2. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Firstly it
follows the conventions of a music magazine as there is a clear
main image which dominates the front cover. When creating the front
cover I looked at 3 different music magazine front covers to
establish what conventions I required in order to make my front
cover use conventions and forms of real music magazines. Here I
found that direct address was also crucial for a music magazine
front cover and here I have included examples of how direct address
has been used to encourage the reader to purchase the magazine:
this is a method I have included successfully throughout my
magazine front cover. I have also included a suitable and relevant
slogan which is directly located underneath the main title of the
magazine. This is used to illustrate to the audience what the
magazine is about and most importantly what music genre it
concentrates on. For example in my magazine I have named AME it may
not be immediately obvious which music genre it concentrates on,
which Is why I have then used the slogan for all of your
alternative music needs to make this clear and ensure it attracts
the right audience members. This can also help create an identity
for the magazine and this is a good way to make it stand out from
other music magazines as a memorable slogan.
3. 2. how does your media product represent particular social
groups? My media product uses the colour scheme of pinks and
greens. This makes it clear that this magazine is aimed at mostly
females and of an age range of 16-24 years. The slogan of the
magazine helps to clearly indicate that this magazine I aimed at an
audience of people whom are interested in alternative music as this
is what the genre of my magazine is. The magazine front cover has a
low amount of cover lines as from a questionnaire I asked twenty
people to fill out the most popular option was to have a low amount
of cover lines. This is to make it easier to read and also allows
the main image to be the main point. The use of the artist on the
front cover being clearly of a teenage girl helps to indicate the
audience and social group of the magazine.
4. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your
media product? I have analysed three institutions; these include:
Music republic ltd, IPC media and Bauer media. The company which
may distribute my music magazine is Bauer media and IPC this is
because I am aware from research that IPC media distributes for two
thirds of the female population and whist my music magazine is
mostly aimed at females it Is a suitable distributors for my
magazine. IPC media also distributes NME magazine which has
similarities to mine in the sense that they both are
indie/alternative music magazines. Bauer is also a company that may
distribute my magazine as they distribute magazines such as Q and
my magazine AME being different will help to engage a larger
audience variety to the company. My target audience is mainly
females aged 16-24 and I have chosen to aim it at mainly females as
I fall under the category of a female In the age range 16-24 which
can help me to tailor the magazine to fit the needs of what I would
personally look for in a magazine. The fact I have included the
music genre Alternative/indie as my main genre is effective as it
is a popular music genre for my target audience which can be
beneficial for the distributor of my magazine to help them engage
in more of a variety.
5. How did you attract/address audience attention? on my front
cover I have used direct address in my main image to help attract
audience members. I have used language such as you and win! as it
addresses the audience which helps when selling the magazine. I
have used this technique throughout the contents and DPS as well to
continue the use of direct address and attract audience attention.
Bright colours and a clear colour scheme have been used throughout
my media products to stand out and help indicate the music genre.
This is further illustrated by the slogan for the magazine for all
your alternative music needs this helps to attract the correct
audience. The audience who are interested in alterative music. The
use of the large and clear magazine title on the front cover,
contents and DPS portrays the use of audience attention being
engaged through a clear magazine title. My DPS includes a large
image which take over the whole of a page. This also helps attract
audience attention.
6. The software's I have used throughout the production of my
media products include Photoshop and Quark. I have never used Quark
until now and I have learnt a lot of skills when using it to
produce my DPS and contents page for my music magazine AME. I now
have a much clearer understanding of how to create and edit
publications on quark. I have used Photoshop a lot to produce my
front cover, therefore I have had to create text and edit images
for not only the front cover but also my contents page and DPS. I
took my own images on a camera and then after importing them onto
Photoshop I edited them to use on my contents, front cover and also
my DPS. This has given me much more experience with editing text
and images and also I have learnt how to export and save as pdf
which I did not know how to do before.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you
have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? I feel
I have made progression with using and understanding Photoshop and
quark. I can now edit images and text confidently on Photoshop
which I did not feel I could do during the production my
preliminary task. Furthermore my understanding on quark has been
improved as I am now much more confident using it to create
products. I carried out much more research before creating my music
magazine than I did before creating my school magazine for example
I researched more in depth of my music magazine in terms of colour
schemes, audience research and creating a questionnaire was very
beneficial and helped me when producing my full final product as I
could take the answers that the people who filled in my
questionnaires answered and weave them into my products. I feel I
have learnt more on image editing on Photoshop for example how to
edit it to stand out more on a page or how to edit it to link with
the genre or feel of the magazine. I feel my music magazine was
much more professional looking and polished than my preliminary
task for the reason I didnt have much understanding on using the
software's and editing and importing text and images that were
relevant.