2. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE
FORMS AN CONVENTION?
- I tried to stick to the conventions of real products to make it seem realistic. I
researched some of the popular pop magazines such as ‘Billboard’ in which I tried to
interpret the structured features for example the sell line and anchorage text. The
conventional red, white and black colour scheme on my magazine was used to add the
professional look which would grab the audiences attention to read it.
- When choosing my image I felt that it was important to edit it so that it would attract my
target audience’ attention. The use of props for example the guitar helped add to the
professional look like you would find on certain magazines like ‘Billboard’ for example.
- The masthead I used was big, bold and clear so that it would be easily recognisable on
the shelves in the shop.
- With the colour scheme I stuck to the conventional red, white and black because this
was the best choice of colours to use for highlighting the different aspects of pop music
and the majority of other pop magazines out there also use this colour scheme.
- The font I used stood out because it was bold and clear. I used basic fonts for the main
text on the double page spread. ‘Billboard’ for example, used these types of fonts in
their magazine which looked to a professional standard and were also easily readable.
3. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL
GROUPS?
As a whole our media product represents young girls aged 15-18 in a number of ways:
- The images used are effective and appeal to the age group because they involve
young teenage girls which they would stereotypically idolise. We also edited the images
to make them catch the attention of the audience by making them brighter so that the
colours became more vibrant. This also tends to make our featured artists more
glamorous.
- The colours scheme we used stuck to the conventional red, white and black theme,
used by the majority of other magazines. The name of our magazine, Music Mania,
stuck with the consistency of the colour scheme throughout and contained alliteration
which made this more eye-catchy for our intended audience. This also linked closely
with the house style which we used because the text we had, we structured in an
interesting way making sure it was still easily readable.
4. WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION
MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT AND WHY?
- An institution which may be suitable for our music magazine is ‘EMAP’, this is because
they are successful in the distribution of music magazines, such as ‘Kerrang’ and
‘Smash Hits!’ these are both similar to our product as they’re both aimed at young
people. Having EMAP distribute our product would enable it to be easily sold around the
UIKL and maybe into Europe.
- However, we wouldn’t have as much control over the context we put in because EMAP
isn’t independent but they have lots of experience of distributing magazines like ours so
we could put all of our trust into them to make our product as successful as possible.
5. WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR
YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?
- The audience for our magazine would be girls aged between 15 and 18 who are
interested in the genre. They would keep up to date with what's in the top 40 and would
idolise popular pop stars such as Katy Perry, Rihanna and Lady Gaga.
- In their spare time, they would download pop music and go to many of the concerts,
they would also be interested in all the pop gossip such as the latest celebrity scandal.
They may also be quite fashionable and would b interested in the latest pop star
fashions, hair and make-up trends so they may also buy our product and copy the
artists styles.
- They would also read music magazines for escapism, reading the double page spread
interview provides escapism for young people; it’s a way for them to relax by reading
what an artist is up to.
6. HOW DO YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS
YOUR AUDIENCE?
- Together, we made the title as eye-catchy and appealing to our audience as possible.
We made the house style consistent throughout so it looked to a professional standard
using the red, white and black colour scheme. The fonts we intended to use were also
to this standard without making them look difficult to read.
- The image I used was the stereotypical girl you’d tend to see on the front of any pop
magazine aimed towards the teen female generation. To add to the theme of the
magazine being aimed at girls our conventional colour scheme was changed slightly on
the main title as we added a small pink coloured strip underneath which helped add to
the effect.
- At the bottom of the contents page in my magazine I added an email address to the
website so that the readers could easily access it and read/find out more information
and stories on the featured artists of the particular issue and give them a chance to
subscribe to get the magazine monthly.
7. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT
TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF
CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?
- By using ‘Blogger’ it helped me how to present my work in a more formal but artistic
way, I also figured the importance of using YouTube and adding videos on there for
example the audience research as its easily referable.
- I was also able to increase and develop my learning ability of how to edit photos
professionally in Photoshop. The internet was another source which helped dramatically
because it enabled me to analyse examples of real media products in detail and allowed
me to download fonts from other websites to use on my magazine.
- Slide share was another programme I used via the internet, I gained a better
understanding of this when presenting my double page spread for example as it allowed
me to display the presentation easier and much quicker.
8. WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN
THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL
PRODUCT? – PRELIMINARY TASK
- When creating my preliminary task at the start of the project I feel that my progression
has increased in a sense that I changed a lot of it around to help fit my purpose and suit
the target audience.
- The final product looks completely different due to the amount of changes that had
been made, for example; the sell lines and other text on the front cover had moved to
the other side making the image sit in the middle of the page overpowering the title.
