2. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
Colours used:
House style
Sally McManus
3. Mast head
Cover star
Cover Cover
lines lines
Direct
address
Barcode
Incentive
Sally McManus
4. Mast head
Cover
Cover lines
lines
Direct
address
Pull
quote Cover star
Main cover line
Images corresponding with cover
lines
Sally McManus
6. How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
Genre: Indie/
alternative
Age: 15-25
Sex: Male and female
Sally McManus
7. What kind of media institution might distribute
your media product and why?
IPC Media sell magazines such as NME and Uncut
Bauer Media sell magazines such as Kerrang, Heat and Q
Sally McManus
8. Who would be the audience for your media
product?
Sally McManus
My music magazine follows typical conventions of new and already existing media products. Both mastheads from my magazine and the already existing magazine Q are slightly covered by the cover star, also both are bold and consisting of two different colours which helps to attract the audience’s attention. Cover lines are placed down one side of the cover star on both magazine which makes it easy to read and look uncluttered and simple. With my magazine being targeted at a more niche audience it doesn’t include many cover lines which therefore challenges existing media products as it shows it’s unnecessary to clutter the front page with many stories. Each cover line on both magazine have a number next to it corresponding with what page it’s placed on within the magazine. Within the weak fallow area on the front cover on my music magazine is the barcode as I know people would only glance there therefore wouldn’t place information there that they would ignore. The double page spread from my magazine has the same layout as existing magazines such as Q allowing pictures on one side and the article on the other.
Within my front cover page it is very similar to the existing music magazine Q as both contain direct address from the main cover star, both have all cover lines down the left hand side and both mast heads are slightly covered by the cover star. Another similarity is that both magazines have contain red white and black in their colour scheme although Q also contain orange. One of the things that make my magazine unique and stand out against Q is that it contains an incentive which would persuade my target audience to buy my magazine instead of one from a company such as Q.
Again, like on my front cover. There are quite a few similarities between a contents page from Q magazine and one from SYNC. Both cover lines are again down the left hand side of the image of the cover star and both cover stars have direct address with the audience. However, on the contents page for my media product SYNC it contains many things that Q does not. It has a banner of images running along the bottom of it that correspond with cover lines, it also has a main cover line and a pull quote from the interview with the cover star. This would entice my audience to buy my magazine over Q’s as they would be able to see slightly what the main cover line is about and be interested to read more of it.
In my double page spread it is similar to that of a double page spread from Q magazine as they both have drop caps, the cover star on one A4 side of the spread and both contain the artist name, they both also have direct address from the cover star. However on my double page spread, unlike the double page spread from Q magazine, it contains a title and a kicker. By having these on my double page spread I believe it reveals a little more from the interview which would entice my target audience to read the rest of the article.
My media product is aimed at social groups of both male and female aged between 15 to 25 who like the indie/alternative music genre. All whotook part in my market research were mainlypeople of this description which gave me the outline for my target audience and roughly how much they would purchase my product for. Through the results from my market research I found that most of the people buying my magazine would be studentstherefore it would have to be low cost as they live off a budget therefore my magazine would cost £2. I also found that some people buy music magazine simply for the incentive therefore I decided to make it one of my priorities to include one within my magazine.
After looking at both publishing houses IPC Mediaand Bauer Media, I believe that IPC Media seems to be the more suitable company to distribute my media product. I came to this conclusion as they distribute magazines such as NME which is similar to my magazine SYNC as they have similar target audiences and the same main music genre which is indie.
From the results of my market research I realised most people prefer indie music to other genres therefore I chose the colours black white and red as these colour are used on other magazines such as NME when portraying indie bands. I also chose to list indie bands and artists in my cover lines as this would make my magazine appeal to my target audience.
A vast majority of the people who took part in my research decided that the cover star in the main attraction to the magazine and what makes them purchase it therefore I have chosen to have my cover star taking up most of my front cover and contents page.
To attract my target audience I kept a consistent house style throughout my magazine using the same colour scheme of black red and white as shown by my double page spread, mast head and cover star. The image of the cover star on the front page is also a portrait photograph which has direct address to any readers which would make them feel as though the cover star is looking at them and makes the magazine seem more personal.
I used programs such as photo shop to manipulate my images.
I have learnt about rule of thirds when taking a photograph.
I used the website slide share as this enabled me to upload any word documents and embed them into my blog.
I used the website blogspot.com to create this blog to upload all my finished work onto.
This shows the difference between my preliminary task to my final product.