The document discusses how technology has helped improve the pop genre through auto-tune and online sharing of music. Pop has also mixed with other genres like R&B. In the 1950s, television helped make pop stars like ABBA very popular. During research into pop magazines, conventions like featuring trendy pop stars on the cover to appeal to readers were found. Pop magazines portray artists as happy and energetic to influence readers positively. They focus on topics like love, boys, and fashion that interest teenagers. The response discusses how the magazine uses conventions of real pop magazines like cramming the front cover with gossip headlines. It features a well-known pop artist on the cover and uses one bold color to catch readers' eyes

1. During my research into pop magazines as pop was the genre that I choose ,I found out
that the improvement of technology has massively helped improve pop as a whole.
People are becoming more aware of the genre pop as pop artists are able to produce
better music through the use of auto tune and share their music online for their fans to
see. Furthermore, pop has also mixed with other genres now such as r&b so all the
genres have come together which makes pop music more well-known and liked. In the
1950s when televisions were available the genre became very popular with the
performances from stars ABBA the pop genre had never been so popular.
During my research I came across many conventions of a pop magazine. The ones that
stood out mainly were to have a trendy pop star on the front page, as this will appeal to
the target audience as they may look up to them and see them as a role model. Uses
and Gratifications theory would say that the target audience can identify with the model
featuring throughout the magazine. The artists are usually portrayed to be happy and full
of energy as it could influence the target audience in a positive way. Also, pop
magazines are very dance orientated. I got the idea that pop magazines want to create a
happy feeling for the target audience as everything they spoke about was topics such as
boys, makeup , love and fashion, which stereotypically teenagers find interesting or
enjoy doing.
In what ways does your magazine product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?

2. My magazine is similar to top of the pops as the subheadings are to do with
gossip,boys,fashion,makeup etc and there are a lot of them which makes the front page
crammed; I noticed this was a popular convention amongst pop magazines as the target
audience want to find out about as much gossip as possible.. There is also a well known pop
artist on the front cover which stands out to the target audience and there is normally one rich
colour on the page which really catches the audiences eye.

3. Representations:
Girls are represented to be very
girly. They normally have lots of
makeup on, trendy clothes, involved
in a lot of gossip and boys. This will
be appealing to the target audience
as they are mainly teenage girls and
at this age this is what they would
normally find interesting and they
may be able to relate to the content
in the magazine. They will find this
appealing as they will feel as if
someone understands them and
they may get advice from the
information inside the magazine.
The language I have used is
mainly informal this is because
the target audience will be able
to follow it clearly without
finding words hard to
understand. The target
audience is mainly working
class therefore we assume they
will find informal language more
appealing than middle class.
Also, whilst doing my research I
realised this was one of the
conventions of a pop magazine
so it would be effective.
I used the magazine top of the pops to get
ideas of how to fit the conventions of a pop
magazine. I decided to use top of the pops
because it had the same target audience as
me and it seems to be a popular magazine
for that age group, so I thought it would be
useful to see how they appeal to their target
audience, so I could follow those ideas to
attract a large target audience.

4. I developed several parts of my front cover magazine to fit the
conventions of a pop magazine especially top of the pops. I
made sure that their was a lot of subheadings as I noticed that
pop magazines especially top of the pop front covers are quit
crammed with different subheadings. I noticed that most of the
subheadings were about pop artists, clothing or boys so I tried
to relate my stories to these topics as I new this is what my
target audience would be interesting in reading. The model on
the front page of pop magazines were normally wearing lots of
makeup and someone that you would find attractive.
Therefore, when I took pictures of my model I made sure her
hair and makeup was done, so my target audience would be
more likely to see her as a role model.
However, I did challenge the genre of pop a little bit. When I was doing my research I noticed that they used a lot
of blue, pinks and whites throughout their magazines, but I choose to use red,white,grey,yellow and black. The
reason for this was because I thought that the red still stands out and appeals to the target audience but it creates
a more sophisticated feel for the magazine which I thought would attract a wider target audience of teenagers. For
example 16,17,18 year olds would still find this appealing but so would 12-16 year olds because of the
subheadings still being about topics they would want to read about and I think they will find it appealing to be able
to look up to someone older and listen to their views. Also, with teenagers growing up faster and having more
access to older information I think they will find it appealing. I asked a few teenagers what they thought of the
colour red and they said they found it appealing , they said they would want to read the magazine if they saw red
as it looks different and makes them think it is important, however it still stands out to the audience and you can
still tell it is a pop magazine due to the other conventions. Therefore I thought this would be a good way of making
my magazine different and making it stand out to the people wanting to buy my magazine. If the magazine looks
slightly different they may find it appealing to explore something they wouldn’t normally.

5. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In my magazine I have represented my model to be the “ideal girl”. I have done this by making sure
she is wearing makeup and her hair is done and that you can tell she has made a effort with her
appearance. This is because top of the pop magazines use a model that teenagers would see as a
role model and can relate to. In the media today girls are portrayed to make a lot of effort with their
appearance and want to attract a lot of attention. Also, the media has a big influence on teenagers
therefore they are more likely to be appealed to see a artists that is pretty and someone they think
will get a lot of attention from people because it means they can get ideas from them. Furthermore,
because the artist is on the front cover we already know she is important and has status so straight
away the audience want to get to know. When I was taking my pictures I wanted my model to be
inspired by the pop artist Rihanna, because she is a well known artist and many teenagers look up
to her as a role model. Rihanna is successful and wealthy, and is seen as someone that acts
herself. Therefore by portraying my model to be like her then I would appeal to my target audience
as they may look up to her as someone they would want to be like or they may get ideas for the
future from her, which can make the target audience feel understood. On the front cover my model
is wearing black, this is because I wanted most of the attention to be on her face as it builds a
connection with the artists and the target audience, also by her wearing black it brings out the
colour red more and fits the colour scheme well.

6. I have represented my artist in a positive light, as she takes care over herself and she
has been successful in her music career. This will be appealing to the target audience as
they can look up to her and get advice from her. Whereas if I represented her in a
negative light then the target audience might think badly of her and therefore not be
interested to read the magazine. To represent this stereotype I edited my images to
make them more bright and to add more contrast, this creates a more happy feeling in
the target audience and makes her stand out from the page more.
My artist for my magazine fits the stereotype of a female as females are stereotyped to
be girly, love fashion and makeup and take care of themselves. I thought this was
important to fit the stereotype of a female because of the age group of my target
audience. Teenagers are interested in what is popular and they try to fit in with the
trends, therefore they will be more appealed to someone they can get ideas from than
someone that challenges the stereotype of a female.

7. On the contents page, I wanted to portray
my artists to be happy and to show the
target audience that she is happy with her
life/music career in pop. I thought a good
way of showing this was by her wearing a
bright colour as the target audience may
see the relationship between her clothes
and personality; that she has a bubbly
character and that she is happy. We also
get the feeling that she is happy and
successful by the way she is posing in the
images, she has a big smile which helps
the target audience put together what her
personality is like. The top she is wearing
also looks quite trendy which means the
target audience will find this appealing as
teenagers like to follow trends and her
more interested in fitting in than being
different.

8. The artist on the front page
is wearing red lipstick, this
stands out on her face and
fits the stereotype that
women wear makeup and
want to look sensual. The
use of red lipstick also tells
the target audience a little bit
more about the artist. We get
the idea that she is outgoing
and confident, not easily
intimidated, and goes after
what she wants. This is just
what the target audience
might think about her,
therefore they are
immediately going to see her
as someone to look up to.
I used Photoshop to make
the saturation of the
picture more intense. This
was because it made the
model on the front cover
stand out more to the
target audience and it
helped create the happy
feel that I wanted for my
magazine. It also helped fit
the stereotype that girls
wear a lot of makeup and
make a lot of effort with
their appearance.

9. What kind of media institution might
distribute your product and why?
These are a few media publishers that are very popular in the media industry. However they
wouldn’t distribute my product as they do not publish pop magazines.
IPC media- Is one of the Uk’s leading consumer
Magazine and digital publishers, with a large
portfolio selling over 350million copies each year
IPC media groups titles under five magazine
divisions which are
connect,Inspire,Ignite,Southbankand TX. They own
NME and Guitar and base.
Bauer media group-is a large
German publishing company
based in Hamburg. Operates in 15
countries worldwide and was
funded in 1875 being privately
owned. The music magazines this
publisher provides are: Q, Mojo
and Kerrang.
Emap- Is the second largest magazine publisher
in the uk with about 18% of the news-stand
market by revenue. In 2007 the company
announced a strategic review and as result the
company split up and sold off to business-to-
business magazine sold to Guardian media group
and private equitty sold to firm A pax. The new
company is called incisive-emap.

10. Immediate media company
• Immediate Media Co is an award-winning special interest content and platform company.
It is one of the biggest consumer media businesses in the UK and the fourth largest
magazine publisher.
• Immediate media company sell 76 million magazines every year and reach
33 million people online every month.
• There vision is - Creating innovative opportunities for people to explore their passions.
• Their future success will revolve around using their own platforms to change the way
people interact with the content brands they love.
• Tom Bureau, Chief Executive of Immediate Media Co, has extensive experience of running
print, cross-media and digital content and platform companies.
• They quote “We care about giving something back to society and want to make a genuine
difference to people's everyday lives.

11. Their values suit my magazine because they want to make a difference to people’s
everyday lives and my magazine wants to make people feel included and understood
by being able to relate to the pop artist in the magazine. Also, in my magazine I
wanted to create a happy feel throughout it so that if people are feeling down they
can read my magazine to feel better. Also, because of the target audience being
teenagers I feel like it is important for them to have something to relate to as in
society they may feel very excluded and that they cant talk about the way they feel or
problems they may have. Also, they sell a lot of magazines every year so they may
want to increase that number and sell my magazine. This would help their company
as more people would be becoming aware of them and they will be reaching their
goals and values more.

12. Who would be the audience for your media
product?
My target audience for my magazine is 12-16 year olds. I decided this by the type of content that is going to be included as
it is about gossip, boys, fashion , music and stereotypically these are the topics that teenagers would be appealed to.
Moreover, the model that will be on the front cover is portrayed as young and trendy throughout the magazine therefore
this specific target audience can relate to the model and they will feel as if the model understands them more if they are of
a similar age or if not a little bit older.
In order to know that I was creating the right magazine for my target audience I had to gather some information from the
target audience and do some audience research so I could generalise the findings and see what they liked to see in a music
magazine. This meant that I could get some ideas for my own. I decided to gather this information by doing questionnaires.
This was useful because I asked a set of questions about music magazines and gave them options to choose from. When I
had got enough people to fill out my questionnaires I then gathered the data and found out which answers were most
popular. This was useful at knowing what to use in my magazine to appeal to my target audience. I had to make sure I gave
my questionnaires to the right target audience which would be the same as my magazine target audience. Therefore, I
handed out my questionnaires to students at my sixth form of different ages within my target audience 12-16. The data I
got back was very useful as I found out what people didn’t like in music magazines and what they did like, this helped me
know what to include and what to not include.
Linking my magazine to the uses and gratifications theory, I think people will read my magazine for entertainment and to
identify with the artists especially the model on the front page. The model on the front cover is successful and attractive so
teenagers may look up to her and they may be able to relate real life situations to hers as there is an exclusive interview
where she opens up about her journey of becoming a pop artist. I think it will appeal to teenagers that are mainstream and
like to follow trends as the magazine is very up to date with fashion and stereotypically everything teenagers are appealed
to. Whereas someone that is a bit more unique or seen as a ‘subculture’ may not find the magazine interesting as they
don’t like following trends/fashions in society and they would prefer to see something that’s more different.

13. How did you attract/address your
audience?
My magazine attracts to my target audience in several ways. Firstly, it attracts my audience by the use of stories it contains. For
example, “2015 clothing” , “Top music tips” and it has famous pop artists listed on the front page, which most teenagers will know
about and they may be fans of them which means they will be interested in reading the magazine to find out about them.
Also, the artist that I have shown throughout is shown as successful and a famous star therefore the audience are going to know
about her and if they like her they are going to find the magazine eye catching, whereas if they didn’t know the model and she wasn’t
well known they may not bother looking at it. Also, I made sure the model was showing direct eye contact on the front page as this
shows she is drawing the audience in and the target audience may feel included. If they see her as a role model they may feel a
sense of closeness or they may feel important because of the direct eye contact with the audience making them feel like they are in
the same room as each other. On the double page spread, I used half a page of text and the other half was a image of the pop artist.
I thought this would be appealing to the target audience because they can see the artists up close and they have a clearer idea of
what she actually looks like. This is important as they will feel like a true fan if they know exactly what she looks like. Furthermore, I
thought it would be appealing to the target audience to have a double page spread on a interview with the pop artist, as this gives
them a chance to get to know the artist more and they may be able to relate to certain parts of their life which will make them feel as
if someone understands them and there not alone. Adding on, because my model is successful and has done well for herself this
could be inspiration for teenagers and could lead them on the right path if someone they look up to is doing something positive this
may drive them to want to follow a positive path, which will benefit society
The target audience will be satisfied because the subheadings are to do with topics that teenagers will find interesting. This is
important because it gives them the chance to discuss these topics with friends and they may get advice from the information the
magazine has included. It fits the conventions of a pop magazine as I have used a bright colour(red) throughout which will catch the
target audiences attention and draw them in. Also, red has connotations of importance and love therefore it makes the audience feel
like they should read the magazine and the colour red gives the audience the feeling there is a lot of interesting information inside as
red is not a boring colour. Also, it fits the conventions of a pop magazine as there are lots of subheadings on the front page which are
crammed together. The target audience don’t want to have to read loads but they want to see lots of big subheadings and gossip on
the front page, as they will feel like they can feed this gossip back to their friends.

14. Furthermore, I have made my magazine appealing to the target audience by giving them the chance to win x factor
tour tickets. As my target audience are teenagers I thought that they will mainly watch this programme and seeing
this on the front page will catch their attention. They may be more likely to buy the magazine if there is a chance to
win something as they may feel like they will get something in return from buying the magazine.
Throughout my production I kept showing my work to different people, to see how I could improve my work to make
it more appealing to my target audience. I found it useful and important in asking people within the age group of my
target audience as I wanted to know what would appeal to that specific age group and what would drive them to
buy my magazine. This helped my work as It meant I could consider changing certain parts of my magazine to
make it more appealing at attracting the correct target audience and in order to appeal to lots of teenagers.
Before my feedback After my Feedback

15. When I was thinking about the colour scheme for my
magazine I knew it was important to use colours that
would stand out to the target audience. I wanted to
use bright colours as a aim for my magazine was to
create a happy feel. I thought it would be a good idea
to create a happy feel as it means teenagers may be
able to read my magazine when they are feeling down
and it may make them more appealed to read my
magazine if they see bright colours as it shows positive
representations. Therefore, the colour yellow really
helps create the positive representations as it make
the audience think of sun and summer which is a
happy season. Whereas, if the colours were just
blue,greys,blacks they wouldn’t feel like reading the
magazine if they are already in a bad mood and it
doesn’t come across as a magazine you can be
inspired by if its got negative representations. I made
sure I used the same colours throughout the magazine
as it creates brand identity and the consistency makes
the magazine flow and allows the audience to make a
link between pop central and the specific colours
used.

16. What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product
During the process of constructing my magazine I have learnt a huge amount on Photoshop.
I have learnt how to use certain tools such as the colour sampler tool and the polygonal Lasso tool and I have learnt the
basic skills of using Photoshop such as changing the text/font and how to insert images. I used the polygonal lasso tool
when I was cropping my front cover picture, and taking on the background. This meant that I had to slowly go round the
outline of the picture, it was difficult because you had to be very patient and do it slowly otherwise the picture would be
very bumpy. To make sure my magazine looked as professional as possible I had to make sure that I done this neatly as the
target audience are going to pay a lot of attention to the artists on the front cover. I used the colour sampler tool when I
had already used a colour but wanted to find out the exact colour when using it again. This was important as I had to make
sure the colours were consistent throughout as I followed a colour scheme.
I found it difficult changing the colour of certain text at times as sometimes I couldn’t find the colour I had previously used
or it wouldn’t change. Also, it was difficult having to find a certain layer at times because there started getting quite a few
so it was hard to find the specific one you was looking for. However, I just had to keep looking for the layer and in the end I
found it. Whilst making my magazine I started to realise how much time it takes to make a media product, as before I wasn’t
aware of how long it takes and how much effort needs to be put into the magazine to make sure that it looks professional
and so that appeal s to the target audience.
Colour sample tool
Polygonal Lasso Tool

17. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do
you feel you have learnt in the progression from it
to the full product? If I was to redo my
preliminary task I would
make sure that I plan my
shooting schedule better, so
that the lighting of the
picture is more bright. This
would of make the image on
the magazine clearer to see.
The preliminary task was
difficult because we hadn't had
much experience on Photoshop
so were unaware of tools to use
to make the magazine look
more professional and
appealing to the target
audience. It was also difficult
because we weren't as clear on
the conventions of a magazine,
so we weren't aware of how to
appeal to our target audience as
much as possible.
A good thing about this
magazine was that I had used
subheadings plotted across the
page , which related to the
type of magazine it was.
However, I do believe to make
this magazine better the choice
of fonts should have been
thought about more and to
make it more eye catching the
font sizes should be larger.
Overall, from doing this task I have learnt a massive amount
On photo shop and it made me want to do more research in
magazines especially the conventions, which helped me
understand how to make a professional magazine and the time
and effort that is involved.

18. Feedback from my magazine
“Good use of subheadings and content”
“Make the image on the front cover larger so it stands out more”