2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products For my magazine research I focused on two very different chart magazines ‘Billboard’ and ‘Q’. Although all of the magazines bellow are chart magazines there is no clear layout and structure to the magazine. This meant that I could be quite experimental and different with my magazine and gave me more freedom in what I could create. But there are a few conventional features that I have spotted in most of the chart music magazines that I have looked at.
3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products They are all similar because they have the name of the Artist in the kicker across the middle of the page. Also all of the artists are covering part of the mast head showing that is a well known magazine and the audience does not need to see the Masthead to know the name of the magazine. Also the date is usually on the front of the magazine to show that the magazine is current and up-to-date. And the price is always on the front and the lower the price the bigger the font to attract people by the price. This Q magazine is priced at £3.99, therefore it is quite discreet as the price isn't the selling point of the magazine and the quality of the magazine is seen as more important than the price.
4. In what ways have I used or developed conventional features of a chart music magazine? Visually the magazine that looks most similar to mine is this Billboard issue with the artist Miley Cyrus on the front. The conventions that I have followed from this magazine is having ‘Vicky Rowlands’ across the middle of the page in capitals. Also the main image is quite similar as the model has a few similar features for example the facial expression in both of the models is quite fierce and direct, also they are both looking directly at the camera. The hair and makeup of both of the models is quite similar also as my model has long brown curly hair with a centre parting, showing that the artists both have a similar style so they are a similar genre of music.
5. In what ways have I used or developed conventional features of a chart music magazine? The lighting in both of the main images is every similar and lights up their face to show who they are and add to the airbrushed look that people in the magazines have. But even though they have some similar conventions each magazine challenges conventions and needs to be unique in its own way and not be a duplicate of existing music magazines.
6. How have I challenged the conventions of a chart music magazine? One way that I have challenges conventions of chart music magazines is in ‘billboard’ they have a very similar style for each strapline and none of them stand out as they re all the same and have like a uniform style. I wanted to challenge this convention of ‘Billboard magazine and make they staplines stand out and look more interesting, using a variety of different sizes, fonts and colours but keeping the magazine professional by having three key colours of black white and pale purple. But some chart music magazines also challenge this feature.
7. The social group is represented as young and fun. Although the target audience goes all the way up to women in their early 40’s the model on the front of the magazine is young so the target audience will aspire to be like her as she is successful young and beautiful. They are also represented as fun because on the double page spread the model is doing quite a fun pose How does your media product represent particular social groups (Women around the age of 21 to 45) Someone that is current and loves chart music. On the cover the magazine says ‘Your chart’ with lots of current artists that are popular in that month. The use of the word ‘Your’ makes it seem like the magazine is addressing the people that are interested in this type of music and that the music they are loving is in the charts.
8. A wealthy person with a disposable income who is also very classy. The style of the magazine is quite classy you can see this through the font styles that I have used for the words ‘A star in the making’ on the front cover a really thin font has been used which is quite dainty, light and elegant. And the price is quite small and discreet because wealthy people with a disposable income are not concerned about the price. How does your media product represent particular social groups (Women around the age of 21 to 45) Someone that is stylish and cares about their image. although this is a music magazine and it isn't about style and fashion and image the model on the front is very beautiful and is well made up. Also the magazine talks about several other people that are also have a good image and are known for being very beautiful, Cheryl Cole and Rihanna. Who are both inspiring woman that the target audience would look up to.
9. ‘Melody’ represents the social group of women between the ages of 21 and 45 as independent and sophisticated. On the front of the magazine it shows a young successful woman that has achieved a lot all by herself and has worked very hard and is living proof that ‘Dreams do come true’. How does your media product represent particular social groups (Women around the age of 21 to 45) People who read this magazine are represented as proud and confident. This is because a lot of the stories in the magazine are not bad things about celebrities where the media tells you what is going wrong in their life to make the audience feel better about themselves and for a bit of gossip. But they are success stories and about people in the charts. This shows that the social group is generally happy with who they are and are quite successful too and proud to be a successful woman.
10. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? “Prometheus engages people and marketers at the intersection of culture's most powerful forces - Music, Media and Entertainment. This connectivity makes Prometheus a potent catalyst in influencing popular culture.” One of the main magazine that influenced many of my decisions about my magazine was ‘Billboard’. This magazine distributer is for magazines like ‘Billboard’ which is a similar sort of market to mine as it is a chart music magazine, but at the same time billboard is different to ‘Melody’ and would have a different and a much wider audience because it is targeted as just women. Another reason why this magazine distributer would be good for ‘Melody’ is because they used to distribute ‘Vogue’. Although it is a fashion magazine and not a music magazine, they have a similar target audience’s which means people that buy ‘Vogue’ may also buy ‘Melody’. This means that this magazine institution has had experience with magazines with a similar target audience to the target audience so they would be the kind of institution that would distribute ‘Melody’.
11. Who would be the audience for your media product? I wanted to create a music magazine specifically for women. As I am living in the UK and there is already a popular chart music magazine in the USA I decided to make it a UK magazine. I wanted the magazine to have a positive representation of woman today in music therefore a positive representation of the target audience. It is clear that in the 21st century women are far more independent and career driven. They don’t need a man in their life to support them financially while they stay at home to be a house wife. Modern day women are independent and very successful, although they do care about their family. They also have a good social life and like to go out with their friends and have fun and care about their appearance. This is the type of woman I wanted to appeal to. And most importantly I wanted the magazine to be a chart music magazine, so all of these things helped me to define who my target audience is. The target audience for my media product would be independent woman aged 21-45 with a successful career that live in the UK. They would be interested in chart music as well as their image.
12. How did you attract your audience? To attract my audience I focused on three main things that all my audience have in common they all have a similar music taste, they are all successful career driven women and they care about their image.
13. How did you attract your audience? I attracted my audience through their similar music taste All of the women that buy the magazine would listen to chart music. To make it clear that this is a chart music magazine and be mistaken for a hip hop magazine, I followed a few of the conventions of this genre of magazine. In the straplines I mentioned artists that are often in the charts such as Cheryl Cole and Rihanna, also a popular TV show ‘The XFactor’ that a lot of people that are interested in Chart music would watch or know about as it produces stars that will have a very successful career in music and people that have previously been on the XFactor such as JLS, Olly Murs and many other finalists have been very successful and have made it to #1 in the UK chart.
14. How did you attract your audience? I tried to appeal to successful career driven women It is clear that women in the 21st century are far more independent. These type of women will have the money to buy top music magazines and won’t be looking for a bargain, they want a classy magazine that they will enjoy reading. For this reason, the price is quite discreet and isn’t the selling point of the magazine. But the quality of the magazine is good and it doesn’t look cheep and tacky but it looks elegant and classy which is how the audience wants to feel. Also the main story about ‘VICKY ROWLANDS’ and ‘How her dreams came true…’ women will want to read about how she became so successful, either because they can relate to her because they are doing their dream job and are now very successful or because they aspire to be like her and are determined to achieve their dreams, so they look for hope and inspiration from other aspiration women. Finally there are some other amazing influential women that have been in the charts a lot the past few years. Both Rihanna and Cheryl Cole are independent woman and Cheryl has been an inspiration to many women as she is very successful even though she has been through a lot with her marriage breaking up.
15. How did you attract your audience? I tried to appeal to woman who care about their image On of the ways I appealed to this type of woman is by using the photographs of the model in the magazine. Each of the photographs of my model show her posing and all her hair and makeup looks stunning and although the outfit she is wearing isn’t your everyday outfit it shows that she is unique and makes a statement. As women like this want to be beautiful in their own way this would appeal to them . Another way that I tried to grab the attention of my target audience is by mentioning very beautiful women on the front cover and throughout the magazine contents and on the double page spread it focuses on ‘Vicky Rowlands’ who is very beautiful and young so women of all ages would aspire to be like her whether they are younger and want to achieve their dreams and grow up to be as beautiful as her of if they are older they will aspire to look younger and beautiful like her.
16. How did you address your audience? Language techniques used to address the audience I used personal pronouns in the straplines to address the audience to make the audience feel like its their magazine and they are up-to-date and current with the music that they listen to. For example ‘Who do we LOVE?’ the use of the word we talks about the audience and opens the statement up to anyone that enjoys listening to chart music. the word love is in capital letters and is bigger than the other text in the strapline. Shows that it is important and could suggest that the magazine is talking about the biggest artists of 2010 and who stood out in the charts. Finally another persuasive technique that has been used on this strapline is a rhetorical question, it makes people think of who they have loved in 2010 and want to find out if their view is the same and who everyone else is loving.
17. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product? I used a Macbook Pro to create my product so I have now learned how to use a Mac, as one of the strengths for a mac is producing graphics this will be a skill that I will be able to use in future media projects. For example I now know the main keyboard functions that have aided me through the media coursework.
18. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product? The software that I used to create my magazine was Adobe Photoshop. Before I began the process I had a basic and limited knowledge on how to use Photoshop from doing GCSE media and Art. But constructing this magazine challenged a lot of my basic knowledge and I had to do a lot of experimenting to work out the best way of doing things. For example on my front cover I wanted to hide part of the masthead so that the models head was covering apart of it I went down several different paths to make it look professional. One of the more difficult thing I had to do on the contents page was on the picture in the bottom right hand corner, I had to remove the background of this photograph to make it white. I found this very difficult because when I used the ‘Quick Selection Tool’ it did not give a very good edge, and had removed part of the photograph that I wanted to keep. So then I put mask layer onto the photograph and did not remove the background but using a brush with a soft edge I concealed it.
19. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product? I also learned a lot about photography, although on Photoshop you can change the brightness of an image it is best to make it brighter when you are taking the photos, so I made the lighting brighter when I took the photos and I also made the shutter speed slower to let more light into the photograph. This project has enhanced my photography in other ways also as I have now got a more clear idea about the composition of photographs. I have a clear understanding of the rule of thirds, and making sure that the models head isn’t too near the top or the bottom of the page.
20. Looking back at your preliminary task. What did you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product. What went wrong in my preliminary task? In my preliminary task the photographs that I originally took were of a bad quality. The background was difficult to remove and I didn't have the skills in which to remove this background consequently the edge of the model looks a bit rough and not very neat. The model in the picture didn't take up an even amount on the page, part of the models hand was cut off and their is far too much head room. The colour scheme looked unprofessional. The model was wearing red and blue and I used the colours yellow and black, which meant that their were too many colours on the page so the magazine didn't look professional and coherent.
21. Looking back at your preliminary task. What did you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product. What went wrong in my preliminary task? Another fault that made this magazine un successful was the use of text. The straplines looked quite simple and boring only using one colour, one font and one size, it would be better if I varied them more to make it visually more interesting. The kicker does not relate to the photograph on the front, so it would be better to have a straplines about prom and the kicker anchoring the main image. The layoutof the page is really bad as their is a lot of space under the mast head, it would be better to have something there such as a stapline . Also the alignment of a lot of the text isn't right, as all the straplines are of different distances from the edge of the page and the text in the kicker is at a different angle to the box behind it.
22. What progression have I made from the preliminary task to the final product? The photographs I took were of a better quality and I used a white screen as a background so I didn't have to edit it out. The model is positioned better so their is room for straplines and a masthead . The colour scheme looks much more professional, I have used the colour black white and a pale purple throughout. And the clothing is more carefully thought out as she is wearing black and her top has hints of this purple colour.
23. What progression have I made from the preliminary task to the final product? The text is more carefully thought out. The language is inviting to the audience and addresses them in an informal way and some persuasive techniques have been used for example using personal pronouns ‘YOUR CHART’. The colours, sizes and fonts of each other the staplines have been varied but I have stuck to the three colours and I have stuck to just three different fonts. Finally the layout of the magazine is far more professional. I used gridlines on Photoshop to align all the text. Their isn't too much white space of the page but at the same time it is not over crowded with straplines. Finally I used the rule of thirds on the magazine to make a clear flow to make it visually pleasing for the audience.
