Upcoming is a cross between pop/RnB, aimed at all millennials who not only have a strong interest in soul music, but share similar views and opinions on the BLM movement and other real time issues. “’UpComing’ is a jam packed magazine filled with all the juicy gossip any teen would want. The latest celebrity gossip, fashion,beauty,famous features and so much more. Not only does it give endless amounts of entertainment, it educates you on real world situations such as the BLM Movement.”

My magazine is an all round positive. It clearly portrays values that other magazines don’t have.  The aim of my magazine is to bring together open minded young adults who can easily come together through their similar interests. I found this information using ‘YouGov’. For example, I found out that a large majority of my target audience enjoy listening to radio stations, specifically Capital FM. With that in mind, I will use radio stations as a way to distribute my magazine.

Upcoming isn’t just a basic magazine, it is a mixture of the music and political world, using their advantages to create a different world in one magazine. I believe that a good magazine should not only engage the reader, but it should provide information that is relevant to what is going on in the world, providing the target audience with information that they’re interested in and that could help them in their everyday life. To back this up, one of my coverlines is ‘Inder radiates her voice to Guernsey’s islanders, starting with a small island, aiming for the WORLD’,  showing a sense of social interaction with her fans and providing entertainment for my target audience. I think my desired target audience would buy Upcoming because it demonstrates that a music magazine doesn’t have to be plainly based around music but it can also include other interests of theirs that are outside of the music industry. Upcoming really highlights personal identity, it reflects my own personal beliefs and my readers beliefs on the BLM Movement, giving the magazine a sense of individuality. Developing on this, the celebrity gossip and exciting exclusive giveaways brings entertainment to the magazine, the facts about George Floyds death makes the magazine informative and overall, AIDA is weaved into all aspects of Upcoming. The push on BLM in my magazine creates desire for the consumers, making my magazine different from others and attracting my desired target audience to it.

If I got the chance, I would love to distribute my magazine with Bauer. This is because not only do they produce magazines, they have different forms of media platforms such as radio stations, giving me the opportunity to gain publicity for my magazine through multiple platforms. For example, some of their titles are Total TV Guide, Heat, Take a Break and so on. Furthermore, Bauer doesn’t seem to have any magazines under the same genre as mine, so it could be a good opportunity for myself and the magazine group.

Referring back to the adverts I included in my magazine, I’d hope to attract an advertiser which is more on the political side, bringing an aspect of real world issues. For example, I included a BLM Movement advert by Vogue in my magazine. I chose this advert because the genre of the advert suited my magazine and it reflected my views on the movement which my target audience would be interested in. I’d need an advertiser who is in the Pop/RnB industry, for example an advert that is advertising a soul music festival. Having appropriate adverts is important as it helps bring together consumers with similar interests through different platforms.

Thinking about distributing Upcoming, I need to ensure that my print content correlates with online content. With that in mind,I need to distribute my print magazine in a way that it will survive in the digital world. Using information from articles that I researched about, I found that print magazines are slowly dying out. Research shows that “A big change is taking place in the market. There’s now too much writing online, and in an era of fake news, where you get your analysis from has never been more important.”-Fraser Nelson. This is one of the many reasons as to why print magazines are dying out of fashion. During the time period between January and June, ‘Look’ suffered a critical 35% drop in print magazine sales.Taking this into consideration, my magazine includes exclusive free tickets to ‘The Sunrise Tour 2022’ that can only be found in the print magazines, giving it different characteristics to online content, enhancing its chance of surviving in the digital world. On top of that, I want to distribute my magazine on as many different platforms as possible, including via online content. By including a link in my magazine to Anastacia Inder’s BLM Movement speech, it balances out print and digital success, needing to explore both platforms to retrieve the clip.

Dear Future A Level student, My name is Destiny Blackwood and I am currently at the Guernsey Grammar School and Sixth form Center where I am studying A Level Media. Media Studies is not easy at all. However, it is worth all of  the work. Over the course of six months, I have already acquired multiple production skills which cover technical, creative and transferable skills. Some of the amazing skills you will come across include photoshop, camera and photography techniques,design skills, magazine design conventions and plenty more. The course is an amazing opportunity to expand the options you will have when it comes to finding a job. These skills can be used in areas of the job community that you probably haven’t thought of. For example, if you’re interested in the business and media industry, you can go down the marketing route and design logos for businesses. Throughout the course, you will develop these skills and become an advanced A Level student with many production skills which will look amazing on your CV! As you read on, I will go into detail on how I progressed with these skills.

From the start of the course, I have developed my skills majorly when it comes to technical production skills, which includes InDesign, using a DSLR camera, photoshop and the flash equipment. These softwares have had a massive impact on my work when it came to creating my magazine as they helped me portray my chosen music genre, telling a story through my magazine. A specific production skill that really helped with the development of my magazine was InDesign, more specifically the airbrush tool.

This tool allowed me to smoothen out my models faces and get rid of any blemishes they had, giving them more of a glam look. This tool helped enhance my models’ youth, giving them a fresh look, helping reflect my chosen genre and convey the vibe I was aiming for. However, when using the airbrush tool you don’t want to overdo it as it can cause the image to become blurry and ruin the quality of it.

Whilst learning creative production skills, you will learn skills such as; mise-en-scene,body language, makeup,hair, photo location, costumes and many more. For my chosen genre, I had to ensure that my costumes were clear as to what genre it is as I didn’t include many props. As my genre is RnB/Pop, my model’s facial expressions were quite neutral, meaning that I needed to emphasize other aspects of MES to help portray the star image my target audience are interested in. With that in mind, I made sure I used completely different outfits in every photoshoot for each model, widening the range of costumes in my magazine to not only ensure my genre is conveyed well enough, but to also add more excitement in my magazine for my target audience, giving them a range of things to look at.

During the course, you will learn transferable production skills that can be used outside of the media industry. This includes software skills,critical thinking,listening,organization ,time management and so on. Furthermore, you will use a different platform such as ‘YouGov’ to do research for your branding ideas. We used YouGov to collect information on our target audience, more specifically their preferred demographics and psychographics.

Going into detail on one of these skills, I made sure I was organized before my photoshoots, reducing stress on me and my model’s and moreover, making it easier and quicker when it came to the day of the shoots. Using a PMA (production meeting agenda), ensured that I didn’t forget any aspects of MES in my shoot. It acted as a checklist for my shoot,allowing me to check off everything I intended to include the shoot. A PMA is an easily transferable skill throughout your life, you can use it no matter how small the task is, ensuring that you don’t forget anything. By using a PMA, it helped maximize my time during the photoshoot and guaranteeing I included everything that I needed.

Overall, I think media studies is a great A-level to take as you learn so many skills that will come in handy not just in the media industry, but in your everyday life.

I wish you the best of luck!

• Destiny Blackwood