Louise Linehan

1. In what ways does your media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My media product mainly sticks to the conventions/norms of a music magazine through such things as its contents/ layout/images etc. However it does differ from other similar media products in the sense that it focus’ on the artistic side of the music world which I feel is not really done by many other music magazines which mainly focuson/take seriously either the style/image of their artists or just mainly the music and not both of these features together. For example, in my photos I portray the characters to be playing their instruments/not looking at the camera to show their involvement with music, yet on the double page spread they are looking at the camera to show their involvement with the reader.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? My music magazine portrays the social group of teenagers to be creative and individual through the use of images I have used (bright colours etc) as well as how I have incorporated how the artists featured in my magazine take their music and creations very seriously. I also portrayed this social group to be somewhat rebellious with the mention of drugs in the interview. Also they could be seen to be pleasure seekers because of this and tend to create a certain type of way of speaking because of their sociolect and the fact that they like to have fun/a laugh. For example I created the word ‘Mumfordize.’ in relation to the band ‘Mumford and sons.’ which is supposed to be a verb meaning to turn someone into someone who looks like they could fit into this band by changing their image. I felt this could work as the readers have an understanding of the band and their style/image/what they are about so are likely to cotton on to the meaning of this newly created word. This could portray them to be a somewhat exclusive social group that may not be understood easily by other social groups (e.g. Middle aged people)

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Places such as supermarkets may stock my music magazine as my magazine could appeal to a large audience of teenagers and as these stores are easily accessible, they can buy this product easily. Also as my product portrays music which is quite popular and not obscure/unheard of, it is likely that they could target the right type of people as the majority of people prefer music they are familiar with/have already been introduced to. Also music stores such as HMV as this also a popular store which reflects the popular/new music featured in my magazine but also my magazine could be distributed in other music one off music outlets as it would not be out of place because it is unique and different to other music magazines so is therefore not too mainstream, which also reflects the attitude of these stores. My magazine could also be distributed on stalls as it can be targeted at a wide variety of people, who access these stalls whilst out (e.g. London)

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?How did you attract/ address your audience for your media product? My audience would mainly be teenagers/young adults aged from roughly 12-25. I also ensured that my magazine could appeal to both males and females through the bands/artists that I included in the magazine as well as by using neutral colours that would appeal to both sexes. I have also ensured that the language of my piece isn’t too sophisticated, so that it can be read easily by a younger audience. However, I did not make the lexis too simple either as I aimed to maintain all of the readers attention. I did not include too much writing and used many images to appeal to this young audience who are likely to have a shorter attention span than, for instance, an older generation to attract them. I also used artists/bands of similar age ranges so that the audience could relate and are likely to therefore idolise these people, so will be persuaded to buy the magazine.