2. Question One In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
3. My magazine uses almost all of the traditional conventions of magazines. On the next few pages I have labelled the elements of my magazine compared to professional magazines. The only way that I have challenged the conventions is through my masthead contrasting with the colour scheme of the rest of the magazine.
5. Tric Conventions Masthead Masthead Minimalist Backdrop Heading Sticker Quote Main Image Polaroid Feature Articles Bottom Bar Barcode
6. Conventions Masthead Masthead Date Issue Information Headline Article Intro Live Image Photo Credits Feature Articles ‘Plus’ Bank Index Subscription Bar
7. Tric Conventions Masthead Masthead Date News Studio Shots Editors Note Article Intro Live Image Photo Credits Feature Articles Quote Bank Index Subscription Bar
8. Conventions Quote Basic Colours Two Coloured Headline Tagline Track Reviews Large Main Image Unjustified Text Recording Studio Shots
9. Tric Conventions Two Colour Headline Thumbnail Album Covers Large Main Image Unjustified Text Time Line Basic Colour Scheme Quotes
10. Question Two How does your media product represent particular social groups?
11. The people represented in my magazine are all male. That is a very important factor attention needs to be drawn to. This could suggest that the majority of the readers of my magazine would be more inclined to prefer to have a male cover artist on my magazine. There are two reasons for this, aspiration and sex appeal. The male readers look to the males in this magazine as role models and examples of success and one factor that could influence female readers is sex appeal. Although this is only one possible reason. My cover artist is a prime example of the idealised male rock look, the unkempt hair and beard suggests an untidiness, a trait that comes with a carefree lifestyle like that of a rock star. I believe that this is an accurate representation of some of the readers of this magazine as well as a large proportion of the popular artists that readers are currently familiar with.
12. This photo shows a group of lads that are sporting relatively serious looks without smiles, which isn’t uncommon for this sort of magazine. Although their looks would seem too out of place in an R’n’B magazine, they have an indie look that is somewhat similar to that of the Arctic Monkeys, which is a very popular look. Their dark clothes and stern looks make them look strong and secure which works well as they want to seem firm and professional. Yet these guys seem to be acting beyond their years and finding a different image. The younger audiences generally get a more fun and accessible vibe from artists of a similar age, though this is partially lost because this look can appeal to a wider range, so they are not restricting themselves.
13. Question Three What kind of media product institution might distribute your media product and why?
14. Magazine Statistics After searching through many different distributors in the UK including Emap, IPC, BBC Magazines, Future Publishing and Bristol Magazines. I feel that ICP would be best suited to my magazine as this company is the distributor of "NME". IPC is also one of the biggest magazine distributors in the UK. It claims to reach approximately 27million UK adults. It also has a website which is very useful and allows people to buy the current issue of their magazine over the internet. The other magazine distributers offer a similar package although the readership is lower in some of them and the majority of the magazines that the other companies distribute also cater to different genres including fashion and gossip magazines.
15. A large readership can be a huge contributor to the decision of which institution should distribute your magazine as it is directly proportional to the profit made. Each year, in order to asses the amount of money that the institutions can charge advertisers for space in their magazine, they must calculate the readership. The higher the readership, the higher the prices, they are essentially paying for the number of people that are estimated to be seeing that issue and therefore seeing their product. The institutions also have to be clever in which companies can advertise which products. They have to be the sort of product that would be attractive to the audiences otherwise a reputation can change. How Magazines Make Money
17. These are pictures of my target audience. These are all very similar but are all from separate gigs, Arctic Monkeys, Oasis and Kasabian. These are the kinds of acts that my magazine would cover and the majority of these people are males and around 20 years old. Oasis Kasabian Arctic Monkeys Although, this is an unfair way of showing my target audience as these photos are taken at gigs and they demand a very physical presence to keep up, but this is still a relatively accurate description of what my magazine to be, music enthusiasts, the right genre of music and of the right age group.
18. Project Phoenix Summary Background Listeners (39% of the 16-45 population) Background listeners are not as passionate about music as most. Music is the backdrop to their day rather than the main focus. They enjoy having music on, and listening to an iPod or the radio a lot. Background listeners are more likely to be female. Songs are more important than albums and they don’t go to concerts The Headliners (20% of the 16-45 population) Headliners like music, but are no more passionate about it than the average person of the same age. The music they’re into has a lot to do with what’s hot at the moment. Headliners are more likely to be male and the group is slightly skewed towards the under-30s. They are more likely than other segments to place emphasis on whether the artist is well known or whether they think the artist is cool - Fame and celebrity are important factors to them. Track Hunters (24% of the 16-45 population) Track Hunters like discovering new bands, but are probably not the first person to find out about new artists. They are slightly more likely to be female. The Track Hunter doesn’t buy into celebrity culture and fads – they think the albums are as important as the songs. They think music is best enjoyed live, and when they go to a gig it’s to see a band they’ve heard good reviews about. Pace-setters (17% of the 16-45 population) Pacesetters see themselves as being interested in different things to the mainstream and as having a true passion for music. A male skewed group who talk to friends about music a lot. Whilst the Pacesetter group includes people who have an obsessive interest in music, it‘s fairly diverse but not all members are that extreme – what they all have in common though is a deep rooted passion for music.
19. My magazine is mainly targeted at Pacesetters as some of the content is dedicated to discovering new bands and the sheer amount of music content will cater to their wants. But the other groups will also enjoy our content. Background Listeners – There is a large amount of advice on the best music to listen to rather than making them find it themselves. The Headliners – There are elements of glamorising some of the celebrities which will attract the headliners. Track Hunters – There are a lot of emphasis on the albums as well the songs, and the reviews section will also appeal to the track hunters. For my target audience I wanted to identify what a typical reader of my magazine likes and does in their spare time to cater to their needs. The girl has long hair and black clothing, which is stereotypical of some teenagers interested in this genre of music as are males who wear the checked shirts and have long unkempt hair. From these are pictures of the sorts of people that would buy this magazine. They look as though they would shop at popular and trendy shops like Topman and River Island. So that is the sort of clothes that I had my models wear and the types of advertisers that I would allow to sell their products. Another important factor of the stereotype is that these people are musicians and if they play then the appeal can be created through uniting the audience through music in other ways than the artists in the magazine.
21. This is a copy of my front cover. I have labelled on these photos the different techniques that I have used to attract the audiences.
22. Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience? These are copies of my contents and double page spread. I feel that the techniques that I have used have attracted my young and aspiring audiences.
23. Question Six What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
24. The Nikon SLR allowed me to take high quality photos for my magazine, when playing with the settings it can be a complex piece of kit so it required some practice of how to use it efficiently I was also new to Blogger which was easy to us and I found it very useful. It is a service which made it much easier to display my progress. I think I would have struggled in my research and planning section of my project if I didn’t have the use of the internet, it enabled me to find past issues of magazines as well as copious amounts of existing magazine statistics During the creation on my magazine I used Adobe Photoshop, a program that I was new to and it was a steep learning curve, though I feel that I have used it to a good standard that has made my work look relatively professional.
25. Dafont allowed me to search through thousands of fonts to find one that suited the purpose that I wanted to achieve, so overall, it helped me to create the magazine I wanted to. A combination of Slideshare and Powerpoint allowed me to post powerpoint presentations onto my blog which let me show the progression of my work in a different format. Facebook was invaluable when it came to getting feedback for my work, which allowed me to improve my work based on the views of my potential readers.
26. Question Seven Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
27. In my preliminary work I found that I used too many different fonts and too many shades of the same colour. To combat this problem I picked three colours which were all obviously different from each other and used the dropper tool to make sure they were the same each time they were used. Although, I feel that the colour scheme worked so I just made a more clear-cut selection of red, white and black. After looking back and comparing my preliminary work to my final work, I found that that my pages looked too empty of content. I decided to take influences from real magazines and this helped me to fill my pages and stop them looking simplistic and made them busier and more interesting. For example I decided to put sticker effects on my cover as seen in many of the leading magazines.
28. I asked people for feedback on my magazine. Here is a film of one of the small interviews.
