2. Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop, or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Well, I started off by reading magazines and looking into how the conventions
are on the front cover, contents page and the double page spread.
I kept to the same conventions that were used but I made some changes.
Instead of my Masthead being horizontal, I decided to make mine diagonal. It
makes it look different to average magazine that I saw in my research and I
was happy with the out come of it.
For my genre, which I decided on dubstep, I found that majority of the font
type they used was graffiti, so I used that for my Masthead and sub-headings in
my contents page.
A big characteristic that I carried out from my research to my magazine was
the graffiti writing that came up a lot in my research.
I feel that through the type of font I have used, I adjusted it for my target
audience (16+) as that is the stereotype of the type of stuff they do today, which
is graffiti art.
3. Q2. How does your media product represent particular social
groups?
From my research, I found that it was mostly teenagers from the ages
of 16-18 that listened to and produce dubstep music.
From the representations that I saw on my research, dubstep was
originally made by Afro-Caribbean, but as the times have moved on it
has become multi-cultural.
People have now added their own mix to it, being their age, ethnicity,
class, etc.
I don’t think that my media product represents a particular social
group who enjoy music, but a mix of social groups.
4. Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media
product and why?
I think that Development Hell Ltd as they produce the same magazines
that include my genre that I picked, dubstep.
I would think that they would be a good company to publish my
media product as their magazines are focused on events like:
Dance events
Reviews
Music
And Club nights
Where dubstep is usually a type of music you hear at clubs, I would
think that my music magazine would be best suited for them.
5. Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Well, my magazine could go to any reader, but my target audience is
teenagers
I have used some colours that teenagers may find interesting, along
with the graffiti writing it should hopefully work.
I came to these decisions because it is what I had came across when
doing my research, however most of there text was bright colours, mine
were dark compared to them.
My target audience I feel are addressed like how a normally a teenager
would talk to one another. The use of 2nd person language engages
with the reader, but not in a different language that they are not used
to.
6. Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?
I used the conventions that I found in my research. Like:
Competitions
Prizes
Freebies
In my interview on my double page spread, I used the type of language
that a teenager would understand (slang) as it relates to them and also
the reader may feel that the interviewee is talking to them in a proper
conversation between two people.
I used 2nd person, where it draws them in using the word “you” which
interacts with the audience.
On the front cover I didn’t add that much text, so that if the reader
wanted to find out more, they would have to read the article
themselves.
7. Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
I found that it was really hard, but fun at the same time as I was
learning to do something new, which is weird as I have never used these
types of programmes (InDesign and Photoshop) before. The limitations
in relation to this, is that I was slow when I first started using them,
because I didn’t understand how they worked, but I was able to finish
the product in time.
At first it was hard to get to grips with, but as time went on I learnt
how to use it and I have designed a product that I am happy with and
surprised that I actually made a magazine cover page, contents page
and a double page spread.
I was also proud that I had the opportunity to do this as it has added to
skills that I have possessed over time.
8. Q7. Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you
have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I have learnt how to use Photoshop and InDesign.
In Photoshop, I learnt how to use the Polygonal Lasso Tool, which
allowed me to get rid of parts that I didn’t want in ma image for
the front cover.
I learnt how to use swatches and strokes, which help me make and
choose colours that I wanted for my magazine and the strokes used
to outline the text or image that I wanted to be more defined.
How to use light when taking images and using props for my
magazine.
Learnt about codes and conventions
However, I feel that I still have to practice a bit more when using
Photoshop, with refining my image, changing colours and
developing my images better.
