2. THE QUESTIONS
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3) what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4) what would be the audience for your media product?
5) how did you attract address you audience?
6) what have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing
the product?
7) Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt
in the progression from it to the full product
8) How successful do you feel your end product is in fulfilling the task? How
well does it fit the brief
3. QUESTION 1
1) In what ways does
your media product use,
develop or challenge
forms and conventions of
real media products?
4. Q1 - USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONSOne of my main research focuses was on Q magazine. I analysed much of Q
magazine whilst looking at other music magazines such as Rolling Stone and
NME. By analysing Q magazine I got to learn the different codes and
conventions of music magazines. By doing so I could see the effect it had on
the audience reading the magazine My blog:
http://adamtooley.blogspot.co.uk/After doing the analyse of various music magazines I got
to learn all about the different codes and conventions I got
to apply them to some of my made up magazine covers
http://adamtooley.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/drafting-and-
planning_9.html
This exercise helped me very much as it allowed me get a
feel for the codes and conventions and how they are
arranged on the front cover. It also made me realise about
negative space and how to fill the gaps on the front cover.
Looking at various different front covers allowed me to
take some of the stories from the cover lines and use them
as inspiration for my magazine.
5. Q1 - USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONSNow that I have learnt about these codes and conventions, I tried to
apply them to my magazine:
I made sure the main cover line
dominated the front cover and the other
cover lines, so we can see the main story:
an act the audience would be excited to
see. I made sure it related to the main
photography of the front cover.
I made sure the cover lines didn’t cover the main
image and block it. As a result this wouldn’t block
the main story of the magazine which is the cover
star. In the position I have placed them it makes it
easy for the audience to move from the audience to
move from the main cover star to the cover lines
I considered how I’d apply each convention to the front
cover by remembering the basics of how codes and
conventions are applied. I made my masthead similar to
my research and place it in the general position
mastheads go.
6. Q1 - USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS
In some ways I did challenge the conventions and codes of your
general music magazines. For example the clothing of my main
cover star isn’t really stylish to some degree like other male
artists however they do incorporate the use of a bandana which
isn’t really seen on any modern male artists which definitely
challenges other music magazines. It adds personality and a
sense of uniqueness. The background is a part of the original
image which challenges other music magazines as the
background is usually cut out and the cover star is placed onto
a different background. This is used quite a lot by magazines
such as NME and Q magazine so I have challenged this aspect
of the magazine. The background also has a link to the
anchorage text used as it says “Vacations Over” and the
background is of a paradise holiday location. I didn’t mention
any other real artists. This was so I didn’t mix up any of the
music genres. By making up the artists I was able to stay real to
the genre of the magazine which was pop.
7. Q1 - USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS
The reason that this particular
magazine from Q magazine
inspired my magazine was
because of the main cover line.
It was different from your usual
magazine. The typography used
is very different and less formal
to represent the artist. I
implemented something similar
Q magazine was a massive
influence on my magazine. I
spent much of my research
into similar products on q
magazine and wanted to
base much of my magazine
on a similar layout to Q
magazine’s style and use of
codes and conventions such
as puffs and pugs
8. Q1 - USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS
This billboard cover was also a great influence as the
characterisation of Bruno mars helped influence my
cover star. As you can see he is holding his collar which
has influenced my cover star. My cover star had a very
similar pose where he is holding his chin which is
directly influenced from this. It is different from other
music magazine as this shows personality instead of the
main cover star just looking dead into the camera.
9. Q1 - USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS
I decided that for my contents page I would follow a very similar style
to Q magazine. For example I used the L shaped layout that is
commonly used in Q magazine. This influenced my content page
greatly and showed my link between my magazine and Q magazine.
10. Q1 - USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS
Double page spread
My first influence was a double page
spread from NME with Mark Ronson.
I like the way this cover had the image and
the text separate and not wrapped around
the main cover star. This is something Q
magazine did too with their issue with the
great David Bowie. I like the way it didn’t
overlap the artist because I felt I gave a very
organised look to the main cover star. This
is why I decided to use something similar
for my magazine.
11. 2) HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT REPRESENT
PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?
12. Q2 - REPRESENTING PARTICULAR
SOCIAL GROUPS
My magazine is aimed towards individuals' between the age of 18-25 who are interested in the latest news
of the music industry. People who have a specific interest in the music genre of pop. The clothing of my
artist is clearly inspired by the current trends in fashion at the time among young people. This means that
the young people and young adults looking at this magazine would see him as someone he can relate to.
For example he is wearing a bandana which is a ‘new trend’ within the fashion industry which would show
that he is keeping up with common trends and the audience would see him as a role model and someone
they can relate to. The overall look of the cover star makes him appear to be rich but also very youthful and
suggest that he was not ‘born into fame’ but worked his way up to it. He appears to be relaxed person. He
doesn’t embrace what his haters say which is emphasised in the double page spread. The images that were
used on the contents page also shows a youthful look to the magazine. In the content page I used photos
that made the artists to appear as models. I added a guitar to the main cover star so that a reader could
learn more about him by just looking at the picture. I used different camera angles in my photography to
show the difference between the artists and added to the youthful look.
13. 3) what kind of
media institution
might distribute your
media product and
why?
14. Q3 – MEDIA INSTITUTIONS
I researched into different publishing companies:
http://adamtooley.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/research-into-similar-
products.html
By researching into different
companies and how they produced
magazines I was able to observe
the different features of each
company so I could make my
magazine look professional to.
15. The distributer I have chosen is Bauer Media Group
They are the publishers behind Q magazine. The reason I have
chosen this distributer is due to the fact they publish similar music
magazines such as Q magazines which have similar genre to my
music magazine. Therefore my magazine would fit right in with the
companies portfolio. Bauer media group creates various different
magazine meaning that there target audience is between 18 – 75 so
my magazine would fit in
16. 4) what would be the
audience for your
media product?
17. Q4 – THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR
MEDIA PRODUCT
My magazine targets both male and female between the ages of 18 –
25. teenagers and young adults where interested in the latest music in
the pop genre. Below is a link to y blog where I did the questionnaire.
Q magazine has a similar target audience and the remake and remodel
task helped me understand q magazines layout, codes and
conventions used and the persona of the coverstar.
Q magazines target audience is teenagers and 20 – 25 year olds so I
used this as inspiration for my pop light magazine
18. Q – 5 HOW DID YOU
ATTRACT/ ADDRESS
YOUR AUDIENCE?
19. ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR
AUDIENCE
Masthead – I wanted my masthead to be different from the usual. The
name I chose for my magazine was “PopLight”. I liked this name
because it reminded of spotlight a lot so I used it. It is also something
that hasn’t really been used before and so therefore is made
20. 6) what have you
learnt about
technologies from the
process of
constructing the
21.
22.
23. 7) Looking back to your
preliminary task, what do
you feel that you have learnt
in the progression from it to
the full product
24. I learnt a lot from my preliminary task.
In my preliminary task I didn’t think much for typography and spatial
awareness of my images and cover lines. I also took more care with
colour schemes too. I used a blue box in my preliminary task that did
not work well with my magazine. This was something I evidently
needed to improve on. Some of the cover lines were not visible on the
front cover as they were too bright and weren’t visible on a bright
background. The organisation of the preliminary task wasn’t the best
as it was rather messy and plain. There were not enough cover lines
and conventions. I improved on all of this in my final piece.
25. 8) How successful do
you feel your end
product is in fulfilling the
task? How well does it fit
the brief
26. Overall I feel my final magazine was successful and I am happy with
it. However looking at it now I know that there are much I could of
done to improve it further and show my influence from other well
known magazines. I used codes and conventions succefully on my
final magazine including main cover line, cover lines, puffs/pugs and
so on so. I feel that overall I have fit the brief very well and followed
the primary codes and conventions for creating a succeful music
magazine.
