2. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
In my media work I have made sure I have met all the codes and conventions of a
media product. This meant that I had to make sure I have included; The Masthead The
Bar code The Date/Price Issue number A unique selling point Main image + Headline
Cover lines Strapline For my contents I have used additional conventions such as :
Sections Page numbers Promotions Sublines Web Address/Social networking sites.
In my media product, I attempted to keep consistent with my design, keeping the red,
black colour scheme in all of my 4 pages. For my cover image, for any text (aside from
the title) I used a blocky/pixelated effect. However my feedback said that my images
were too stretched and therefore I had to fix it but I did not have enough time to make
amends. It was to make it stand out against the image on the front cover. For my
contents page, I decided to have the stories written on the left side and have a couple
of pictures on the right side. I also had the editorial at the bottom with an image of
me. For the double page spread I had decided to have the text on the left page and a
photo on the right. Although my double page spread did not have text continuity to
the next page the content is rich and easy to read.
3. How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
• My media product’s target audience is adolescents who like
pop music. How it is represented within my work, is by using
star appeal, like names of well known celebrities for the cover
stories or using colours that stand out against the black on all
of my 4 pages. The cover is made in order to gain the
attention of the target audience, since adolescents might buy
something that is more colourful and eye catching.
4. What kind of media institution (Publisher) might
distribute your media product and why?
• From the research that was completed pre-production, I
would envisage Vibe magazine because Vibe has a wide range
of interests, so I presume they would publish my magazine.
The similarities between my magazine and Vibe is in that they
have predominately 3 or 4 colours. The barcode is located in
the same part of the magazine. But there are more
differences than similarities between these two magazines.
5. Who would be the audience for your media
product and why?
• Hartley’s seven subjectivities:
The audience would be adolescents aged 13-18. It would be for anyone really
of any gender, class, ethnicity, etc. Why I’m targeting 13-18 year olds
specifically is because I presume that adolescents would buy magazines more
often than someone older because they want to know gossip or information.
• Katz’ Uses & Gratifications theory:
The magazine will inform the audience of what’s happening within the
celebrity world or anything else really. It isn’t there to be a diversion for the
audience to escape from reality. It isn’t for the audience to build a bond with
any of the stories within the magazine nor relate to the text.
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs:
I presume caregivers and maybe explorers would be intrigued to read this
magazine. The caregivers would want to read it simply because they mght be
curious to see what’s happening to their favourite celebrity while explorers
would want to see if there is any changes within society.
6. How did you attract/address your audience?
• In order to attract the intended target audience of my
magazine, I decided to have bubbles containing people within
them for each cover story I had on the front cover. For the
contents page I had a couple pictures and for the double page
spread, I had a detailed interview. I put a Facebook and
twitter icon on my front cover to indicate that they is a page
for the magazine.
7. What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product?
• The denotation of the software used to construct my media product was
Photoshop. In order for this product to look fit for purpose and appeal to
the target audience, I decided to create a box using the rectangle tool just
so I could rub out portions out of the box using the rubber tool to create a
blocky/pixelate effect making the text stand out more. Another example
would be the cover story bubbles. I made a circle using the ellipse tool and
holding shift to make it a perfect circle. I then coloured it red with the
paint bucket tool. I then got the necessary picture, used a combination of
the magic wand tool and the rubber tool to get rid of the background
surrounding the person. Then used the smudge tool to smooth it down at
the edges. Then I put them together.
8. Analyzing my Front Cover
Date and Issue
Cover story Bubbles
Cover stories
Masthead
Strapline
Barcode
Star appeal
Codes and conventions
10. Analyzing my Double Page spread Interview
Star
Appeal
Convergence
Interview
Numbered pages
11. Audience Feedback
The main feedback I got was that it looked as though the front
cover is crowded, makes it harder to notice the star appeal of the
person since the red circles take up points across the magazine.
The pictures on the contents page are either too stretched or
they have been squished making them look weird. As for the
double page spread, the picture is re-used and again looks
stretched. But I was also told that it was consistent across the 4
pages, the colour scheme and also the blocky effect is seen on
the front cover, contents and double page spread.
12. Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have
learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel that, having completed the preliminary task and learning about the
demands of his production process, I have learnt that it takes a lot of work to
get magazines and blogs created. I feel that I may have underestimated the
difficulty there is in creating a music magazine that would sell or creating a
blog. I think out of it all I’ve learnt that for a magazine to be successful, there
has to be more consistency between the pages. In relation to this, the
evidence of this within my work is that all of my pages the colour scheme is
consistent, and the blocky effect is also keep across all of the 4 pages. I feel
that this helped me meet the demands of production, in turn making my
magazine be a good one.
