2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My magazine uses forms of a real magazine by using the same style of layout as in real magazine’s with a large image on the front page, a typical contents page and a well informative magazine. I have also used forms of a real life magazine by using the same house style through out the magazine. My magazine also fills the whole page so there is not a lot of blank spaceand it looks more filled and looks more attractive to reader because it looks like there is more to offer on the magazine. Competitions and other images are also used on all pages to make the page light up more and to make the magazine stick out. I have developed the conventions of a real life magazine by using a large image to catch the eye of the target audience. I have developed this by using the person shown in this image on all of the pages I have produced. I have also developed the conventions of a real life magazine by displaying some of the large image over the letter ‘N’. This shows that the magazine is well known because they will still see the masthead even though there is image over the letters. It also shows that the artist is the main person in this magazine.
3. How does your media product represent particular social groups? I have used the rock genre for my magazine and I have aimed this rock magazine to teenagers and young adults. I have taken this in mind and have found many different ways in which I can represent the particular social group. The main artist of my music magazine is a young male who is aged within the aim of the audience and wears clothes which are associated with some rock bands. This picture is also used because it gets in your face like the rock genre does. The masthead I have produced is Bold and in a colour which easily sticks out like the genre. The fonts I have used for the magazine are also bold and in colours which are associated with rock. The images that are used on the magazine are in secretive poses and don’t tell much about the artists in the magazine which also links to the rock genre and will make people want to read about the artist. The background of the magazine uses dark colours which work well together and are used because a lot of people who are into rock wear dark clothes.
4. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? A media institution like Bauer media group may want to use a magazine like mine. This is because the Bauer media group produce magazines like Q magazine and Kerrang which are both in the same music genre as my magazine. A company like this can expand my magazine my putting it online for online costumers to buy. If the magazine is very successful it then go onto the shelves with other top magazine companies and can become very popular with the audience and maybe even other markets. From this if the magazine becomes more successful it can become a radio station and even a television channel.
5. Who would be the audience for your media product? The audience for my magazine is teenagers to young adults who are into the rock genre. I have used this audience as the target for my magazine because I myself am a teenager. The magazine is aimed at both genders because of all the different features inside the magazine.to appeal to both of these genders I will have both male and female artists in my magazine and will have competitions which could suit males and females. This is a good target audience to use for my magazine because most young people nowadays listen to music of all sorts and most of the people who buy magazines are teenagers to young adults. If I could get my magazine onto online it would also be great for my magazine because the internet is being used by more and more teenagers now. Competitions and prizes get younger people excited because the first sign of something good happening or a free trip somewhere and young people want to know about what the competition is and what they could win.
6. How did you attract/address your audience? I Attracted the target audience I have aimed at by using a large image on the front page of an artist. My target audience is young males and females who are into the rock genre. To attract them with this I have put a large image of a young artist who is in the same age group as the attracted audience. I have also attracted the audience for this magazine by using competitions and prizes with well known bands and artists so more people will want to have a read on what’s happening. A big strapline and a big strong quote help attract the audience to because they want to find out what has happened with the certain artist or band. For example ‘I thought it was the end already’ the audience will automatically want to read the article and find what the quote means.
7. Audience Feedback I needed audience feedback to find out how well my magazine was to the target audience I was aiming at. I wanted to find out from the audience feedback if the target audience for my magazine was appropriate. what they thought were the good and bad features of the magazine were and also what I could improve on the magazine to make it more professional. Target Audience - My original age group was teenagers and young adults ( 16-25) from the feedback I was given my magazine was appropriate for the age group I was aiming at. This was because of the pictures I used were of me and I’m in that age range. Good Features - from the feedback there was some good features to my magazine. These included the fonts of which I used in the text and for the titles and subtitles, the colours because they stuck out and made it much more easier to read. From the feedback I was also told that the pictures I had used were good and were big so they stuck out and made the page more colourful. Bad Features - From the feedback I was given I had some bad points which I could improve with my magazine. One of the things was that I needed to add some more pictures and maybe have pictures in which I was standing or sitting in different positions because i was almost doing the same thing in every picture. I was also told I needed to fill the page a bit more by some of the people.
8. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? The first step was planning. I had to research different front covers, contents pages and double page spreads to find out what they are like and what features they have. I then had to make a draft copy of a magazine to see what I could achieve with it and hopefully it could help me. In my planning I also produced a documents with lists of, fonts, masthead styles and a set of boxes with different colour schemes I could use. I did this because I wanted to find out what different colours schemes, mastheads and fonts looked the best put together and which would appeal to the target audience the most. I have learnt a lot from planning the magazine which has helped when making my magazine. The planning has helped me to understand how to make a magazine. It has also helped me learn the important features of the magazine and how I should use them. I have learnt a lot from publisher and fireworks. With publisher I have learnt how to places words over pictures. I have also learnt from publisher how to make a transparent background on a picture and how to change colours of the background. From fireworks I have learnt how to edit images so that the background is completely vanished and I can now use all the tools and understand what they do.
9. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? I think I have a learnt a lot of things since the start of the preliminary task. I have learnt the structure of a typical music magazine and have used it on my own magazine. I have also learnt that consistent house styles are very important in a music magazine and the appropriate images big bold titles and mastheads also make a difference. I have learnt that one big picture on a page is very affective As you can see the two magazines are very different from each other. You can see the difference from my preliminary task to my final magazine. Changes have been made to make the final magazine product much better than the preliminary task.
