2. In what ways does your media product use, develop
or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
he genre of my music magazine is R&B. To be able to
create my own magazine. I looked at 2 different ‘VIBe’
magazines to support my ideas as they are also an R&B
genre. These are the 2 magazines that appealed to me
most on the left side due to composition and colour.
he mastheads in the example and in my magazine are in the
same position, on the top of the page. This is to keep in line
with the codes and conventions used in magazine layout. The
reason why the mast head is at the top is to capture my
intended audience as it is the first thing they will see. I have
made my model to be in front of the mast head just like the
‘VIBe’ one to show the importance of the model, and to keep
in place the conventional layout of magazines. Above the
‘VIBe’ mast head is the sell line. I have used a sell line too but I
preferred to place it under my mast head. My sell line says
“THE MAGAZINE WITH STYLE”. This represents that my
3. liked the idea of how the words touch each other closely in the ‘VIBe’ magazine for the main story, so I
thought that I would use this example for my front cover. I wanted my main puff to be displayed
diagonally across the image of the main focus so that the front cover doesn’t look so empty. Following
the codes and conventions, I have written my main puff bigger than the other puffs on the left side of the
cover just like in other magazines.
had typed into Google ‘magazine ‘barcode’ so that I could get a barcode for my magazine. I have used
the example ‘VIBe’ magazine with the male artist, “Akon”, to make my barcode similar to the example.
Just like the ‘VIBe’ example, I have put the web link and date of my magazine using the similar colours – I
have put mine into two layers so that it was clear to read whereas the ‘VIBe’ magazine uses one layer.
Above the barcode and the barcode itself, I have followed the code and conventions used in magazines
and placed an issue number and sell price. The sell price is reasonable to suit my intended audience.
I have used the same headline from the other ‘VIBe’ magazine (with the female artist) to use as
one of my headlines too because the words were attractive and suitable for my intended
audience. I have made my text more bigger than the ‘VIBe’ one just so it fits my front cover well.
4. Following the codes and conventions, I have used the same positions of how the puff is positioned on
the cover of the ‘VIBe’ magazine with the male artist. On the left side, there is the main text written in
big, bold writing to show that it is related to the model. On the right side, there are two more topics
written smaller. I focused on three colours just like the 2 ‘VIBe’ magazines so that the page doesn’t
look too busy and so that it fits my age group and gender. I chose to have a smooth gradient
background just like the other ‘VIBe’ magazine with the female artist. The only difference is that her
background is in front of her face while I put my background behind my model to show a clear image of
her as she is more important.
I have used a ¾ shot similar to the first ‘VIBe’ magazine example. I think this helps to show to my
intended audience the characters of how the models are. I really like the idea of how I was able to use
my model’s head shape to form the letter ‘A’ in my masthead ‘SWAGGA’ as at the same time she is in a
good position on the cover.
5. The codes and conventions that I have done
for my contents page considers the layout and
imaging, colours, and texts. I have used these 3
examples of magazine contents pages on the
left that already exists in order to create my
contents page too.
The first example on the left isn’t from an R&B
magazine but I have chosen this because I liked
the way the images are laid out onto the page
as my intended audience would be more
attracted to reading the images more than the
text.
The second example was helpful in terms of
colour. I have inversed these colours to make
the page look brighter and so that it contrasts
with the model’s clothing.
The third example was helpful in terms of text. I
haven’t used any fancy writing for the three
headlines, ‘DEPARTMENTS’, ‘SEEN’, and ‘STYLE’.
So instead, I had referred the text font back
from my front cover.
6. Instead of adding two more images above the
main image, I have used three. I have placed the
page numbers on the images into the different
corners because it makes the page more
interesting.
At the top of the page, I didn’t use images, so I
filled up half of the banner with the magazine
logo, and the other half with the title and the
‘content page’ title.
I have kept these ‘<>’ signs from the three
headlines because I saw that it looked more
stylish and helped to develop a house style.
I have used some texts from this ‘VIBe’ magazine
but I had added my own too.
In this example of the ‘VIBe’ magazine, I saw that
they had included captions under each of their
stories and topics to anchor their meaning and
that is what I did too. I made the captions as
short as possible so that the page is readable and
tempting by the fact that there is not enough
information but just the key words that my
target audience would be attracted to.
7. As you can see, none of the
magazines on the left have a
border around them. When I
showed my contents page
without the borders to my
intended audience, they had
recommended to me to add the
border lines to give a nice bolder
effect.
My intended audience also
recommended that I should add
a web link to get people talking
about this magazine. So I made a
follow-up Facebook link at the
bottom left corner.
8. These four
examples of
double page
spreads on the left
were the ones
that had appealed
to me . On the
right I have made
four drafts of this
in my own version
of my story while
using the same
ideas of their
9. Since I saw that the first three drafts looked too simple to create on Photoshop, I
had decided to upgrade my last draft. I don’t know if the last double page spread
example is from a ‘VIBe’ magazine, but I have chosen this because it is nice and
unique by the way the title has been cut up into single letters. I really like the font of
the title too because it makes it look young just like how my intended audience
would write.
I had followed the same example of positioning the title at the top and leaving space
for the image to stand out on the whole of the right side. I had decided to refer my
colours back from my front cover so that it is stable and prevents confusion. Under
the title, I have written a sub-heading to make the page look more like a magazine
just like this ‘VIBe’ double page spread example. Because the image was light, I have
used a dark background to contrast, and I have added a purple shadow just to give
the page a 3D effect rather than a flat, simple effect. I had to think about how I was
going to position the text boxes as I would want to avoid putting the text boxes in
the middle of the double page, so I thought of an imaginary line.
10. How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
My intended audience are for girls in the age range of 14-19 years old. From my
market research, I found that this demographic was most likely to buy their magazines
in a shop rather than by subscription – 98% would get the magazine this way.
Therefore, I had to make sure that the front cover was immediately eye-catching to
this specific target audience. The best way to do this on the front cover is to use a
model of their age group, so they can identify with her; see her as a role model or
something to aspire to.
11. Contact sheet
This is a contact sheet of the pictures that I have taken of people
for my magazine. They have not been edited but just rotated.
12. Audience and Representation – Front cover
The model is young, wearing a hoodie which has connotations of
gangster style and rebellion, and is a common style choice for
R’n’B artists. She is dressed quite youthfully, again helping the
target audience to identify with her.
She is black with quite light skin. Most R’n’B artists are black, so
this makes the genre of the music magazine easier to infer.Her
hair is worn down and she looks very natural, so this is breaking
with conventions of R’n’B. This is because I want to represent
my intended audience as more than just superficial, but as
powerful women with intelligence, not just beauty.
The mode of address is a mixture of both formal and informal
language. The sociolect used represents and constructs the
target audience by speaking to them like a friend would, which
helps them to identify with that social group.
13. Audience and Representation –
Contents Page
n general, I didn’t use any props because they would
draw attention away from the models. The other
images I have used show a girl break dancing (Photo
DSCN0467 slightly cropped), which represents my
audience as active.
used photo DSCN0481 to show girls in a
roup socialising, to represent them as
un-loving.
14. Audience and Representation –
Double Page
used a bubbly, young font to represent my target
audience as young and trouble free. The different font
sizes also add to this effect as it’s quite informal. The
yellow and red on a black background refer back to the
front cover, but are more contrasted, which creates the
idea of being young and rebellious again.
he image I used (Photo
SCN0456) has been edited to
xclude the other model, which
15. Media Institutions
IPC Media is the UK’s biggest publisher of
magazines. It sells over 350 million copies of
various magazines every year, and also has a
digital division. It is owned by Time Inc. which
is a massive multinational company.
Because of this, IPC Media would be a great
company to publish and distribute SWAGGA.
They have three sections:
Connect — mass market women
SouthBank — upmarket women
Inspire — men
SWAGGA would be in ‘Connect’, so with IPC it could be distributed widely. They
have a lot of money and can afford the advertising need to launch a new
magazine. Because its parent company is Time Inc, there would be opportunities
to advertise through Warner Bros. etc. and offer very good competitions.
16. Advertising
According to my survey results, I can see that the most preferred place to buy a
magazine would be in shops.
These are m ideas of where I would want to publish my magazine. Referring back
to my reader profile, it shows images of music channel logos that my intended
audience would watch such as ‘FLAVA’ and ‘MTV’, and radios such as ‘Choice fm’,
‘KISS’ and ‘BBC 1xtra’.
Other ideas for publishing my magazine are advertising on television, social sites
such as Facebook and Twitter, putting posters in public, and probably YOUTUBE.
17. Attracting an Audience for my
media product
From my audience survey, I found that 92% of
my respondents were female and just 8% male.
Because of this, I included images that were
relevant to this group and easy for them to
identify with. I also included, in my double page
spread ,an interview, which would be interesting to girls, specifically of the age
group 14-19 as they are interested in the personal lives of celebrities. The
respondents also said that they would buy a magazine for a tempting
competition. In this case, I included a talent competition, “Show your Talent”
asking the reader to show their personality and shine. Teenage girls love talent
TV shows, so this will be a draw to them.
I didn’t offer free giveaways, as, although my readership suggested it, I looked
at other similar magazines and saw that they didn’t do this.
18. What Have I Learnt?
• Planning
As I didn’t have Publisher at home, I had to use Word to create
my preliminary draft. Zoomerang was a very useful tool for
carrying out my market research as I could reach a much
wider audience. SlideShare also helped me to present my
planning in a more accessible way. The Internet was really
useful, as it helped me to research different media products,
and helped me to identify the codes and conventions of
media products. It also helped me to research media
Institutions and to realise the importance of them in media
production.
19. What Have I Learnt?
• Hardware
I had used digital cameras before, but this time I
had to be more aware of what picture I was
taking, and why. I had to make sure the lighting
was right which is something I hadn’t really
thought about before. Also, mise-en-scene had
to be taken into account to represent the
audience. At first, I didn’t do this as thoroughly
as I could, so I had to take some more images of
different people and using different angles and
shot sizes for variety.
Using the Macs for the first time was a challenge
as I had to learn a different operating system to
Windows.
20. What Have I Learnt?
• Software
I had used some image editing software before, and found
PhotoShop quite easy to use once I got the hang of the
controls. Using layers was different to what I’d done before,
and found cropping and editing images quite painstaking and
time consuming. The outcome, however, was worthwhile as it
gives a more professional look in the end.
21. What Have I Learnt?
• Blogger
Using a blog was new to me. It was quite similar in some ways to
Facebook and other social networking sites. It was an
effective way of presenting my work, as a folder would need
me to print a lot – especially as I did a lot of drafts. It also
allowed other people to look at my work and comment,
helping me to evaluate and improve what I was doing.
23. Progression from Preliminary to Full Product
This school magazine is much more basic than
my final magazine because:
• It looks ‘flat’ – the background seems plain
and uninteresting without a colour or gradient
effect on it.
• The colours are quite simple and not chosen
specifically for the target audience
• The images are not edited
• The image at the top right is too big
• The image at the top right is supposed to be a
logo, but is not stylised enough to look like one
• The second image looks too busy as it hasn’t
been edited
On the plus side…
• I have taken into account my target audience
by including competitions and addressing them
in the right mode of address and other things
that would interest them.
24. Progression from Preliminary to Full Product
Similarities…
Masthead using appropriate font for
target audience - youthful
Integrated text and image
- But different layout
Models the target audience
can identify with due to them
looking at the camera
25. Progression from Preliminary to Full Product
Differences…
Masthead in different places
More text Less text
Different tone and mode of
address
