2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My magazine follows the conventions of a stereotypical rock magazine. For example, the name of the magazine on the front cover is in a bold font, is at the top and looks real to a rock music magazine. My magazine masthead Professional magazine masthead Much like real rock music magazines, my magazine has bands mentioned on the front cover as well as the main band. They generally go along the side, at the top or at the bottom, though extra bands mentioned are usually together. Bands mentioned on professional magazine Bands mentioned on my front cover
3. Continued... On my contents page, I've added an album review. This isn’t conventional to rock music magazines as they usually have a whole section for music reviews on a separate page. I thought, however, that it would be nice to have an album review on the contents page so people can initially think about the music. I saw a magazine that did this, and I was inspired, despite it not being conventional. A section of my album review on the contents page My contents page has an “every month” section. Lots of magazines have this, as it enables people to easily find the sections that are featured every month. This makes the contents page appear organised. Professional magazines, however, sometimes don’t have an every moth section, they just arrange their contents into sections, i.e. Gigs, news, etc. This is also a good way of organising the contents page, as it appears structures and makes it easy for the reader to find specific stories they want. My “every month” section on my contents page
4. Continued... My magazine uses the same fonts throughout the whole magazine; the fonts are consistent. This makes the magazine look neat and organised. This follows the conventions of a stereotypical magazine as the majority of magazines conform to a few fonts; there’s usually is about three or four fonts in the whole magazine. The three main fonts. Here they’re on the double page spread. Magazines usually try to entice the reader by making them think they’re an exclusive and special magazine. By saying a story is “exclusive”, it draws people in and makes them feel more inclined to buy the magazine. My magazine claims “Ash Molten”’s story is exclusive, and this is conventional to most rock/any other genre of music magazine. My magazine saying the story’s exclusive
5. This magazine stereotypes those that are interested in rock/metal/indie music. The model on the front of the magazine is pale with dark hair; she’s wearing black clothing and (although you can’t see it on the front cover, though you can see it on the double page spread picture) is wearing big earrings in the shape of a cross. This generalises the audience of the magazine as people that wear dark clothing and looks a certain way. How does your media product represent particular social groups? This is the edited front cover picture. My model is dressed in a conventional way to the magazine
6. Continued... Although I dressed my model in a very stereotypical way, I decided to use a female model instead of a male model. This is odd in the sense that people generally associate males with rock music, and bands and artists in the rock music world generally are male; it appears to be very male dominated. By using a female, this makes the magazine seem unique amongst the other magazine of that genre as they would probably use a male or a male band as their main story. Here is a issue of “Kerrang!” magazine. The main featured band are all male, and this is generally the case for a lot of rock/metal based magazines
7. Continued... Stereotypes are necessary for selling products such as magazines because it generally would sell more as it would appeal to more people in the target audience. Although there are some flaws with stereotyping – i.e. people may not buy the magazine because they think it’s cliché, etc – it does help to sell the product and makes it accessible for those interested in the style of magazine. Here are a selection of music magazine covers in the genre of rock
8. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? My magazine is a rock based magazine, and appeals to people of both genres in their late teens or early twenties, but anyone of any age could read if they like rock music and would like to read about artists, gigs etc. This magazine is similar to “Kerrang!” with its target audience and the genre of magazine. The name “Kerrang!” refers to the sound of a power chord on an electric guitar, which is very rocky and fits the genre. My magazine name “Element” refers to metal, which relates to the genre of magazine. Kerrang! logo
9. Continued... Kerrang! is a UK-based rock magazine and has been running since the year 1981. Kerrang! was initially owned by “United Newspapers” and then it was sold to “EMAP” in 1991. EMAP is an acronym for EastMidland Allied Press. In 2008, Kerrang! was then sold to the current owners of the magazine: Bauer Media Group. Bauer Media Group is German publishing company and is operates in fifteen countries worldwide. Kerrang! also have a radio station and a music channel. The company that runs “Kerrang!” might distribute my media product as it’s similar in regards to purpose, audience and genre to “Kerrang!” The logo for the current owner of “Kerrang!” magazine: Bauer Media Group.
10. Who would be the audience for your media product? Gender: Both genders would be interested in this magazine, as the colours and style of the magazine don’t reflect bias to one particular gender. The colours used are red, purple, black and white, which are, as a whole, quite unisex and there wouldn’t generally be gender connotations with the colours. The fonts used aren’t too feminine or too masculine, so males wouldn’t think the magazine was girly and females wouldn’t view the magazine as too manly. This magazine would appeal to anyone interested in the rock music genre and is not gender specific. My model, however, represents people that are young, female, white and interested in rock music. Although this isn’t a definite stereotype, it could make other people feel excluded that don’t fit these stereotypes. It would probably be for someone working class person as well, due the price of £2.99 per month. Pete Wentz and Ashlee SimpsonMale and female rockers
11. Continued... The age of the stereotypical reader of this magazine would be in their late teens or early twenties. The current and youthful rock music artists in the magazine would suggest this and the bright yet rich colours would perhaps appeal to a young adult/late teen audience more than other age groups. The magazine wouldn’t generally be for pre-teens as the stories in the magazine would appeal to an audience older than themselves, and older people perhaps wouldn’t be as inclined to read the magazine as those in their late teens/early twenties as the stories would generally seem a bit irrelevant to them. The class general reader would be middle class, due to the price of the magazine and the age of the reader the magazine is targeted at. Target audience
12. Continued... Genre of magazine is rock Taste: The musical taste of the typical audience member of this magazine would be interested in rock, metal or indie music, as the artists in the magazine are of this genre. Also, stories such as “learn musical instruments!” would suggest this genre, as the musical instruments you could learn were drums, guitar, bass, etc. These musical instruments are generally used in rock music. The typical target audience member would perhaps go to a lot of gigs, as there are features in the magazine about the “best gigs”. I’d imagine also that they’d read other music magazine of the same genre, and would perhaps look on the internet for the latest bands/albums/concerts etc. Generally speaking, the sexuality of the target audience could be anything; there isn’t any indication of whether the person would be heterosexual, homosexual, etc.
13. How did you attract and appeal to your audience? I attracted my audience by using appropriate colours for the magazine genre. Rock music is generally associated with darker colours; colours that are deeper and look grungy. By using the colours black, white, red and purple, this gives off the impression that the magazine has attitude, and these colours fit the connotations of rock music, so people will automatically feel as though they’ll like the magazine if they like rock music.
14. Continued... I attracted and addressed my audience also by putting an image of the model on the front cover that’s facing the camera. With the model having eye-contact with the camera, it makes the audience feel more connected with the magazine and they would feel more inclined to buy the magazine. The model also looks rocky with her dark hair and pale skin, so she suits the style of magazine, so this makes the target audience believe that they’ll enjoy the magazine because everything in it seems “rock”. My model This picture is on the double-page spread and it’s edited
15. Continued... The stories on the front of the magazine attract the audience as they appear interesting to those interested in rock music, generically speaking. For example, “Win tickets: Amazing concerts!” People would be attracted to this as it’s a chance to win something and achieve something, but also, they’d win tickets to “amazing” concerts, so that’s even more appealing. Although it’s all down to opinion what’s amazing and what’s not, the title makes the audience believe that it’s an amazing competition and that they should buy the magazine to find out how they could win tickets for concerts. Stories from the front of my magazine
16. I have learned throughout this task: How to use a professional camera How to transport images onto the computer How to use Photoshop appropriately and how to edit pictures How to download fonts and use them properly How to alter the lighting appropriately to make images look better How to use blogger What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Professional camera
17. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product? My Work Preliminary Task
18. Continued... Looking back at my prelim, I have realised that the front cover looked really empty and didn’t exactly excite the reader. In my full product, I made the colours a bit more interesting and filled out the sides and the bottom a bit more; this makes the reader feel as though there are more stories and more reading time for their money. In my prelim, I thought making the contents page was moderately hard, because I was unsure on how to set it out in regards to the pictures and the list of features. My prelim contents page looks basic and doesn’t really show off anything particular in the magazine. My full product contents page looks more professional and advertises more of the magazine, which is what a contents page should do. I have learned through out the experience of constructing the full product that you can’t rush anything you do, because you’ll be able to tell and you’ll be able to see what has had a lot of effort put into it. I have also learned that making a magazine isn’t easy, and people who do this for a living have to consider a lot of things. For example, they have to consider their target audience and have to think about their preferences and they have to think about things as minor as font and colour schemes. All the little things count and make for an all round good magazine.
