My media product is an Indie influenced music magazine which uses similar forms and conventions of many real media products. For example, my product uses the convention of the image covering part of the masthead. In comparison to a well-known music magazine, the target audience would be very familiar and would know the brand of the magazine, so with it does not affect the reputation of the magazine if the masthead is partially covered. When naming my music magazine "Zodiac", I decided to emphasise the letter "Z" in a bigger and bolder font in order to have the use of it on other pages in my magazine. This challenges traditional conventions of real media products, due to the fact that they normally use the full masthead whenever necessary so that the target audience knows the brand of the magazine.
When structuring my fonts on the front cover of my magazine, I chose to elaborate in a black and white colour scheme to match the outfit "Nicole" in my chosen image. I knew that I would not have trouble bringing colour to the page as the background of the image factors towards it, which distracts the audience from the black and white scheme. The audience will be able to determine the main focus of the magazine by the way of which I have proportioned the model directly in the centre of the front cover. I structured my cover lines around the main focus of the image so that not much of the text is covering her. By using different fonts and sizes on my front cover, it suggests that my media product uses forms and conventions of real media products as it shares a similar structure to many popular music magazines. By doing this, it makes the text more enjoyable to read and keeps the audience interested. The largest font on my front cover is my head line, which shows the audience what is going to be the main article in the magazine. I chose to put the quote and the songstress' name in white as it goes against the rest of the black font, and stands out so that people know that the quote is from "Nicole's" article. My media product challenges the Indie magazine convention as it is typical to portray young indie-rock boy band within this type of magazine.
My double page spread challenges many conventions of real media products, due to the fact that a normal article layout consists of a visible, full body image and text next to it. My double page spread differs greatly from this; even though the full image is visible, it is mostly faded out and covered by text. I have done this mostly because the "songstress" is "new and upcoming" so the audience will understand that she is not as famous as many usual articles will be about, so a professional full body shot is not needed to create the same impact. This does not make much of a difference as the image can still be seen clearly. I decided to do a question and answer article so that it is simple to understand and will appeal to a wider audience. This again challenges forms and conventions of real media products, as main articles within a music magazine such as this normally entails a narrative description of the celebrity. I chose a dark green font to go with the rest of the black font, as it went with the background of the image; collaborating with the sublime and the surrounding forest. On the other hand, the drop catch within my double page spread is used from real media products, as they are commonly used within magazines so the audience knows where to start reading. The quote on the page is the second largest, mostly to cooperate with the size of the artists name across the page. They are usually the first devices that the audience views; as they are important to the understanding of the article, it is evident for them to be at a larger size than the article itself. This again is used within real media products.
There are many conventions that share similar aspects of real media products within my contents page, for example the use of "Features" and "Regulars" which are commonly used within well-known music magazines. Using 3 different images shows the audience the wide range of content my magazine has to offer, as well as the descriptions of other articles within the "Features" section. Again keeping with the black and white scheme from my front cover, the images bring a sense of colour to the page which contrasts against the blocks of font. The ways of which my features are structured use forms and conventions of real media products, as many popular music magazines gave me the inspiration to share similar aspects when creating my media product. Rather than placing all 3 images onto the page, I decided to rotate one and use it to slightly cover the main image on the contents page to give it a 3D effect. This challenges certain conventions of real media products as most images on contents pages are usually structured around the page carefully to tailor to the text. By doing this, it makes the page look more interesting and creative. I chose to write my text in a white font, which explains the use of the black border/boxes around each block of text.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I believe that my media product represents particular social groups of the target audience. I have used terminology mainly referring to a specific target audience, which is young adults who enjoy listening to Indie music. By using a young adult female in my image for my front cover, it automatically suggests a representation of young adults of similar age that will support and enjoy that type of music. Other images that I have used within my magazine has given it a sense of youthfulness, which is why the target audience of this magazine would find the content interesting and engaging. I found that magazines such as "NME" and "Q magazine" were helpful in forming this representation of particular social groups for my magazine, as they are able to cater to a wide audience.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Who would be the audience for your media product?
My media product is aimed at teenagers and young adults ranger from 17-24. By creating a questionnaire, it helped me find out who my target audience would be for the genre of music magazine I wanted to create as my media product. It also gave me an understanding on how many young adults actually read music magazines, and which ones they enjoy the most. This factors into the basis of my understanding on what I needed to do in order to create a media product that strongly influenced teenagers and young adults. This information was recorded and then presented in the form of pie charts.
How did you attract/address your audience?
Many young people believe and frequently read up on their horoscopes, which was the inspiration for my mast head "Zodiac". It is easy for the young adult target audience to remember, but it is also eye-catching as it spreads visibly across the top of the front cover. Within my cover lines, I used artists that appeals mostly to young adults which also factored towards my chosen music genre. The text on the front cover is spread out easily to make it enjoyable to read, and it is not packed with too much unwanted information. When designing my article for my double page spread, I decided to write it informally including slang and humour to appeal to teenagers. With it being very conversational, it flows more natural in comparison to a narrative article, in which many young adults may lose interest in. I attracted my young target audience by using images of people with similar ages, to give a sense of youth. I used very neutral and similar colours that relate to the representation of the genre "Indie". I also attracted the target audience by using a image with the model looking into the camera so that they could build a relationship with the artist.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
When starting my coursework, I had no understanding of how to use Photoshop. I discovered the different effects and tools you can use on images, to which I practised on another image instead of my chosen image. I found out that using different layers when adding to my front cover of my media product was far more easy then doing many devices on one layer. This is because I could alternate or delete certain things without getting rid of other devices on the page. Naming the layers made things more easier so I knew what I had on each layer. Also, by doing this I could edit and add different effects do certain devices. I learnt that photoshop was not as effective with text as publisher is, which is why I designed the background image of my double page spread on photoshop, then did all the text on publisher when finishing it.
I also gained knowlegde of how to create and develop a blogger account, and how to structure my coursework content on it. I began to understand that I needed to save my documents as a JPEG file so that they were converted into image to then present in a blog post.
Not only have I gained knowledge about certain technologies form the process of constructing my media product, but I have also learnt how to take images from certain camera angles, which create different effects depending on the angle. I knew that I had to have a full body angle facing the camera for my front cover of my media product, so that the audience can create a relationship with the artist of the main story in the magazine.
It also became apparent to me that I needed to use a range of different angles for the images on my contents page, so they all looked different from one another to keep the audience interested and engaged within the magazine.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel as if I have learnt a lot from creating a school magazine front cover and contents page in order to give me an idea of how i wanted to structure my own media products. When creating my double page spread for my music magazine, it was my biggest struggle as I had difficulty distinguishing how I wanted to structure and layout the content of the article as I had never made a double page spread before. The first school magazine contents page I created shares similar aspects to my finalized media product, even though it does not look exact.
By creating this contents page in practice of my media product, it showed me how I wanted to lay out my features and that I wanted to present a main image on the page.
I spent most of my time using a different image on my preliminary front cover so that I could add to the page and then change the background image later on. However, I ended up making changes to my front page anyway after I added in my own image, which shows I have progressed a lot from my preliminary task.
Instead of the masthead covering the model in the image, I decided to allow the female to cover the masthead slighty, as it would not effect the magazine greatly. I also made a few minor alterations to the layout and the presentation of the text.
From my preliminary task to my full product, I have learnt about the different conventions and devices that are used within real media products. This can be shown by my Initial research into current music magazines; for example:
Annotating 3 double page spreads helped me understand how current music magazines structured and laid out their devices and conventions in a way that I wanted to portray. This was very helpful as I had mentioned previously, I did not design a practice double page spread to help me with the creation of my media product.
Even though I already had an idea of how I wanted to structure my contents page for my music magazine, analysing 3 different contents pages gave me the knowledge on what forms and conventions to present on my own product to protray similar aspects of a real media product.
