My media product uses conventions of real rock magazines by including social media logos, using common color schemes, and distinctive fonts. It represents the target audience of 16-24 year olds by featuring people in that age range and topics relevant to rock music fans. An appropriate media institution to distribute the product would be IPC Media due to their experience with rock magazines. The intended audience is identified as 16-24 year old males interested in indie rock music. The product aims to attract this audience through its visual design incorporating rock magazine tropes and by including a competition with music festival prizes. The creator learned valuable skills in using Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office, SlideShare, and blogger to construct the convergent digital magazine

1. Evaluation

2. 1) In what way does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Within my Media product (a rock magazine), my product uses forms of real media conventions firstly by using the Twitter
and Facebook logos to interact with the active audiences, as the large majority of 16-24 use these forms of social media,
so it’s a good way to interact with them, and gain more fans of the brand, which will increase readership.
Secondly, throughout my magazine it contains a house colour theme of Black, White, Red and Yellow, which I found out
during my research that pretty much every Rock based genre music magazine uses this colour theme, such as Kerrang use
the Yellow text on there fonts, and often have a black background, and NME regularly have a white background behind the
same red text every issue. This is because these colours are all effective to visually attract my audience, in terms of
standing out against each other due to the large contrast, but also show maturity, quite plain colours, compared to in a
young children's magazine you would see a massive variety of bright/vibrant colours. On the double page spread I also
included the ITunes logo, which is an established media brand, and is another feature of other websites/media included in
my magazine.
Next of all, all of the fonts in my magazine are sharp, and some of them are eroding, which again I realised in my research
is a common sight in Rock magazines, again, such as Kerrang use eroded fonts. These kind of fonts make imply to the
reader that the context is explosive, as rock often is, and really make the Rock magazine unique, because Rock is seen to
have fans that are crazy, and these fonts look pretty unique/crazy, therefore challenge forms of media conventions as
these fonts aren’t mainstream, and again appeal to the specific audience of yes Rock fans. Old men more than likely won’t
particularly appreciate the font, neither will young children, but teenagers to people middle aged (my target audience)will.
Using similar fonts and colours throughout creates consistency in the magazine – which is vital.

3. Another form of real Media conventions my product uses is making key words of the text bold, to catch the audience’s
eye. This is not only a selling point, but makes the text much more accessible to read, and more appealing, and
differentiates articles from each other too.
Alike other music genre magazines, not just Rock, mastheads to give a title/name to the magazine (Total Rock Music)
which creates a brand. This is always placed at the top of the magazine as a focal attraction for the audience. These are
commonly abbreviated, such as in NME, Mojo, Spin I have followed this convention because it fits the page better. I
abbreviated it to TRM to stand for Totally Rock Music, which informs readers of my genre and content. I followed the
headline of calling my contents page Contents, and on the double page spread the article’s headline is Killer Times (the
name of the band the article is based on). The titles are always in the largest text, and use bold, outstanding fonts and
colours to catch the audience’s eye. The title/headline is a major introduction into the forthcoming pages/articles.
I also used pull quotes in the magazine from the people who the main article is going to be based on, so the reader can
get a feel for the article before they begin, as it is an introduction/hint as to what the article is going to be based on. I
specifically chose these are they are key bits of language/ information for the audience. These are used in fairly large,
outstanding text/fonts, using an exclamation mark at the end to emphasise the excitement – as the pull quote is
obviously a quote from one of the featured people talking about the main point of the article, which is often exciting!
Again, like all magazines in the modern day, my front cover consists of a bar code, issue number, date and price. The
barcode enables the purchaser to actually be able to purchase the magazine formally in a shop by being scanned, the
price obviously informs the purchaser the price, and makes or breaks whether: 1) He can afford it or not 2) Whether
he/she thinks it is worth the money. The issue number also informs the purchaser what issue the magazine is, as not
every purchaser can remember what every issue of the magazine looks like,
so they could accidentally buy the same one, however if they check the issue number, they won’t purchase the wrong
one. Last of all the date lets the purchaser know when the issue was produced,
and therefore lets him prepare for the next edition to come out.

4. Another form of media that you see regularly in magazines which I have used is a plug - a circle with some basic text in,
informing the audience of something inside the magazine that they NEED to see. I made this circle considerably large and
bright so it is noticeable. This is yet another thing which attracts people who may only glance at the magazine, and notice
the plug (circle and text) stating something exciting is inside. Within my plug, I used the words ‘Exclusive interview’ which is
short and snappy – not giving anything away. ‘Exclusive’ is a buzz word, as it is exciting, which is another form of media used
in every day magazines.
My text on the double page spread is in 2 columns, which a lot of magazines use, sometimes even 3 or 4. This just makes
the text look more accessible, compared to one huge block of text which looks boring and looks like there is a lot more
there to read than there actually is. At the beginning of the text on the double page spread, I used a drop cap as another
media feature to stand out and break the text up a little more, and it clearly indicates the audience immediately where the
article begins. Another thing to break the text up is another pull quote which is just after the beginning section of the
article.
Splash images are used on the front cover and double page spread, taking up either all of, or a large part of the page. These
have plain backgrounds (a shade of white), and contain the featured people of this issue of the magazine. The people
featured in the image are also wearing appropriate clothing. Looking fairly smart/casual, not dressed immaturely, and are
wearing the main colours of the theme, black and red most noticeably, along with one of the band members wearing a
leather jacket – which is an extremely frequent sight in Rock star's every day clothing.
Another form of media used is the competition I have put on the contents page, which attracts people to buy the magazine,
and enter the competition due to the appropriate prizes – tickets to festivals. I put an example of this by using an image of
someone who has won a competition, and as a prize, collected tickets to Leeds Festival, to persuade people to enter, and
subscribe to the magazine.

5. This form of media follows on from my last point. Subscriptions are advertised in clear places in magazines, and companies
want people to commit and purchase the magazine every time it comes out. So I included it in my magazine saying:
‘Subscribe to Total Rock Magazine for £2.50 a month – it won’t disappoint!’ and placed it in a large yellow box so it stands
out. Here I am advertising the magazine is considerably cheap yet again, and confirming the magazine will not disappoint,
which will make the audience think they will certainly get their money’s worth.

6. 2) How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
First of all, after my research I realised immediately that the main target audience for a rock music magazine is 16-24
year olds, therefore I had to include specific content to appeal to them, otherwise the magazine wouldn’t sell.
One of the ways I have represented a particular social group is by including photos of band members and prize winners
who fit into the 16-24 age category, so the main target audience can relate to the image and article. I represented
teenagers by them in the photos wearing dark clothing, such as a leather jacket which has connotations of rebellion,
and also the photo is from a high angle, looking down on the 2 teenage boys on the front cover, which shows how
society looks down on teenagers. Supporting that point, in the image there is 2 boys and 1 girl, and the main gender
purchaser of rock music magazines were predominantly boys, so I included more boys in the main image, and in the
magazine as a whole, but I did include a girl in the main image, because some girls do buy rock magazines, and I need
to appeal to mainly my largest purchaser audience (males 16-24), but also include some content for other audiences.
In the image I used with the 2 boys and a girl, the boys are dressed
traditionally with most of their body covered up, in comparison to the
girl acting as a femme fatale revealing slightly more of her body,
which not only represents females, but attracts the male gaze. The
boys are dressed in the same way in all of the photos throughout too
to show that it’s a consistent style of how they dress.

7. Obviously this being a Rock magazine, all the articles within are based on Rock artists – no other genres, otherwise
Rock fans wouldn’t purchase it, and it wouldn’t be a rock magazine!
My magazine also represents the social category of ABC1 as firstly it costs only £2.50 which it states on the front
cover, but also the characters aren’t dressed in suits, they’re dressed typically like people of the ABC1 category, such
as wearing a hoodie, trainers etc.
Another way in which my media product represented particular social groups was by using information from my
research relating to images. Lots of the people who participated in my questionnaire said they like live/on location
images, so I used one on my contents page to match their requests.

8. 3) What kind of media institution might
distribute your media product and why?
The media institution I would choose to distribute my media product would be IPC Media, because out of the
institutions I researched, IPC produced the most magazines out of them all, and also a lot of the magazines
they produce were of a Rock based genre – this shows they have experience/know how of producing
magazines of this type, but that the owners/creators of other magazines trust IPC to distribute it. The
institution I compared IPC Media to was Bauer. The benefit of possibly going with a smaller company such as
Development Hell is that I wouldn’t become
just one magazine caught up around lots of
others, with them not producing many
other magazines, especially not of the Rock
genre, I would be put first, which is unlikely
in an institution such as Bauer.
My magazine is aimed at quite a Niche
market, as it is categorised as a Rock
magazine, but within the Rock genre, there
are different genres of music still, and my
magazine is mainly Indie Rock, it isn’t aimed
across a vast audience of Rock fans/bands.

9. 4) Who would be the audience for your
media product?
Early on before I started constructing my magazine I carried out some research by looking on the internet to
look into who buys Rock magazines, as that is the genre of magazine I produced, and by creating a
questionnaire on Survey Monkey asking questions such as: age, gender, etc so I could put together a reader
profile, which is on the next slide.

10. Reader Profile
Status: Full-time students.
Gender: Male – 79% Female – 21%
Age: 16-24.
Most people are of the social grading ABC1.
Price willing to pay: £2.10-£3.
Colours they want to see: Red.
Magazines per month: 0-2.
Images on the magazine: On location.
Subscription: Most don’t subscribe, or haven’t.
Genre: Most prefer the plain Rock genre.
Social network: Nearly all use Facebook, closely followed by Twitter.
Andrew is a male 17, and lives in York, and fits into the social grading category of ABC1. He stated that he didn’t
want to spend more than £3 on a magazine, and would like to see the colour red involved mainly in the
magazine, as it is a consistent feature throughout most Rock magazines, and is a mature colour. Andrew doesn’t
subscribe to a magazine, or read more than 2 per month, yet he said that if it attracted him that much with
interesting articles, and iconography, then he would seriously consider it. Something that would tempt Andrew
to purchase the magazine would be a competition with prizes such as festival tickets, or simply money so that
he could go to a festival with friends, and listen to live music, and bands that he has a real interest in, because
Rock is real music! Andrew regularly uses social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter along with his
mates, this allows him to find out more information on magazines etc. as then he can’t miss the information
been distributed, and means he doesn’t have to research the details himself.

11. 5) How did you attract/address your
audience?
I attracted my specific audience by using the colour scheme which on the whole, all Rock magazines use as a
representation of themselves, as all Rock fans recognise most Rock magazines will have colours like: black,
white, red and yellow on them. These colours were used within fonts which are bold and eroding, again,
symbolising a Rock magazine, as the text is unique and large, similarly to the genre itself. The colours and font
are all seen in the image below, which is the front cover, therefore it is the first part of the magazine a
purchaser would notice, so it is vital that the front cover uses these selling points to attract the audience.
Another way in which I attracted my audience was by including a
competition which was a very popular question in the
questionnaire and in the interview, as the people who answered
them both really liked the idea of firstly having a competition, but
secondly having prizes relating to the topic, so instead of winning
a car for example, you could win tickets to a festival. This attracts
fans to buy the magazine simply because there is a chance they
could win tickets to their favourite festival.
A major thing which determines whether people purchase a
magazine or not is the price, so I gave a list of prices in my
questionnaire asking people what they think is a reasonable price,
and I came to the conclusion thanks to my research that £2.50 is
suitable because it isn’t too much money for my social grading
category of ABC1, and most of my audience are teenagers too who
can’t work often due to education, so £2.50 is affordable for them
too.
Another method I used to attract my audience on the front cover was to list the bands the magazine contains articles
and/or interviews with so they know they can buy the magazine and get their money’s worth, instead of hoping it will
include their favourite bands, by this people will see it includes bands that they like.

12. 6) What have you learnt about
technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
Whilst going through the process of constructing my product, I have learnt about many technologies.
First of all I am now much, much better at Adobe Photoshop. When I first started I didn’t understand how to do
basically anything, now I’d say I have rather extensive knowledge of the programme. For example, I can edit parts of
the background of photos away by using the magic wand tool – instead of using a rubber which is extremely
inaccurate, which is the method I would have used when I first started. One of the most basic but massively
effective tools I used on Photoshop was creating a stroke around text to make it stand out more on the background.
I did this by selecting the layer of text that I wanted to add a stroke to, and either sliding the size bar up and down
to see the effect it had on the text below (Dave Grohl in this instance) or by typing the size I wanted into the little
box where it says 3.
A major technique I learnt on Photoshop when I was resizing images
was to always hold control (Ctrl) when resizing so it holds the pixels
together, and doesn’t distort the image. One last simple method I
learnt about Photoshop was how to quickly select (Ctrl T) and
deselect (Ctrl D).
Secondly, I realised when I first started that I couldn’t upload
Microsoft documents onto Google Blogger, so I came across
SlideShare which is a magnificent site, which allows Microsoft
documents to be transferrable onto my blogger account.

13. Before I started constructing my product, I didn’t actually have a blogger account, therefore that in itself is
another technology I have learnt about whilst constructing my product. It’s brilliant because you can post
things on there forever, and they’re safe, unlike on a memory stick where it could become corrupt or it
could get lost, and also it allows my tutors to check/mark my work for me online.
One other technology I used throughout my coursework is Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, of which I
already knew how to work simply, but I did learn a few more things about both of the programmes due to
more and more practice/use.
All of these different technologies (Photoshop, slideshare, blogger, word and powerpoint) work together,
therefore are convergent, as without all of these pieces of software, I couldn’t have done everything that I
have. For example, without Word I would’ve struggled to write my article as well, without Photoshop I
couldn’t construct the magazine whatsoever, as it allowed me to piece it all together, and perfectly edit text
and images, and without blogger no-one could look at or mark my work, and without powerpoint I wouldn’t
have been able to save images from the internet to my documents as simply.

14. 7) Looking back at your preliminary task,
what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
From when I began the preliminary task of the college magazine, to finishing my main project of the Rock
magazine, I have learnt a lot about the technologies used to make magazines, but also what is required to make
a successful magazine. I didn’t realise as much thought went into them as it does.
Continuing from the previous question/slide, I learnt a lot on Adobe Photoshop in terms of editing text, and
photos to optimise everything fully, along with learning how to simply post Microsoft documents on a blogging
account, but mainly I learnt about methods used in magazines to attract an audience - a target audience.
Before magazines start out, they really have to do their research to find out who will read their magazine, and
why, and match their needs. Their requirements for a specific magazine will be things such as a colour scheme,
large titles in sharp text, cover lines relating to interviews and articles within, live images relating to the main
audience, competitions with prizes relating to the genre to persuade more people to purchase the magazine,
plugs for decoration and also within them short, snappy buzz words to excite the reader and inform them
immediately one of the main features within to massively persuade them to purchase the magazine.