2. 1.Who would be the audience for
my media product?
The target audience for my music magazine is fairly young (18-28).
My target audience is gender neutral. My chosen genre is Indie
Rock, although my audience may be slightly broader than that one
genre. My target audience is also takes a slightly more
sophisticated look at the genre, or music in general, someone
typically on a slightly higher income who is willing to take a more
intelligent look at music than most.
3. 1.Who would be the audience for
my media product?
Seeing as my genre is indie rock, to look into what
conventions my target audience expects in a magazine I
researched a couple indie magazines such as NME, as
well as Q, which I feel is similar to my magazine in its
edgy layout
4. 2. How did I address/ attract my
target audience
The target audience was the most important thing to consider when
putting together my magazine. The most important part especially
being the title. I chose ‘the Canvas’ as my magazines title because
it essentially is what is says. A canvas is a blank slate waiting to be
filled with fine art which implies how my magazine looks at
music, which by making my magazines title alone convey the
magazines ideology I think instantly helps me better identify and
with relate with my audience as well as let them identify and relate
with the magazine, which is the first step to successfully drawing my
target audience in. On top of this I went through a selection process
of various fonts that may also convey a sophisticated look to my
audience.
5. 2. How did I address/ attract my
target audience
I think my magazine front cover addresses my target audience in
several ways. In the pages top cover line above the masthead is a
kind of slogan for my magazine, shown below. It represents my
magazines ideology in general well and is significant in addressing
my audience £4.99, slightly higher than the average magazine
(which I know from my questionnaire as well as research of several
other magazines), this again, suggests that my target audience is
slightly more sophisticated in that they and that they are on a
reasonably high income.
6. 3.How does my media product
represent particular social groups?
When representing a social group (particularly my target
audience) I designed the pages of my magazine to
appear very sleek, or edgy. I avoided making anything
look cluttered, particularly my contents page as those
can be especially so, as well as choosing what I
considered relatively smart looking serif font for the text.
This was in order to represent a more intelligent, high
brow audience.
7. 3.How does my media product
represent particular social groups?
This is also evident in my artist ‘MW’ who I
avoid making look flashy or gimmicky, and
tried to make look slightly more casual (partly
to stay within my genre boundary of indie) as
well as to convey a more serious or intelligent
look at the genre, again representing my
audience who take a more comprehensive
look at indie rock, as well as all music.
8. 4.What have I learned about technologies through
the process of constructing this product?
The programme I learned to use best throughout this
task is Adobe Photoshop. During my preliminary task I
was taught some of the basics such as
cropping, altering lighting, clone stamps, spot healing
etc., and practiced these skills on a number of pictures
unrelated to the task to learn more about and hone my
skills with this programme
9. 4.What have I learned about
technologies through the process
of constructing this product?
Here is an example of a picture I edited out of
necessity in my prelim task to make the picture
more appropriate for my school magazine.
Before After
10. 4.What have I learned about
technologies through the process
of constructing this product?
Below is a picture I edited for my music
magazine, a simple alteration to black and
white to make my picture more artistic and
better fit with the page I had in mind.
11. 4.What have I learned about
technologies through the process
of constructing this product?
As you can see my use of this programme has
become more efficient throughout my
task, going from basic training with the
programmes tools, to using it only for
necessity in my prelim task, to using it so
efficiently that I use it for more trivial things
such as conforming to my magazines motif
12. 5.In what ways does my media
product, use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
I have implemented many conventions found
from research of other magazines into my
product, however The magazine I would argue
that I have taken the most inspiration from
during my task is Q, though my product doesn't
have the same target audience as Q, (seeing as
Q’s target audience is rather broad) I have
adopted a lot of my magazines look from Q to
convey that sort of edgy feel
13. It is more evident in my front page than others that my magazine uses and
develops many of the conventions found in Q. For example the layout of the
page, the colour of the text, the plain white background and the focus on the
main image of the artist (in that it’s the only image on the page). Though like I
said, these similarities are to convey a high class feel to a high class
audience, that is to say, not the same audience as Q. For example as I
previously sated to make it look high brow I've done everything I can to prevent
my magazine from looking cluttered. Therefor I have reduced the amount of
cover lines and not included, pugs, puffs or any other large shapes that don’t
look necessarily neat. So in that respect my front cover does defy some
conventions, at least some of those set by Q.
14. Reiterating what I previously stated about my magazine
not appearing cluttered is my contents page, which
again, defies a lot of the connotations set by Q to avoid
looking cluttered and appeal more to my target
audience, looking more similar to an NME contents page
if anything. So again, while conventions of the magazine
that inspired are followed, if it means straying my target
audiences expectations or an aesthetic that will be
appealing to them, they are defied
15. Again, many conventions of other magazines are used in
my double page spread, they are just a lot broader
conventions. Such as the image taking up the entire left
page and the right page then being dedicated to the text.
There are also small details such as the blown up font of
the first letter in the main body of text, and the enlarged
quote that may hold specific relevance to some fans of
the artist or the magazines target audience in general.
16. 6.What kind of media institution
might distribute my media product
and why?
The media institution I think would best publish my media product is
the Bauer Media Group, publishers of other famous magazines
such as KEERANG and the already mentioned Q. The former of
these two magazines aim for a relatively niche market wears the
latter is more broad. However I feel that the target audience for my
magazine is somewhere in the middle, and while it is similar to Q it
also defies a lot of Q’s conventions as previously shown, on top of
this I think my magazines ideology creates a very nice contrast with
KEERANG’s broadenings BMG’s range further, which is why I feel it
would be most beneficial if they were to publish my magazine.
17. 7. Looking back at my preliminary
task, what have I learnt?
Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel that there is a
sort of contrast between the two products I have
created. It is clear from my magazines design that it had
more of a focused target audience as apposed to my
newsletter, especially I think in my front cover.
18. 7. Looking back at my preliminary
task, what have I learnt?
My two contents pages in comparison I think best show
what I have learnt in terms of technology (as previously
mentioned in my use of technology), in that I think the
second one is laid out better, again with more of focus
in mind.
19. 7. Looking back at my preliminary
task, what have I learnt?
Overall my second photo-shoot was better as
well as I was more prepared, had a better
location and in general took more into
consideration when taking my photos thanks
to my previous preliminary photo-shoot.
