The document discusses various aspects of the student's magazine product. It explains that conventional elements like a splash image and "exclusive" text were used on the cover to attract readers. Unconventionally, only article names and page numbers are included on the contents page rather than descriptions. The intended audience is identified as middle-class 15-24 year olds interested in indie music. Features like bright colors, photos, and informal language were used to appeal to this audience. The learning process for constructing the magazine is discussed, highlighting the importance of research, planning, and using software like Photoshop and Blogger.

2. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP
OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS?
In my magazine I used a conventional splash image
photograph - a mid shot of a female model looking into the
camera - which is also used frequently in other existing
magazines such as this issue of „Q‟ below. I decided it
would be best to use splash image conventions rather
than challenge them as, being the first thing a possible
buyer will notice as they see the magazine, the splash
image is very important. Because of this, using a splash
image which is similar to ones on successful existing
magazines is a good idea because the splash images they
use obviously work well in selling the magazine and
appealing to a reader.
On my front cover I have included the
buzz word „exclusive‟; this is a feature
which almost all the magazines which I
have looked at in my research process
include. I decided to use this feature
because it‟s a good way to involve a
possible buyer in the magazine by making
them think they‟re part of something
„exclusive‟, making them more inclined to
buy it.

3. On my contents page I have used the convention of
having the name on the magazine followed by
“contents” and the date at the top of the page acting
as a header because this feature is useful for the
reader as it makes it very clear what the page is going
to include.
Pulse NME QI have used a conventional contents page layout by
putting page numbers with article information next to
them because it gives the reader a clear and easy
way of seeing what the magazine contains.
However, I have challenged this convention by
having only the name of the article and the page
number rather than also including a sentence in a
smaller font which describes the article like NME and
Q have done. I decided to do this because my target
audience is people aged between 15 and 24 and so
this young audience wouldn‟t be interested in lots of
text. I continued to develop this idea by using
pictures with page numbers in their captions instead
lots of text to describe the articles.

4. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT
PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?
On my front cover the model is wearing an off-the-shoulder
black top and a pink flower headband which represents the
social group she fits into – young white females – as very
feminine and sophisticated. She is also wearing quite a lot
of makeup which represents her and other women in this
social group stereotype as people who put a lot of effort into
their appearance.
The colour scheme, consisting of pink and blue gives a lively
and youthful feel to the magazine which reflects how young
people stereotypically act. I think these two opposing
representations of the social group of young people works
well because it will attract 15 year olds as well as 24 year
olds to the magazine.

5. WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE
YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?
An institution such as Bauer Media Group would
distribute my magazine, Pulse, because they are a
very large and successful company who already
connect with over nineteen million UK adults through
their 60 media brands, so it‟s obvious they have a lot
of experience and my magazine would be exposed to
a lot of people.
In their music market at the moment they distribute
Kerrang!, MOJO and Q which all currently have very
good readership and circulation figures:
• Kerrang! - Circulation - 35,127 (Jul-Dec '13)
Readership - 345,000 (July-Dec '12)
• MOJO – Circulation - 74,203 (Jul-Dec '13)
Readership - 220,000 (Jul-Dec '12)
• Q – Circulation - 52,781 (Jul-Dec '13) Readership -
377,000 (Jan-Dec '12)

6. My magazine would be a good addition alongside these three music
magazines as mine would fill a gap in their market because:
• Kerrang!‟s target audience is the same age as mine, as 56.1% of
people who buy Kerrang! are aged between 15 and 24 (which also
shows Bauer Media have experience in making products for this
age range), but my magazine focuses on a different music genre to
Kerrang! so they wouldn‟t be too similar and therefore would not in
competition with each other.
• Although MOJO has a similar style and focuses on the same music
genre as my magazine, it is released monthly unlike my magazine
which is fortnightly, and so is a much more substantial magazine
meaning Pulse would work well being distributed alongside it as it
would fill the gap in Bauer Media‟s music market for a throwaway
magazine which focuses on indie music.
• Q is also a magazine which is produced monthly rather than
fortnightly so it differs from Pulse due to this and also because Q
focuses on artists from many different genres unlike Pulse which
has a definite genre which it focuses on.

7. WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT?
My magazine‟s audience would be middle class females and
males aged between 15 and 24. They would all have an interest
in indie music and most would probably attend gigs and
concerts. Some might also play an instrument such as the
guitar or drums, or be in a band, and most of the audience would
dress in indie/hipster style clothing.
Pulse will appeal to this audience because of the choices I made
about my magazine‟s colour scheme, text to photo ratio, and
magazine content.
A lot of choices made were based on the results I collected from
my online survey and as 90% of the people who answered were
aged between 15 and 24, these results reflect the preferences of
that age group. Therefore, because a lot of my decisions in the
construction stage where influenced by 15 to 24 year olds, my
magazine will look appealing to that age group.

8. HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?
The predominant features I have used in my magazine to attract my audience are the colour
scheme, text to picture ratio and the magazine content.
For example, I have used shades of both blue and pink in my colour scheme to make my
magazine appealing to both females and males, and to attract people in the age range of 15
to 24 by using bright colours.
I also decided that my magazine front cover and contents page will include a lot of pictures
and not much text because this will be more interesting to a younger reader than if these
pages consisted mostly of text.
I learnt from my online survey that interviews, reviews, information about artists, and
competitions are all things that interest young people in a magazine so I will use all these
things in my magazine.
These features may exclude an older audience because stereotypically they won‟t be
interested in bright colours or lots of pictures and would prefer a magazine to look more
sophisticated and have a larger amount of text, but

9. I put this on my front cover to attract my
target audience because most
teenagers will be interested in having
posters to stick on their wall whereas
this content feature wouldn‟t interest
adults. The buzz word “exclusive”
would also attract the audience as it
makes them feel as though they‟re part
of something special. “FREE” is in the
biggest font so that it‟s first word you
see when you look at the text: giving
away free things is going to influence
people to buy it.
The opportunity to win things is going to appeal to the
audience so I put this at the top of the front cover so it‟s very
noticeable.
I changed the colour of the words “win tickets” and “festivals!”
to white so that they stand out more because they are the
words which will attract the audience to the magazine the
most.
Using photos of live bands is a
good way to attract my magazines
audience as a lot of them attend
gigs so this would be something
they find interesting and therefore
will be more inclined to buy the
magazine in order to read the
articles about the live bands
performances. The use of these
photo‟s is also successful because
it adds a lot of colour to the page
which my magazine‟s audience of
young people will find appealing.

10. When addressing my audience, I decided to use quite an
informal mode of address in terms of written language. This is
due to the age of my audience being 15 to 24 years old as this
age group tend to use informal, colloquial language towards
each other and so this language is what they‟re most
comfortable with.
For example, on my contents page
I used the words “gigs” and “check
out” which are informal phrases but
are appropriate because my
magazine‟s audience will be
familiar with the terms and
probably use them themselves.
Another way I addressed the audience is through the
photographs that I took and used. The image I used on my
double page spread continues to communicate an informal and
relaxed tone to the audience. This was achieved because the
photo was taken at the beach which has a calm atmosphere and
the natural lighting gives an authentic and therefore personal
feel to the page. The model in this photo is also wearing a
comfortable jumper which is very informal, rather than a dress or
something more formal which would give a different feel to the
page and communicate a different message to the audience.

11. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM
THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?
Software
•Blogger
•Imgur
•Scribd
•Photoshop
•SlideShare
•PowerPoint
•Microsoft Word
•Internet Explorer
•SurveyMonkey
Hardware
•SLR
Camera
•Computer
Technology I have
used: Key
•Research
•Planning
•Construction
•Evaluation
•All

12. I have used Blogger throughout
every stage of my coursework in
order to present all my work in a
clear and tidy way. While using it I
have learnt about how to compose
a blog post, including how to use
embed codes in order to combine
different technologies with Blogger.
I used Photoshop in the
construction stages of my
coursework and have since
gained a much better
understanding of all the different
features available on this
software.
Imgur was a very useful website that I used in my
planning stages. It allowed me to easily upload and
store all the photos from the photoshoot I did for my
magazine and I then learnt how to embed the link from
that photo album onto a blog post so that the images
are accessible from my blog.

13. Without any technology it would not have been possible to
complete this project because my market and audience research
would be very limited without the aid of the internet, I would not
be able to take any photos to use on the magazine, and without
technology the only way to construct the magazine would be by
hand so it would be completely unprofessional.
Although a lot of the technology I used throughout this project
was vital, I could have done without some of it. For example,
Scribd wasn‟t vital in this project as instead of using it I could
have put the text that I uploaded via Scribd straight into a blog
post rather than upload it as a Word document onto Scribd and
embed it onto a blog post. I could also have completed the
project without using SurveyMonkey as I could have made a
physical questionnaire an given people it to fill out in order to
collect audience research.
Some pieces of technology were, however, vital. For example
Photoshop was vital in order to construct my magazine up to a
professional standard as Microsoft Word would not have allowed
me to do that. Blogger was also an essential piece of
technology because without it I wouldn‟t have been able to
display my work digitally.

14. LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO
YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION
FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?
I have learnt about the importance of research and planning in order to make the final
product look as genuine and professional as possible. For example, when I made my
magazine cover for the preliminary task, the only things I did before constructing it was some
very basic market research of College magazines and construct a mock up front cover.
However before constructing my final product, I:
•Did some in depth market research into multiple existing music magazines which helped me
gain a better understanding about the conventions of magazines
•Made an online survey to collect some audience research so that I knew what to include in
my magazine to make it appealing
•Came up with a pitch to decide what my magazine is essentially going to be
•Made flatplans to make the construction process easier
•Planned the photographs I needed to take to use in my magazine
•Wrote out an article to use in my magazine

15. After learning more about magazine conventions, my ability to produce a more professional-
looking magazine front cover increased a lot.
Some examples of conventions I‟ve
used in my final front cover but not
on my preliminary task include:
•Using multiple fonts for cover
lines/mastheads/main cover lines
•Putting the masthead behind the
subject of the splash image
•Using buzz words such as
“exclusive”
•Having a main coverline
•Using a pull quote from an interview
•Using shapes on photoshop to
create borders and more structured
layouts
•Using a splash image of a person
looking at the camera to create a
connection with the reader.
•Using a variety of colours.