Diary Entry

I finished my Inide magazine called 'Amplified'. I comnpleted my Front cover, contents page and double page spread. It took me a while to comlete these but eventually I finihsed. I cam into school during half term to complete it and itwas very benefitial. I amk now currently priniting it onto A4 so it can be analysed by my peers.

Question 5

The main way that I attracted my audience was by the front cover. The front cover is the first thing that the audience and will be attracted to. It needs to be different yet still follow the conventions. If the magazine is different it will attract attention to it, although if it is too different, many people will be put off by it. By following convention, the target audience automatically assume that this will be a magazine they want to read as it is aesthetically pleasing to them. My magazine is an Indie style music magazine. The cover model depicts a typical Indie male, wearing a white teacher with an image of New York City, skinny jeans and Vans shoes. These are all signifiers of an Indie person, and this immediately attracts Indie fans.
The cover model is staring directly into the camera lens, to give the effect of him staring at the reader. This breaks the fourth wall and makes it personal to the reader. This creates a relationship between the reader and the cover model, enforcing them to buy it. The lighting shines onto his face, making him stand out. The lighting also casts a shadow on one side of his face, making him seem mysterious and thus, implying there could be another side to him and in turn the magazine. This creates the theory of escapism, in which the reader can escape into the walls of the magazine.
At the top of the page is a well known American band, touring around the world. These big world tours increase the area of the target audience. It states that there are reviews and articles on the tour inside the magazine. This is used to build the personal relationship between magazine and reader in which they are conceived as a friend who would recommend music that you would enjoy.
Due to the audience being driven by social networking sites, the fact that the Facebook and twitter ensigns are situated on the front cover means that they will go over in the shop and pick up the magazine. This constant hunger for socialisation leads them to be active users of current social networking zeitgeists such as Facebook and Twitter. To keep up with these current trends I have created a Facebook and Twitter page in which my audience can follow attracting them to purchase the magazine.

Diary Entry

Today I started my final double page spread. I inputed images of my cover model and wrote up more of my article. It is now over 1000 words long so is suffiecent for a double page article. I still need to add effects to other pages and tighten up my contents page.

Question 4

Who is the target audience for your magazine?

The target audience for my music magazine is teenagers from the age of 14 to adults up to the age of 28. My magazine is an Indie style magazine and this suits the age group it is targeted at. In the 2000s, the changing music industry, the decline in record sales, the growth of new digital technology and increased use of the Internet as a tool for music promotion allowed a new wave of indie rock bands to achieve mainstream success. This new commercial breakthrough and the widespread use of the term "indie" to other forms of popular culture, led a number of commentators to suggest that indie rock had ceased to be a meaningful term. Popular culture is mainly used to describe the 'young people' of this day and age, meaning that Indie music is targeted at young people. The songs on which they sing represent young peoples views and hobbies. Some are negative talking about drugs, sex and rebellion. However, more recently, Indie sings have described love, friendship and 'having a good time', three very distinguished features of young peoples lives.

As well as the predominately teenage/young people age group, the sex that will be the majority of the readers will be male. The connotations of the colours red and black suit the male gender more than the female. However the colour red could also symbolise femininity leading many females to purchase the magazine. The strong bold text highlights a male dominated magazine although.

The cover model is of a similar age to the target audience, this attracts that age group to the magazine forcing them to buy it. In this months magazine, there is a male on the front page. However if a female was on there then it would attract both males and females.

The magazine is an affordable price for teenagers which also entices them to buy the magazine and increase revenue.