Magazine Evalution (Diverse)

'DIVERSE' uses some conventions of real music magazines as a basic guidance, the masthead is big, bold and is justified to the right spanning the width of front page as many magazines masthead do, this is important because they are often overlapped, on shelves, so the corner is the only part you would see. A lot of magazine put the barcode in the bottom right corner and had information such as issue date and price placed around it so we used this too. I think that the main cover image challenges the conventions of a music magazine because usually they look directly at the camera to attract attention, whereas 'DIVERSE' doesn't but uses colour and layout to connect with audience. The form of which we used cover lines is similar to how a real music magazine would use it too, this worked well as it looked a bit like a border and attract attention towards the main image. 'DIVERSE' uses an image of Alicia Keys this is because she is associated with both urban and classic music genres so the image indicates the diversity of the genre of the magazine, this technique is used in real music magazines so people know what the genre is at first looks. 'DIVERSE' also used other magazine forms such as a banner, a strap line and a mode of address.

Our music magazine cover represents a mix of different social groups, through a range of ways. The main colours used are universal colours so the cover doesn't symbolize a specific gender so both sexes are able to find 'DIVERSE' attractive. The font for the masthead and cover lines can be associated with an urban social group because it has a graffiti style type of look to it, as if it has been sprayed on a cracked textured wall. What the text says in the cover lines indicates that the magazine is aimed to older social groups because it talks about music artists from the past, however the main cover image is of a female youth in her casual wear, which younger social groups can be represented through as the girl looks like an average teenager. Our magazine can represent a wide range of social groups from the age of 14-18 years old.

I think 'DIVERSE' can be distributed in newsagents because they provide a variety of music genres magazines that each have a small of interest so if our magazine would be supplied there, there would be a larger range of interest because 'DIVERSE' has a blend of different styles. Our magazine is released fortnightly so, readers can apply for subscription, this way 'DIVERSE' can be distributed through post. I also think music stores would be an effective place to sell our magazine because that they have a variety music in their shop so 'DIVERSE' could be placed next to different sections of music, based on what edition it is, so there will always be costumers that are interested in our magazine and will be likely to buy it.

13-18 years would be the age range of the audience that would be interested in 'DIVERSE'. This is because at this age teenagers they often form social groups depending on what type of music they like, so there is a high interest of finding out about new music and because magazines are aimed for an specific age group so, a 15 year would not read a home interest magazine as it contains articles that would not apply to them, such as how to keep a tidy house.

To attract and address our audience we used techniques from real magazines such as using contrasting colours for the font and background so it words stand out, using yellow for cover lines because it is eye catching and looks like sentences are highlighted so the audience will read what it says. We used a image of a singer to create recognition so fans will to read what is said about her. By using a young person for the main cover image the audience can relate to her as being similar to themselves so they know 'DIVERSE' is addressed to their age group. Our magazine used a mode of address " find out who has returned for good!!!" this persuades the audience to look because it has no information or clues about who 'DIVERSE' is referring to, so they will open the magazine to see who it is.

I learnt a lot about technologies from the process of constructing the magazine front cover ,this is because I have never used Photoshop or Macs before so everything I did I had learnt quickly from the Photoshop tutorial and from my partner, she was very familiar with using Photoshop, so she showed me other features of the software . I think that Photoshop and the Macs are easy to use once you know how but can be frustrating at times.

If I was to make another front cover I would make sure that we spent more time getting pictures that were effective and less time on finding a location as we ending up cutting the person out of the background and the image we used of the person wasn't a very eye catching because their focus was not towards the camera. I would also make sure we had a better camera because the battery of ours ran out when we were taking pictures. I think I would of spent more time on planning what we were going to do for 'DIVERSE's front cover as we wasted a lot of time on changing the background and the name, then there would not of have been as much pressure to complete it and we could of had more time to do the contents page. I would consider picking a different genre for 'DIVERSE' as it was associated with many types of music, so there wasn't a clear style for us to focus on and we tried include more than one ( urban and classical), which was hard.