2. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Before starting on my music magazine, I did research on a similar
genre music magazine to get an idea of the conventions I need to
use in order to emphasise the kind of audience it is aimed at. I
looked at a ‘we love pop’ magazine and chose to have a similar
layout.
The existing product has a main image of a boy band which stands
out on the front cover as it is going to be the main article of the
magazine. I have also chosen my magazine to have a main image
like this but I chose to put two boy bands on the cover. I did this to
make the image and headline the main focus of the magazine so it
is the first thing people will see and will possibly persuade them to
buy it.
3. Colour scheme
The colours used in the existing product are light, innocent colours such as
pink and blue which is stereotypically aimed at girls. In my magazine I have
used colours such as purple and blue to go with the in – house style of the
magazine and to attract the audience. I have also included red colours in
the headline to represent danger and awareness. My headline is “battle of
the boy bands”. By using the colour red it shows a sense of violence and war
to represent the competition between the two boy bands. Whereas, my
colour on other text on my front cover is purple to represent elegance and
girly, aimed at my audience.
4. Style of photography
The main images on my magazine uses a medium shot for both images of the
boy bands. Their poses are very sensible and laidback as they are on the
cover of a magazine that appeals to a younger audience. This is why it is
suitable to go on my music magazine as it compliments the genre. All the
images used in my magazine are taken primarily including the picture I have
on my front cover of rapper Nicki Minaj which was taken at a concert.
The same style of photography is used on the existing product which is why I
chose to use it on my magazine to make it more realistic and develop the
conventions of what needs to be included on the magazine.
5. Fonts and writing style
The fonts used as my logo in my magazine have a sort of child effect because the
letters are slightly tilted to give the impression that it has been drawn by a child. I
have decided to choose this font because it goes with the in-house style of my
magazine.
I haven’t included much writing in my magazine because the audience of my
magazine mainly focuses on the images. This also occurs in the existing product as
it uses very little writing on the double page spread because there are mainly
images with little captions. I decided to challenge this convention by including
more writing on my double page spread because it is an interview with the boy
band which the reader would be interested in reading because they want to find
out more about their favourite boy band. Whereas, the existing product
stereotypically assumed their audience of teenagers wouldn’t enjoy reading
much but are more interesting in the images.
6. How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
Age
My magazine has represented people of a specific age by including things
like boy bands and also the language used. By including images of boy
bands this gives the impression that it is aimed at teenage girls because this is
who their biggest fan base are. This is why I have included this because their
fan base are most likely to be interested in the magazine if their favourite boy
band are on it and it is what most likely will attract them to buy it.
I have also used language such as “fitty” because this is the kind of language
teenage girls use when they are talking about their favourite boy bands. I
used this language to represent the girls around this age group so they feel
they can relate to the magazine and enjoy it more because it uses
colloquialism rather than boring standard English lexis.
7. Gender
I have used things such as a colour scheme to represent the gender my
magazine is aimed at. For example, I used colour such as purple and pink as
they are stereotypically a girls favourite colour. It also gives connotations of
feminism and sensitivity which are used to represent girls. This is why this colour
wouldn’t be used on a heavy metal rock magazine as it has connotations of
a much more gentle approach to the audience.
Before I started the magazine I did a questionnaire on the kind of things my
audience would like to see in my magazine. The results showed the girls
preferred if their favourite boy band was on the front cover and to have
posters of them. These are the kind of conventions I have included to
represent who the social group it is that my magazine is aimed at.
8. Class
My magazine firstly represents a certain class by the price. The price of my
magazine is £1.50 which isn’t expensive considering my magazine is published
monthly. I have decided to price it at this amount because it is aimed at
teenagers who don’t usually have jobs so will therefore be asking their parents
to purchase this for them so this makes it affordable for a working class
individual.
Also, the language used in my magazine represents individuals who are less
educated as it mostly uses colloquialism rather than standard English. And
also the quantity of text reflects on the type of social group. In this case, my
magazine uses very little text to reflect on the fact that stereotypically,
working class people will not be interested or get enjoyment out of that.
9. Social groups
Readers of my magazine may be associated in some form of social group
that are into music like R’n’B, Pop and rap. The questionnaire I produced
before I made the magazine also found out that the majority of the people
who took place in the questionnaire liked R’n’B/pop music. This is what will
influence them to buy the magazine if it is aimed at a particular social group
because it will encourage them to find out more about this certain genre so
they can feel more included in that social group.
10. What kind of media institution might
distribute your media product and
why?
The magazine I looked at has a similar in-house style to my magazine so therefore it would be
most appropriate if they distributed my magazine. They offer the magazines on blogs and on
their website simply because of the target audience. I would want this for my magazine because
my target audience is teenager girls and as teenagers spend most their time on the internet and
social networking sites then this will be efficient for them.
On the other hand, this could be a disadvantage as there could be less potential sales in stores
for the magazine if individuals are just looking on the websites and blogs. However, the website
only offers a preview of the front page of the magazine so the reader will not be able to continue
reading unless they buy it in stores.
The publisher of this magazine advertises the magazine on blogs which is an advantage because
most teenagers spend their time on social networking sites so they will see this and be persuaded.
But I would want the publisher to do this on other social networking sites for my magazine
because not many teenagers have blogs. Instead they have social networking sites such as
Twitter and Facebook.
11. Who would be the audience for your
media product?
To collect research for my target audience I did a questionnaire which found
out the age range of my target audience, what kind of music they are into,
who their favourite artists are, what kind of interviews they are into and how
much they are willing to spend on the magazine.
The age range for my magazine was 13 and 19. Stereotypically, people think
that teenagers are into a lot of rap music which influences violence and
negativity because of particular artists that are portrayed in the media.
Teenagers then get influence by the media and start to behave this way.
However, my music magazine doesn’t include this but you are still able to
know who the audience is aimed at by looking at the language used, the
artists, the colour scheme.
12. Age&Gender
My magazine is aimed at teenage girls and you can tell this because of things
like the colour scheme, font, language and also the artists that have been
included on the magazine.
From the research I did to find out about my target audience, I asked what
they would like as free gift in magazines and half of the responses were
posters. So I decided to include posters of the most popular boys that have a
large fan base of girls. This is one of the conventions I used to portray my
target audience of teenage girls.
13. Masthead
Also, the name of my magazine ‘young’ reflects and represents the audience
it is aimed at. By this, you will know straight away what kind of music is
expected that usually young children are most interested in. all the
conventions used in this magazine relate back to the masthead and the
meaning behind it. For example, the language used represents how young
people talk and the colour scheme is very vibrant and exciting to represent
the mood of young children.
14. How did you attract/address your
audience?
Photography
The images I have used on my cover will attract my audience because it
includes pictures like Nicki Minaj in concert. This will appeal to them because
it is something they would like to be apart of and it will make them think why it
has made the cover of a magazine. Also, I have used two big images of boy
bands that I have made the main focus of the page to attract the audience
as they are a popular and loveable boy band that I found out from my target
audience research. If the reader sees this on the front cover it will make them
immediately want to buy it. Teenagers tend to buy a magazine f they like
what they see on the front cover or just to read one article which is what I
aimed to do by putting images like this as the main focus.
15. Language
I also used language to attract the audience. As my headline I have wrote
“battle of the boy bands”. This will attract them because teenagers are
usually into this kind of gossip where there is war between celebrities. Also the
word “battle” will attract them because teenagers are stereotypically
boisterous so this type of language will appeal to them.
Also, on my double page spread and contents page, the boy band mention
colloquial lexis such as “idiot”. This type of language attracts my audience
because it will make them feel comfortable as if they are talking to their
friends because this is the kind of language they use when they socialise with
friends.
16. What have you learnt about
technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
Whilst making my magazine product I have used various amounts of
technology in order to develop and produce my magazine. These include
things I have used for the first time such as:
o Photoshop
o Slide share
o Blogger
o Scribd
17. Photoshop
I used Photoshop for the very first time when producing my magazine so I
faced a few problems but I soon overcame them as I began to get used to
using this software. The problems I faced were things like font size, cropping
images from the background to make it fit the page and experiencing
blurred images. As I began to experiment with this software and get used to
all the tools and how to use them, I didn’t find anything else a problem. After
facing these problems I was able to continue successfully in producing my
magazine.
18. Slide Share&Scribd
Slide share is something I used to post power point presentations in order for
other people to access them online. I would then post this link onto my blog
to display the work I produced. I used this when I did research on other
magazines before producing my own. I also used Scribd for the same reason
but I wanted to use something different to show I have explored a range of
different things.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/114951181/Front-Cover-Case-Study
http://www.slideshare.net/fullscreen/07niks/magazine-covers-analysis-15414408/1
19. Blogger
Blogger is something I have been using throughout this course as something
to display all my work on. I used blogger for the first time and did face some
difficulty when I first began to use it as I didn’t know my way around the blog
or how to post things etc. As I began to get used to it, I made my blog look
nice by editing the background, adding information about myself and
posting various things.
http://0408nikitabains.blogspot.co.uk
20. Looking back at your preliminary task, what
do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
Since I started producing my music magazine, my skills have developed since I
started using new software's rather than just using Microsoft power point for my
school magazine. When producing my school magazine as my preliminary task, I
did it on power point which I had quite a bit of knowledge for. However, I didn’t
undertake any research whilst producing this magazine or make any plans so
therefore I hadn’t followed many conventions of a magazine but instead just went
by my own knowledge.
From then, I moved onto using Photoshop to produce my music magazine which
allowed me to learn new skills. I also conducted quite a lot of research to help me
follow the conventions. Photoshop made me learn new things such as importing
images and selecting and cropping them in order for them to stand out from the
background, also using a range of different fonts and colours and making use of
different tools such as ‘gradient tool’.
