3. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
When creating my media product, I knew that I needed to include certain
conventions in order for my magazine to be realistic and alike to other well known
music magazine such as Q and Kerrang. So that I was aware of what these
conventions were and how to successfully use them, I did a lot of research on
many music magazines from the same genre of music as well as other music
genres. Doing my research, I got an idea of what my target audience would be
interested in and how using certain conventions would certainly attract them. The
magazines I looked at were a guideline and rough idea of what mine should look
like. My research of other magazines helped me to create my title, take my images
(what they should look like) and the layout of my magazine which included
colours, fonts and where each convention should be placed.
4. From doing my research, I thought that my masthead was an important convention used as
this is what attracts the audience to buy your magazine and differentiates the magazine
from others. It is vital that a magazines masthead must stand out and be bold as well as easy
to read. My magazines masthead is “Symph Magazine.” I chose this as my masthead as the
word “Symph” and its an abbreviated word for symphony which is music composition. As my
magazine is a music magazine, I thought that the word “Symph” would attract readers as
they would know that it is a music magazine. The word is also simple and easy to say , as
well as being catchy. As my target audience are teen females, using an abbreviated word
seems more appealing to that age group. My masthead is placed directly top centre of my
magazine in a bold font so that is it easily read and distinguished amongst other magazines.
The colour of my masthead is a deep pink and outlined in black, as my target audience are
teenaged girls. Most magazine’s masthead that are Pop and aged at teenaged girls usually
have the same colour scheme. My masthead gives the reader an insight of what my
magazine will look like inside without yet reading it. I created my masthead on Photoshop
where I was able to choose the appropriate font that I wished to use and make it as large as
I wanted it to be. I thought that my masthead challenged other magazines as my font was
quite bold instead of being girly and swirly. I thought that using a more bold, straight font
made my magazine look slightly more mature.
Masthead
5. Main Image
In comparison to other pop music magazines, I believe that my use of Mise-
en-scene was appropriate and fitted in to my magazine well. I used Erin
Machell as my model for my magazine. The prop I used was a guitar that she
was holding whilst looking down at it. This was effective as it showed my
magazine was about music and my model looked pretty In the imagine, so it
looked as though my model was a celebrity role model towards teenage girls
reading this magazine. It would entice readers to buy my magazine.
Original Image Used
6. Banner & Barcode
I thought that the use of a banner as a
convention on my magazine front cover was
important as it was a way of enticing and
attracting potential customers to buy the
magazine. Banners are a way of letting the reader
know that something exciting is inside the
magazine, if they buy it. My banner advertised
that there was a one off interview inside the
magazine which I thought was a clever way of
advertisement. The banner fit in with my colour
scheme also. Every other music magazine that I
had researched, included a banner, so this is why
it was vital for me to have included one.
Every single magazine cover has to
have a barcode in order to scan and
price the magazine. Although it
doesn’t look too appealing to be on
the front cover and seems highly
unnecessary. I placed my barcode
directly at the bottom right of my
magazine as this is where the reader
reads to last and it remained out of
the way. Of natural eye flow. It is what
the reader wants to see last of all as it
is a reminder of the price, rather than
the magazines content.
7. Layout
The layout of my magazine matched the other magazines that I had
researched as my magazine had a large main image, most of the conventions
that magazine covers included and everything was placed in such a way that
was readable as well as attractive to the target audience. I laid my magazine
out so that everything was at natural eye flow starting with the most
important content at the top right and ending with the least important at the
bottom right. The background of my magazine fit in with the style and genre
of my magazine that I was going for as it was a pale pink colour, which is very
feminine so attracts my target audience and I have placed blue and pink
flowers scattered on the front, which is created on Photoshop.
8. 2)How does your media product represent particular social
groups?
The target audience for my music magazine is teenage girls, so this is what it
represents. I have used a main image of a teenage girl, modelled as an
idolised pop celebrity which inspires my target audience and makes it clear
who exactly my target audience are. I have created my magazine so that Pop
teenage fans could be inspired by my magazine and idolise the model on the
front. My model is wearing trendy clothing and has blonde hair, which is what
most teenage girls wish to have, and to be trendy and up to date with fashion
as well as music. My image looked very naturalistic, so this is a message to my
target audience of how you should dress.
I thought that my fonts were representative as the colours matted to who I
was aiming the magazine at (females) and this was a way of engaging them.
My model is also playing a guitar whilst standing up, which looks cool. I used a
young model to represent my magazine as she is the type of person who
would buy and read my magazine.
9. 3) What kind of media institution might distribute your
product and why?
I would want IPC to distribute my magazine as they have a
section dedicated to teens, which is what my magazines target
audience is. They seem trusting as they have a speciality in
distributing to teenagers. Also, ‘Immediate Media Company’
would be a good institution to distribute my product to as it
publishes over 50 magazine titles and is extremely popular.
They distribute very mainstream magazines, which is what my
magazine is. The company sell over 70 million magazines
every year and aim to build a strong position in the future.
10. 4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for my music magazine are female teenagers aged 13-17
who are into Pop music. The target audiences interests are also in fashion. It
is important that they are well dressed and up to date with all music and
fashion and look up to celebrity figures. My target audience would be quite
girly this is why I have designed my magazine cover to have very feminine
colours and fonts as well as having a female model on the front.
I thought that y target audience would be fro middle-classed
backgrounds who can be involved in the Pop scene and culture by there
tastes and appearance, being able to afford concert tickets and festivals as
well as being able to buy CD’s and be able to afford to download music. I
would expect that my target audience shops and buys from high street
outlets such as Urban outfitters, Topshop and New Look. The model on the
front is an inspiration to my target audience of how their appearances should
be. My target audiences are all in education also so gossip is a major part of
their lives, which is why attracting them with “special interviews” is vital.
11. 5)How did you attract/ address your audience?
The main major way that I engaged with and attracted my audience was
firstly with my main image. I used a female teenager as a model to represent
a well known pop artist. This acted as an inspiration on the front of my
magazine, which is what would attract potential customers as most
magazines have well known and popular artists of a certain music genre on
the front covers to attract customers into buying
I also included an advertising convention my front cover which said
‘Free Poster Inside’ as a way of attracting customers. Freebees are a really
good way of connecting with the audience as they would want to buy for the
content inside. As well as this, my banner on my front cover was invited to
readers as there was a one off exclusive interview inside which could only be
read upon purchase. Extra content on my magazines front cover offered my
readers a chance to win tickets to see Rihanna (a pop idol) which would make
most readers purchase.
12. 6)What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing
this product?
From constructing my media product, I have learnt a lot more about how to use Photoshop. On
Photoshop, I experimented with how to edit my images and use filters to alter the appearance of
the original images. I was able to make my images look a lot more professional using Photoshop.
An example was completely removing the background of my main image using the ‘Magic Wand’
tool. It was extremely useful in appose to editing my images on PowerPoint as there was a much
wider variety of things to do in order to improve to appearance of my images.
The use of technology also helped the conventions of my magazine look much more
professional. My fonts were well edited as well as being able to use symbols on Photoshop. I
learnt how to put effects on my fonts to make them look more appropriate for my target
audience.
Blogger was also a very useful piece of technology which helped me through the
process of constructing my product. I very regularly updated my blog about where I was up to in
terms of creating my magazine. The blog allowed me to upload all of the work and research that I
had done which helped me in construction of my magazine and helped me decide on final
decisions. On blogger, I uploaded some magazines that I had analysed, which showed that I now
fully understand the conventions of magazines and what they are used for. It helped me keep
fully up to date with my work.
13. 7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt from it in
progression to the real task?
First and foremost, I learnt much more about Photoshop. I found it quite difficult to be able to
use Photoshop correctly and did not fully understand all of the tools that could benefit me in
making my magazine look a lot more professional. I barely edited my image on my preliminary
task, which I could have benefited from, I only cropped my image. In my real task, I took a wide
variety of images, whist in my preliminary, I only took a couple which all looked very similar.
Photoshop helped me to make my image look professional as I adjusted the brightness and
filtered it. My image looked a lot sharper in contrast to my preliminary one.
My preliminary tasked magazine was not very eye grabbing, which I thought
contrasted to my actual task. I used very plain colours and didn’t put much thought into it
whereas my real magazine was very thought through and the content and context put on the
front of my magazine was thought through so that I was able to grab the attention of my readers.
Overall, I believe that my knowledge of how to construct a magazine has become
much stronger and I am now able to use such programmes as Photoshop correctly, as well as
being able to use the conventions of a magazine very appropriately.
