Interpretation of My Brief

I shall produce a new music magazine, that will contain a front cover page, a contents page and also a double page spread, including article . This magazine shall be linked to a specific genre of music, which is as of now undecided.

I shall consider many things when designing, producing and refining my media product. I shall do this by consulting the LIIAR acronym of media features:

• Language
• Institution
• Ideology
• Audience
• Representation

Language

As the magazine I am creating is designed for an audience that is interested in music I have to study what style of language these types of magazines use, the majority of music magazines that I have read are written in an informal style. Meaning that the use of language on most articles is meant to make the reader feel comfortable in reading this on an informal level, which allows the reader to connect to the magazine in the way that the editor/ writer wants you to. I shall therefore write my article and all of my text in an informal language, this will allow me to follow the music magazine conventions that I have picked up on. I shall use language on an appropriate intellectual level as to be able to connect with my chosen audience, these language features will help to let me represent the music that I will chose to mediate better. I shall use a non bias yet promotional style of mediation about the bands I chose to include, meaning that I shall not include negative statements as to not offend peoples taste in music. I shall include fluent content which shall be grammatically correct, this will help make my magazine appear more professional as the inclusion of mistakes in real magazines do not happen hardly. I shall include words associated with the music industry/ music scene but will not include extreme specialist vocabulary (that a amateur music listener would not understand).

Institution

I shall represent the correct type of institution in my magazine, I am going to be representing a music publisher/ music enterprise therefore I shall mediate it accordingly for example I shall present a professional and quality finished product which has had a lot of editing and has been influenced by both qualitive and quantitive research. This will help me as I shall then know if my content appeals to a larger audience sample, whilst also being able to gather the suggestions and criticism of the individual.

I shall therefore only represent the music company/ publisher in a positive light and not include strongly opinionated statements, as this could offend some people, which would give the magazine a negative reputation.

Ideology

I shall consider what kind of beliefs I wish to represent the music magazine having, meaning that I shall mediate the content of the magazine to represent this ideology, I shall include only content that I have carefully considered and have specifically designed to be contained within this magazine. This way I shall keep all of my content relevant and be able to project the ideology of the magazine whilst still appearing professional in my approach. The textual content in my magazine will be the most important aspect of how I shall reflect the beliefs of the magazine, I shall try to include, serious content where it is needed, and try to include lightly humorous or very informal language in parts of my magazines textual content as this will help my magazine appeal to a wide intellectual audience.

Audience

My audience shall be younger individuals, this includes an age ranging from 16 all the way to 30, this is because they are the segment of the population likely to have the most amount of disposable income. I shall consider the sex that I shall focus on mostly using quantitive research and using my knowledge of how current music magazines are marketed towards particular sex’s.  I shall aim it at the music genre of rock, but include many of its sub genres, such as metal, hardcore, pop punk and experimental music. This will allow me to target a wider target market, this is because in personal experience I have found that the people that listen to one of these sub genres of rock are very musically diverse people that are interested in many genres and are tolerable of other peoples music taste even if it does not appeal to them. I shall have to consider the cost of the magazine and the frequency of release very carefully, this is because there are many different types of music magazine ranging in price from around £1 all the way up to £6 – £7. The price is normally reflective of the popularity and how often the magazine is released. Many music magazines are weekly or fortnightly, some are even monthly. I shall have to consider which of these release types would be the most suitable for my magazine. I think that if I can get these two features in my marketing strategy correct that I can appeal to a wide prospective audience and I shall be able to generate a larger demand for the magazine.

Representation

I shall consider how I shall represent the institution through the magazine carefully, I will also carefully consider how I will represent the varying social, cultural, ethical and gender groups, I shall do this mostly by using stereotypes and by trying to configure my magazine to accommodate representations of every bodies beliefs and views. I believe that if I aim to mediate my content so that it is unbiased and fair towards all groups within society that I shall be able to gain a large audience that are pleased by my approach to equality within music.