1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms
and conventions of real media products?
The genre for my music magazine is indie rock and new music. My front
cover follows some conventions of a music magazine. Some examples
of these are: a short memorable title/name, a large dominant image
with the subject looking directly at the camera (connecting with the
reader), a price and teasing content.
My contents page also follows the general conventions of a music magazine.
Some examples of conventions I have followed are: free gifts ( poster ),
page numbers showing where to find each article, images from articles and
a page title.
My double page spread also follows conventions of a music magazine.
Some examples of conventions it follows are: one main image which takes
up the whole two pages, name of the artist at the top of the page, text on
top of an image and the artist looking directly at the camera.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My magazine represents particular social groups through many
ways. Some examples of these are what the subjects in my photos
look like and are wearing; the clothes that they are wearing conform
to the typical teenage/ young person perception. The bands featured
in my magazine are often associated with my target audience and
their preferences in music. The colour scheme is also unisex, so the
fact that it is not aimed purely towards one gender creates the
opportunity of having a wider target audience.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your product
and why?
A music magazine publisher such as IPC Media might distribute my product
because they are a very well known magazine publisher. IPC Media
publish NME magazine which is similar to my product in the style
and features some similar genres of music as mine.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
My target audience would be young people, both male
and female aged between 15 and 30. It would also
be people who are interested in the same genres of
music as my magazine features, such as indie rock
and dubstep. I would also identify my audience to be
in the same social group and have the style/ fashion
sense as the photographs of people featured in my
magazine.

5. Looking back at your preliminary, what do you feel you
have learnt in the progression from it to your final product?
I have learnt many different features which a magazine has
to conform to, to be successful. I have learnt about the use of
different layouts and which are effective and how to make your
product look professional. For example: in my preliminary task the
layout is very plain and simple, there is only one small photo and
most of the page is white. But in the progression through to my
finished product (front cover) I have learnt that a full page photo is
much more effective and makes the page look more striking and professional.
Furthermore, my contents page had an extremely basic layout,
and didn’t even have any images on it. Whereas my final contents
page has an image and many other conventions of music magazine
contents pages on it.

6. What have you learnt about technologies, through the process of
constructing this product?
Before this project, I had never used photo shop before, but now
I would say that I feel I have a basic knowledge of the program.
During this project I also learnt how to embed a YouTube video to
an online blog and how to upload a Microsoft office file to an online
blog. I also gained knowledge on different layouts for a magazine
front cover, contents page and double page spread. I have
also gained further knowledge on the digital camera I used to
take the photos featured in my magazine, the camera I used was
a FujiFilm Fine Pix 4200.

7. How did you attract/ address your audience?
Before designing my final product, I did a lot of audience research
and found out which features my target audience would like
to see in my magazine. For example: one of my questions asked
whether the volunteer preferred a simple and spaced out front
cover with not many images or text, or a more crammed front
cover with more than one picture and lots of information put
onto a single page. Most of the people who were asked this
question (including the person in my interview), said that they
would prefer a simple spaced out layout. So I took this advice on
board and applied it to my final product front cover. In my questionnaire
and interview I also asked people weather they would be more likely
to buy a magazine if there was a free gift included like a CD or poster.
Almost all of the people who responded to this question said that
yes, they would be more likely to buy the magazine if there was a free
gift included. Thanks to this research, I included a free poster give away
in my magazine contents page.