This document discusses how the author's music magazine uses conventions of real magazines to appeal to its target audience of teenagers and young adults. Some conventions it uses include large central images, catchy headlines and taglines, freebies and competitions to attract readers. The magazine also employs a consistent color scheme and fonts throughout to establish its house style and make it feel more professional. Images of young, relatable bands are featured to represent and engage the target social group.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? This is the main image which is large and central in my magazine, to help attract the attention of the reader. The image is a convention of real media products because most magazines have a dominant image in them to help influence people to buy the magazine. Front CoverKickers like these help to sell your product because it gives an insight to what is inside the magazine. These kickers have to be quite personal and snappy to help grab the reader’s attention which would overall influence them to purchase the product.Freebies are a great way to persuade an audience to purchase a product in the media. For example, giving away free prizes or vouchers would be a great way to help sell your product. Therefore, on my front cover I used a “£500 Topshop Voucher” which would help lure people into buying my magazine.To help make my magazine look more professional and real, I added a barcode to my design. This helped make my end product look more real.

2. The Top strip is designed to grab the readers attention. For example, it could be giving away free backstage passes, or advertising a certain something. In this case, the top strip is advertising the magazine and giving the reader an insight to what the magazine is about. “Music” is what most of the target audience are interested in and “Glamour” relates to wealth and is what most people want in their life. People aspire to be great and glamorous so by portraying that this magazine has that inside, it would help influence people to consider buying the product. Some magazines use a plug, which advertise something. I added one to make my magazine cover look more professional and real. On my product, the plug is advertising that inside the magazine is an exclusive list of “Explosive’s best songs of 2010”. By surrounding my text by a heart, it emphasises that people will love it and therefore people would be influenced to purchase the magazine.Front CoverThis is the Mast-Head. I created a font of my own that is different compared to real magazine designs. Mast-heads are normally used in the centre of a magazine to show what the main subject topic is or the most important artist that is inside. In the real media, mast-heads are usually followed by a headline. This is the reason I used a headline underneath my Mast-head. The “red” colour symbolises a warning or perhaps ‘power’ which is helpful in attracting my potential audience. Also, to add more effect to the mast-head I put a white shadowing effect behind to make it stand out more. This also colour referenced with my magazine name ‘Explosive!’ which I also used red and white colours with in order to attract my target audience. The “Pop Poster Special” is also another attention grabber. By giving away free posters it is luring you into buying the magazine just for the freebies. Most magazines do this and therefore have better sales.

3. The main image of the contents page isn’t necessarily the main article of the magazine. Although, in most cases the main artist or band are featured on the contents page. In my contents, I used the band image that was the main article of my magazine. To make my main image look superior to the rest, I added a textbox saying “Exclusive!” which would help the reader think it is something new and secretive which would be revealed. The picture of the band is light-hearted and uses direct mode of address to engage the reader. The smiles also help to be personal to the reader. Direct mode of address is used in a lot of magazines because of this. Below is another picture which I took which grabs the readers attention because the girl in the image is reaching out to you which is ‘direct’.ContentsDirect Mode of AddressTo create a “friendly” and “casual” look, the band are dressed in normal day-to-day clothes for example the leather jacket and grey coat help to emphasise that this new girl band are just normal teenagers that have entered the ‘celeb’ world. To become famous is everybody’s dream so people would be interested in reading about their story ‘behind the scenes’. This is why I used it as a selling line on my front cover, and I also made it my main image on my contents.By adding a menu list at the side with page numbers, it makes it easier for the reader to go straight to the page they want to read. A menu list is used in mostly all magazines to help the reader navigate around the magazine. By adding interesting headers like “Eminem Vs Mariah Carey” it interests the reader and appeals to them.

4. Whilst researching, I learnt that in the real media, magazines usually always have their website and date of issue on their contents page. Also it is a common convention of a magazine and therefore, to make my magazine look more professional I wrote a date on my contents so that the readers would keep up with the date and know the website for the website.For the feature section, I used a bold font for the headers and page numbers so that the readers would find it easier to find the page/article they wanted to read. This also helped me make it look more real because magazines usually have bold headers on the contents page. Underneath the headers I also added a bit of extra information to help engage the readers even further to that article/page. Whilst researching, I learnt that the audience should be able to differentiate with the main featured article and the other articles. By putting the main image of the girl band “powerless”, I have used my main feature article on my contents page which therefore helps it to look more life-like and more professional.ContentsI have put a smaller image of the front cover here because in the real media, sometimes they put this on to review the magazine and make it look professional.

5. Heading and Introductory comments are for hooking the audience and to persuade the reader to read the article because it is interesting to them. By using a colourful title with the band name, it helps inform the reader of what the article about. The red and yellow colours also help engage the readers attention and the black, bold headline also helps attract readers. The language I used in the introductory line for example “reveal” also helps influence the reader to read the article because the word reveal makes the reader think it’s a surprise/secret which keeps them engaged to read on.Double Page ArticleI created this CD front cover on adobe photoshop to make the band and the article look more professional because in real magazines, they sometimes add a picture of a copy of the CD cover to persuade the readers to buy it when it comes out. It is like an advertisement at the end of the article which helps sell the product if the reader likes the article.

6. These pictures at the side are great in engaging the readers attention whilst also helping portray the bands personality. In professional magazines, pictures are a great way of encouraging the reader to read the article. By using images in my magazine article, it shows that I have researched magazine types and layout. I set my images out like a horizontal ‘menu strip’ to make it more interesting. Double Page ArticleIn real magazines, images and quotes are used to focus on something a celeb might say to help grab the readers attention. By using short and snappy quotes it helps to enhance a magazine article. To shock the reader and make my article look more professional I enlarged a quote and used it to shock the readers. Also by highlighting it in yellow, it attracts the reader to the specific quote because it is a bright colour.

7. House StyleThe Black arrows used above, show the variety of colour schemes that I have used throughout the making of my magazine for example yellow, red and blue. By continuing a house style throughout the making of the magazine, it makes it look more professional and the readers will automatically relate with these colours when they read my magazine.The red arrows show that I have used the same or similar fonts throughout too, which the reader relates to when reading my magazine. This is a code and convention of a magazine so this is why I used it.When researching music magazines, I noticed that most magazines have a house style that is used within the codes and conventions. Therefore, when making my magazine I decided to create a specific house style that my readers could associate my magazine with. I used bright colours like red, yellow and blue to help make my magazine house style vibrant and cheerful whilst also helping it to stand out to my target audience.

8. How does your music magazine represent particular social groups? My magazine is targeted to a young audience (teenagers/young adults). I have aimed it at this age group by using various codes and conventions within my magazine that would help engage this particular age group. By using bright and happy colours it helps attract youngsters to the magazine straight away. For example, the colour red is seen as a warning colour and can connect with blood, hazards and violence but the colour red can also be associated with love and romance and therefore helps grab the readers attention. Also, teenagers/young adults prefer large images of bands they like etc and therefore by using lots of images and large fonts it would make the magazine more interesting to them.My music magazine represents my particular social group because my main feature article is a “young girl band” and this would attract females the most because women are stereotypically mostly interested in girl bands. Especially when the band ‘Powerless’ is made up of three teenagers which would inspire other teenagers to read the article. Also the colours, fonts and clothing used in my music magazine help me to relate my magazine to the “pop” social group which is what I based my magazine upon.The free “Pop Poster Special” and the Competition to win £500 Topshop vouchers would also appeal to my target audience because most teenagers/young women would want them.

9. The clothing that people wear is also important in attracting and engaging the readers to the magazine. By dressing “cool” and “fashionable” but also “casual” it helps to attract my target audience (young teenagers/young women). When researching what celebrities and others wear when featuring in magazines, I noticed that a lot of women that are known as icons to most readers, are seen in leather jackets and leggings. Therefore, to make the band “Powerless” look more celeb-like I used a leather jacket as a prop and the other two people in the photograph wore casual leggings and coats (also seen in professional magazines) to make them look trendy.The leather look also helps suggest wealth as many celebrities wear them. I think the leather also helped support my ‘pop/rock chick’ look which is the social group I aimed my music magazine at.Stars supporting the leather look.

10. The language used every day by the average “rock/pop” fan is important when creating a magazine. By using the same language as the target audience, it helps engage them to the magazine because it is relating to them in their particular social group (rock/pop). This further helps with the portrayal of certain information and helps manipulate the readers into buying the magazine.The use of alliteration in “Friends fear for” is very helpful in engaging an audience. By using the same sounds at the beginning of words it helps make the words sound more hard-hitting and snappy. The use of language in an article is the key to success in the magazine industry. By using language devices like rhetorical questions that are aimed directly at the readers, it helps influence them to buy and read the magazine. Justin Bieber is a global sensation and he has millions of young teenage fans, therefore I decided by using “Bieber” fever as a smaller headline, to help attract my target audience.

11. Overall, I think my magazine uses all of the codes and conventions because I researched them all thoroughly and made sure I knew what to put into my magazine to give it the “professional” look.

12. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?Media institutions publish magazines worldwide but there are far too many to mention. However, IPC Media is a large company that would be a great choice if I wanted to publish and sell my magazine product. 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 – while our websites collectively reach over 14 million users every month. This fact proves how great the institution is.These divisions make it easier for visitors to navigate around the website easier.It is a big company and therefore could probably offer the opportunity to work with other media such as TV and radio.IPC Media distributes some well known magazines for example NME which is very popular with teenagers/young adults (which relates to my target audience).By being a well known institution, IPC Media would help me get more sales because of its popularity and fame. Also by advertising my magazine in other magazines and on websites, it would also help boost sales.Due to the popularity of IPC media and its fantastic website figures, this institution would be great to advertise my product.NME- successful magazine published by IPC media institution.

13. Who would your target audience be and why?Firstly, I needed to know who would be interested in reading a music magazine. Therefore, I created a questionnaire to see what type of people would like to read a music magazine etc. I had to identify my exact target audience. After I gathered the results, I decided to aim my magazine towards teenagers/young adults because of the fact that the ever growing subculture of rock and pop was most appreciated by that age group. Also, most teenagers are at a particular age when they are developing personalities and inspiring to be somebody, so when they see a ‘celeb’ in the music industry that they like, I thought that they would be easily influenced to buy my magazine if they saw their ‘idols’ etc.

14. When eventually deciding that my target audience was going to be teenagers/young adults, I decided to research magazines that were aimed at that specific age group for example Kerrang magazine and NME. These successful magazines are great in attracting teenagers and young adults to their magazines. The use of facial expressions in my main image on my front cover also helps create a ‘fun’ element to the artist. The expressions are cheeky and happy, which would help to convince teenagers/young adults that they are just normal teenagers like the readers themselves, whilst helping to reflect that it is possible to do something with your life. This would encourage teenagers to buy the magazine as it is relating to their lives.To make my magazine look professional and ‘real’ I looked at the headlines, mast-heads, kickers and house styles and all of the codes and conventions that I would need to include on my magazine. I knew that teenagers in lower-class societies would aspire to be like celebrities due to the wealth and glamour which they would miss. Although, teenagers from middle-class societies would also be interested in the ‘rock/pop’ culture because they could probably afford to look like their icons. By using artists to portray to teenagers/young adults that you can be something great it is inspirational, which would help influence my target audience to buy my magazine.

15. The young artists on the contents page would help engage my target audience because they would be seen as inspirations to most teenagers as most people aspire for wealth and status.This competition entry would also help to attract my target audience because they would appreciate winning £500 Topshop Vouchers.Furthermore, to attract my target audience to my magazine, I put other inspirational artist’ like Mcfly and Justin Bieber on my cover page. These artists have thousands of fans and therefore including them in my magazine would help me sell my product. Mostly females would buy it because of the attraction to the males. I also used bright colours in my house style so that it would instantly grab my target audiences’ attention.

16. How did you attract/address your audience? To attract/address my audience I used a variety of presentational and language devices. For example, I used a new young teenage band which would attract my target audience because the age would be similar to them. Also, most teenagers aspire to me wealthy and have fame, therefore by using other former teenagers as an ‘inspiration’ it will engage them to read/buy my product.In the interview, I used a variety of language devices for example alliteration, similes and humour to engage my readers. The alliteration “sales soared” and “Miss it. Miss Out!” which are quite snappy and help to attract an audience. The informal language also related to my target audience in order to keep them engaged. The teenagers talked informally which would be different from the stereotypical formal language normally used in magazines. By doing an interview, it helped me to portray a ‘typical teenager’ by using informal language that everyday teens would use to help engage teenage readers’ attention.Also by using bright colours to help the magazine stand out from other shelf magazines. By using red, yellow and blue in my magazine front cover, contents and double page article, it helped to attract potential buyers because they were attracted to the ‘fun loving’ colours (house style).Also by using the codes and conventions of magazines in the music industry, it helped me learn where to place certain things to make my magazine look more interesting and professional.

17. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Throughout the making of my music magazine, I have learnt a lot about adobe photoshop, digital photography, youtube and blogs. When I was first set up a blog account, it was very different to sites such as Facebook and Myspace so it took me a while to get used to it. Now, I know how to post pictures and powerpoints etc on it.Also, I used Photoshop which was also new to me however, I used it in my preliminary task (making a college magazine) but by practising on it, it helped me become more and more familiar with the software. By using these software's to help me produce my magazine, it helped me make my magazine look attractive because the effects of some of the photographs can be quite effective and engaging. If I had created my magazine without using adobe photoshop, it wouldn’t have looked as good at all and would have looked quite dull and boring. For example, the word “powerless” on my front cover was created in photoshop, and it is very good at attracting the readers attention, which is what is needed in a music magazine.I also learnt about photography. By looking at light, costume, background etc, it helped me to create a good quality photoshoot. For example, using proxemics in my photos to portray power and also by using different angles for different purposes. At the beginning of the photoshoot, I was quite confused as what to do, but then I realised that I just needed pictures that would attract and interest my readers and therefore I got to work and improved as I went on.Furthermore, from the process of constructing this product, it has helped me learn a lot more about technologies and softwares(photoshop)

18. Looking back at your preliminary task (the College magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product? As you can see, in my college magazine everything to do on photoshop was a bit of a struggle and my codes and conventions weren’t used as good as they are in my music magazine, mainly because everything on photoshop was new to me. My photography was generally quite good because it used ‘direct mode of address’ and that helps to engage your audience. My college magazine was a little bit unorganised as I just placed anything wherever I wanted at the time. However, by the time I started my music magazine, everything was more practised and I had done a lot more research on magazines and ‘attracting audiences’. I think that there is a big difference between both of my magazines because I think my college magazine is a bit dull now and I don’t think it would attract many readers. It also lacks colour, and the headers need to stand out more to shock the reader.In my music magazine though, I feel that I have done very well at engaging my readers attention, and the use of photoshop helped me to do this, especially because I was more experienced whilst making my music magazine than when I was first introduced to it when doing my college magazine. College MagazineMusic MagazineWhen doing both tasks, I always asked my friends for their opinions, to see if they could see any way that I could improve my magazine. Also, when posting stuff on my blog, my teacher also gave me feedback which helped me and advised me to do something, which in turn helped my magazine progress and end up with this full, finished product.To improve my music magazine, I would maybe use more images and perhaps have a professional looking menu strip with the names of different bands and a few images of them.