Evaluation and Newsstand Task

Weekend

So, over the weekend I have been working on my evaluation for my Preliminary Task, and I gave that in on Monday when I had a lesson.

Monday

In Monday's lesson, we were first introduced to the Newsstand Task. This task involves taking pictures of a newsstand and analysing the way that the magazines are placed on the newsstand, along with how the publishers of the magazines have designed the front cover to compensate for the way that magazines are displayed, e.g. if magazines are placed in a fan way, the left third of the magazine will be visible and therefore will need to have certain details in order to attract the reader's attention such as the masthead and the main cover lines.

After we were told about the Newsstand Task, we began the House Styles Task, and wrote a proposal for our magazines. This is the first draft of my proposal:

Ps23 is a CCM magazine - Contemporary Christian Music - focusing mainly on rock pop and some heavier rock. We hope to include artists from both sides of the Atlantic, from American hard rock artists such as Casting Crowns to British folk rock bands such as The Rend Collective Experiment. Ps23 is unique as there is currently only one CCM magazine available in the UK, and even this is difficult to buy.
The ideal target audience for Ps23 is Chrisitian teenagers living in the UK. Our audience will most likely be those in E and D class, and we aim to appeal those with a taste for more contemporary music inspired by the Christian faith. It is also possible that there may be a regular section for those aspiring to be worship leaders themselves. The ideal publisher for Ps23 would be the Bauer Media Group, a publisher who already publishes two music magazines (Q and Kerrang!), both of which cover the genres that Ps23 will feature, in their secular form. We expect that Ps23 will be the Christian version of these magazines, and therefore feel that the Bauer Media Group would be the right publisher for the magazine.

I thought that it would be good to name the magazine Ps23 as this is a Biblical reference; 'Ps' is the shorthand notation for the Book of Psalms, and Psalm 23 is the most famous Psalm. Also, using the shorthand would appeal to the target audience of Christian teenagers.

Tuesday

Today, I began the Newsstand Task. I went to a supermarket and took pictures of the newsstand there, focusing on the music section. I then got the photos home and analysed the way that the magazines were placed on the newsstand and how the publishers had designed the front covers to compensate for newsstand design.