In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media product?
My music magazine uses conventions and challenges some to encourage the market audience to purchase the magazine. I have annotated my own music magazine and the Kerrang! Magazine due to them both sharing a similar genre and may include similar conventions.
Front Cover.
The front cover of my magazine uses conventions such as the short memorable masthead ‘Invade’ situated in the left hand corner, also merging with the sell line ‘the music industry’ situated underneath the masthead making the audience feel like they’re invading the music industry when reading the information within my media product. In comparison to the masthead in the left hand corner is the ‘Kerrang!’ masthead however the Kerrang! Magazine doesn’t include a sell line. Not only do both magazines feature a barcode situated in the right hand corner both issuing the date, price and issue of the magazine, but my media product includes the pricing, date and issue of the magazine above the masthead enabling the audience to see clearly how much the magazine will cost them, however if I were able to change the font size of the pricing I would as it’s quite small to read and becomes lost in the background.
Both magazines feature a large dominant image of the musician featured within the magazine, allowing the audience to see who is going to be the main focus throughout the magazine. Also the clothing of which my model wears on my media product is conventional to the genre of the magazine as the rock genre is usually situated with the dress code for females of vibrant hair (in models case red), black leather jackets, pale skin and dark eyed make-up. In comparison to the musician featured on the Kerrang! Magazine as the male musician wears dark clothing with the long dark hair, and the electric guitar which is conventional and authentic to the magazine. However on my media product I challenged the convention of eye contact when working with my model, as I wanted the model to look away from the camera as this creates a contrast with other music magazines of the similar genre such as Kerrang! Magazine as the majority of the time they follow the conventions ensuring the model/musician featured in their magazine makes eye contact with the audience.
The coverlines on my media product are issued on the left hand side, having a deck of three giving a short strapline which emphasises what is going to be said within the articles by specific featured musicians. The main coverline “THE WORLD’S IN MY HANDS! HOLLIE GOES GLOBAL” features a stapline, and text effects of bold and in capitals which encourages the audience to purchase the magazine; in contrast to the coverlines used within my media product is the headline used “Machine Head present the 50 heaviest albums of all time” as this summarises what is going to be featured on the double page spread within the Kerrang! Magazine. However instead of using coverlines there’s usage of a skyline where there are thumbnails illustrating the pieces of text from within the magazine, this entices the audience to read further into the magazine and not just the main article; on my media product I chose not to feature a conventional skyline due to the usage of a puff to advertise the competition within the music magazine, but in comparison to a puff used on my magazine a splash was used to promote “Rock’s biggest gig guide” on the Kerrang! Magazine.
My media product using teasing contents issued along the footer of the front cover, this is to entice the market audience to purchase the magazine as they’ll be teased as to what ‘free posters’ they’ll be receiving within the magazine, in comparison to this is the free gifts which the Kerrang! Magazine has to offer, however they promote their free gifts with images of the gifts which are being given away, which is evidently seen from the image of the two annotations of both music magazines which I have completed.
Finally on both music magazines a house-style theme has been set, which is expected to have a continuous flow throughout the full magazine. For my magazine I used the red as it worked and connected well with the models hair, also the black and white are authentic to the genre of my music magazine. However personally I believe the house-style theme for the Kerrang! Magazine fits well with them magazine, however not with the genre of them magazine due heavy metal/rock being issued with dark colours.
Contents Page
Within the contents page I have used many conventions which help the audience to understand what’s going on within the magazine; below I have issued two images of annotations of both my media product and the Kerrang! Magazine, to see what conventions have been used in both media products.
My contents page features conventions such as several images which illustrate the articles within the magazine, however the main article of my model on the front cover has a bigger image than the others to show this image is illustrating the main article. There’s also a features section which enables the audience to see what else is occurring within the magazine which hasn’t been promoted as much as the other articles, also the features section promotes the reviews of the music which is featured within the magazine; all features on the contents page are issued with page numbers however not using the word page as that could be intimidating for the audience as the institution could be putting it across that the audience don’t understand that the number alone shows what page the information can be accessed to. In comparison to the Kerrang! Magazines’ contents page, however their features section goes into more detailed than mine due to the bold colours to show the categories which each individual features falls into, also the images which they have used to illustrate their articles within the magazine speak for themselves in contrast to my images as there are quotes used from the articles enticing the audience to read them, and a small description issued under the quotes. I chose to use to different fonts when producing my magazine as it enables the audience to see the difference in the information due to the different font, whereas the Kerrang! Magazine use the same font throughout their magazine, but change from using block capitals to normal standard lower case.
A letter from the editor has been issued along the bottom of the contents page illustrated with an image of the editor, this reinforces the audiences mind that the institution do wish to communicate with the audience and aren’t just publishing the magazine to make a profit. In comparison to the Kerrang! Magazine as there’s an image of the editor which illustrates the letter from him. Both media products offer subscriptions to the customers enabling them to receive the magazine earlier than others, and to never miss an issue; my media product has a page title of “Inside This Weeks” issuing what’s going to be in the weekly magazine, this is very similar to Kerrang! Magazine however their page title is “Kerrang! Contents” issued with the issue number and cover date.
Finally both media products continue with their house-style theme which was first issued on the front cover, this shows the audience that there’s a continuous flow running through the magazine and the publishers have thought carefully about what colours to use. On the footer of my contents page is the magazine’s web address however in contrast the Kerrang! Magazine doesn’t have this feature.
Double Page Spread
Both media products include a double page spread which was first promoted on the front cover of each magazine, many conventions are used within the double page spread to attract the audience and to give the article more of a stylistic professional feel.
The conventions which I used on my double page spread were, a large headline of “I will break through the music industry!” as this encourages people to read the article because of the text effects used and the styling of the writing; to illustrate the article there’s a large main image featured on the left page as this enables the audience to see who the article is featured on; to introduce the article I used the conventional feature the introductory paragraph, using this feature enabled me interact with the audience encouraging them to read on and to find out why the model on the front cover was made the main focus, this convention was also noticeable on the double page spread within the Kerrang! Magazine; also within the introductory paragraph I made usage of the byline as I have included the name of the journalist who interviewed the ‘musician’ issued on the front cover. To start the article I made usage of the drop cap feature to ensure my music magazine had a professional feel to it, also there was usage of a pull quote which pulls the audience further into reading the full article as it shows the best quote from the full article. Finally to credit the photographer, I used the photo credit as if this was a real media product in sale in the shops, the photographer could receive a better reputation if the right person was to purchase the magazine.
I made usage of the continuous flow of the house-style theme, as this shows continuity throughout the full magazine, similarly to the Kerrang! Magazine as there is evidence to the house-style theme being continuous throughout the magazine; within my media product there was usage of the graffiti background whenever the main model was mentioned as she is associated with this backdrop due to all the images of her featured within the magazine. I also made sure that my double page spread didn’t look like it ‘too full’ of information so I inserting another image of my model as this broke up the writing on the page slightly making it look like there’s less to read. Also using the columns feature in Microsoft Publisher made the text look presentable and professional.
Finally in both media products there continuous flow of the footer which in my magazine was the institutions webpage, the issue date and page number, whereas in the Kerrang! Magazine it was the institution itself and the page number. This shows there’s a continuous flow throughout the magazine, and the publishing team have thought hard on how they can keep a professional but edgy feel towards the magazine.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Stereotypically my media product represents the social groups of teenagers and young adults within the age range of 15-24, who on weekends take drugs, live of a sort of grungy dirty lifestyle with messy hair and untidy features upon themselves such as clothing, shoes and personal hygiene, or could be reversed to represent the stereotypical ‘emo’ citizens due to the genre which my media product focuses on. My media product mainly represents band E and D in the socio-economic groups as the stereotypical social groups fall into these categories, as the majority of the 15-24 years of age citizens are unemployed, or are either semi-skilled or unskilled manual workers.
Another way of my media product representing particular social groups is by the magazine reacting to how the audience themselves spend their spare time, such as going to gigs as my media product makes reference to gigs within the features section “gig guide.” Also the models used to feature in the magazine dress authentic to the genre which represents the stereotypical ‘rock chicks/guys’ as they will express their taste in music through their fashion sense which is what I got my models to do as them as ‘musicians’ would express their music through the way they dress as well as their own music.
Also breaking conventions fits in with how my media product represents particular social groups, as the 15-24 years of age citizens interested within the rock genre rebel often, which relates to them falling into band E in the S.E.G of being unemployed and not participating within the working environment which is being offered to them.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Due to my music magazine having a niche audience it would be impossible for me to choose a distributor who distributes magazines featuring mainstream music for the mainstream audiences such as Kerrang! Magazine and Q distributed by Bauer Media Group. Nevertheless, my music magazine will be distributed by them following in Black Velvet Rock Music Magazine footsteps as they distributed their own magazine for several issues until they became noticed by several distributors and were distributed through them until now as the magazine is now being distributed by a major leading distribution company.
By distributing my magazine the same way as Black Velvet Magazine did, it shows the audience that the institution doesn’t rely on the major distributors straight away, and that the institution itself work more towards their ideology of getting independent bands and singers out there, and to help them become noticed by the record labels which could help the musicians progress more towards their dreams within the music industry.
Who would be the audience for you media product?
Previously when I was completing the post “The Target Audience for my Media Product” I set my target audience towards people in the age range of 15-24 aiming at both genders. However after receiving 8 pieces of feedback from different age ranges, I have chosen to continue with featuring the magazine at this age group due to the 5 responses I received with people saying they would purchase my music magazine.
Another reason for me keeping the audience the same is because the information within the magazine is mainly for a young niche audience, if I was to change the audience for my magazine I would have to change all the information within the magazine to make it appeal to an older or younger audience as the information within wouldn’t be suitable for children under the age of 15, or citizens over the age of 24. The socio-economic group categories have stayed the same as the majority of the 15-24 years of age citizens fall into them of “casual labourers, unemployed, state pensioners” and “semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers” and if I was to change the categories the age range may change, due to the difference in socio-economic groups.
How did you attract/address your audience?
My magazine had to attract audiences within the age range of 15-24, therefore I used certain techniques, colour schemes, and enticing images to ensure the audience would pick up the magazine and purchase it. Also, using the demographic S.E.G I became aware that my audience would be categorised within band E and D due to the specific age range, this ensured me to put the price of the magazine down but still include interesting information to entice the audience to read Invade as the band E category includes casual labourers, unemployed, state pensioners and band D includes semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers due to my audience being within these categories it would be unreasonable to put such a high price on the magazine, as they wouldn’t be able to purchase the magazine due to the lack of finance which they have.
From asking students and a family member to complete the audience feedback forms, I have received many answers as to what attracted the audience’s attention when they first previewed the music magazine product. The chart to the left shows the percentage of what people were attracted to when they first previewed the front cover of my final music magazine.
What have
you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the time period from me researching
different magazines to me creating the final product I used Adobe Photoshop CS5
to create the front cover of my magazine, the contents page and the base of the
layout for the double page spread, and to edit and crop photos if need be; to
complete the double page spread I used Microsoft Publisher 2010 as this enabled
me to add the text featured on the double page spread into columns, to use the
drop cap feature and to wrap the text around the picture recently inserted. To
write up the research and my evaluation I used Microsoft Word 2010 as this
basic word programme enables me to type up my work formally; finally to take
all the photos which have been used in my media product I visited Bookers for
the backdrop of the images and to take photos of my model, the shoot was
organised with my friend Sophie Fitzmaurice (http://sophiefitzmaurice.blogspot.co.uk/),
using a Canon E0SD 1000 sometimes using a fish-eye lens and a normal zoom lens,
also for taking certain photograph I used a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W210.
To put all my work onto the Internet for marking I used a blogging programme through Google known as Blogger. This enabled me to put all my work successfully onto the Internet and to edit the work at any time yet still keep the work in the same place on the blog. Not only is this useful for me, but it’s also useful for anyone else who wishes to look at the blog due to the contents down the right hand side which enables the viewer to specifically find what it is they’re looking for. Also using Blogger allows me to look back at the preliminary task and make sure I don’t make the same mistakes in the music magazine task as I did with the preliminary task, also it’s easier for me to compare both magazines against each other to see what I have done better within the music magazine task than I did in the college magazine (preliminary task).
Due to using Photoshop regularly I have been able to improve my skills from when I completed the preliminary task. I am able to use the filters and tools on Photoshop easier now that I have used the programme more; also being able to use the layering and overlapping tools and being able to merge the layers together has helped a great deal, as it was easier to complete the music magazine to a better standard than what the preliminary task was completed to. From developing my skills on Photoshop I was able to enhance the colours on the dark images by using the auto colour, as this makes the images look more appealing when being featured in my magazine; also being able to use the extract filter allowed me to cut around two models and separate them for one of my images featured on the contents page.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Previously when working on the preliminary task I didn’t have many skills for using Adobe Photoshop due to hardly if not using the photo editing program previously, therefore my main image on the front cover wasn’t as presentable as what they could be due not to being able to use the Lasso Tool, or the Magnetic Lasso Tool, however when working on the music magazine I didn’t need to cut around my model for the main image as the backdrop and the model worked perfectly together. Also as I was new to using Adobe Photoshop I didn’t have a full understanding of how to work the layers, therefore I didn’t know about how to overlap certain aspects. As seen on the preliminary task I used the Wyke colours, however I didn’t think carefully about how to present them, however when working on the music magazine I thought carefully about all the colours, how they’d work when placed on the backdrop and the model; also I became aware of how to change the opacity so this enabled me to make things appear smoother on the magazine then just putting them onto the magazine.
When working on the contents page for both the preliminary task, and the music magazine I was able to use the extract filter rather than using the Lasso Tool or Magnetic Lasso Tool due to the filter being easier to use than the other tools. Secondly from working on the preliminary task I was able to think more carefully about the layout of the full magazine, and to find out what would work well for the audience when reading the magazine; due to using Photoshop more often I was able to develop my skills of the Character Tool, which enabled me to set the tracking for selected characters, and vertically and horizontally scale my text, which I never thought to do when working on the preliminary task. 
Finally when working on the preliminary task I often over-used the Blur Tool, which made the images and features look far too blurry to be issued within what should have looked like a professional college magazine, however when producing the college magazine I took much more care on working with the Blur Tool to enable a professional look and feel to the magazine, also when using the Blur Tool on the music magazine I ensured I didn’t over do the tool as this would have made the magazine look messy. Also both media products work so differently as more time was spent producing and taking out the market research when working on the music magazine, however when working on the preliminary task I spent less time on both the research and producing.
Below are images of the differences between the preliminary task and the music magazine task.
