Author Archives: staceydasmedia

Audience feedback 2

For my second part of audience research I decided to make a survey on surveymonkey.com where I managed to get 20 responses on what people thought of my magazine.

Here are my results:

QUESTION 1

Some other response for Question 1 included:

“I like how it has a unique colour which isnt too girly and isnt too manly. Also I like how it is placed under the picture which makes it look really professional”

“I really like the title, the name is memorable and relates to the music theme in the magazine although would make sure it wasn’t covered by the photograph.”

“The masthead looks really professional as I like the way the picture is covering it slightly however not too much. Also the boldness and thickness of it makes it stand out even more. This is ideal for a music magazine as it can be very competitive.”

“The title is appropriate to the genre of the magazine, I think that it looks and sounds great and is definitely unique.”

“I think its could as the magazine seems to be about music, the title makes good reference to that.”

“Stands out and makes me think of music automatically.”

“the title isnt as clear since part of it got covered up by the picture”

“I like it, it’s unique and I don’t think too much focusing away from the content of the magazine”

“I like the masthead as i think the word ‘Lyrical’ is extremely catchy and relevant for a music magazine”

QUESTION 2QUESTION 3

I am happy with my response for Question 3 as the majority of people (88.89%) stated that they thought the magazine’s target audience is 16-22 which is the exact target audience for “Lyrical”

QUESTION 4

Some other responses included:

“The contents page is clear with minimal information which is good when searching for certain pages, to improve it, I would maybe put a few more images on it.”

“Nice and simple making it easy to see the stories and page numbers they’re on.”

“I like the way in which the contents page is laid out so the audience can easily see which section to navigate to in the magazine. Also the numbers highlights the best and most interesting articles which makes it easy for the audience.”

“I like it. It looks like a real magazine (format wise) also the phrasing used makes me want to read the pages”

QUESTION 5

I am happy that all 20 people said they would read the article if they were to see it in the magazine.

QUESTION 6

Some other responses included:

“Maybe keep the same colour scheme throughout but overall I think this magazine is intriguing and I would be drawn to It in a shop.”

“You could maybe add another picture on your double page spread and also add like monthly subscription tabs at the bottom of the contents page as a way of promoting the magazine”

“The colour of the Drizzy vs Breezy- so that it stands out more”

“Overall i think this magazine is very professional looking, especially the double page spread however maybe include a colour to the background”

QUESTION 7

To conclude my results I am pleased with them and they give me a good understanding of what I need to improve and what I did well. Some people said that my magazine may be aimed towards a 11-14 audience some said other and stated 14-22 and 13-17 which shows that I need to make my magazine more mature and also make it more prominent that it is aimed at 16-22 year olds. Also many people said the masthead was eye catching and bold which is what I was aiming for so it would stand out in a shop shelf. On the improvement side of things people said to try out different fonts and colours on the front cover.

Editing in photoshop

 Before editing my front cover in Photoshop

FRONT COVER

After editing my front cover in Photoshop

Front cover completed

This is an edited image for my front cover which I completed using Photoshop. The original image was shot in a well lit studio with a white backdrop. For the image I started off by making the image a layer so I had one with a background and one without one. Then I used the magic wand tool which made a selection for me of the unwanted areas, which I went ahead and deleted. Then I used the Magnetic Lasso Tool which helped me to go around the image and get a precise crop. As my models hair was very curly, it was harder to go around each strand of hair and get the background out of it, however by using the eraser tool and magic wand tool to touch up the image, I was able to get the results I wanted.

My Photoshoot

Here are a selection of images I chose to possibly feature in my magazine:double page spreadcontents pageContents cut outDPSDSC_0138DSC_0188FRONT COVER

Article Development

Before starting my article I decided to jot down important notes about Rihanna, her early life and music career as I would be writing a biography on her. I extracted most of this information from wikipedia as this would be a more reliable source, other than interviews.

Early career:

  • Born on 20th February 1988
  • Saint Michael’s Barbados
  • Real name – Robyn Rihanna Fenty
  • Born to Monica  (accountant) and Ronald Fenty (warehouse supervisor)
  • Lived in a 3 bedroom bungalow and sold clothes on a street stall
  • At 14 her parents divorced because of father’s drug + alcohol additiction
  • Rihanna met Carl Sturken and Evan Rodgers – both who are music producers through mutual friends in Barbados in December 1993
  • Preformed her own take of ‘Emotion’ and ‘Hero’ when Rodgers asked her to come up to his hotel room and he was very impressed and consequently took her on various trips to New York to record demos to send to record labels.
  • Rodgers and Sturken signed Rihanna to their label SRP (Syndicated Rhythm Productions)
  • February 2005 CEO of Def Jam Records – Jay Z requested to see Rihanna where she performed her Whitney Houston song ‘For the love of you’

Music of the Sun:

  • Debut single ‘Pon de replay’ came out in august 25th 2005
  • Number two on Billboard 100 and UK singles chart
  • Album ‘Music of the Sun’ was released a month later and sold 2 million copies worldwide.
  • Mixed reviews from critics Rolling stone as they commented saying “generic vocal hiccups and frills” whereas US R&B reflected upon her “Caribbean Charm”
  • A Girl Like Me was released in April 2006, less than eight months after its predecessor.
  • The main single on this album being “SOS” which smashed the charts coming in at number five in countries such as New Zealand, Canada, republic of Ireland and the UK. It hit the number one spot in the US and Australia.
  • Following the release of the album, Rihanna embarked on her first headlining tour, the Rihanna: Live in Concert Tour, as well as supporting The Pussycat Dolls on the PCD World Tour and performing alongside Jay-Z and Ne-Yo on the Rock Tha Block Tour
  • She also made her acting debut in a cameo role in Bring It On: All or Nothing, which was released on August 8, 2006

Good girl gone bad:

  • For her third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna embraced a new musical direction went more uptempo producing music with the likes Timbaland, will.i.am and Sean Garrett.
  • Her main track ‘Umbrella’ featuring Jay Z topped the charts in 13 countries and remained number one in the UK for 10 weeks! – it also sold 6.6 million copies for this single
  • The songs “Shut Up and Drive”, “Hate That I Love You” and “Don’t Stop The Music” were also released as singles from the album.
  • she kicked off her second headlining tour, the Good Girl Gone Bad Tour in September 2007, with a total of 80 shows across the US, Canada and Europe
  • Since its release, Good Girl Gone Bad has sold over seven million copies worldwide#]

Domestic violence:

  • On March 5, 2009, Brown was charged with assault and making criminal threats, as she was meant to attend the 51st Grammy awards but cancelled
  • A photo of Rihanna leaked and surfaced the internet from TMZ.COM
  • On June 22, 2009, Brown pled guilty to the felony assault. In exchange for his plea Brown received five years’ probation and was ordered to stay fifty yards away from Rihanna.
  • Rihanna then released her new album ‘Rated R’ which included songs such as Run this town which was released in June 2009. It featured Jay Z and Kanye. This single hit number 1 in the UK and peaked at 2 on the Billboards top 100

For my article these are websites I used:

http://www.vogue.com/magazine/article/rihanna-unstoppable/#1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rihanna

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/rihanna/

http://globalgrind.com/entertainment/rihanna-oprah-interview-crying-chris-brown-relationship-video

I also looked at a range of interviews on youtube: