In what way does your media product

use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real

media products?

• This is the masthead for my magazine, as you can see it pretty much conforms to the audience’s expectations of a music magazine; it has the generic top, left hand corner positioning. By positioning the masthead of the magazine here it allows it to be seen clearly and easily, this is crucial for a new magazine. As you can see the title dominates over half of the name of the magazine.

• In terms of naming the magazine, I wanted to keep it simple yet unique, in order to make it more appealing, this also conforms to the audience expectation however the main concept of the title, personally, is that it is familiar to the audience, it doesn’t need to grab the readers attention as such but instead, is there to inform them of what they will actually be reading.

• The title font and style of my magazine is quite different compared to other music magazines such as NME, Q and Rolling Stone, however it conforms to certain conventions of a magazine because of the bold, capital letters used and the use of Red, a very popular colour for music magazine titles. The use of red contrasts well with the main image because of the filter used, enabling the title to stand out and seem more appealing to the reader.

• I would say the title font challenges the conventions because it is different from majority of popular music magazines. The use of ‘chalkboard’ font differentiates the magazine with other music magazines.

• The layout of the magazine really conforms to media conventions, I believe it is hard to develop or challenge the conventions because of the vast variation in styles of magazines. However I did try develop certain conventions by including a specific quote in my double page spread, this creates emphasis and makes it look more interested. I believe the double page spread need to look interesting for the reader and make them want to read on.

• My contents page really conforms to the conventions of a music magazine because of the split columns and labelled categories; I believe this is a good presentation technique. I kept the title for the contents as ‘Trailer Contents’, that way it is quite straight forward and it fits in nicely with the title of the magazine.

How does your media product represent

particular social groups?

• I believe my magazine does not represent only one specific music genre, I’ve designed it so it appeals to different social groups, however specifically for those who are into new, raw talent or looking to be discovered. There is no specific class and for this magazine however it is less likely to appeal to those of an upper class due to its laid back appearance. The images used in the magazine are of unknown or new artist, which can draw people into the magazine in order to acknowledge who it is. Also I intentionally did not include any top artist as it can send out mix messages to the reader and overpower other articles.

• The image used in the double page spread was taken at a coffee place and was shown in that way to reflect on the magazines personality and relate with people who may read the magazine, as I believe people who would read this is most likely to be middle class, struggling artists or established artists looking for raw talent.

What kind of media institution might

distribute your media product and why??

• My target audience is based upon people aged from mid teens towards late thirties; this means that they will desire a reasonably priced magazine which is easy to pick up in a convenient store. I think that my magazine would be best distributed in stores like WHSmiths, maybe even supermarkets chains such as Tesco metro. As well as this it could be distributed to smaller stores which specialised to music, for example HV and smaller localised stores. Another way of buying and selling goods that has become quite popular over the few years is via the internet. Having an online distribution will help get the magazine around further. Going further on the use of internet selling a rapidly growing craze is to issue downloadable apps that supply magazine subscriptions through mobile devices. This is a new and smart way of distributing magazines especially to those who are unable to purchase them from stores.

• In terms of availability to buy the magazine, I think the best method for this would be the option of buying weekly and also the option of buying a subscription. This allows the customer to pick and choose when they want to buy the magazine.

• IPC distribute many magazines such NME, Woman’s weekly, Uncut, TV easy and many more. This is a spread of magazines which are very well known and so there is an identity between IPC and the audiences. By choosing IPC I can take advantage of the connection between the company and the buyers therefore promoting my magazine with the well known standard of service the company has.

• Another company that distribute magazines is the Bauer media company; however, I decided that this was not suitable for my magazine as the type of media it deals with are very different to the kind of company that I’m looking for despite it’s already well know name.

Who would be the audience for your media product??

• My target audience for my music magazine would be aged between the late teens and their late thirties, this is quite a range but I believe it is suitable for the kind of magazine I am promoting, this is backed up further by the price of the magazine, it has to be affordable because of the age of the audience, I’d like to think that my target audience would also contain of both male and female, even if this issue of the magazine seems to include mostly male profiles, however it’s placed and written in a way to appeal to both genders. Another thing to consider when talking about target audience is their taste in music, quite obviously. I think my target audience would have what I consider a varied taste in music, they don’t just prefer to stick to one genre of music but look to embrace other types. I think the main aim for me with my target audience is someone who has real appreciation for music and musicians.

How did you attract/address your

audience??

PUFF

Price

Coverlines

What features attracted my audience?

I used a simple font, so it was clear for my audience to read, but I varied my font style and size to make the writing more exciting. Another thing, my regular audience would be interested in interacting with the music magazine company, there fore I had mention a ‘supporters column’ in my Coverlines, to make them want to open my magazine and read further.

After researching prices of other popular music magazines and just magazines in general I noticed most of them varied between £1-£4. hence why I decided to go with a price of £1.99, which is the most common price I had found. Also this price is affordable for my target audience.

I used this particular puff for my front cover because this appeals to my target audience, as the modern generation are all about downloadable music and advertising anything for free attracts attention and is appealing to a range of ages.

Eye catching images

Enlarged numbers

Section titles

For my audience to be attracted to the image, I needed to pose my model in a fun and unique pose. On this photo, I included the term ‘rising star’ to attract readers.

I used an enlarged font size for the page numbers of the features mentioned on my contents page as this makes it easier for my readers to see what they want to look at and flick straight to the page and article they want to read. This is particularly aimed at my younger audience, as they are known for not wanting to read too much text. This feature is a common technique used by other magazines of the same and different genre.

Section title

Larger font

Star image

Album cover

Artist quote

Exclusive feature

I used a large font in my heading to emphasis the artists name. this attracts my audience as once they have acknowledged the artist, they will want to read more. I kept the heading in Bold to make it stand out compared to the other text.

This is a pull quote, by using this it gives the reader an initial look into the interview without having to read the whole thing. By reading the pull quote, it will encourage the audience into wanting to find out more about the artist.

The section title is located on the top left corner of the page, this will help the reader in finding the page in which the interview is on. By having this it attracts the audience attention and encourages them to read on.

Having an image of the album helps in promoting the artist and captures the readers attention as my target audience is based on people who have a passion for music. Having this image makes the page a touch more appealing.

Having this exclusive feature entices the audience into finding out more about the music magazine and the artist in the interview. This is a new feature that will appeal to my target audience as majority of the present generation is into new and developed technology, making this feature even more useful in attracting the reader.

What have you learnt about technology

from the process of constructing this

product??

• Equipment based I used a ‘Sony Cyber shot Camera DSCH200’ and My smart phone ‘Apple IPhone 4S’ to take the pictures I have used in my music magazine. These two were very useful as one allowed me to take really good quality images, where the other allowed me to fiddle around with different effects while taking the actual picture. I also used a Laptop to store and operate the programmes I used to edit the music magazine together.

• For the Cover of the magazine and majority of the image editing I used Photoshop. Through this process I learnt how to use he tools on the programme effectively and I learnt different ways of improving the images quality. The main tools I used include the crop tool, text tool, lasso tools. I also used InDesign for both my Contents page and double page spread as I found it was the best choice for the layout and tools needed. This is because InDesign allow me to create guidelines for columns and rows for my text on both the double page spread and contents page. I also used Microsoft word when making notes and writing up the interview I had carried out for my double page spread. Lastly I used Microsoft PowerPoint to create my evaluation as I am aware of it’s features and how to use it , therefore finding it appropriate.

• I also used Blogger to upload my music magazine work online.

Camera

USB

Laptop

Looking back at your preliminary task,

what do you feel you have learnt in the

progression from it to the full product??

• These are the two mastheads I have used in my work, in terms of layout they a very different pieces of work. By looking at the first images (preliminary work) you can see that the title is spread across the whole top section of the page and slightly tilted, I wouldn’t say that this looks particularly professional or effective, however comparing it to the second piece of work you can see signs of improvement. The improvement comes from the positioning of the title amongst other aspects. As you can see the masthead dominates over two thirds of the page, this is creating a balanced sense fro the page in which the focus is not only on the one side of the page. The font is also an aspect that adds to the difference of the two pages, as you can see the text in the preliminary task looks much softer, smaller and therefore less effective, whereas the main task has a title that uses Bold capital letters, this looks far more effective and professional. I have also included a slogan on my masthead just to soften it a little bit.

The variation between the two cover images is quite a contrast, this is due mainly to the way in which the photographs have been taken. When looking at the preliminary task we can see that the colour pallet is quite bright and the picture is washed out by the other conventions. The image blends in with the background therefore becoming less effective. Whereas the image of the main task has been taken at a different angle and I’ve added a filter to give it a more different and unique touch. I’ve kept the house style of the main task consistent whereas the preliminary task had a house style but I couldn’t keep to it.

Looking at the layout between the two tasks you can see they are drastically different. On the preliminary task I wanted to create a timetable themed contents page to match with the type of magazine I am creating. Unfortunately I was unable to officially finish my contents page because of my lack of time management

skills. The preliminary task doesn’t have quite a structured layout, however, I think after looking into the conventions of magazines more, I was able to develop a better and far more professional looking layout which is separated up and easy to look at. The contents page for the main task is laid out far more neatly and looks more appealing to the eye.