Production - Final Front Cover

Production - Final Contents Page

Production - Final Double Page Spread

Click on image to enlarge.

Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation question 1 redo from 10-klam

Evaluation Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation Question 2 from Katie Lam on Vimeo.

Evaluation Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation question 3 from 10-klam

Bauer Media Group already has a wide network of different media products, which includes the likes of MOJO and Q Magazine. However, these magazines are mainly targeted towards an audience of a slightly older demographic in comparison to Junction.

MOJO is a magazine suitable for those who enjoy rock/classic rock music and is therefore aimed more towards those 35 years old and above. The content of the magazine is centred around more experienced and well-known musicians.

Q Magazine is quite generic in comparison to MOJO, in the sense that the focus genre is not cemented - it varies from time to time. Although it is identified as an alternative music magazine, it does feature more mainstream pop artists. Furthermore, the target audience is similar to that os MOJO's.

Junction would be an ideal music magazine for Bauer's "Millennial" target audience which so far only has Kerrang! magazine aimed towards them. The content of Junction is relevant to those of the 16-34 demographic. Also, according to Bauer, Millennial's are "digitally native" - Junction caters to the needs of a younger target audience through the use of technologies such as social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, even Snapchat). By becoming the distributor of Junction, Bauer can be one of the first institutions to have a product that would attract a purely 16-34 years old demographic - many of the current music magazines are at the ends of the age spectrum, i.e. magazines are targeted at either under-13 year olds or 35+ - there is yet to be a magazine that reaches out to those in the middle). They can appeal to a wider target audience in general and essentially expand their horizons.

Evaluation Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

INTENDED AUDIENCE: 

• 16 - 24 year olds 
• Teenagers and students 
• "Explorers" and "Reformers" 
• From a B/C1 socio-economic background

Ways in which I tried to attract my target audience:

1. House style: From generic research, I found that there is little to no indie music magazine directed specifically at teenagers/students. In general, acknowledged music magazines are aimed at people in their twenties and early thirties since they are perceived to have better knowledge of music than teenagers. Because of this, the style of the magazine often comes across as boring and unappealing to teenagers. 

FOR EXAMPLE: 

NME recently underwent a makeover which affected their house style. Previously, their iconography was red. This was their iconic colour throughout the decades the publication has been around, which meant their reader demographic was mainly in their early thirties and above.

However, the renovated cover has a much more minimalistic house style and features artists of all genres including the likes of Taylor Swift, Zayn Malik and Justin Bieber. The various styles for each cover means that the reader demographic has shifted in terms of age.  They now have much younger readers because the forms and conventions are much more attractive for younger readers.

The house style for Junction is essentially a hybrid of NME's older and new style; it maintains a simple colour scheme, but not quite minimalist. 

From my focus group feedback questionnaire, 85.7% of responses said that they would read my magazine based on only my front page. This proves that I have attracted my target audience effectively.

2. Model: Many of the responses from the feedback questionnaire said that the front image was intriguing and because of the way I had edited the photo, the blue of the model's eyes were emphasised and rather captivating.

(Please click to enlarge)

Through the use of direct mode of address, the image manages to draw in and create a strong connection with the audience. Furthermore, with the way the model is hiding the lower half of her face with her hands, an aura of mystery and enigma is created. Since Junction is a magazine that promotes new, unknown artists, many readers may be unaware of who 'Luna' is. They will feel inclined to find out who she is and why she said what she said (regarding the quote on the front cover).



Social Media: Teenagers are essentially "digitally native" and the main way in which to communicate and address with them as a target audience would be through the use of social media. It offers a direct link between the institution and audience. According to a recent survey...

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tk-facts-about-teens-on-social-media-that-are-really-scary_us_55a7c6f0e4b0896514d06eab

To take advantage of this, on my contents page, I included a section in the bottom right corner ("Hit us up!") where there are links to the various social media pages that Junction has - Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, as well as a website link.

To reach an even broader audience, I think it would have been beneficial to include a Snapchat, Vine and/or a Tumblr link.



"Audience Reviews": Readers can take part in the production of the magazine through the segment by sending in reviews of their own.

Teenagers and students are often neglected and there are very few professional platforms where their views can be deemed influential. So there will be many teens who will enjoy Junction purely because it promotes interactive audience engagement.

Evaluation Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of creating this product?

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

Evaluation Question 7 from Katie Lam on Vimeo.

Here is an article about a movement which combats the sexual harassment of teenage girls during concerts: https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/the-teen-girls-calling-out-sexual-assault-at-music-concerts

The movement has the support of many well-known indie bands, such as Peace, Swim Deep and Spector. This is an example of the type of articles that Junction would aim to produce: informative, relevant, interesting articles that are steered towards my target audience.

Sixth Form VS Music
Create column charts

Progress of Production - Double Page Spread

Planning - Article for Double Page Spread

“THE BATTLE AGAINST DIGITISATION”

Undeniably, the world of music has become smaller over the past decade. So small that you could probably hold it in your hands. Oh wait, now you can. 

With the establishment of free online streaming services such as Spotify and Deezer, the majority of the world’s music catalogue can be accessed through the simple click of a button on your phone. Of course, this is beneficial for music lovers who are potentially unable to buy physical albums and it provides an easy avenue to discovering new music. But is it an industry that thrives off the exploitation of artists?

What are the cons of artists having music on streaming services? Well, there is the large issue with paying out royalties. Spotify often catches a lot of criticism for its meagre royalty payments, which range from $0.006 to $0.0084 per stream. The company claims that a small indie band makes about $3,300 a month off an album, whilst a highly successful indie band makes $75,000 a month. Data from a 12-week period between June and August 2013 shows that 78.6 million streams on Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” equated to only $660,000. This sum is then split between the record label, publishers, collecting societies and the artists themselves. On Pandora, one million plays results in only $1,370. As you can imagine, that is a very small sum of money to be divided then awarded to each musician. For many, it is not enough to even pay their rent. Is this fair?

In November 2014, in a highly publicised manoeuvre, Taylor Swift pulled her entire back catalogue off of Spotify. Writing in the Wall Street Journal in July of last year, Taylor Swift argues that “music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things are paid for.” The singer believes that uploading music to streaming services is essentially artists underestimating themselves and undervaluing their art. She recently took a stab to Apple Music after its original policy refused to pay artists during free-trial periods. In an open letter to the company, Swift is disappointed that artists are being exploited despite the fact that Apple is more than capable enough of paying artists what they deserve. Adele has also followed the footsteps of Swift with the recent release of her highly anticipated comeback album, 25, which is currently unavailable on Spotify and Apple Music.

But artists like Adele and Swift are anomalies – they’re two of the very few artists who are able to pull this off and still remain popular.

Revival of the vinyl

However, new studies from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) have shown that 69% of people would be more inclined to purchase music on a different format once they discovered it via a streaming service. So could it be that streaming services are actually encouraging physical sales? That could very well be the case. In fact, it appears vinyl is making an unexpected comeback. Even TESCO stock vinyl LPs after a successful trial in selling an Iron Maiden record in the summer. Some argue that this could be due to the revival of the indie genre, plagued with teenagers who find the “aesthetic” pleasing. Or, more optimistically, people could be realising the true value of music and that physically investing in it makes the experience a whole lot more worth it. 

Production - Adobe Indesign

This is my first attempt at using Adobe Indesign CS5.5. I attempted at planning a double page spread with six text columns and an image that has the text wrapped around it.

Progress of Production - Changes made to Contents Page

The contents page had to be changed in order to correspond with the front cover but very little change was actually made. Only the images of the models were swapped and the writing was made to fit within the frame of the new image.

Progress of Production - Contents Page

Progress of Production - Changes made to Front Cover

Initially, the front cover was the image on the left. However, after much deliberation, it was decided that the model's appearance was not suitable for the genre of my magazine (indie-/alternative-/folk-rock). She exuded more of an innocent and pure image despite the indie clothing and graffiti background. Moreover, I felt as though my first front cover lacked professionalism - there was no colour scheme and there was little variation in font sizes. In the end it resembled more of a pop-punk magazine, similar to Kerrang! or Rock Sound. Therefore, I used another model and changed the colour scheme. I much prefer the second front cover as it corresponds more with the grunge ambience that indie rock often emanates. 

Progress of Production - Front Cover