The document discusses the student's music magazine media product. It answers seven questions about how the magazine uses and develops conventions of real magazines, represents a particular social group interested in indie music, might be distributed, targets an audience of 16-35 year olds interested in alternative music, uses techniques like headlines and images to attract readers, and what technologies the student learned in creating the magazine in Photoshop and InDesign. The student also reflects on improvements from an initial college magazine to the full music magazine product.

1. Amy Schumm

2. Question One- In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
My media product does use, develop
and challenge forms and
conventions of real media products.
An example of this is the layout,
which is very similar to a real,
professional magazine. The layout
of my magazine is very similar to the
layouts of magazines like NME and
Q. The layout of my magazine is
simple and easy to read.

3. Question One- In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products? continued
My layout keep to three main
colours, black, red and white, this
keeps the magazine design simple
and does not make it look fussy of
hard to read. I have also chosen to
alternate the colours to make
particular parts of the writing stand
out. This is an easier way than using
bold. Throughout my layout I have
used square boxes to keep the
writing and pictures in separate
boundaries, this helps to keep the
magazine looking neater and more
professional. It also makes the
writing, which I used columns for,
this makes it easier to read.

6. Question Two- How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
My media product of a magazine does represent a particular social
group. The particular social group my magazine reflects is people
interested in indie rock and alternative music. It also reflects the
kind of people who are interested in music from before there era,
for example The Smiths. The colours used in my magazine also
reflect the kind of colours people reading the magazine like and
might wear. My magazine is unfussy and to the point which also
represents my particular social group. The social group are also
very specific and different, just as my magazine is. They are the
kind of people of people who may not dress like the norm and
have a different outlook on life. People in this social group also
have a very specific taste in music which is exactly what my
magazine is about as well as giving the social group knowledge on
social groups and music.

7. Question Three- What kind of media institution
might distribute your media product and why?
Different kinds of media institution may distribute my
magazine for example: IPC. IPC Media produces over 60
iconic media brands, with print alone reaching almost
two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men – almost
26 million UK adults. IPC distribute NME. My
magazine if very similar to NME, therefore I think a
company like IPC would be a perfect distributer for my
magazine MW. Bauer Media Group may also be
interested in distributing my magazine as they do so for
magazines like Q and Kerrang, which could also be seen
as similar to my magazine. My magazine is similar to
mainly NME therefore if IPC were to distribute my
magazine they would already have the correct specific
type of audience that would be interested in magazine
and want to purchase it. I think IPC is a perfect
distributer for my music magazine.

8. Question Four- Who would be the audience for
your media product?
The audience for my magazine is males and females interested in
alternative and indie music around the ages of 16-35. I think this is a
suitable audience and age range as it is often only people over a
certain age who relate with indie and alternative music. Although it is
often seen that men are more interested in this style than women I
still feel women would relate to my magazine as many alternative
artists are female. My target audience are very specific and are
normally interested in certain thing, the most important of these
being alternative music. My audience are people who enjoy listening
to old and new music and appreciate bands and artists for the type of
music they play. Often people included in my target audience will be
playing their own music or be part of a band. My target audience are
the kind of people who have grew up being surrounded by music and
take a massive interest in it. MW will appeal to the types of music
they are interested in and give them knowledge and information on
bands they like or may like in the future

9. Question Five- How did you attract/address your
audience?
I have used many different techniques to attract and
address my audience and to make them read and be
interested in my magazine. These techniques include tag-
lines found all over the cover for example: ‘Free The Smiths,
Kasabian and Nirvana posters’ this grabs the readers
attention and makes them want to read my magazine and
receive the free goods.
I have also used bold writing, colours and picture
throughout my magazine to capture the readers
attention and make them read on or look for a certain
page. An example of this is my band index, which makes
people need to look through my magazine MW as it is
quickly and easy to find the bands that you’re looking
for.

10. Question Five- How did you attract/address your
audience? continued
I used language throughout my magazine that
would attract my target audience and appeal to
them. For example “Discuss the hype” this is
the kind of language that my target audience
of males and females interested in alternative
and indie music around the ages of 16-35, will
use therefore it will appeal to them. This
makes them more likely to start and read my
magazine MW.

11. Question Six- What have you learnt about
technologies from the process of constructing
this product?
Throughout the construction of my
magazine I have learnt information
about technologies. For example I
have learnt different skills to do
with Adobe Photoshop. I used
Photoshop on each of my pictures
to improve the quality and make
them stand out more.
Constructing this magazine has
taught me how to use Photoshop
quickly and successfully.

12. Question Six- What have you learnt about
technologies from the process of constructing
this product? continued
MW has also helped me to learn
technologies surrounding Adobe
InDesign, where I made my
magazine in. Making my
magazine in this software has
taught me how to use and
taught me my way around the
software. I now find both Adobe
InDesign and Photoshop easier
to use thanks to the
construction of my music
magazine product.

13. Question Seven-Looking back at your preliminary task
(the College magazine), what do you feel you have
learnt in the progression from it to full product?
Looking back at my college magazine I feel
that I have learnt a lot during the
progression of my magazine. I have mainly
learnt how to arrange text and taglines. I
have learnt that this is important and that
tag lines and headers, and the way they are
arranged helps to sell a magazine. My
college magazine did not have all
properties of a magazine for example:
price, date and barcode whereas my music
magazine, MW contains all of these
properties and more. I have also changed
the colour schemes from my college
magazine to appeal to my target audience
more. This, again, gives MW a professional
feel which makes it more likely to be
bought by the public.