The document describes the progress made by the author from their preliminary task to constructing their full media product of a music magazine. It notes that the preliminary task lacked consistency in colors, had empty spaces, and did not include elements that would make it look realistic like a real magazine. In contrast, the full magazine features consistent colors, well-laid out elements, and conventions found in real music magazines like Kerrang and NME as a result of research. The author learned the importance of planning and researching real products to understand how to effectively construct and layout their own media product.

2. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Starting with the title of my magazine, I would say that my masthead follows
consistent colours that are usually associated with rock. This would be red and
black, which I used for my masthead, which makes it look like a real media
product. I used a font called ‘28 days later’, which makes the words look much
more affective, and looks like a font that would be used in a current rock magazine.
This follows other codes and conventions of real music magazines, such as Kerrang
and NME magazine, as both have those consistent colours, red, white and black. I
can compare my masthead to the NME one, as they both are red, then have an
outline around it, which makes them stand out more.
My Masthead
Other magazines

3. However, I would say that the people used in my magazine are quite
unconventional, as they are mainly young, whereas in rock magazines the people
featured in it are usually older and look like typically bands e.g. hairstyles, make
up. Also, bands usually consist of around 4 to 5 people , but the band starring in
my magazine has 3. Bands are usually male dominated, but in my magazine you
see that it is more biased towards women, as the band have two women and one
male, and one of the females have the lead singer role, which id a dominant role.
However, the target of my magazine is for young people, so this develops real
magazines, as there is more representation of young people and females, which
may encourage people who are interested in other genres to look at my magazine,
and may feel influenced and become interested in it.

4. Also, by the props and costumes I used, are conventional, because in my magazine
I used a guitar, and in another image there is a stage and microphone. The models I
used are wearing clothes that would be in a real magazine like a leather jacket and
are wearing make-up. This is usually what’s seen in music magazines, as it reflects
rock in general, which makes my magazine look realistic.
You can see from my magazine that it is rock genre by the way its set out, the
colours /fonts used and the conventions. For example, the masthead of my
magazine ‘Rebel’ has a relation to rock, perhaps by the way they are reflected as a
whole. Also, by looking at the fonts I used throughout the front cover, contents
page and double page spread, they are creative and would be seen in real rock
magazines, ‘for example this text’. As you can see from that text its cool
and edgy, which is portrayed through the magazines.

5. 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I would say that my magazine, would be targeted toward working class students, as there
is a lot of representation of them reflected in this magazine. For example, in the image I
used in my double page spread (image below), you can see that students of a working
class would be more likely to purchase this magazine , rather than middle class. This is
because, the clothes they are wearing in the image are things that current students would
be wearing, which would be common to see. For example, the model on the right is
wearing a parka jacket, which is popular among young people. This represents young
working class people, as the models are wearing clothes that, people of that category,
would afford and therefore reflect the representation of the magazine.

6. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I would distribute my magazine to Bauer Media, as they are a massive media institution,
and distributes Kerrang and Q magazine. These are popular well known music magazines
that are popular among young people and adults. My magazine would fit into Bauer
media, as many young people as well as adults purchase Kerrang magazine. As the target
of my magazine are more for young people, loyal customers of Kerrang would trust that
‘Rebel’ magazine would be just as good, which will fill in a gap in the market, and will
not only boost profit made in the company, but increase its popularity.
Also, as Bauer media produce any different things e.g. newspapers,
Music channels and radio stations. My magazine would have a chance of getting more
publicized , like by having its own radio station, people would be more aware of the
music included in my magazine.
I did consider choosing IPC media , as they are a large organisations
And have a gap in the market for young people, meaning my products
Get a lot of profit,. However, IPC magazine have a division of genders
In the magazines they produce. For example, one of their magazines
‘Now’ is only targeted at women and ‘World soccer’ is targeted at just
Men.

7. 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for my magazine would be young people, ranged from 15-24 male
and female. This is because my magazine features many young musicians/bands, which
younger people would be interested in, so they would be conversed about it through word
of mouth or social networks e.g. twitter . This is because people of this age are constantly
on social networks, which would increase the publicity of my magazine. Also, more young
people would be interested in my magazine as, my front cover consists of red, white and
black it has other colours that stand out to promote things. For example in my front cover,
in a lime/green colour it says ‘win the monsoon album’, this would link to young people,
as its a young band that people of a similar age would be more interested in, so they would
be more involved in joining the competition.

8. 5. How did you attract/address your audience?
Front Cover

9. I attracted the audience for my magazine, by choosing models that are young and
represents my target audience, which are young adults ranged from 15-24. Also, on my
front cover of my magazine (On the other slide), I included bands like: Panic! At the disco
and My chemical romance, these are bands that young people (who listen to this genre of
music) would be interested in, which would grab their attention.
As rock is predominantly male dominant, you can see from music magazines like
‘Kerrang’ that they focus on making it attractive to the male eye. For example, you can tell
by the masthead it was created for the likes of men with its rough texture, with plain
colours (black and white) .
In comparison to my front cover, you can see that I
represent male and females more equally , as my
masthead may seem more suited to males like
Kerrang's, but my main image model is female. This
balances out the representation of both genders, as
there are different conventions that would grab the
attention of both genders.

10. Contents page

11. By looking at my contents page, I feel that males would look into it, as the colours that I
used consist of: red, white, black and grey, which suites the genre of the magazine. Also,
in one of the images I used (at the bottom of the contents page) the model is a male. He is
wearing a simple check shirt, which suites my target audience (working class young
people). This is because, the model isn’t wearing over the top expensive clothing, but is
wearing clothes that everyone would wear. This would make the audience of my magazine
feel that they can relate to people in my magazine, which will keep them interested.
Also, females will like that the image of the small band have two females and one male,
and that the lead singer is female. This is because most bands are male dominated, so in
looking at this band, they may feel influenced by the main representation on women.

12. Double page spread

13. My double page spread, may be perceived as more representation of females, as the band
‘ColdNights’ has two females and one male. This again addresses females, as they may
feel more interested in a band that isn’t male dominated , as most of them are.
Also, I have addressed my target audience, because when I asked 15-24 year olds
questions on how they view my construction and I received positive feedback from both
genders. Things that were said is that they thought it was eye catchy, suited their interests
and that they would buy it.

14. 6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this
product?
When Creating my: front cover, contents page and double page spread, I had to use
Photoshop CC & CC6. As the programme is specialist for making things like magazines,
and has special effects that pay close attention to detail, for example there are many
choices for editing just texts, compared to using something like publisher which only
mainly has colour, different fonts and minor effects.
When I first started using Photoshop for the preliminary task, I found it very difficult to
use, as there were many small icons and I didn't quite understand all the layers. But as
weeks progressed, I discovered that its useful to watch tutorials and find websites that
explained how to use it. So by the end of it, I felt more confident with using Photoshop, as
my magazine wouldn't have turned out the way it did if I had used a different programme

15. Also, when constructing my magazine, I was uncertain about how to do certain things, like
using effects on Photoshop or how to upload things onto my blog. So I used simple
technologies, that I use most days, which are YouTube and Google. They were beneficial
when creating my magazine, as they gave me more knowledge on how to do certain
things, like removing a background on Photoshop (YouTube), which made things more
easier for me throughout creating my magazine.
Another technology I used was ‘Blogger’, so I could update and talk about the progress I
was making throughout the course. I hadn’t had a blog or used one before I done this
course. However, using the Google blogger was easy to adjust too as everything is set out
easily on it. This is an important technology that I used for the construction, as I had to
continually put all the evidence and research that I had done onto my blog.

16. Another important technology that I used was slideshare, which I used to put my
PowerPoint presentations onto, then converted them onto my blog. In using slideshare, it
made the presentations look much more presentable, instead of me writing out loads onto
my blog, this way of updating a balanced amount of writing , in a PowerPoint formation.
This allows the person viewing
blog to press next to the next pages
of presentation.
This allows you to see what page
the slide is, and shows how many
pages there are.

17. I also used a website called ‘SurveyMonkey’, which I used to create my questionnaire, in
finding out information for the creation for my music magazine. I had never used this site,
but after using it I feel that it was as a easier way of generating my results. This is because
after creating the questions, you are given a link where people will be able to simply click
and answer the questionnaire, rather than printing it out from Microsoft office excel or
another way . After people complete the questionnaire, it shows you how many people
completed it , what their responses were for each question, and showed if they left out a
question. I learnt that this is a more efficient way of collecting data, as it provides you
with a lot of information.
Throughout the course, the technologies that I simply needed was my laptop and my USB.
Using my laptop allowed me to complete the whole course, so it was easy to access and I
was able to do my work any time I was free. Also, my USB allowed me to carry my work
portable anywhere I went.

18. 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
I feel that from the preliminary task , to the full product, I have made a lot of progress, in
the way I organised things and the expansion in my understanding on how to use different
sites. Looking back at my preliminary round, I feel as if I could have made it look much
more better, as it is plain, has a lot of empty spaces and not much effects, compared to
my music magazine.
Preliminary task
Front cover of magazine

19. Looking at the two of them together, you can see that there are so many differences, and
that I have made progress, from the creation of my music magazine. For example, in the
preliminary task, you can see that there isn’t a consistent colour theme, there's just a
random use of colours, whereas in my front cover, the colours are more consistent and
looks more professional. This would be because, when creating my school magazine front
cover (preliminary task) I didn’t do any research on other magazines, and wasn’t so sure
of how to set it out. But when doing my music magazine, I done a lot of research, which
made me more certain of how to set out my work. In doing this I had a clearer idea of how
my magazine would look like, and was able to sort out things like the colour themes, what
models I should use for my photo-shoot and poses. I've learnt from this that, planning the
construction of my front cover and everything else was very important, as it gives you
more knowledge and understanding on how it should look by the end of it, like ensuring
that it includes what real media products have. In my preliminary task I did not do this, for
example, I did not include a barcode, which makes it look unrealistic.