The document discusses the student's music magazine project. They used conventions from real music magazines like a large central title and color scheme. However, they challenged conventions by keeping the cover less cluttered and giving it a more mature design compared to typical rock magazines. Their target audience is young people aged 13-21 interested in rock music, and they aim to attract this audience through images of bands performing live and a balanced color scheme.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
On my front cover I have used similar conventions to other music magazines such as
my title is in the centre of the page and is big and bold, like all music magazines the
logo would be noticed and remembered. Also I have a centre image, with the centre
figures playing a big part in the features of the magazine. I also included anchorage
text to give the readers an insight of what is to be included inside my magazine.
I also kept to a particular colour scheme like a standard music magazine would.
Throughout I only used three colours; orange, black and white. My centre image is
relatively zoomed out which I think makes it different to most music magazine front
covers. I came to the discovery during my research of music magazines and notice
most front cover images are close up.
At the top of my front cover I have a
strap-line reading: “Taking music to
the next level”. I’m hoping this sum up
and promotes my magazine and will
influence readers to buy it.
The convention that I have challenged is
the front cover of my magazine. When
researching Rock music magazines I found
that the front cover is often quite action
packed; lots of colour, bold in your face
titles and lots of other bits and pieces such as sub articles and competitions. For my
magazine I’ve kept the stand out titles, but it’s a lot plainer and more relaxed; easy to look
at. I give you an incite to other articles in the magazine, but only with titles, not images. This
helps keep the cover less cluttered. I also thought the layout and design of the other Rock
music magazines was a bit immature, I changed the design of mine to give it a more mature
approach and so it wasn’t like your usual Rock magazine, this is unique.

2. Showing the date
Title in big, bold letters
Picture on one side
Kept to a particular colour scheme
Text on one side I also used similar conventions of the layout of music magazines contents pages. With a
column full of text and a column with a large image or images.
I think this idea has worked well, it looks effective, clear, simple and tidy. I have also
used the same colour scheme on my contents page that I used on my front cover. It
makes it look more professional.

3. Introduction Central title
Large, main image
Quotes from
the band
Maintained colour scheme

4. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My magazine targets and represents people who are into Rock music. As long as you like the genre
of music age shouldn’t be an issue, people of any age or gender can enjoy reading my magazine. My
magazine counters that general negative representation of young people in the media. My magazine
represents young people as fun, lively, outgoing people who like to enjoy themselves. The people in
my magazine are relatively young and would consider themselves to be middle class on a social
level. However, my magazine shows how young people can take a different route to the ordinary
jobs they’re expected to get in future, and can go on the to be famous and lead great lives. My
magazine includes both white & black people and represents them equally. The pictures mostly
show white musicians, but the reference to Kele shows there are black musicians in my magazine
aswell.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and
why?
I think Bauer Media Group would be interested in publishing my magazine, as it is a different type of
magazine as to which they’re already publishing. Bauer are also based in Germany, which means
they could potentially spread my magazine to a wider audience, including readers through out
Germany and other parts of Europe.

5. Who would be the audience for your media product?
My audience would predominately consist of young people (aged between 13 – 21) who are into
Rock music. The pictures show young, lively people having a good time and enjoying themselves. It
represents people from different races as equal.
How did you attract/address your audience?
The front cover shows a large image of a band during a live performance, this appeals to my
audience as they take an interest in live music. The colour scheme has a good balance to it, as it’s
not too in your face and the colours have a neutral connotation about them. The titles suggest a sort
of rough edge to the magazine; however, the colour scheme counter balances that and keeps the
balance neutral. The contents page and double page spread maintains the same colour scheme and
carry the same connotations with them as the front cover.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing
this product?
During this project I discovered blogging and how you can share your work to a huge global audience
and for free. I also used digital cameras and Photoshop. Although I was already familiar with these
two technologies, I have never used them for a project like this. I discovered Quark which I had
never used before and found it quite interesting as to what you can do on the program. Quark is
different to Photoshop as it’s more about text rather than image manipulation. With Quark I could
position my text in columns neatly around my images.
Column
Gutter Centre of
page

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in
the progression from it to the full product?
I think my music magazine is much improved from my college magazine, as there is much more
detail, I’ve taken thought and consideration into selecting the right fonts and titles and they layout is
much more professional. The image on the music magazine looks a lot more professional and
appropriate than the college magazine image. On my music magazine I have much more cover
stories and a proper tag line, which makes the magazine more professional. I also added a double
page spread to my music magazine, which involved putting two pages together which I hadn’t done
before.