2. In what ways does your Media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
My media product uses the convention of a masthead. Similarly to real
media products my masthead is large, clear and bold located at the top
left of my front cover in order to be eye catching to an audience.
My magazine repeats this convention as it is large, bold and clear and at the top left of
my front cover, my product also repeats the convention of a short worded/lettered
masthead-’XTRA’ similarly to many magazines of the same genre eg. NME,Q,DIY. In
addition many of these use these magazines use the colour red in their mastheads in
order to make their product stand out and be easily recognised, my media product
replicates this for the same reasons and to make my magazine stand out. My media
product repeats this in order to replicate the other successful magazines of the
indie/alternative genre as the masthead design is eye catching and makes a magazine
easily identifiable for consumers.
3. My media product challenges the convention of social media convergence such as
convergence with Twitter ,Facebook or Instagram. My media product challenges this
convention because the largest magazines of the genre (NME, Q, DIY) do not typically use
social media convergence, in terms of displaying directions to their Twitter, Facebook,
Instagram or any social media. Most do not even have a website address on the cover.
However my media product uses social media convergence by displaying the logos of social
medias on the cover as well as the link to my magazine website. My magazine is challenging
this convention as few or no magazines of the indie/alternative genre that I am replicating use
social media convergence and by doing this it allows my audience to become more engaged
with my magazine, giving my magazine a USP. In addition because my target audience is 15-19
year olds, my social media convergence features the social media most popular within this age
group. This allows my audience to ‘personally identify’ with my magazine because my
magazine uses and connects with them through the same social media as them allowing them
to connect more. Furthermore, social media is stereotypically associated with young people in
their teens and twenties primarily.
Social media convergence
within my magazine
4. My media product repeats the convention of a large main image of ‘star’
(Dyer)on the front cover, that is manipulated to go in front of the masthead.
This is a convention I am repeating from the most popular magazines of the
indie/alternative genre (NME, Q, DIY) because the main image of a star
attracts consumers to buy the magazine due to the ‘star appeal’ (Richard
Dyer) of the featured celebrity. As they recognise the star they will be
attracted to look at the magazine and read the featured article inside. I am
replicating this for the same effect as it makes my magazine more eye-
catching and professional by including this feature. My media product also
repeats the convention used by many of the major magazines, where the
image is manipulated (via eg. Photoshop) to partially go over the masthead.
This is in order to make the main image and ‘star’ more visible and central
to a consumer and direct their focus.
Magazines of inspiration My media
product
Evidence of image
manipulation Evidence of image manipulation
Evidence of image
manipulation
5. My magazine front cover repeats the convention of ‘puff promotion’ which is used by the top magazines of the
indie/alternative genre which I am replicating (NME,Q). Use of Puff promotion entices the consumer to purchase the
magazine because of use of exclusive language such as; ‘special’, ‘Exclusive’, ‘Free’, ‘win’ as well as the punctuation of
exclamation marks. In addition, puff promotion entices an audience to buy a magazine because of the attractive
‘feature’ within. A consumer will be attracted to the exclusivity and positive connotations of words such as ‘exclusive
and ‘win’ and buy the magazine in order to be in with a chance in the belief they will gain from it or otherwise miss out.
The featured promotion will also relate to the target audience’s tastes and often relate to the genre through advertising
a poster for a band of the magazine’s genre for example. This will attract the target audience t the magazine more and
give them a greater appeal to purchase the magazine as it would personally relate to their tastes in music. My magazine
cover has also repeated the shape and colour of the puss promotion of the major magazines of the indie/alternative
genre such as Q and NME as their promotion is a circle shape and yellow. This is in order to make the puff promotion
more eye-catching to a consumer and by seeing the promotion they can b attracted to buy the magazine in order to
gain the benefits of said promotion, additionally it makes the magazine all together more eye catching and visible and
therefore can be more clearly seen and attract the consumer.
In my media product I have repeated the conventions of real media products by sing a yellow circle for my puff
promotion, and I have advertised that the consumer can ‘WIN! Free bloc party tickets’. I have repeated the convention
of exclusive language through the words ‘WIN!’ and ‘free’ in order to attract the audience to buy the magazine, and I
have advertised tickets for bloc party, an alternative/indie band in order to be have continuity with the genre of my
magazine which is an indie/alternative genre magazine. This will therefore make my magazine ore appealing to my
target audience because it will promote something they are interested in as they will be a fan of the genre and
therefore will give greater appeal to them to purchase my magazine.
Magazines of inspiration
My media
product
6. How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
My target audience is 15-19 year old males. My magazine represents this group because
my magazine will mainly feature male artists because my target audience can ‘personally
identify’ (Katz) and relate with the ‘star/stars’ this is also based on readership figures for
the established magazine of the alternative genre- ‘Q’ magazine that show that it is the
majority of men that read their magazine. Furthermore my colourscheme of mainly reds,
black colours throughout are stereotypical masculine colours and the colour and
boldness will attract my young and male target audience.
The low price of my magazine (£2.99) additionally represents the social groups in my
target audience because it’s a very fair price for a monthly magazine, and will be very
affordable for my target audience in section E and B of the socio economic chart who will
likely have enough disposable income as well as free time. These groups are also most
likely to have an interest in the indie/alternative genre and thus read my magazine.
7. What kind of media institution
(Publisher) might distribute your
media product and why?
From the research that was conducted pre production, I would envisage that the
production house Bauer Media would publish my magazine, XTRA, firstly because they
are Europe’s largest publishing company and therefore could give my product strong
financial support as well as give my product stronger marketing and guidance which is
why I believe Bauer would be more suitable to other production houses such as timeinc.
who aren't as large. In addition I believe Bauer would be suitable to publish XTRA
because they sell a similar magazine, one that my product is inspired by which sis Q,
However this would not mean they would compete as Q is a more alternative and
popular culture magazine whereas XTRA is indie/alternative and would therefore be a
more niche product and fill a gap in the market and fulfil a consumer need. Additionally
Bauer media’s experience with a similar style magazine would mean XTRA magazine
would be supported and guided better due to the previous experience of the publishing
company
8. Who would be the audience for your
media product and why?
In accordance to Hartley’s seven subjectivities The ‘age’ (Hartley) of my target audience is 15-19 years old
because this age group are most likely to have enough interest in the indie/alternative genre to buy my
magazine and will have more time and disposable income than other age groups.
The ‘gender’ (Hartley) of my target audience would be male because that is the gender my magazines of
inspiration target, which implies that the majority of readers are male too. In addition, the indie/alternative
genre is stereotypically liked by males and features many more male stars than women.
The ‘ethnicity’(Hartley) of my target audience is white European. This is because the majority of
indie/alternative ‘stars’ are stereotypically of this ethnicity. This would mean my target audience would be
able to ‘personally identify’ (Katz) with the ‘stars’.
My target audience’s ‘class’ (Hartley) would be working or middle class because this is typically those who are
fans of indie/ alternative music and furthermore would likely have enough disposable income to spend on a
media product such as my magazine.
The ‘nationality’ (Hartley) of my target audience is British because my magazines of inspiration (NME and Q) are
both British based magazines, that DISTIBUTE IN Britain too. This is likely because distribution costs are lower
and also because a large amount of British people have a large interest in the indie/alternative genre.
According to Katz’ Uses & Gratifications theory my target audience would be white males in their teens and
twenties, this is because the ‘stars’ I will mainly feature in my magazine will be young, white ,males because
these are stereotypically the age and ethnicity of stars in the indie/alternative genre. For example Jakes Bugg
or Justin Hayward-Young. My target audience would have an large interest in the indie/alternative genre and
would aim to ‘inform and educate’ (Katz) themselves by reading my magazine for the advertised features and
extend their knowledge of the genre.
According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, my target audience would be ‘survivors’ (Maslow) as fans of the
indie/alternative would genre would recognise ‘stars’ advertised as features in the magazine that they
support and follow. These fans would seek to keep up to date with the lives of ‘stars’ they are familiar with
and make sure they are still safe and relevant without problems. Therefore they would buy the magazine and
are the audience my magazine is aimed for.
9. Category E would be likely to include
my target audience because my
target audience is young people
aged 15-19 years old. The majority of
unemployed people or students are
young and in this age category but
also have disposable income and
more free time than other groups
and therefore more time to grow a
strong interest in music and read
about it
Category B would be included
within my target audience
because they are creative and
therefore would be likely to have
a taste in indie/alternative music
and have a disposable income so
would be the sort of people to
buy my magazine.
10. How did you attract/address your
audience?
I order to attract my target audience of 15-19 year olds I used social media convergence on my front cover
through the use of social media logos (Facebook,Instagram,Twitter) as well as including a magazine website.
These were clear at the bottom of the page and will attract my target audience because stereotypically
young people are interested in social media the most, and I specifically chose the social medias most used by
those within their age group. By using social media convergence I allow my audience to ‘personally identify’
with my magazine and form a closer connection to that of other magazines because we reach them or
advertise to them on a social media level platform of magazine as well, this would as a result attract young
people.
In addition I attract my target audience of males through my colourscheme of red and blacks throughout my
magazine. These colours are stereotypically masculine and would therefore catch the eye and attract a man
to buy my magazine. Furthermore my magazine features a young male ‘star’(
Dyer) on the cover which would allow my young male target audience to ‘personally identify’ (Katz) with the star
as they are the same gender and similar age and therefore would relate and want to follow such stars and
buy my magazine.
I attract my target audience of people interested in the indie/alternative genre through featuring clearly the
names of well known bands and stars of the genre on the front cover in the puff promotion- “Bloc Party’ and
main headline- ‘Alt-J’.
Fans of the indie/alternative genre will recognise these bands because they are fans of the genre the bands are in
and would therefore seek to ‘inform and educate’(Katz) themselves further about the genre and stars within
it through my magazine.
11. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this
product?
During the process of constructing my product entitled ‘XTRA’, I have learnt about how
to use a DSLR camera in order to take, high resolution images of professional quality
for my product. I specifically learnt skills such as how to manually or automatically
set the camera to zoom and focus for images . Through the process of constructing
my product I became much more proficient in using professional cameras. Through
learning these skills, I was able to make my magazine fit for purpose as images such
as the main image of my ‘star’ on the front cover were higher, making them of the
professional standards similar to that of established magazines of the genre I am
replicating.
In addition, during the process of constructing my media product, I used the technology
Photoshop in order to create my magazine front cover, contents page and double
page spread.
Whilst using Photoshop I learnt new skills about the technologies I could use within
Photoshop.
The denotation of a tool I learnt to use to construct my media product, was the ‘magic
wand’ tool. This allows the user to delete the surrounding background to an image
the user does not want to keep, making it much easier to edit precisely. This allowed
me to edit such as the main image on my front cover and give my magazine a more
professional appearance. Additionally, this technology could be used in synergy with
the skills I developed with the DSLR camera to create high quality images because
they would be edited to an even higher standard and appear more attractive and
appeal to my audience who in category B and E of the socio-economic graph would
have little disposable income and seek value for money
12. Another Photoshop tool I learnt about which allowed me to construct my media product entitled
‘XTRA’ was the opacity levels bar, which I used in synergy with the shape tool. This was used in my
double page spread and allowed me to create a background using the shape tool to go behind the
writing of my interview. Then by lowering opacity it made the shape slightly transparent which
made the writing of the interview clearer but covered the image behind much less As a result my
magazine was more aesthetically pleasing, as writing was clearer to see whilst not making the
image behind unclear..
By doing this I made my production more suitable and appealing for my target audience because as
fans of the genre they seek to ‘inform and educate’ (Katz) themselves about it and it’s stars.
Therefore As a result of the information of the interview being clear to read as well as the image of
stars behind being clear and visible, the audience can be optimally informed and educated and
take in all the information to increase their knowledge in their genre of interest.
In conclusion, through the process of constructing my media product. I have learnt about various
technologies and increased my skills and proficiency greatly with professional cameras and
Photoshop. The skills and knowledge I have gained through using these technologies over the
course of constructing my product have allowed me to make my product to a much higher and
professional level standard, replicating the standards of established magazines of the genre I am
aiming to imitate through the aesthetics, image quality and editing etc.
All this knowledge I have learnt will allow me to maintain a high level of quality I current and future
uses of these technologies.
13. Audience Feedback -
I asked my target audience what they liked about my
magazine. The different responses were..
“I liked the bold “colourscheme”
“I liked the mise-en-scene of the main image”
“I liked the format of the contents page”
“I liked the interview on the double page spread”
14. I asked my target audience whetehr
they liked my magazine. They could
answer yes, no or neutral.
Results
Yes
No
Neutral
15. When I asked my target audience what
could be improved there was one said
anything more could be improved.
16. Analysing my Front Cover
Cover Lines
Feature ‘stars’ of the
genre attracting
audience to
purchase
Large bold and clear
masthead
Puff promotion uses
exclusive language to
attract audience, related
to genre
strapline
Edition, date and website
Main Headline
Mentions featured
‘star’
Barcode, Social media
convergence and QR
code
price
Main image of
featured ‘star’
17. Analysing my Contents Page
Features of genre ‘stars’
with page numbers and
short description of
feature
Editorial with picture
Magazine logo
Date
Image of features ‘stars’
Enticing description of
main feature
Advertisement to
subscribe
18. Analysing my Double Page spread
Interview
Interview
Synonymous to
conventions of
magazines of
inspiration from the
same genre ie:
columned text, Q and
A format, initials for
different answerers,
bold/italic/different
coloured writing for
question.
Image of stars
21. Photography Planning –Double Page
Spread
I have no evidence of planning with Kieran Smith because I saw
him before I sent these messages as he lives locally and
informed him about the photoshoot plans.
