1. 1. In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
FRONT COVER
My front cover has all the stylistic and must features a magazine should include.
My masthead is big and bold so that it catches the eye of the audience and the
other purpose is to tell the audience what the magazine is all about on a first
glance.
Another important feature of my magazine is the main image, which is a
photograph featuring the lead band. I made it so that the colour of the image
contrasts with the other important features of the magazine such as the
masthead, the background and the cover lines.
Throughout the styling of the magazine I chose to use a dark colour scheme
which included my four house colours Black, Grey, white and dark red. These
colours go well together because they stand out when there together and because
of the chosen colours they work well together with my selected house style.
The colours also relate to the particular genre and type of magazine, which in
this case is a rock/indie magazine. Other rock or indie magazines such as Q,
kerrang and NME usually have a bold dark colour scheme because it links well
with the type of music portrayed.
The front cover also includes cover lines which run down the sides of my
magazine and the leading article was purposefully made to be bold and stand out
more than the others because it’s the main story of the magazine and it attracts
the audience’s eye more easily.
CONTENTS
My contents page again is selectively coloured so that it links with the front
covers house style, it uses dark red and grey specifically to contrast with each
other so that they bring out the main features such as the reviews, and the Photo,
which also looks quite dark and gloomy but that links in well with the storyine of
the article. It boldly shows the features and features soon to follow and gives a
short explanation of the main article.
DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
The double page spreads layout shows a photograph of band member on the left
hand side, which the main article is about. This time I chose to use a white
background instead of different shades of grey because sometimes in magazines
the double page spread can be different as such in Kerrang or NME, but I still
kept it linked with the front cover and the contents page using red and grey for
different brushes used so the it brings the article out more. I think the font of the
text used on the double page spread is effective because it’s italic and links with
certain songs of rock or indie music.
The main article is about Cormac O’driscol who is the drummer for “IN CASE
OF FIRE” and who has suddenly decided to come out and reveal his addiction to
drugs. The article talks about how he first got into them, it talks about his

2. emotions and it makes the audience understand things from his point of view. It
involves his personal life including family and close friends. These sorts of article
can easily catch the audience’s eye because it’s a dramatic story about a
celebrity, which we all know can easily be a major headline. From another point
of view it can relate to certain types of people who are into their music and
people who face the same problems. It show’s them how even a celebrity can fall
and they could feel connected. This sort of impact would be great for sales and
the magazine, revenue wise.
2. How does your product represent particular social groups?
I made the main image look more rock and indie influenced by making one of
the members hold drum sticks and also made the photograph more serious so
that it can connect with the lead article. I made my magazine relate to a specific
audience of a rock or indie listener by making the lead article about the rock
member, also I have linked in the features on the contents page of a list about the
100 greatest rock songs and also because the audience who would usually buy
this type of magazine are rock/indie influenced, I made a festival feature, so that
it would relate to them more and so they feel like this is the magazine for them.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
My Magazine would probably be published on IPC, which would help my
magazine become more mainstream. Magazines such as the NME are published
by IPC, which is why I have chosen to do it the same way, because NME and my
magazine are similar. I would probably launch my first magazines online
because I know that nowadays the internet is becoming the most media
influenced based source, therefore using the internet would widen my target
audience, and would make marketing more accessible.
4. Who would be the target audience for your media project?
The target audience for my particular magazine would be 15-20 year olds who
are interested in rock, indie, festivals, and gigs. I decided to aim my target
audience around my age group because it can easily relate to their tastes.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
Using my magazine, I attracted my audience by involving their hobbies and
as much of their everyday life as possible. My Unique selling point would be
the depth of information about rock and indie music today, which also
includes related themes which are becoming more popular such as festivals,
gigs and downloads. Detailed stories would make them more interested in
how their idols live and how they are currently being portrayed.
I did this because people like to find out as much as possible about their idols,
maybe because they inspire them or because they want to be as much like
celebrities as possible.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of this
product?

3. I have learnt
• Using and experimenting with different brushes, from P.s Brushes.com
• Changing the styling of photographs, e.g. using Curves, and how different
angles can affect the lighting
• Designing different fonts on Dafont.com and then editing them on
Photoshop using several tools
• How the features and styling of a magazine are presented, e.g. Masthead,
cover lines, Lead article
• How different colours contrast with each other and what works best.
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