1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My product, the music magazine, generally conforms to the codes and conventions of music magazines, though some aspects are challenged. I chose to use an image of an average-looking teenage girl, without altering the original picture too drastically to challenge the idea that celebrities on the front of magazines have to be thin and perfect - I wanted to connote that anyone can be a star, not just the glamorous - and I also wanted to show that 'average' is beautiful. The use of only one main image on my front page conforms to the codes and conventions, as does the positioning of the barcode and mast head; I felt that by sticking to these conventions it gave my magazine a more professional look, as I had intended my magazine to be for older girls who are interested and serious about my magazine, and I felt it made the front page more accessible to the reader. The layout of my magazine on the general whole conforms to the codes and conventions of a music magazine, as I stuck to the idea of using only a limited colour scheme - red, pink, white and black - along with a simplistic font to create a recognisable, yet fairly plain, house style; if I had challenged these conventions by not creating a house style, the magazine would have a messy, unappealing appearance.
With the contents page of my magazine, I did not conform to the idea of having an 'editors note' in the top right-hand corner; instead, I developed this idea by giving the editor their own page in the magazine, as I still felt that having this aspect was important. The font, colour and style of the contents page follows the same design as the front cover of my magazine, which is conforming to the codes and conventions, however, minor aspects (such as the background colour of the page) are different, which slightly challenges the idea of the use of the same design throughout. I conformed to the use of several images on my contents page, as visual information, I feel, is more important: people will generally be attracted to the images, and turn to those pages - I for one, as a member of my own target audience, tend not to read the text on a contents page, but instead flick to the pages with the most interesting pictures.
With the double page spread, the use of colour, font and background colour is all the same as has been used before in other parts of my magazine, which conforms to magazine codes and conventions, and creates a professional vibe. I conformed to the used of a blown-up direct quotation and a large image on this page, as I felt this would be most likely to attract my audience, as opposed to a large amount of text and a small picture. I conformed, again, by placing the page numbers and magazine title in the corners of the pages, as I believe this gives my magazine the professional look I was going for.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product is representative of women, mainly, who enjoy Indie music. Indie music is all about being an individual - being who you want to be, basically - and I feel that my music magazine shows this through the way the women in the photographs are portrayed; none of them are overly glamorous, they do not stick to a particular dress code and they all appear to be relatively average. My magazine shows the audience something they can relate to: typical teenage girls and young women, being themselves. They do not conform to certain stereotypes, and each of them is different in their own sense: this is what makes them, I believe, 'Indie' artists. They are individual.
One other thing which relates to the Indie music genre is the names of the bands I used throughout the magazine; they were all a bit 'crazy' and 'out there' which is something which people stereotype with Indie music however, through my use of images I challenged this stereotype by making my artists look 'normal'.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The institution I believe would distribute my magazine would be the BBC as they have a wide range of magazines available, but do not offer a magazine aimed at older teenage girls or young women. The BBC are a popular institution, and offer a wide range of services from television & film, the music and radio industry and the print media industry: BBC already own The Top of the Pops magazine, which is aimed at younger girls, but the 'teen' section in their magazine range is dismally bare and limited in choice. I feel that by distributing my magazine they could converge and widen their audiences further, and it would fill in a gap in they have in their market.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for my media product would, essentially, be older teenage girls who have an interest in Indie music. The magazine is aimed at a "typical" teenage girl who wants a realistic magazine, which offers 'real' role models as opposed to glamorous superstar-types. A typical girl who reads my magazine will be around the age of 17, and I chose this audience because I believe that, whilst there are a number of magazines available out there for young girls, there is little in the market for older teenage girls who want to read about women in the music industry that aren't 'pop' musicians.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
I attracted my audience by using bold, noticeable colours and images which I felt were eyecatching and attractive to my target audience. I kept the text, particularly in my double page spread, casual and relaxed (like a normal conversation) but still professional, because I felt that this allowed my audience to connect with the magazine, but still showed that the magazine was serious about music: I didn't want to give off a childish vibe, as I wanted my audience to be mature. I used pictures of normal-looking girls to attract my audience, as I felt this would appeal to them more than images of glamorous superstars - people like this make ordinary girls feel unattractive, and my magazine aims to show that individuality is beautiful: this would certainly appeal to teenage girls - none of us want to feel ugly. I also used bigger images than text to attract my audience, because visual is very important with a magazine: we judge a magazine by its cover, certainly.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
In the process of creating my music magazine and school magazine, I have learned how to use programs such as Photoshop and InDesign in order to give my products a professional look. I learned how to use tools in Photoshop such as the Dodge Tool (to brighten) and the Clone Stamp Tool (to copy one part of an image elsewhere on the page) which I had not previously used before on the computer. I learned how to take a professional photograph in order to make my magazines look more desirable, and how to edit these photographs and manipulate images to make them more appealing to an audience. I also found out how to make text stand out on a page, giving it a less flat look by adding drop shadows and block-colour backgrounds; this is important because I feel that 'flat' looking text is generally overlooked.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
From designing the preliminary task, the school magazine, I have learnt a vast amount about the time and effort it takes to create something as substantial and widely distributed as a music magazine. With the school magazine, I only had to consider what students in my school would want to see on a front cover or what would take their interest; with the music magazine, there was a large deal more I had to think about. The school magazine was simple to create, as the target audience was pretty much already decided - students of around my own age who were still in education. However, with the music magazine, I had to do a considerable amount of research into the music industry, and find out what available gaps in the market were out there, and also had to consider whether anybody would actually be interested in what my magazine had to offer: perhaps there was a gap in this area of the market because nobody wanted an Indie music magazine aimed at females. I also learned that a lot of time has to be taken when choosing a colour scheme, font type and image - particular things appeal to particular people, and I had to choose things which would be neutural and attractive to everyone who reads my magazine; with the school magazine this process was much easier, as my school already has a colour scheme so I used that, and the image was without a doubt bound to be of a student - because that was who the magazine is aimed at. With the school magazine, I felt that I put much less effort into the planning, as a school themed magazine is usually generic, and they all seem to have the same style; with the music magazine, I had to consider audience, genre and content far more, because everything varies from magazine to magazine.
With the contents page of my magazine, I did not conform to the idea of having an 'editors note' in the top right-hand corner; instead, I developed this idea by giving the editor their own page in the magazine, as I still felt that having this aspect was important. The font, colour and style of the contents page follows the same design as the front cover of my magazine, which is conforming to the codes and conventions, however, minor aspects (such as the background colour of the page) are different, which slightly challenges the idea of the use of the same design throughout. I conformed to the use of several images on my contents page, as visual information, I feel, is more important: people will generally be attracted to the images, and turn to those pages - I for one, as a member of my own target audience, tend not to read the text on a contents page, but instead flick to the pages with the most interesting pictures.
With the double page spread, the use of colour, font and background colour is all the same as has been used before in other parts of my magazine, which conforms to magazine codes and conventions, and creates a professional vibe. I conformed to the used of a blown-up direct quotation and a large image on this page, as I felt this would be most likely to attract my audience, as opposed to a large amount of text and a small picture. I conformed, again, by placing the page numbers and magazine title in the corners of the pages, as I believe this gives my magazine the professional look I was going for.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product is representative of women, mainly, who enjoy Indie music. Indie music is all about being an individual - being who you want to be, basically - and I feel that my music magazine shows this through the way the women in the photographs are portrayed; none of them are overly glamorous, they do not stick to a particular dress code and they all appear to be relatively average. My magazine shows the audience something they can relate to: typical teenage girls and young women, being themselves. They do not conform to certain stereotypes, and each of them is different in their own sense: this is what makes them, I believe, 'Indie' artists. They are individual.
One other thing which relates to the Indie music genre is the names of the bands I used throughout the magazine; they were all a bit 'crazy' and 'out there' which is something which people stereotype with Indie music however, through my use of images I challenged this stereotype by making my artists look 'normal'.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The institution I believe would distribute my magazine would be the BBC as they have a wide range of magazines available, but do not offer a magazine aimed at older teenage girls or young women. The BBC are a popular institution, and offer a wide range of services from television & film, the music and radio industry and the print media industry: BBC already own The Top of the Pops magazine, which is aimed at younger girls, but the 'teen' section in their magazine range is dismally bare and limited in choice. I feel that by distributing my magazine they could converge and widen their audiences further, and it would fill in a gap in they have in their market.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for my media product would, essentially, be older teenage girls who have an interest in Indie music. The magazine is aimed at a "typical" teenage girl who wants a realistic magazine, which offers 'real' role models as opposed to glamorous superstar-types. A typical girl who reads my magazine will be around the age of 17, and I chose this audience because I believe that, whilst there are a number of magazines available out there for young girls, there is little in the market for older teenage girls who want to read about women in the music industry that aren't 'pop' musicians.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
I attracted my audience by using bold, noticeable colours and images which I felt were eyecatching and attractive to my target audience. I kept the text, particularly in my double page spread, casual and relaxed (like a normal conversation) but still professional, because I felt that this allowed my audience to connect with the magazine, but still showed that the magazine was serious about music: I didn't want to give off a childish vibe, as I wanted my audience to be mature. I used pictures of normal-looking girls to attract my audience, as I felt this would appeal to them more than images of glamorous superstars - people like this make ordinary girls feel unattractive, and my magazine aims to show that individuality is beautiful: this would certainly appeal to teenage girls - none of us want to feel ugly. I also used bigger images than text to attract my audience, because visual is very important with a magazine: we judge a magazine by its cover, certainly.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
In the process of creating my music magazine and school magazine, I have learned how to use programs such as Photoshop and InDesign in order to give my products a professional look. I learned how to use tools in Photoshop such as the Dodge Tool (to brighten) and the Clone Stamp Tool (to copy one part of an image elsewhere on the page) which I had not previously used before on the computer. I learned how to take a professional photograph in order to make my magazines look more desirable, and how to edit these photographs and manipulate images to make them more appealing to an audience. I also found out how to make text stand out on a page, giving it a less flat look by adding drop shadows and block-colour backgrounds; this is important because I feel that 'flat' looking text is generally overlooked.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
From designing the preliminary task, the school magazine, I have learnt a vast amount about the time and effort it takes to create something as substantial and widely distributed as a music magazine. With the school magazine, I only had to consider what students in my school would want to see on a front cover or what would take their interest; with the music magazine, there was a large deal more I had to think about. The school magazine was simple to create, as the target audience was pretty much already decided - students of around my own age who were still in education. However, with the music magazine, I had to do a considerable amount of research into the music industry, and find out what available gaps in the market were out there, and also had to consider whether anybody would actually be interested in what my magazine had to offer: perhaps there was a gap in this area of the market because nobody wanted an Indie music magazine aimed at females. I also learned that a lot of time has to be taken when choosing a colour scheme, font type and image - particular things appeal to particular people, and I had to choose things which would be neutural and attractive to everyone who reads my magazine; with the school magazine this process was much easier, as my school already has a colour scheme so I used that, and the image was without a doubt bound to be of a student - because that was who the magazine is aimed at. With the school magazine, I felt that I put much less effort into the planning, as a school themed magazine is usually generic, and they all seem to have the same style; with the music magazine, I had to consider audience, genre and content far more, because everything varies from magazine to magazine.
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