My magazine was inspired by KERRANG magazine which was all about heavy metal music. A lot of magazine was based on that but for my magazine to be original I had include my own take on things. Like I stated in my initial planning I explained that there were a lot of sub genres of rock and that I would be going down the grunge route opposed to the KERRANG route which was metal/emo music, so that I would be doing an original magazine. Indeed my magazine would follow similar codes and conventions of KERRANG magazine such as the colours which are very masculine; the red, black and white would typical of these types of magazines. I included a masthead featuring all the artist within the magazine; I also add the Unique Selling Point (USP) which was the prize give away of a pair of head phones and a bar code in the bottom left corner of the front page. So I certainly follow all the codes and conventions any magazine would, without them it would look like a magazine. My magazine would most likely fit into stores such as HMV due to the fact that the variety of genres they advertise is important, also the age range for HMV is also the close to the target audience age range for my magazine which would be 17 to 23 years. They also advertise KERRANG within these shops which would have a similar target audience which the chart shows. This is a good indication that my target audience will be able to find where it is being sold and would be suitable place in there.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My magazine represents teenagers as what they are usually stereotyped as, aggressive, loud and out of control. I drew from this stereotype to create a magazine which looked aggressive with the central image which was also a 17 year old male with an angry look on his face. Even though a lot of teenagers aren't like this it is the only view i can go by. With this issue i feel that it would appeal more to college students with the same type of views as the main article. It explores their aggressive nature of music and exploited it by drawing on what the think, the main article essentially was design to provoke readers into arguing on whether it is right or not. I made sure that the image on the front reflected the genre of the music which is rock (which the reputation they built up though smashing drum kits and breaking guitars) by making the glare look menacing.
The target audience I aimed it at was 17 to 23 year old because the language used in this is quite advanced, and the subject matter is for older students. The article music is war was designed for those kind of the educated sort of people. I mention Blumer and Katz in my preparation power point and took note of what would this article do in terms of the needs and gratification theory, The magazine entertains the reader with interesting disputes, and it definitely creates a sense of identity, whether they agree with the article or not.
The choice of language was entirely my own, I didn't copy any other magazines tone I just created the magazine which i would read it like, basically the main article was all about my views of R&B and how there is no point to it, so really it is a teenager complaining about something which conveniently is what the stereotypical teenager would do. The language is very masculine because it is all about violence and war, I enphasised the word war by writing it in red among other pieces of text which I felt emphasizing.
Like my last magazine I used photoshop to create it, but this time I did every aspect of my magazine in photoshop opposed to what id did last and make the text sections in word and then transfer it onto the page. The advantages of doing this is that you can do a lot more creative and therefore more professional articles with it. I had two designs for my front cover, one looking through the broken glass and the other (which as chosen to be on the front cover) with the cracks layed across the face. It was actually a very simple process. I download a series of brushes for photoshop which were broken glass brushes, the first image (the one i didn't use) was done by adding a layer which i then place the paint brush over the selected area of the face. I then changed the contrast of the original image so that the picture look as though light was shining through the broken bit. The image i use was done in a similar way apart from the face which looks as though it had been scratch was done with the same brush tool but instead of using the paint brush i used the dodge tool (it lightens areas when used). with this I place the tool over areas of the face and applied it to them making it look like scratches to the face.
I feel that i have develop a lot since my first attempt at this task, the main reason was because i look a lot more into what makes a magazine look like a magazine, because last time my double page spread was to bland and boring to make anyone want to read it, this time however I made it look more professional and visual enticing. My ability to use photoshop also improved to the point that it look like it was actually a magazine opposed to a poster.

Open publication - Free publishing - More music

Front cover
Contents page

Double page

This was the final central image I went with because the earlier image I went with didn't suit the front cover. I thought that this was a lot more manacing because the effect of the shattered glass tool on the face makes it look as though the image is scared from the broken glass.

This one of the front covers which I experimented with in photoshop, In the end this wasn't the one I went with in the end.

These are the photos which I took for my magazine contents and double page spread. I chose from three of these images and included them in there. I also quite heavily photoshopped it so that it looked correct and look like the chosen genre.

This is my flat plan. The crude version until my magazine is complete. I have decided on gojng with the same house style with the red,black and white all the way through, it is still undecided on what the pictures would be but i will be able to chose the best ones out of the series of photos i have currently taken. I wanted this magazine to have a violent look about it because of the music it is accociated with, the whole Rock/grunge genre is all about loud guitars, shouting and drums. which I thought would be ideal for teenagers who are my target audience. So i indeed caried out the same format of the broken glass and ripped paper through out to maintain a consistancy of a violent magazine, hence the parental advisory which would be ignored any way. The font i went with in the end was called 28 Days Later, convieniently named after the zombie apocalypse which is also a violent action film.
The double page spread also included a prize give away which appealed to my target audience because of how popular the skullcandy head phones are for teenagers.