makes a good story.
  - Current events presented to the public
  - Breaks stories to the public
  - "A report of a current event given by a newspaper, TV channel, radio show etc."
  
  
  
• Broadsheets
  - The Guardian
  - Telegraph
  - Independent
  - The Times
  - Financial Times
  - Sunday Times
  
  
• Tabloids 
• Black Tops
  - Daily Mail
  - Daily Express
  - Evening Standard (regional)
  - Sunday Express
  - The Mail on Sunday
  
• Red Tops
  - Daily Mirror
  - Sun
  - Star
  - Sport
  - News of the World
  - Sunday Mirror
  
  
  
• Movie Genres
• Movie Dramas
  - Comedy Drama (Shameless)
  - Sci-Fi Drama (Torchwood)
  - Fantasy Drama (Queen's Nose)
  - Supernatural Drama (Trueblood)
  - Horror Drama (Vampire Diaries)
  - Soap Drama (Eastenders)
  - Medical Drama (Doctors)
  - Documentary Drama (Taking The Prince Harry)
  - School Drama (Waterloo Road)
  - Crime Drama (The Bill)
  - Teen Drama (Veronica Mars)
  - Kitchen Sink Drama (everything in it) (Coronation Street)
  - Political Drama (State of Play)
  
  
  
• Magazine Covers  
• Masthead - the category, the name of magazines
                  - big letters, colour etc for the audience to remember
                  - to fit the audience of the magazine
   
• Main Image - the important of the magazine .i.e. the main subject - who will star in it etc.
                     - centerpoint
  
  
• Selling line - brief of what the magazine is. "The magazine is for..."
  
  
• Main cover lines - the main topic of the magazine
                            - the selling point
  
  
• Bar code - it has to be there.
  
  
• Dateline - date
  
  
  
• Genre Conventions
  - Camera shots
  - Camera angles - (close ups, bird's eye view, pov view)
  - Camera Movement
  - Sound - diegetic
               - non-diegetic
  - Sound effects
  - Editing
  - Mise en scene (everything you see in the scene; props, costumes, location etc in the shot.)
  

Average Geek to Billionaire Freak!

Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerburg is the founder of Facebook and has risen his way up in Forbes rich list, his wealth has trippled in a year! He is a 26-year-old Harvard dropout with a quirky personality who likes to admit that he's 'awkward' and has insulted his own customers calling them "Dumb f*cks." 'Zuck', known to his friends, has always kept a low profile. He lives in a rented house in Silicon Valley with his college sweetheart, Priscilla Chan. Ironically, facebook was originally born in his Harvard dorm, just six years ago and is now worth $23bn. Facebook is incredibly popular these days, even a Hollywood movie called 'The Social Network' has been created. It portrays the Facebook founder as an insecure social climber who brutally cuts loose friends who collaborated in the venture's early days, by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. The comment that Zuckerberg said about his customers, was leaked onto the internet recently which caused a large uproar and several problems for him. From what Zuckerberg has said to the public, it seems he has grown up a lot since his insults and arrogance, and has apologised to his customers. "If you're going to go on to build a service that is influential and that a lot of people rely on, you need to be mature, right?"

AS Media Studies - Lessons

I really like Media Studies, considering I've only had a few lessons.
For our first lesson we all had a go of the Macs to get used to them and practiced on some key skills on Photoshop. Our tutor, Andy, took a picture of Zara's face and we all had it up on our computers (lol) which we then had the pleasure of editing it! We used the magic wand, picture layering, cut & drag and colour. We then had a 'et to know' session and we all interviewed one another to find out what our other classmates' favourite medias were. In this lesson, we were also told about this blog!

We then looked into all the different Medias in the Industry.
The 9 Main Industry Sectors:

• Film
• Radio
• Press
• Interactive
• Advertising & Marketing
• Computer Games
• Print
• Music
• TV

Media Conglomerates - describes companies that own large numbers of other companies in various mass media such as TV, radio, publishing, movies and the internet. It is also referred to as media institutions and media groups. 

Genre: a category of artistic composition.

Representation: the act of representing.

Audience: spectators or listeners assembled at a performance.

Narrative: some kind of retelling, often in words, of something that happened (a story).
Institution: the act of instituting. A custom, practice, relationship, or society. 

Ideology: the body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class or culture.
Technology: the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment, drawing upon such subjects as industrial arts, engineering, applied science, and pure science.

We also looked into Globalisation; this means a country or corporation attempt to manipulate other countries with their media so that more countries like them.
Cultural Imperialisation comes into this, it is where a country is trained to believe that another culture is better than their own. They do this so that they have an excuse to ship products all over the world.

Unfortunately I wasn't here for the next lesson, I had an art trip that I had to attend to. I'm sure I'll catch up though!