1. By Tesfah Watkins-Scott

2. Production
 PRE-PRODUCTION
 This one of the most important stages of the process, and often the longest. Research needs to be
done into audience. Existing media texts that are similar in form or content have been carefully
examined. Each stage of production must be planned because, organisation is vital.
 PRODUCTION
 This is the easiest and most straightforward part of production process, and involves creating the raw
data (text, images, sound) that will create the final product.
 POST-PRODUCTION
 This consists of editing and constructing the data into the form that the audience will receive. During
this part of the process the magazine pages are proof read. This used to be quite expensive, due to
heavily specialised equipment being needed.
 MARKETING & PROMOTION
 When the text has been created, audiences need to be informed about it. This could also be quite
expensive because, if the media product was a magazine they would then need to pay for an
advertisement of their magazine and posters and so forth.
 DISTRIBUTION
 Distribution is about shipping products rather than creating them. Media production companies sell
the rights to their text to specialist distributors at this stage, e.g. HMV will take on all record
companies' CDs, rather than them trying to open up record stores themselves. However, the
distributor and the production company may be part of the same media conglomerate, so all the
profit eventually ends up in the same place. There are many different channels of distribution for
example Movies can be bought as a DVD or watched in the cinema or even on TV. Music can be
listened to via CD or downloaded onto the ICT system an put onto your phone or I Pod.

3. Audience
Audience is a very important concept throughout media. Media texts are made with an audience in mind
at all times, for example a group of people who will receive it and make some sort of sense out of it.
When a media text is being planned, conventionally the most important question the producers take notice
of is Does the media product have an audience? If the answer to this is 'no', then there is no point in going any
further. If no one is going to watch/read, the producers won’t make any money or get the media products
message across. Audience research is a major part of any media company's work. Uses of questionnaires, focus
groups, and comparisons to existing media texts, to find out if there is anyone out there who might be
interested in their idea.
Media producers would like to know:
• status
• age
• gender
• ethnicity
• location
Once they know this they can produce a media text that will appeal to that specific target audience.

4. Institutions
International Publishing Company (IPC)
One of the United Kingdom’s leading consumer magazine and digital
publishers.
Magazines Published
 IPC publish a wide range of magazines , from ‘Web user’ an information
and technology magazine to ‘Look’ a celebrity and fashion magazine. I feel
that this particular publishing company would suit me the most as they are
quite well known and can get magazines out to a wider range of the
audience which is very good as I would want my magazine to interest
everyone that fit into my target audience which is quite a wide range of
people but still is a niche magazine. Other magazines the IPC publish are:
• NME
• Ideal Home
• TV Times
• Loaded
• Golf
• Uncut

5. Institutions
 International Publishing Company (IPC)
Brand Identity
• IPC’s brand identity is extremely diverse, publishing lower brow magazines such as
‘Pick me Up’.
• This opens IPC’s doors to a number of social groups, age ranges and class variations.
Company Size
IPC media have a main office which is based in London although they have around
seven other office locations:
• Manchester
• Dorset
• Croydon
• Derbyshire
• Lincs
• Lincolnshire
• Berkshire

6. Institutions
Emap
Magazines Published
• The magazines Emap publish are nearly all aimed at similar target audiences
which is an upper class audience. Many of the magazines cover the same genre
and theme which is normally architectural magazines. This publishing
company wouldn’t suit my magazine at all because they are more interested in
magazines with a completely different target audience compared with my
Reggae music magazine.
Brand Identity
• The magazines Emap publish are normally all aimed at the public who are
upper class and hobbies that people from the upper class would participate in.
However, Emap does not publish any upper class fashion magazines but
instead publishes magazines about politics, recycling and many more.