2. 1. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
• It is important to use some conventions when creating my magazine to
keep in pattern with what audiences recognise music magazines to
be. By following the stereotypes adheres to what audiences expect
and may like which would appeal more to the target audience.
• My media product both challenges and uses conventions of the real
media product - one way that it challenges the real media product is
that all female artists are used in my magazine - this is different to the
normal convention of acoustic guitar being more of a male orientated
niche genre with the stereotype of older men being conveyed on the
cover of the magazine. The magazine shown is a key example of how
my chosen niche genre is mostly male dominated - by choosing
younger female artists I challenged this convention.Another way my
magazine challenges conventions is that I used famous artists who
crossed over into the pop genre so my magazine was not completely
acoustic guitar e.g. on my front cover I featured artists such as George
Ezra, James Arthur and Passenger who have been in the charts and
can be seen as more pop artists. This crossover would appeal to a
wider target audience and would mean my magazine is not as niche
as if it was completely acoustic guitar.
3. • I took inspiration from another acoustic guitar magazine and used key
components from the magazine to incorporate into my own to ensure that I was
following the typical conventions
4. • The actual layout and different editing aspects of my
magazine follow the conventions very closely.
My masthead sits behind the main
image which is a main convention
of music magazines - letters of
magazines such as on magazine
such as Acoustic and Kerrang. It
shows that the magazine is very
well known and even with letters
covers the masthead is instantly
recognised by audiences due to
brand identity of the font used. I did
not completely cover my masthead
but I small portion of the ‘O’ is
covered by my models sunglasses
in the main image
My coverlines also use the
conventions - my coverless are
displayed either side of my media
product. I have more/bigger articles
displayed on the right as readers
would read from left to right so would
have their attention drawn to the right.
I incorporated my colour palette into
the coverlines to create a brand
identity.
I took inspiration from the Ed
Sheeran cover and chose to
incorporate some aspects such as
the horizontal angled coloured band
going across the front cover. It was
eye catching to me when I first saw
the Acoustic cover so felt it would
have the same impact for my target
audience. I used the colour red
throughout my front cover as it
contrasts between the white
aspects of the models t-shirt and
masthead and also stands out
against the green aspects such as
the leaves of the background
image. I originally had the colour
scheme as a light purple lilac colour
but after consideration I felt that a
less gendered colour would suit my
magazine better and appeal to a
wider target audience.
5. 2. How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
• My media product represents a variety of social
groups. My magazine has a young woman on the
front cover who is around the age of 20. Age is
represented as the majority of other acoustic
guitar magazines I researched mostly had older
men as the cover and featured within. This
challenges the dominant hegemony for this niche
genre and I chose to go against the stereotype.
Gender is therefore also represented - I only
have female artists pictured in my magazine
which again challenges the stereotype. This
represents the social group of women under the
age of 25. My research from my target audience
said that showed that 53.3% of people who took
my survey believed the front cover artist was 18-
20 which fits my target audience so the audience
can relate more - if I had used an older artist for
my front cover the target audience may have
been different.
6. • Class and status is shown as I have an article about ‘supermarket worker to
national star’ which shows aspirers the ability of changing your life and
experiencing social mobility. My magazine does not overly glamourise the
artists and they appear simplistic but effective with a down to earth kind of
appearance. I took inspiration from Ed Sheeran to make them appear in
this down to earth way as he is represented as not being glamourised and
is represented as being normal. He also reflects the social mobility that can
occur as he moved from busking to being a house hold name now. This
reinforces the social group of class and status as my images dictate those
not flaunting their wealth.
• My front cover image was also taken in front of trees - not a high class
photography studio. This portrays the image of ‘anyone can do it’ creating
ambition to aspirers. It also shows normal people working hard achieving
big things. Race is not well represented in my media product as all of my
photos show white young women.
• Regional identity is touched upon and is shown in my contents page as I
included an image of my artist in front of the O2 arena in London - this
conveys the dream and goal to preform there connoting that London is an
area of possibilities.
7. • Subcultures: My media product does not appeal to some main youth
subcultures such as punk, skinhead, metal, emo etc as my magazine
is more mainstream and doesn't adhere to the typical stereotypes of
youth subcultures. The representation is very simple and down to
earth happy, positive guitar music. The image being portrayed is
down to earth with artists not overly glamourised and doing their
music because they enjoy it not to make money. My media product
represents big musical fans who don't necessarily do it for the money
but rather because they enjoy it and have found fame through their
natural talent.
• My representation of my artists is mostly positive - there is a cover
line mentioning an alcoholism problem which would be interesting for
readers to read about famous artists struggles and how they over
come them - therefore getting more insight and gossip details about
their lives. This would act as another selling tool by the magazines
with the promise of ‘insider gossip’.
