Jordan Rix2871 33435 Aquinas College

AS Media StudiesOCR G321: Foundation Portfolio

Q1: WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

I Aimed My Primary Audience At……..

GirlsAge 15+/older teens

Live in: UK

Interested in….

Make-up

Popular music

Go’s To…Likes….

I wanted my magazine to be a pop magazine aimed at an older audience; primarily girls.To do this I based my magazine on billboard; which is a pop magazine for an older audience and I made it a hybrid with fashion to make it more appealing to the primary audience of girls. I felt there is a gap in the market for this as Billboard is the only pop magazine aimed at an older audience and most pop fashion hybrids are aimed at younger teens

I did this by using famous pop stars and using a famous ‘pop star’ cover photo

Also as pop magazines are stereotypically aimed at girls I used features that would attract a female audience

As they were all similarly voted for a used a mix of; Black, White, Pink and Grey.

The type of celebrity’s I would use for my main images and articles would be the type of celebrities that are ‘style icons’ as well as musicians to appeal to my target audience.

To appeal to my secondary audience of people who are genuinely interested in popular music I will not just include pop artists but artists who are in the charts of all genre.

This particular issue of billboard incorporates pink so would be stereotypically aimed at girls However Billboard is none gender specific magazine and the fact that the magazine uses other neutral colours like white means it still appeals to other audiences.Although my magazine is primarily aimed at girls I made it in the image of Billboard issues like this.

One unique selling point of my magazine and an advantage of basing similar target audience to billboard magazine is that Billboard is not sold widely in the UK therefore there is a gap in the market because although there is an existing magazine like it, it is not sold in the UK.

Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

To appeal to my audience my star would have to be a person the audience member would aspire to be. Therefore they would have to be represented in a way that would appeal to the target audience. She has to be a popular, recognised and liked celebrity. She also has to filter her appearance to match the theme of the magazine.

On the next slide I will show how actress Vanessa Hudgens can filter her appearance in media forms to appeal to the different audiences.

Vanessa Hudgens

In this photo for high school musical 3 Vanessa is dressed very innocently and girly for her role as a high school student.She is smiling and looks like she is twirling around, this adds to her innocent look as that is also how her character is portrayed.She probably wouldn’t wear this in her actual life as she probably dresses more her age and her own style. Therefore she has filtered her appearance. The film is aimed at very young children and ‘tweens’ explaining her portrayal in this photo.

However in this advertisement for Spring breakers she is in very little clothing. This would be inappropriate for her role in high school musical but not for spring breakers as the target audience is for 18+. Her stance and hand gesture portrays the ‘rebel’ character she plays. Therefore she has filtered her appearance for the appropriate role and target audience. She also probably wouldn’t wear this in real life or to any other of her roles.

Cover StarIn the pictures of my cover star I tried to make it look like she was happy and light-hearted.This would make her a likeable and relatable character and also fit with the theme of the magazine. I did this by using photo’s of her smiling and laughing. She is also the same age and gender as my target audience.

However as the pink I used was quite girly and I wanted to make sure I still appealed to an older audience so I used photo’s of her in black clothes and with red lips making it now look girly and immature.

I’ve also used this ‘pop star’ who appeals to the target audience as she is happy, girly and young. She also looks likeable and relatable and similar to the cover star she is the same age to the target audience.Again similar to the cover star she is wearing a white top to make her not look young and immature to appeal to the target audience.

Finally I used an image of popular rapper Nicki Minaj. Although she does not a ‘pop’ star her music is popular and often in the charts. I used her to advertise my magazine because she will appeal to my target audience and she is wearing pink which matches the colour scheme.

Contents Page

Q3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your product?

DISTRIBUTION

Instagram

G

App

Twitter

G

Facebook

Social media

My website would be similar to the magazine: weekly charts from every genre and latest story's on musicians. It would create a more interactive way for the fans to enjoy the magazine as we could put on links for things we spoke about in the magazine

I would use social media to distribute my magazine because my target audience are the biggest users of social media also it allows my magazine to be seen on a wider scale. It also allows my magazine to be interactive and go the extra mile by giving readers and update daily.

Promotion

G G

Tent at a LeedsI would sponsor a festival at a popular like Leeds as it would promote my magazine to people who like music

GThis Week: Joanna Allcock

9/01/14

BillboardWill interest more people to find out about the magazine and it will be advertised to a wide range of people

Merchandise

GG

Mugs

T-Shirts

G

Water Bottles

As a advertising strategy I would give these merchandise for free when customers subscribe to the magazine

Key Rings

I would publish my magazine with ‘Hearst’ who publish magazines such as Elle, Company, Bazaar and Cosmopolitan so they publish magazines relating to fashion and with similar target audiences. They also publish magazines such as reveal and inside soap relating to the gossip side of the magazine and they also publish sugar scape; for the younger audience.

Also: • Hearst Magazines UK are the largest digital publisher in the UK

• Their reach extends to 1 in 3 UK women and 1 in 4 UK adults

• Their portfolio comprises 19 magazines and 26 websitesAnd their brands are available on multiple platforms

Some of their publications:

Q4: IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR

CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA

PRODUCTS??

The magazine I was most influenced by was billboard magazine as it is a pop magazine for an older audience, it also includes a lot of conventions of music magazines I wanted to include. However as I targeted my primary audience at girls I made it a hybrid with a fashion magazine and was influenced by magazines like vogue and bazaar. They are all also very popular magazines so I thought a hybrid of the two would have many possible audiences.

The conventions of billboard magazine I used include:

cover line

Mast Head

Pull quote

Bar code

Main image

For house style I kept all the writing on one side because it looks neater and I used the same font throughout besides the title and the strapline. I stuck to the same three colours which will be used throughout the magazine.

A first I thought the use of pink wouldn't fit the genre of the magazine: aimed for older audience’s. But I found that if paired with other colours such as black, white and grey it was a convention of a lot of pop and fashion magazines with the same audience:

As my magazine was a hybrid I used font ideas from both music magazines and fashion magazines:

I also used the layout of my strapline from billboard magazine; the name very big right across the middle and the article in smaller underneath. I think this is a good way to do it as the contrasting white against the colour stands out and the name of the celebrity will catch people’s attention

Another convention I used was direct mode of address from my main image:

A convention that I did not see on any billboard magazines but used was a banner:

A convention I chose not to use was secondary images as I preferred the page to look tidy and not cluttered.

Billboard magazine who are aimed at a similar age range than my magazine usually don’t have a great deal of things on their front cover. I tried to use this as I didn’t want my cover to look cluttered or too busy. Also I think the more articles and pictures it has makes it look more like young girls pop magazine which I was trying to avoid.

Contents Page

Although Vibe magazine isn’t a pop magazine it has music which would be in billboard magazine. I used this title because I thought the big ‘G’ for generation demonstrated brand identity and I thought the title: ‘contents’ being on three separate lines and would draw in a reader as it might make them glance twice.

I also used category's for my articles as it makes things easy to find and shows the magazine has a variety of content.

From Billboard I used the aspect of light-hearted happy pictures because that is a typical convention for pop magazines.

Billboard also used category's for their articles. I used a similar font to them and used their idea of ‘every week/regulars’ because it could build a following;

people would want to get it every week.

I used secondary images and accompanied them with page numbers therefore if a reader see’s something that catches there eye straight away they know where to go

I used the idea of the titles being in colour because they stand out and would be the first thing you read

From Q magazine I used the aspect of a weekly feature, this will attract the audience as they may want to know what next weeks feature is

I also used the use of a small picture of the cover in the corner to attract the reader to sign up to our subscription, if readers do this they will be guaranteed to buy it every week.

Double page spread

I used similar colour schemes to these two double page spread as it makes the image stand out and it also matched my house comment

I used the big letter behind my text because I think it broke up the page and looked more visually interesting

I also used the technique of putting the picture large on one side because it attracts the readers and they wont be put off by the amount of text

I also used a neutral coloured background and a bold title and pictures to attract the readers attention.

I also used direct mode of address to attract the audience and also used neutral colours with one bold colour, for example in the Q example she has bold hair and in my magazine she has bold lips it creates attention.

I used a ambiguous quote to interest the reader into reading on and finding our more

Q5; How did you attract/address your audience?

How does the front cover attract the audience?

Range of content

Features

Bold masthead

Colour scheme

Main image

AgeAs the magazine is aimed at older teens I have used a cover star which is a similar age therefore they can relate and also included articles they would be interested in. I have also tried to use a more mature colour scheme of black and white.

GenderAs this magazine’s primary audience is girls as it is a hybrid with fashion I have contrasted the black and white with pink to attract readers attention.

GenreThe main image is of a girl smiling and looking happy therefore it suggests it is a pop magazine straight away because mainstream music is normally upbeat and light hearted. Its also a welcoming image in comparison to if she was frowning for example.

Ambiguous titles may attract audiences attention and persuade them to buy the magazine to read more.

Use of pink makes the black and white colour scheme not look miserable and makes the articles stand out more.

Weekly segments encourage readers to repeatedly buy the magazine

Masthead font is similar to those of a fashion magazine so highlights it unique selling point of being a hybrid magazine and also helps create its brand identity.

Use of other celebrity names in case audiences don’t like the cover star.

The colour scheme continues through the magazine and so does the use of pop related secondary images

The use of the three category's of articles shows the versatility and range of the magazine

The ‘G’ is would be repeated through the magazine and is used with all my distribution products as a logo. This creates brand identity.

I big ‘W’ breaks up the page and makes the big chunk of writing not put people off as it is looks more appealing to read

Pull quote interests the reader and makes them want to read the article especially if they like the artist.

Another happy picture of the artist is used and makes the black and white colour scheme not look miserable

Q6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

PhotoshopI used Photoshop to use some of the text on my front cover

First I created a new document

Then I picked the size I wanted my text to be

I typed the writing I wanted

I went through all the fonts and picked the one I think suited best

Finally I saved it without a background

To take the photos for the front cover we used DSLR camera’s to make it better quality and make the covers more realistic. Also the use of studio lights made it so we didn’t have to edit our photo’s as much

Blogger

We also had to put all our work on a blog through the website: blogger.com

Survey Monkey

We used a website called survey monkey to create surveys to see what our target audience wanted to see

Publisher

We used publisher to create our actual magazine, using its text and box’s etc.

Cropping tools

Text box’s

Word Art

Font’s

Q7:  Looking back at your preliminary task (Aquinas College magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression to the full product?

Firstly I think the colours on my music magazine correlate much better that on my college magazine. All the pinks are the same pink whereas some of the reds and blues are different on the Aquinas magazine.

My college magazine is missing some conventions such as a strapline:

I think the fonts on my music magazine are much stronger as they are bolder and look more like an actual magazine

Whilst doing my music magazine I realised that it would look better and neater without secondary images

I included text in my banner as it looked more relevant

On my music magazine all the articles are on one side of the page which I think looks neater that the Aquinas magazine where its on both sides

The photo on my music magazine is much better quality. This makes the magazine look better as it is the main focus point. Also I cut around the main image on my Aquinas magazine and put it on a white background whereas I kept the natural background and I think that leaving the natural background looked much better.

Even though the title on my music magazine is black it still stands out more as it is a more interesting font and would grab a readers attention more. Also the top of the college magazine looks cluttered.

Contents Page

I improved my article list by• Using bigger and

bolder text to attract attention

• Adding information about the articles underneath so the audience know what it is about

• Put the page numbers closer to the articles

I used clearer and more relevant photo’s to appeal to my audience more and compliment my colour scheme

I used a bolder and more visually interesting title to make the page look nicer and attract more attention

Conventions I included which I didn’t include in my college magazine, category's for my article, ‘interview of the week’ and weekly subscriptions