The document describes the student's media magazine product and how it uses and challenges conventions of real magazines. It follows conventions like using color schemes and including advertising on the cover, but also challenges conventions by changing the accent color on each page. The target audience is described as 15-25 year olds, and the magazine represents this group through its informal language, topics, and affordable price. The intended distributor is described as Bauer Publishing due to their experience with similar magazines.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
My magazine follows the usual conventions which can be found in real magazines, however to make
my magazine stand out and appear unique I have also subverted from usual conventions.
Using my product research I have followed general forms of real media products, for example I have
used a colour scheme of black and white with a bright colour. This allows for certain words and
sections of the magazine to be easily noticeable and stand out. However unlike usual magazines I
have changed the bright colour I use on my front cover, contents page and double page spread
because I wanted to keep the magazine looking fresh and different on every page.
I have also put a bar code, a date and the price on the front cover in the bottom right hand corner to
make the magazine more authentic.
On the front cover of my magazine I have included journalistic words like ‘exclusive!’ and ‘win!’ as
these are used to generate interest in the magazine and the stories inside.
In the main image on the front cover and all the other images that are in my magazine, the models
use a direct mode of address as this is generally used to simulate interaction between the people in
the image and each individual reader.
The masthead of my magazine is bold and large and this is a convention of usual magazines because
a bold and large masthead catches the attention of the audience. The masthead of a magazine gives
the audience an insight into what they will find in the magazine, so I made sure the name of my
magazine had connotations with music so it would make the genre of my magazine obvious.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product represents the age group and my target audience of 15-25 year olds in different
ways. Firstly the bright and bold colours I have used represent the personalities and lifestyles of this
age group. The informal language which I have used throughout my magazine represents the
language which my target audience can relate to and understand. The information and the type of
artists that I have chosen to include in the magazine are things that will interest my target audience.
The images I have used both represent the age group but also the genre of music which my
magazine is, the colours which the models wear in the images are plain black and white and this can
be linked to the simplicity of the rock genre.
From the people I asked, 100% agreed that the images and artists I used represented both the genre
and the age group.
The rock genre of my magazine is mirrored in the bright colours against the black background and
these colours that I have used aren’t specifically linked to any gender and this represents how there
isn’t a specific gender which my magazine is aimed at. This is also recognised in both the male and
female bands and artists which I have featured in my magazine.
My magazine also represents this age group through the price I have chosen to sell my magazine at,
it is affordable for people of my target audience to buy every week.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The publishing company I would like to distribute my magazine would be Bauer Publishing. They
publish magazines such as Closer and Grazia but they also publish a music magazine of the same
genre as mine, Kerrang, so they would have experience with selling this genre of magazine.However,

2. Kerrang is the only magazine of this genre which they distribute so this leaves a gap in the market for
another. The company is large and has a big influence, it would have the power to advertise and sell
my magazine to a large market.
I would like my magazine to be sold in large music shops such as HMV because this would attract a
large music audience. I would also like my magazine to be sold in smaller organisations which only
sell music from the rock genre as this would guarantee more sales as people who like this genre of
music would go to these places.
I would also like my magazine to be sold in newsagents and other small shops which would be easily
accessible to my target audience.
Who will be the audience for your media product?
The target audience of my magazine is neither males nor females and the colours I have used don’t
target a particular gender, this is because I found out from my questionnaires that both male and
females regularly buy magazines.The colours I used on the front cover of magazine and throughout
are different on every page to widen the demographic of the audience.
However the target audience I did decide to focus on was people who enjoyed rock magazines as I
found out from my market research that magazines like Kerrang and NME which deal with this genre
are the ones that people tend to buy the most. Also, when I asked which genre of music people
prefer to listen to, most people responded that rock was the genre they preferred listening to.
I have decided to make my age group for my target audience 15-25 yearolds as this was the age
group which bought magazines the most, listened to rock/indie music, and paid for the magazines
with eitherpart time or full time jobs.
My magazine will be sold once every month, as everyone I asked saidthey would prefer to buy a
magazine which has an issue out every week.
How did you attract/address your audience?
I attracted my audience through the artists and bands that I advertised being in the magazine on the
front page, I chose bands, concerts and festivals which were popular with my target audience.
This is why I included a header at the top of the front cover to inform the audience of who else is
featured in the magazine.
I also advertised a promotional offer in the bottom corner of my magazine to give the audience a
reason to buy the magazine.
From looking and analysing other magazines I found that it was important to make the faces of the
main image clear and for the people in the image to be facing the camera as a direct mode of
address to include the audience so I made sure I did this in all the images in my magazine.
I made the masthead of the magazine bold and bigger than any other text on the front cover
because this is the first thing which attracts an audience to a magazine. It also contrasts with the
background to make it stand out even more.
I used the same house style throughout the magazine, with the masthead being used on the
contents page as well as the front cover; it is also mentioned in the double page spread article. The
black and white stayed throughout the magazine but I changed the bright colour from blue to red
and then to green to keep the magazine interesting.

3. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Using a blog was helpful in making sure all my research and planning was in one place which made it
easier and simpler to create my actual magazine whilst remembering all the information I needed to
include in it. Using slideshare to upload my documents was also useful for storing and presenting my
work easily.
From using digital cameras to take the images I used for my magazine, I learned that lighting and
angles are important in making a photograph look real and professional. It also helped with
understanding how important the background of an image is in making it seem realistic and having it
fit in with the genre and age group I wanted my magazine to appeal to.
For my research into distributing companies and for finding out about things such as house style, the
Guttenberg principle and sans serif fonts the internet and websites such as Wikipedia and Google
were useful in getting the information which I could apply to my product.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it
to the full product?
I have learned many things about how to make my magazine appear more authentic since first
making my ancillary magazine.
When I first created my ancillary magazine I didn’t know how to use all the features of Photoshop
which caused the magazine to look unrealistic. Whilst making my final product I have learned how to
use layers, editing techniques such as contrast/brightness and filters such as lens correction. These
helped to progress my preliminary task to the more professional looking magazine which I have
created for my final product.
I have learned that following normal magazine conventions makes the magazine look more realistic,
however subverting from these conventions is sometimes necessary to make the magazine stand
out and look unique.
From looking at my preliminary task I realised that I needed to make the fonts on my final magazine
blend in with the rest of the cover so that it looks more realistic. The fonts I used on the front cover
of my ancillary magazine were different each time and this made the magazine unattractive so I
made sure I used the same font throughout on my final magazine. The editing technique I used on
my ancillary magazine made it look too plain and simple. In contrast to my ancillary magazine, my
final product uses the same 3 colours throughout the page whereas my ancillary magazine didn’t
stick to a certain colour scheme and this made it appear to be unprofessional.
Through what I have learned, I feel I have improved the factors of my ancillary magazine which made
it look fake and boring, to make my final magazine appear to be more realistic and like something
you would see in a shop.