2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My music magazine has more or less the same layout of a normal music magazine. It has the price of the magazine near the logo and also near the barcode. Most magazines have the price of the magazine under or on top of the magazine logo and near the barcode. The logo is straight across the top of the page where most of the logos that I saw were, but there were logos which didnât cover the whole width of the front page. On the left hand side of my magazine I have written what my magazine consists of as on magazines they usually have most of the information on the left hand side. This is because when the magazines are stacked on shelves the left hand side of the magazine is shown and therefore they put most of the information on the left hand side. For my contents page I based my layout on the contents page of the NME Magazine. I have my main article on the left hand side of the page as this is where you start to read from. Also, I have a list of other articles that I have in the magazine but they are in a list at the bottom right hand corner. The title âIn This Weeks Issueâ I have split up into two words each and have put them above each other. I have put page numbers of the main articles on the bottom right hand corner of their picture as this is similar to the magazine NMEâs contents layout. The double page spread consists of an article on the discography of Tinie Tempah and a picture of the model who was posing as Tinie Tempah. On the side of the page I have the starting of my title written vertically and then the name âTinie Tempahâ with one half of his name on one page and the other half on the second page. On the second page of the article I have a full page of the model. I did this because when you flick through the magazine and you see a picture of the artist you automatically want to read the article especially if you are a fan or even if youâve never heard of the artist.
3. How does your media product represent particular social groups? The language that represents the social group that I am aiming for is not complex as the readers of my magazine are not going to be of a high social status therefore they would expect language which everyone will be able to understand and read. âTunetrippinâ as a name I thought was appealing to readers because the way that it is written is understandable by the social group that will be reading my magazine. Also, the language that I have used for the main article is simple and doesnât use many complex words. This is because my readers are going to be of a class C1 - D band and will most likely still be in education. Also, the age range that I have chosen which is 15-25 will for certain know who Tinie Tempah or they may at least heard of him. For my magazine I wanted pictures of Tinie Tempah but I couldn't get in touch with Tinie Tempah so I had to ask a friend to wear a hooded jumper with a polo shirt done up to the top as this is mainly how Tinie Tempah dresses. I made sure that the jeans he was wearing were appropriate as I didn't want the picture not to look like Tinie Tempah. By getting my model to wear the typical clothing of the fans of the music genre my magazine targets I have represented them through the clothing and created a connection between the reader and the magazine. This is one way of encouraging them to buy it.
4. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? My magazine is targeted at a niche audience, people who are interested in Hip-Hop and RânâB. Therefore I think that IPC Media is a good company from which my magazine should be distributed as they distribute all types of magazines including the NME music magazine. Because IPC is well known, I think that distributing them wonât be as hard because they maybe sold at corner shops and even major supermarkets, where the social group that I am targeting may shop from. Because IPC Media produce so many varieties of magazines, this shows that they can reach out to all types of readers. Where in the UK my magazine is being sold is an issue too, because I want my magazine to be sold in urban areas where you will find people that like Hip-Hop and RânâB music and donât want to be selling the magazine in the countryside or in rural places as the people living there wonât be interested in that type of music, also I wont be targeting my audience. I wouldnât want my magazine to be published by Bauer as they sell music magazines that are for an older audience, maybe in the classification band of A and B.
5. Who would be the audience for your media product? My magazine is targeted at 15 to 25 year olds which I think will be 50% of females and 50% males. This is because most people that are interested in Hip-Hop are equally male and female. I would say that although not all 15 to 25 year olds donât listen to Hip-Hop and RânâB, there are people under the age of 15 and over the age of 25 who do listen to Hip-Hop and RânâB music therefore it balances the figures out.
6. How did you attract/address your audience? One way that I tried to address the audience was the language I was using. I wouldnât say I used slang through out the magazine because not all of my magazine is in slang. However, I have used slang in the title. The title âTunetrippinâ uses slang as its not full English. Using language like this attracts the audience because thatâs how many of the readers talk on a day to day basis, as they are young and may have not even finished their education. Another thing is that the readers are not going to want all the extra information but will want the article to be straight to the point and easy to understand. Also, the simple layout of the page shows that its not too busy and simple colours on the pages will attract the readers rather than a very busy front cover. Another way that I have tried to make my magazine more attracting is the clothes that my model is wearing. Through the way the model dresses you will get more attention because the readers of my magazine are going to want to dress like stars who will be wearing branded clothing, therefore them wanting to buy the magazine. One thing that I couldâve put on my front cover is an eyebrow. This couldâve been advertising a special offer which I couldâve put âFREEâ. This wouldâve attracted the audience as it says free and therefore I think that it wouldâve sold more copies even though it will not have been free indirectly.
7. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Through out the making of my magazine I have learnt many things. I have used the internet to look for facts for my magazine. I have learnt that âGoogleâ is the most efficient search engine to use. The navigation of websites is not easy all the time as you may not find all the information that you want on one website. The negative thing about it was that some of the websites had given different information and I had to go through many different websites and compare to see which website was giving me the correct information. To take the pictures of my model I used a SLR Camera and because I knew how to use it, I was comfortable using the camera. One thing I had to take into consideration was the weather and whether it was going to rain or not especially because I wanted to do the shoot outside. After taking the pictures I decided to edit them on a program called Photoshop. I havenât used Photoshop before and so it took a long time getting used to it, but I managed to get around it and edited my photos on there. Although I had used Adobe Indesign for my preliminary exercise I had to use Photoshop for my magazine because I didnât have the program at home. Other internet websites I used were âBloggerâ and âSlideshareâ. On blogger I had to set up a blog which I had to update regularly with the progress that I was making throughout the course. Navigating the website was tricky but I found my way around it. Also, for me to upload PowerPoint presentations, I had to convert them on a website called âSlideshareâ and then upload them. This was done by getting an embedded code on Slideshare and then I copied it over to blogger which was then posted as a blog on Blogger. I couldnât find my way around it, but with some help I slowly got the hang of it. I think that after using these programs, I think that I will be able to use them more frequently and with much more ease for further projects.
8. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? While doing the preliminary task I learned many things from the way that a music magazine should be laid out to how to actually make a music magazine. Also, I have learnt how to attract my audience through the language I use and the typography and the images that I have taken. Looking back at my preliminary I have learnt different ways of editing pictures either on Adobe Indesign or Adobe Photoshop. I have learned how to make my magazine stand out and make it look appealing so people would buy the product. One thing that was a major problem while doing the preliminary task was that I couldnât get all the columns to do the write up in one line therefore it took a lot of practice and I was finally able to do it when it came to making the actual product. From not knowing how to use Photoshop I think I did well in managing how to use it. By using Photoshop I have learned many ways for my picture to look professional. I did this by creating layers which allows me to change my image easily and make it look appropriate for the magazine. Overall, after doing the preliminary exercise I think that I have learnt a lot through the making of my music magazine and I think that my magazine has conventions of a real magazine. I now know that I have improved my skills and that they will or may come in further use in the future.
