Question One

I used key conventions of magazines within my front cover by using a masthead; cover lines, a main image and the house style that I had created for my own music magazine. I also included a barcode to add the realistic to my front cover. Within my contents page, I included images; I put the page

numbers before the page headlines that I found was the way of magazines in my research. I also put page numbers and taglines on my chosen images as I had seen similar techniques within my researched magazines. Furthermore, in my page numbers, I categorised the articles to make the contents easy to read and access. Finally, for my double page spread I used the typical layout

of one page being used for the main and the second page containing the text, which in my case was part of my interview. I also used glamorous images of my “artist” to be in keeping with the general feel of music magazines and

young girls’ magazines. I challenged forms of media products by incorporating gossip within a music magazine which is not usually the case

with current magazines on the market.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

Front CoverMasthead

Main Image – Direct Mode of Address

Barcode

Date, Issue Number, Price and Website of Magazine

“Exclusive” – Makes audience feel as though they get to know the gossip before everyone else.

Competition for tickets to a popular artist is an incentive

Highlighted key words

Buzz words: Exclusive

Girly Colours to target my female audience

Include articles with boy bands to attracts audience

Title relevant to genre of music and catchy, memorable.

Contents PageHouse style continued

Categorised articles in categories of relevance

Page number before the page title – Generic magazine convention

Colours are coordinated and in keeping with the house style

Generic magazine convention that I found was present In the magazines that I researched

Popular music programme to entice readers

Gossip articles included and highlighted

Page number – magazine convention

Popular pages highlighted to draw attention

Double Page Article

Quotes – Generic Magazine Conventions

Different styles of image, appear to have had full photo shoot

Page numbers with title and date – Generic Convention

Columns – Magazine Convention

Large quote to entice readers and is eye - catching

Main image is large, eye catching and glamorous

Big letter at beginning – Generic magazine convention

House - Style

Question Two

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine represents the social group of teenage – young adult girls by using the stereotypical colours

of pink and purple. These connotations connote femininity clearly and I think this is also a device for attracting my target audience. I also used the idea of young girls being big fans of boy bands and included

articles such as, JLS talk girls. I aimed to make the magazine appear glamorous and well presented

which represents the young female population who are seen to care about the appearance.

Question Three

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think my magazine would be distributed by IPC Media who distribute current magazines such as “NME”. The fact that they are a very large media institution would mean that my magazine has a much better chance of becoming successful. I understand that such a large

institution already has a great number of music magazines but my magazine appeals to a different

audience to the current ones. Unlike NME, my magazine is aimed at young girls and the magazine is focused

more on the charts and mainstream pop music.

Question Four

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My audience would be 16-21 females but may appeal to the younger audience of 14 year olds if

they choose. The target audience for my magazine are likely to be either at college or

starting work and I have tried to fit the price to this lifestyle. Within my audience research, I

found that my target audience would be willing to pay £2. Also, my target audience are the young females that are interested in gossip and fashion.

Question Five

See next blog post – Video Feedback

Question Six

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt the most about using In-Design and I found it very useful learning how to use software that I haven’t used before. I think it has broadened my IT abilities and I’m sure I will use In-Design again in the future as I have enjoyed using it and find it very easy to navigate around. It also produces good work and is the perfect software when creating such

documents as the magazine pages. Being introduced to Blogger and Survey Monkey were also very useful as I wasn’t aware of them before this project. I have enjoyed using both websites and I think they worked very well for their purpose. I’m sure I will use both of these websites in the future also.

Question Seven

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I feel that I have a much better understanding of different software now such as InDesign. I found

InDesign wasn’t as useful for my preliminary task as it was for my main task and I think this is because I

have a better understanding of the software and how it works. I also think I used the tools within InDesign to create much more aesthetically pleasing magazine

pages. I have also widened my website varieties by using Survey Monkey and increasing my use of

Blogger.