When doing my preliminary task I particularly enjoyed doing the print task for the coursework. This is why I chose to do print for my main coursework.
When planning for my priliminary work I was a bit behind so often planned as I went along. When doing the main task I knew that I was not going to be able to do this as I needed to know exactly what I was going to be doing and when I was going to have it done so that I would be able to stick to the deadlines set. If i had not done this correctly then I would not have been able to stick to the deadlines set as I would not know when I would be able to fit everything in.
I chose to make draft designs of my magazine front cover, contents page and double spread so that when coming to designing the magazine on the computer it would then be easier and more efficient to do and so that I had a clear idea of what would work in the magazine and what I needed to include.
In order to organise my time efficiently I made a time plan of when I needed to get things done by and I made sure that I strictly stuck to this time plan so that I kept up to date with the different tasks.
For my main task I looked in depth to the conventions of the magazine and the specific target audience for my magazine. This was to help me to understand clearly what was needed to be done to attract the particular audience to the magazine. To do this I researched into different magazines with similar audience types so I could see the forms and conventions they use and then slightly adapt them to be more suitable for my magazine.
With my particular magazine type I found that it was important to make them look slightly different and bold to go with the attitudes of the audience by 'standing out in the crowd'. I found that the contents page needed to be clear and understandable so that the audience will know where to find the information within the magazine easily.
One of the things which I found most difficult in the preliminary task is the editing and using the technology of paintshop pro and qwark express. Two pieces of software which I had never used before. This was a challenge for me to be able to understand what all the different buttons did and how it all worked. To be able to understand the programmes I just did a basic magazine front cover where I used all the different tools available so that I could understand what they each did and how I was going to be able to use them for producing my magazine.
This is one area which I think I greatly improved on from my preliminary task as after the main coursework task I was able to use the software easily and I would be able to explain how to use the programme correctly if anyone needed to use it.
Overall though I think that the main thing which I learned from this task is how important it is to do market research beforehand so that I knew exactly what I needed to do in the project. I know realise how important the consideration of the target audience is and why there is so much detail which goes in to think of the end product of the magazine. This market research of the target audiences often affect the production process of the magazine as they have to decide what is going to be needed to agree with the audience's wants of the magazine. For example when looking into my target auidence I found that they liked to be more edgy and slightly different from the norm so I tried to create a magazine which would appeal to this auidence structure by making the colours bold and stand out from the rest and use different colour types for the audience type of mainly females so that it would go against dominant ideology and also make it different.
On a whole I am generally pleased with the outcome of my magazine. It is evident that during the production of the magazine I took into considersation the key assesment objectives in order to produce an effective magazine front over, contents page and double page spread where all significant conventions within the genre are considered.
The biggest thing which I have learnt from this experience is how important it is to make a time plan and to make sure that you stick to this time plan exactly so there are no mad rushes to complete the work at the end. On the full project my time was managed well as I reached the deadline set. I feel that I managaed my time better on the full project compared with the preliminary task. I also think that how much I have learnt on how to use the two pieces of software has helped me greatly so that I was able to make my product look more appealing to the customer.
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
At the start of my project I only knew the basics of the software which I was using, only the stuff which I had learnt from my prelimenary task at the start of the year. I knew how to add a background to something and how to use certain fading techniques. When I did create my preliminary exercise of a magazine I came across the red eye tool which was able to get rid of red eyes, I found this extremely helpful as it made the picture look much better without the red eye but I did not need to use this tool for my mock ups or final product for my music magazine.
Throughout the time in which I have been creating my magazine I have been discovering new techniques on how to improve designs and how to improve the look of my magazine overall. Before I started AS media studies I did not know how to download fonts or how to copy them into Paintshop Pro but now I am able to do this efficiently. Whilst using Paintshop Pro to edit the pictures to go in the magazine the use of Qwark express was extremely useful. This piece of software allowed me to set the size of the paper needed perfectly to be able to crop the images to the correct size, change the colours on the magazine to whatever I wanted and in general helped me to create a good product at the end of the project.
The layers on Paintshop Pro were extremely useful as it meant that I was able to import a picture and then create different fonts and styles on top of it so that the magazine would look more realistic. This would be much more difficult if I had to do it by hand as I would not be able to create as perfect finish as I could using the computer technology as otherwise to create layers I would have to stcick them on top of each other on a piece of paper and this would not look very proffessional!
These pieces of software although take a while to be able to fully understand as there are lots of different tools available. Overall I think that this helps people who are wanting to make it in the industry and create their own magazines. This means that even amateurs who have no previous knowledge of how to produce a magazine. I think that with this software they would be able to create a magazine which could in effect compete with the mainstream magazines available for sale in the shops.
I learnt about http://www.blogger.com/ which I had never used before. I had never even written a blog before and it was interesting to learn how to inpot all my information and pictures onto this website.
Using this website to create a log of what I had done with my project helped me to keep track of what I had learnt and what I had done with my project and also what could be done to improve my project as it was all layed out in front of me and I was able to access it from any area.
Using a blog also helped me to present my information in a clear and understandable way, without this I think that it would have been more difficult to organise what I needed to say and so therefore overall makes it much more accessible for readers.
I mainly used magazines to research into my target audience and to put together ideas of the forms and conventions of my target audience. However when doing my research I did look at some websites to try and get an even more in depth look at what fonts/colours they use and what kind of information they may include on the website.
For example I looked at
Throughout the time in which I have been creating my magazine I have been discovering new techniques on how to improve designs and how to improve the look of my magazine overall. Before I started AS media studies I did not know how to download fonts or how to copy them into Paintshop Pro but now I am able to do this efficiently. Whilst using Paintshop Pro to edit the pictures to go in the magazine the use of Qwark express was extremely useful. This piece of software allowed me to set the size of the paper needed perfectly to be able to crop the images to the correct size, change the colours on the magazine to whatever I wanted and in general helped me to create a good product at the end of the project.
The layers on Paintshop Pro were extremely useful as it meant that I was able to import a picture and then create different fonts and styles on top of it so that the magazine would look more realistic. This would be much more difficult if I had to do it by hand as I would not be able to create as perfect finish as I could using the computer technology as otherwise to create layers I would have to stcick them on top of each other on a piece of paper and this would not look very proffessional!
These pieces of software although take a while to be able to fully understand as there are lots of different tools available. Overall I think that this helps people who are wanting to make it in the industry and create their own magazines. This means that even amateurs who have no previous knowledge of how to produce a magazine. I think that with this software they would be able to create a magazine which could in effect compete with the mainstream magazines available for sale in the shops.
I learnt about http://www.blogger.com/ which I had never used before. I had never even written a blog before and it was interesting to learn how to inpot all my information and pictures onto this website.
Using this website to create a log of what I had done with my project helped me to keep track of what I had learnt and what I had done with my project and also what could be done to improve my project as it was all layed out in front of me and I was able to access it from any area.
Using a blog also helped me to present my information in a clear and understandable way, without this I think that it would have been more difficult to organise what I needed to say and so therefore overall makes it much more accessible for readers.
I mainly used magazines to research into my target audience and to put together ideas of the forms and conventions of my target audience. However when doing my research I did look at some websites to try and get an even more in depth look at what fonts/colours they use and what kind of information they may include on the website.
For example I looked at
and
This is so I could look at my tareget audience and see how others use the forms and conventions for this genre.
Technology has been useful as I have been able to upload my blog regularly on what has been done during my project, I have also uploaded pictures so the use of cameras has also helped me greatly and scanners so I could scan the pictures in to the computer.
Technology has been useful as I have been able to upload my blog regularly on what has been done during my project, I have also uploaded pictures so the use of cameras has also helped me greatly and scanners so I could scan the pictures in to the computer.
5. How did you attract your audience?
From my project you can see that it is targeted at the rock/indie genre by the fonts and colours used on the front cover. However most people who are intereseted in that type of genre of music regardless of age could be intereseted in the magazine but as the mainstream rock/indie market is aimed more at the younger generations this is why I decided that this is how it appealed to this audience structure. I think that the magazine would be more targeted at girls due to the type of content in the magazine such as quizzes etc although I chose not to use the conventional colours stereotyped for girls on the front cover such as pinks and purples. Instead I used reds and yellows which will be seen as more masculine colours. This promotes residual ideology.
By just choosing rock and Indie music it can relate to a much larger maybe more mainstream audience and so lead to more profits as it will appeal to a larger number of people. This also means that there are more topics available to be featured in the magazine.
To see how other people reacted towards my final product I showed others my magazine and asked them what their initial thoughts were. To do this I made a questionnaire and asked them to fill in what they thought of my magazine from the results I could see if it was a success or not. On this questionnaire I asked questions such as whether they thought the magazine targeted the correct audience type, if they thought the magazine was easy to read and what could be improved for next time.
To see if my magazine was preferred reading to my target audience - by this I asked whether the audience could understand the text and also if they felt that the younger audience target range would be able to understand my magazine also. From my findings I found that the audience thought that they could read my magazine and they also felt that it does connect with the particular audience type and that they thought that the younger people who may read the magazine would also be able to read it correctly as there was not any large words used in the text.
Some of the comments were;
''The magazine front cover was well layed out and so that the audience can clearly identify what is in the magazine''
''Could have written the article in columns so it breaks up the text as it looks like a lot of text all in one big block of writing which can be a bit off putting''
I also wanted to find out if the audiences thought that the messages and values within the magazine were correct for my audience type. To find this out I asked questions such as ;
Do you think that the contents of the magazine are relevant to this particular audience?
Do you think that the values are typical of this type of magazine?
From my results I found that although the audience felt that my magazine was good and targetted the audience well they still thought that it might be aimed at a slightly older age range and it might have been more important to add my quizzes and fun stuff to appeal to the audience age group.
''There is one quiz in the contents page but as the target audience can be as young as 13 it might be more useful to add more quizzes or more ways for them to interact with the magazine - more competitions, more input to the magazine by fan mail etc.''
''The values target the audience well as it follows the conventions of the genre''
When creating my magazine the mode of address I chose to use was quite informal this was to appeal to the younger age range of my magazine. I tried to make it more of a chatty style so that they felt that they could relate to the magazine better because if I used more formal wording they may reject the magazine as they wouldn't be able to follow it correctly and they would then not be able to understand the text.
Overall I felt that I was successful in attracting my target audience. When I showed a copy of my front cover, contents page and double page spread to a group of 17 year olds of different genders and social groups the response from the questionnaire I created was very positive. The majority were able to recognise the type of genre of music for my magazine straight away and were able to spot the simialrities with other magazines of this genre of magazine such as NME. They particularly liked the bright colours and how I had tried to use different colours for a girls magazine to represent residual ideology.
This response shows me that I have created my magazine well to the particular audience type and that I have followed the forms and conventions in my production well so that I have a good end product.
By just choosing rock and Indie music it can relate to a much larger maybe more mainstream audience and so lead to more profits as it will appeal to a larger number of people. This also means that there are more topics available to be featured in the magazine.
To see how other people reacted towards my final product I showed others my magazine and asked them what their initial thoughts were. To do this I made a questionnaire and asked them to fill in what they thought of my magazine from the results I could see if it was a success or not. On this questionnaire I asked questions such as whether they thought the magazine targeted the correct audience type, if they thought the magazine was easy to read and what could be improved for next time.
On the questionnaire I asked what they thought of the bright colours used in the magazine and they said that;
''the bright colours used go well with the magazine genre''
''the fonts used are good as it shows residual ideology as a more masucline feel to the magazine but is overall a magazine targetted at females''
To see if my magazine was preferred reading to my target audience - by this I asked whether the audience could understand the text and also if they felt that the younger audience target range would be able to understand my magazine also. From my findings I found that the audience thought that they could read my magazine and they also felt that it does connect with the particular audience type and that they thought that the younger people who may read the magazine would also be able to read it correctly as there was not any large words used in the text.
Some of the comments were;
''The magazine front cover was well layed out and so that the audience can clearly identify what is in the magazine''
''Could have written the article in columns so it breaks up the text as it looks like a lot of text all in one big block of writing which can be a bit off putting''
I also wanted to find out if the audiences thought that the messages and values within the magazine were correct for my audience type. To find this out I asked questions such as ;
Do you think that the contents of the magazine are relevant to this particular audience?
Do you think that the values are typical of this type of magazine?
From my results I found that although the audience felt that my magazine was good and targetted the audience well they still thought that it might be aimed at a slightly older age range and it might have been more important to add my quizzes and fun stuff to appeal to the audience age group.
''There is one quiz in the contents page but as the target audience can be as young as 13 it might be more useful to add more quizzes or more ways for them to interact with the magazine - more competitions, more input to the magazine by fan mail etc.''
''The values target the audience well as it follows the conventions of the genre''
When creating my magazine the mode of address I chose to use was quite informal this was to appeal to the younger age range of my magazine. I tried to make it more of a chatty style so that they felt that they could relate to the magazine better because if I used more formal wording they may reject the magazine as they wouldn't be able to follow it correctly and they would then not be able to understand the text.
Overall I felt that I was successful in attracting my target audience. When I showed a copy of my front cover, contents page and double page spread to a group of 17 year olds of different genders and social groups the response from the questionnaire I created was very positive. The majority were able to recognise the type of genre of music for my magazine straight away and were able to spot the simialrities with other magazines of this genre of magazine such as NME. They particularly liked the bright colours and how I had tried to use different colours for a girls magazine to represent residual ideology.
This response shows me that I have created my magazine well to the particular audience type and that I have followed the forms and conventions in my production well so that I have a good end product.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
My main target audience for my magazine is mainly females who are aged between 13-17. At this age the typical male will be in some kind of education whether it's finishing high school, at this age they will still be in middle/high school might have started college. The demographic profile for my audience is from B - C2 on the Jicnars scale. I think that it will be this because I do not think that the higher class people who are earning lots of money will be interested in my magazine as they may not be interested in this genre of music as they tend to be in an older age range compared to the age range set for my magazine. Also I don't think that very working class people will be able to afford the magazine so below C2 I don't think that they also will be interested as they will have little extra money to spend on magazines. The audiences psychographics would be radicals as the people often displaeyd in these types of magazines are often very rebellious doing many crazy thigns which the reader then adapts and trys to copy these things to be more like the artists on the front of the magazines. Therefore the audience will be rebellious and not care about what they think or do and don't just follow what everyone else does, have their own fashion and style. This may also link to the audience being underachievers where they maybe bright and clever but are a bit lazy and don't really want to achieve for many different reasons, this may be the start of the psychographics such as the younger target audience in my age range where as they may have adapted to be more radical towards the end of the audience age range as they decide to become more rebellious to fit in with others and to copy what others are doing in the magazines. Their social values will be Hedonists as they tend to want to play or enjoy life to the full now rather than later. This may be because they are typically students who often do stupid things which they may regret but not worry about it as they are young and can get better from their mistakes. As they are younger they tend to think that it is more about just having a good time whilst they can before they have to become serious and have a full time job and start worrying about families. The life stage categories for my audience are that they could be decision pending where they may have no idea what they yet want to do with their life so that is why they are sticking in education to try and give them more time before they have to make that ultimate decision. I also think that they will be living single so the money they earn is spent on themselves so they are able to buy whatever they want.
I have targeted the magazine at mainly females as I wanted to target a particular audience type and I also wanted to challenge dominant ideologies within my magazine so that it would be different from others available.
I have targeted the magazine at mainly females as I wanted to target a particular audience type and I also wanted to challenge dominant ideologies within my magazine so that it would be different from others available.
I have tried to address the audience by using bright colours and bold fonts. In the images used props which were bright colours and used brightly coloured clothes so that it would work with the theme of my magazine and follow the genre of magazine.
To choose my specific target audience, I looked into the different types of music magazine available from rock to classical to folk music and then found out if their was any particular gap in the market of music magazines for my product. I found out that there were not many magazines targeted at teens with the genre of rock/indie music so I decided to focus my magazine on this target audience/genre. I am also interested in this genre of music so this benefitted me as I was able to get more ideas for my product and to be able to relate with my target audience.
It is important to make sure that I follow the conveentions of my target audience because they will be the ones who would buy the magazine so I need to make sure that the magazine includes things that they would wnat to read about.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I would use IPC media to distribute my magazine because my magazine is very mainstream and so it would need a large amount of profit to keep running and be able to compete with other magazines of this type. IPC media is a conglomerate who owns around 80 magazines of many different types and genres. I would have this as my main distributer because it is targeted at the mainstream magazine industry and would give me the best chance of distributiong my magazine to the largest number of shops. To appeal to the audience I could try large advertising campaigns if I could create enough money by making a TV advert for my magazine, or maybe try and advertise my magazine on different websites of a similar genre by buying advertising space off these other companies.
Another type of store which could sell my magazine are music stores such as HMV this is obvious that the people who are shopping in HMV are interested in music so would want to buy my magazine. Especially if placed by the rock CDs section or by the front counter so that people who are waiting in the queue can see my product and may decide to buy this also.
My magazine could have it's own website where it can keep people who read it informed on when the next magazine is going to be published or hints of what will be in next weeks issue to try and get more people to buy the magazine's next time it is published. On this website I could use media 2.0 this is where the audience can participate in the making of the different texts and what is to be in the magazine. This will make them feel more involved with the making of the magazine. For example the website could give the chance for the audience to give ideas for the inds of things which they would enjoy reading about in the next issue or do survey polls on what they thought of things which were raised in the most recent issue. There could also be a page where the audience could leave messages and these would be printed in the next issue maybe their own reviews of particular albums etc.
In addition to this website social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook could distribute my product as these websites have millions of people registered online and it would be a great and easy way to reach millions of people in one place.
Digital publishing is becoming more popular in contemporary society with 17% of magazines now available online; therefore having my magazine available online would enable my finished product to be distributed on a lareg scale to many different audience types if this was used.
Another way is by selling my magazine at gigs and festivals these are visited frequently by music fans so would be a great way to get my magazine known. This is where people of my target audience are likely to socialise as they get to listen to bands which are more than likely featured in my rock/indie magazine.
When distributing my magazine I need to remember that they are produced to attract audiences and to sell advertisement in the magazine to make a profit. The main profit for a magazine is from the advertising. Magazines tend to be of all different types of genres but generally are all under control of one large media conglomerate such as IPC media company which I looked at in my initial research. So therefore there are lots of different types of magazines available to be distributed even though it is not individual to ech magazine.
In my research I have found that although most magazines such as NME try to portray this individuality and rebellious attitude within the magazine it still at the end of it is all about just making a profit and it is using these conventions to try and sell this product to that large audience even though it is still part of a large conglomerate company. This tells us that the core messages of this magazine are not particularly the feelings of the main editors and writers of the magazine they are just writing in this style and the particular events because they have to stick to their target audience structure.
However there are magazines which try to be true independents where they do not include any advertising and just solely rely on the sales of the magazine to create a profit. An example of this is IPG - Independent Publishers Guild. This company will have a more hands on approach to the different magazines so the writers may be more related to what they are actually writing and also believe in what is being written in the magazine. Having this independent publisher would mean that I would have more creative control over the magazine but would have very little profut coming in as I have not used advertising.
With this in mind I would choose to try and sign to a congmolerate company as it is a very large market with many different types of magazine available so it is important that I can create a profit and so gain money so that I can keep publishing different issues each month.
One of the main types of institution which could distribute my magazine is leading supermarket's such as Asda, Tesco or Morrisons. I think that these would be good places to distribute my magazine because they often distribute other magazines of the same genre to my magazine and is where I tend to pick up my magazines when I would like to buy. Because a supermarket attracts all different types of customers to the shop this shows how there maybe a number of people who may be interested in buying my magazine. In general however most of the customers are adults who maybe with their children who may be interested in my magazine and so will want to buy it to find out what is going on in my particular genre; rock music in the industry.
Another type of store which could sell my magazine are music stores such as HMV this is obvious that the people who are shopping in HMV are interested in music so would want to buy my magazine. Especially if placed by the rock CDs section or by the front counter so that people who are waiting in the queue can see my product and may decide to buy this also.
My magazine could have it's own website where it can keep people who read it informed on when the next magazine is going to be published or hints of what will be in next weeks issue to try and get more people to buy the magazine's next time it is published. On this website I could use media 2.0 this is where the audience can participate in the making of the different texts and what is to be in the magazine. This will make them feel more involved with the making of the magazine. For example the website could give the chance for the audience to give ideas for the inds of things which they would enjoy reading about in the next issue or do survey polls on what they thought of things which were raised in the most recent issue. There could also be a page where the audience could leave messages and these would be printed in the next issue maybe their own reviews of particular albums etc.In addition to this website social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook could distribute my product as these websites have millions of people registered online and it would be a great and easy way to reach millions of people in one place.
Digital publishing is becoming more popular in contemporary society with 17% of magazines now available online; therefore having my magazine available online would enable my finished product to be distributed on a lareg scale to many different audience types if this was used.
Another way is by selling my magazine at gigs and festivals these are visited frequently by music fans so would be a great way to get my magazine known. This is where people of my target audience are likely to socialise as they get to listen to bands which are more than likely featured in my rock/indie magazine.When distributing my magazine I need to remember that they are produced to attract audiences and to sell advertisement in the magazine to make a profit. The main profit for a magazine is from the advertising. Magazines tend to be of all different types of genres but generally are all under control of one large media conglomerate such as IPC media company which I looked at in my initial research. So therefore there are lots of different types of magazines available to be distributed even though it is not individual to ech magazine.
In my research I have found that although most magazines such as NME try to portray this individuality and rebellious attitude within the magazine it still at the end of it is all about just making a profit and it is using these conventions to try and sell this product to that large audience even though it is still part of a large conglomerate company. This tells us that the core messages of this magazine are not particularly the feelings of the main editors and writers of the magazine they are just writing in this style and the particular events because they have to stick to their target audience structure.
However there are magazines which try to be true independents where they do not include any advertising and just solely rely on the sales of the magazine to create a profit. An example of this is IPG - Independent Publishers Guild. This company will have a more hands on approach to the different magazines so the writers may be more related to what they are actually writing and also believe in what is being written in the magazine. Having this independent publisher would mean that I would have more creative control over the magazine but would have very little profut coming in as I have not used advertising.
With this in mind I would choose to try and sign to a congmolerate company as it is a very large market with many different types of magazine available so it is important that I can create a profit and so gain money so that I can keep publishing different issues each month.
Thursday, 2 April 2009
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
On the front cover of my magazine there is a woman who is seen as quite young so that she can relate to the audience, she is white and probably middle class.
This is the most stereotypical use where the artist on the front cover is white, middle class. This shows how I have not represented ethnic minorities in my magazine where as if I was to do the magazine again I may have decided to try and use a different ethnic minority on the front cover so that this would challenge the representations of the youth.
The picture that I have used on the front cover is representing dominant ideology as there is a medium close up of a woman on the front cover which could represent the male gaze where they want to see a picture of a woman on the front cover to try and attract them to the magazine.
On the whole my magazine shows most of the products for the content of my magazine on the front cover. The front cover imgage shows a girl of similar age to the target audience so that it can relate to particular social groups of this age also. The images used in the product can also be related to certain social groups due to the type of clothes and colours used. You can tell that it is a rock/indie magazine by the bright/bold colours used on the front and by how the artist is not smiling on the front cover. The fact that the artist shows no tattoos or piercings shows how this magazine although being aimed at the rock/indie audience it is still aimed at the youth so they want to try and portray some innocence so that youths do not get the wrong idea and try to copy exactly what is shown on the front cover as 'cool'. This representation of the character on the front cover may portray innocence and may represent social groups who cause no trouble.
Although the magazine is aimed particularly for girls of this age range and stereotype I have not used the stereotypical colours of pinks or purples but instead used more bold vibrant colours on the front cover and contents page of reds yellows and black which may be more stereotypical of males so this challenges the gender representation of the magazine. I did this to go with the theme of the individuality but also to try and show that girls don’t all have to like pinks and purples and can be attracted by the bold colours shown on the front cover of my magazine.
To fit with the messages and values with communicating with these groups and how they are constructured through the media language by the way the artist is dressed and how she is against a bright blue background so that she sticks out from the rest.
This is the most stereotypical use where the artist on the front cover is white, middle class. This shows how I have not represented ethnic minorities in my magazine where as if I was to do the magazine again I may have decided to try and use a different ethnic minority on the front cover so that this would challenge the representations of the youth.
The picture that I have used on the front cover is representing dominant ideology as there is a medium close up of a woman on the front cover which could represent the male gaze where they want to see a picture of a woman on the front cover to try and attract them to the magazine.
On the whole my magazine shows most of the products for the content of my magazine on the front cover. The front cover imgage shows a girl of similar age to the target audience so that it can relate to particular social groups of this age also. The images used in the product can also be related to certain social groups due to the type of clothes and colours used. You can tell that it is a rock/indie magazine by the bright/bold colours used on the front and by how the artist is not smiling on the front cover. The fact that the artist shows no tattoos or piercings shows how this magazine although being aimed at the rock/indie audience it is still aimed at the youth so they want to try and portray some innocence so that youths do not get the wrong idea and try to copy exactly what is shown on the front cover as 'cool'. This representation of the character on the front cover may portray innocence and may represent social groups who cause no trouble.
Although the magazine is aimed particularly for girls of this age range and stereotype I have not used the stereotypical colours of pinks or purples but instead used more bold vibrant colours on the front cover and contents page of reds yellows and black which may be more stereotypical of males so this challenges the gender representation of the magazine. I did this to go with the theme of the individuality but also to try and show that girls don’t all have to like pinks and purples and can be attracted by the bold colours shown on the front cover of my magazine.
To fit with the messages and values with communicating with these groups and how they are constructured through the media language by the way the artist is dressed and how she is against a bright blue background so that she sticks out from the rest.
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The genre for my magazine is rock music for the youth who are generally aged between 13 and 17. The magazine ‘Rebel’ is targeted at the youth who are trying to be individualists and stick out from the crowd and who want to feel different from everyone else.
The picture on the front cover of my magazine is a medium close up of the artist. She is looking directly at the camera and looks of a similar age to the reader of the magazine. I tried to make her look as similar in age to the reader as possible and maybe chose a person who did look slightly younger to be on the front page so that the reader can relate to the artist. The artist is traditionally good looking to appeal to the audience and want the audience to look more like her which represents the aspirational lifestyle which some of the audience will want. She also represents the slight radical’s lifestyle that some of the readers may have but in a soft way where she may have brightly coloured eye make up on but she is still not completely radical.
I think that my magazine fits the rock/indie music genre because it includes lots of bands of this similar genre and the magazine is mainly about the music which fits the typical stereotype. The thing that I did to make it less like a magazine such as NME and more tailored for the youth is that I included a quiz titled ‘What stereotype are you?’ this is to try and make it more fun for the younger readers of the magazine and they will often enjoy reading about how they are perceived by others as this is important to them. You would not find this in a magazine like NME because the audience will find it demeaning and are solely interested in the music not about little quizzes.
Another way in which I have used this is by including lots of artist’s names on the front cover which is my pull to get readers to buy the magazine. This is typical of the genre of music which I have based my magazine on.
However the genre which I have based my magazine on is always changing over time as the genre of rock has changed dramatically over the past 20 years. Whereas before rock would be bands such as Queen or Guns n Roses now this genre is wider than ever and has bands such as Fall Out Boy or My Chemical Romance are called rock bands even some soft rock/pop bands can now be labelled in the rock genre such as Metro Station. This genre is changing so dramatically due to it becoming more and more popular with youth and then the media such as radio or TV stations make the songs more publicised and therefore they become more ‘mainstream’ and popular with the youth.
The fonts which I use on the front page are large and bold so that they stick out to the reader they are a sans serif font so that it is bold.The title ‘Rebel’ is used to try and get the reader’s attention again by making them feel like by buying this magazine they will be rebellious against the norms of life. The brightly coloured blue background is to go with the theme of the bright electric bold colours shown on the front cover.
My magazine follows the traditional conventions of a typical magazine as I have put the title at the top of the page in large bold letters with the main image underneath and then writing to explain what is going to be included inside the magazine. I did this as I thought it was a good layout and would appeal to people as they could clearly understand where everything was.
My double page spread also follows the conventions of a typical magazine as it has an introduction explaining about the article, images down the side to co operate with this text, and quote marks picking out small chunks from the text which the reader may find interesting.
However although my magazine is mainly conventional with my approach to layouts of the magazine there are aspects of each which are unconventional. For example on my front cover the title is at the top in bold, in many magazines this title is placed behind the picture on the front cover so the image sticks out more than the title. Also in the double page spread interview I have not used columns to write all the information in so this is also unconventional. I did try to create a little difference in my work however by using colours such as reds and yellows on the front page and contents page but changed this to a more girlie colours of pinks and purples in the interview, these pink and purples go more with the stereotypical gender patterns.
Although I think that my magazine is for the mainstream audience of people ages between 13-17 I think that it challenges many of the real conventions for a magazine of this type. I have a young girl on the front which is not particularly rebellious despite the name of my magazine called 'Rebel'. With such a title I think that many people would expect me to have produced a magazine for the minority who are extremely different for example people who have lots of piercings and tattoos and wear different clothes etc. I did this because my magazine is for the youth who are starting to feel part of this radicals and aspirers psychographic at a young age. It is a magazine for them to start to understand this difference and show them a slight insight to what it would be about in this lifestlye. I still portray some innocence about it by making the girl on the front cover look more approachable with no tattoos or piercings and she is wearing a pink bow in her hair which also makes her look more innocent.
The picture on the front cover of my magazine is a medium close up of the artist. She is looking directly at the camera and looks of a similar age to the reader of the magazine. I tried to make her look as similar in age to the reader as possible and maybe chose a person who did look slightly younger to be on the front page so that the reader can relate to the artist. The artist is traditionally good looking to appeal to the audience and want the audience to look more like her which represents the aspirational lifestyle which some of the audience will want. She also represents the slight radical’s lifestyle that some of the readers may have but in a soft way where she may have brightly coloured eye make up on but she is still not completely radical.
I think that my magazine fits the rock/indie music genre because it includes lots of bands of this similar genre and the magazine is mainly about the music which fits the typical stereotype. The thing that I did to make it less like a magazine such as NME and more tailored for the youth is that I included a quiz titled ‘What stereotype are you?’ this is to try and make it more fun for the younger readers of the magazine and they will often enjoy reading about how they are perceived by others as this is important to them. You would not find this in a magazine like NME because the audience will find it demeaning and are solely interested in the music not about little quizzes.
Another way in which I have used this is by including lots of artist’s names on the front cover which is my pull to get readers to buy the magazine. This is typical of the genre of music which I have based my magazine on.
However the genre which I have based my magazine on is always changing over time as the genre of rock has changed dramatically over the past 20 years. Whereas before rock would be bands such as Queen or Guns n Roses now this genre is wider than ever and has bands such as Fall Out Boy or My Chemical Romance are called rock bands even some soft rock/pop bands can now be labelled in the rock genre such as Metro Station. This genre is changing so dramatically due to it becoming more and more popular with youth and then the media such as radio or TV stations make the songs more publicised and therefore they become more ‘mainstream’ and popular with the youth.
The fonts which I use on the front page are large and bold so that they stick out to the reader they are a sans serif font so that it is bold.The title ‘Rebel’ is used to try and get the reader’s attention again by making them feel like by buying this magazine they will be rebellious against the norms of life. The brightly coloured blue background is to go with the theme of the bright electric bold colours shown on the front cover.
My magazine follows the traditional conventions of a typical magazine as I have put the title at the top of the page in large bold letters with the main image underneath and then writing to explain what is going to be included inside the magazine. I did this as I thought it was a good layout and would appeal to people as they could clearly understand where everything was.
My double page spread also follows the conventions of a typical magazine as it has an introduction explaining about the article, images down the side to co operate with this text, and quote marks picking out small chunks from the text which the reader may find interesting.
However although my magazine is mainly conventional with my approach to layouts of the magazine there are aspects of each which are unconventional. For example on my front cover the title is at the top in bold, in many magazines this title is placed behind the picture on the front cover so the image sticks out more than the title. Also in the double page spread interview I have not used columns to write all the information in so this is also unconventional. I did try to create a little difference in my work however by using colours such as reds and yellows on the front page and contents page but changed this to a more girlie colours of pinks and purples in the interview, these pink and purples go more with the stereotypical gender patterns.
Although I think that my magazine is for the mainstream audience of people ages between 13-17 I think that it challenges many of the real conventions for a magazine of this type. I have a young girl on the front which is not particularly rebellious despite the name of my magazine called 'Rebel'. With such a title I think that many people would expect me to have produced a magazine for the minority who are extremely different for example people who have lots of piercings and tattoos and wear different clothes etc. I did this because my magazine is for the youth who are starting to feel part of this radicals and aspirers psychographic at a young age. It is a magazine for them to start to understand this difference and show them a slight insight to what it would be about in this lifestlye. I still portray some innocence about it by making the girl on the front cover look more approachable with no tattoos or piercings and she is wearing a pink bow in her hair which also makes her look more innocent.
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
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