1) What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real products?
My media product was a music magazine of Rock classic genre. Both of these concepts determined the actual appearance of my magazine for examples, in Rock industry, the colour theme's of red, pink, edgy, punk look is commonly featured- this gave me the incentive to have my artist featured on the front cover, looking directly at the audience with the red title "Fusion", so the audience could see evident comparisons between other professional rock magazines and my magazine. Throughout my magazine my colour- scheme consisted of the three main colours; white, black and red. I chose to use these particular colours as I wanted to show the contrast between the light and darkness, to create a since of high quality/modern look interpretation of a rock theme. I also used the red as the colour of the title to represent dominants and power of the magazine and red is used a lot in music magazine as it is an attractive and well known colour. The font used is "Blue Ridge SF" which we chose as a group because we felt it fitted the typical rock look, had the edgy effect and uniqueness which was perfect for our genre. It attacks the reader to the artical and the magazine also. My pages e.g. front cover features a close up of my artist to draw attention; content page features a mid-shot of a different artist and the double page spread. I used a variety of camera shots in order for my pages to be different and for it not appear as tedious. I decided to follow the basic conventions of music magazines because our research showed that most music magazines share the same link of representation, in which inspired my work but I used different elements of media to make my magazine appear unique also.
2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My magazines represent young social groups because my magazine offers individuality and fashion. Many teens and people who listen to music really seek hope and inspiration through young artists by their image representation. This why I used a young model as my artist and made her a fashionable icon. The text I have used and the colour themes also have a strong effect upon my social groups because those colours I have used are the most popular from our questionnaire.
3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The distribution of my magazine is completely based on the
genre and as my magazine is Rock classic, so advertisement would be the most important part to get people to read my magazine. Firstly I would use social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogger , make my own website also to ensure that everyone has access to my magazine. Also, offer free downloads of my monthly magazine to make sure people read it and money wouldn’t be an issue especially fro my target audience of young teens of the age of 16-25. Personally printed magazine I find out of date and old fashion. Also within this process I would get more people to read my magazine as more people use the internet as part of their leisure time and during work time, so it could possibly interest adults also. This way is far more effective and printed magazine are too expensive for my target audience as well as for the making process.
4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for my magazine are males and female
s aged 16-25. I wanted a unisex audience as I featured both male and female dominant articles on my front cover and contents page such as subjects as relationships. Also, the colour scheme of black would interest males and females, and pink is a popular colour. The target audience is mature because a Rock magazine offers topics such as sex, drug etc. The age group matches my focus group in order for them to relate to my magazine. I also wanted to aim my magazine to those teenagers who aren’t as fortunate as others to give them a chance to read my magazine. Also making the magazine cheaper will increase my sale and more people reading the magazine over all. As a 16 year old teenager I understand what teenagers my age are looking for in a magazine and I had done a questionnaire to my focus group who are the same age group I intended in order for my magazine to be successful .
5) How did you attract/address your audience?
I attracted and addressed my audience through the colours used and images. All the mastheads were in bold pink font, with the thick boarder around it instantly captures the reader’s attention. Also, the text and spacing was clear as I had written with black font behind the light background. Serif plus 5 is what I used to create my magazine, so all the fonts and the creativity part were all created on that for the audience. My contents page was very clear as it shows everything that is on the magazine which gives the reader the option on what to read. Additionally, I wanted my pictures to be eye-catching and bright, especially the front cover so that the audience will look at it and be drawn to read it just by its appearance by first glance. Furthermore the expression and the eyes of the artist of my front cover are looking directly into the audience and her unique image makes the magazine more memorable and will attract both female and male audiences. However my contents page, the artist used is a male, who is posing very cool and his style is fashionably modern and charming to attract the ladies and the males. I was really careful when representing the males and females as I wanted to attract
both into reading the magazine.
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Technology was the most important part into making my magazine successful. Serif plus 5
was very difficult for me to use as a beginner as it was very technical. The design, layout, structure and image editing were all difficult and stressful process but in the end were successfully completed. The image editing was done on Photoshop. There weren’t any minor changes on editing the photos as the photos were already high quality take from a quality camera. It was difficult for me to use but after a while of practice and self teaching it became easier for me and I began to try different editing skills for my magazine.
7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
From the preliminary task, I have learnt the professional technological skills needed to create a high standard magazine. I have also learnt that attracting the audience to read your magazine is the most important part to begin with, then keeping that interest and entice the audience further on the magazine pages. I feel that I need to do more research from my focus group because the audience is just as important as the designing process. More feedback from my focus group and questions to ensure my research is also important.
Firstly, I planned out the whole process of the making, beginning with the first draft which consisted with the main layout and structure of the magazine. This I had done because I felt the process would become much easier for me and would get me a higher grade. This also gave me a rough idea and knowledge of how my magazine would turn out. I further researched on other magazines and artists: looking at the font styles, imagery used, colour schemes, presentation, image sizes. The research was extremely helpful when making my own magazine because I was able to refer to other magazines for ideas. Comparing both my preliminary to my music magazine, there has been a few changes made such as for the contents page on the preliminary the image used was of a female rather than a male, this I had changed to attract the unisex audience. A similarity that they do have is the layout and structure I had taken from my preliminary and the lighting effects, and image editing were the same contract.
Although I have made a large improvement from my preliminary, I also feel as if I could of improved on my music magazine e.g. I could have promoted other Rock artists, advertisements of our magazines, offer a prize winner for whoever buys the magazine. In result I feel that I related my music magazine to our target audience and selected genre and my magazine isn’t biased.
My media product was a music magazine of Rock classic genre. Both of these concepts determined the actual appearance of my magazine for examples, in Rock industry, the colour theme's of red, pink, edgy, punk look is commonly featured- this gave me the incentive to have my artist featured on the front cover, looking directly at the audience with the red title "Fusion", so the audience could see evident comparisons between other professional rock magazines and my magazine. Throughout my magazine my colour- scheme consisted of the three main colours; white, black and red. I chose to use these particular colours as I wanted to show the contrast between the light and darkness, to create a since of high quality/modern look interpretation of a rock theme. I also used the red as the colour of the title to represent dominants and power of the magazine and red is used a lot in music magazine as it is an attractive and well known colour. The font used is "Blue Ridge SF" which we chose as a group because we felt it fitted the typical rock look, had the edgy effect and uniqueness which was perfect for our genre. It attacks the reader to the artical and the magazine also. My pages e.g. front cover features a close up of my artist to draw attention; content page features a mid-shot of a different artist and the double page spread. I used a variety of camera shots in order for my pages to be different and for it not appear as tedious. I decided to follow the basic conventions of music magazines because our research showed that most music magazines share the same link of representation, in which inspired my work but I used different elements of media to make my magazine appear unique also.
2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My magazines represent young social groups because my magazine offers individuality and fashion. Many teens and people who listen to music really seek hope and inspiration through young artists by their image representation. This why I used a young model as my artist and made her a fashionable icon. The text I have used and the colour themes also have a strong effect upon my social groups because those colours I have used are the most popular from our questionnaire.
3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The distribution of my magazine is completely based on the
genre and as my magazine is Rock classic, so advertisement would be the most important part to get people to read my magazine. Firstly I would use social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogger , make my own website also to ensure that everyone has access to my magazine. Also, offer free downloads of my monthly magazine to make sure people read it and money wouldn’t be an issue especially fro my target audience of young teens of the age of 16-25. Personally printed magazine I find out of date and old fashion. Also within this process I would get more people to read my magazine as more people use the internet as part of their leisure time and during work time, so it could possibly interest adults also. This way is far more effective and printed magazine are too expensive for my target audience as well as for the making process.
4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for my magazine are males and female
s aged 16-25. I wanted a unisex audience as I featured both male and female dominant articles on my front cover and contents page such as subjects as relationships. Also, the colour scheme of black would interest males and females, and pink is a popular colour. The target audience is mature because a Rock magazine offers topics such as sex, drug etc. The age group matches my focus group in order for them to relate to my magazine. I also wanted to aim my magazine to those teenagers who aren’t as fortunate as others to give them a chance to read my magazine. Also making the magazine cheaper will increase my sale and more people reading the magazine over all. As a 16 year old teenager I understand what teenagers my age are looking for in a magazine and I had done a questionnaire to my focus group who are the same age group I intended in order for my magazine to be successful .
5) How did you attract/address your audience?
I attracted and addressed my audience through the colours used and images. All the mastheads were in bold pink font, with the thick boarder around it instantly captures the reader’s attention. Also, the text and spacing was clear as I had written with black font behind the light background. Serif plus 5 is what I used to create my magazine, so all the fonts and the creativity part were all created on that for the audience. My contents page was very clear as it shows everything that is on the magazine which gives the reader the option on what to read. Additionally, I wanted my pictures to be eye-catching and bright, especially the front cover so that the audience will look at it and be drawn to read it just by its appearance by first glance. Furthermore the expression and the eyes of the artist of my front cover are looking directly into the audience and her unique image makes the magazine more memorable and will attract both female and male audiences. However my contents page, the artist used is a male, who is posing very cool and his style is fashionably modern and charming to attract the ladies and the males. I was really careful when representing the males and females as I wanted to attract
both into reading the magazine.
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Technology was the most important part into making my magazine successful. Serif plus 5
was very difficult for me to use as a beginner as it was very technical. The design, layout, structure and image editing were all difficult and stressful process but in the end were successfully completed. The image editing was done on Photoshop. There weren’t any minor changes on editing the photos as the photos were already high quality take from a quality camera. It was difficult for me to use but after a while of practice and self teaching it became easier for me and I began to try different editing skills for my magazine.
7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
From the preliminary task, I have learnt the professional technological skills needed to create a high standard magazine. I have also learnt that attracting the audience to read your magazine is the most important part to begin with, then keeping that interest and entice the audience further on the magazine pages. I feel that I need to do more research from my focus group because the audience is just as important as the designing process. More feedback from my focus group and questions to ensure my research is also important.
Firstly, I planned out the whole process of the making, beginning with the first draft which consisted with the main layout and structure of the magazine. This I had done because I felt the process would become much easier for me and would get me a higher grade. This also gave me a rough idea and knowledge of how my magazine would turn out. I further researched on other magazines and artists: looking at the font styles, imagery used, colour schemes, presentation, image sizes. The research was extremely helpful when making my own magazine because I was able to refer to other magazines for ideas. Comparing both my preliminary to my music magazine, there has been a few changes made such as for the contents page on the preliminary the image used was of a female rather than a male, this I had changed to attract the unisex audience. A similarity that they do have is the layout and structure I had taken from my preliminary and the lighting effects, and image editing were the same contract.
Although I have made a large improvement from my preliminary, I also feel as if I could of improved on my music magazine e.g. I could have promoted other Rock artists, advertisements of our magazines, offer a prize winner for whoever buys the magazine. In result I feel that I related my music magazine to our target audience and selected genre and my magazine isn’t biased.
Latifa. Avenell
