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In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In my front cover, it is clear that there are some similarities with my fonts, layout and images with conventional magazines. The most conventional aspect of my front cover is the layout; the medium closeup of the face, the masthead at the top, the headings down the left side framing the face and the pug in the bottom right corner. I think that this is quite effective and makes my front cover look professional. The colour blue that I have used is slightly more unconventional than the red, but I feel as though it works with the white and red and the image. The fonts I have used are conventional and similar to the ones used on this NME magazine as they are easy to read and are sans serif fonts.

In my contents page, there are some more similarities with conventional magazines. My contents page is slightly unprofessional looking compared to this NME contents page. There are, however, some similarities between my contents page and the NME contents page such as the main picture being quite central and one of the main features of the page. The colours that I have used are conventional – black, red, blue and white – as these colours are effective.

In my double page spread, there are many conventional features, such as the colours (blue, black, red and white). Most double page spreads have a quote from the article at the top of the page to give the reader an idea of the article. The layout of my double page spread is conventional because my article is laid out in columns.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The target audience for my magazine is mainly male teenagers aged between 16 and 20. I am aiming my magazine at young people who like the Indie genre of music and bands such as Arctic Monkeys and Foo Fighters. I am trying to attract male and female teenagers (mainly male) by using stereotypically male colours (blue) and some gender neutral colours like white, black and red. The fact that he is sat in a woodland environment contrasts with the conventions of other teenage boys who live in urban settings.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and

why?

The kind of shops that I imagine my magazine might be sold in are most newsagents, Sainsburys, Spar, Morrisons, Asda, Tesco etc. This is because my magazine is conventional and professional-looking.

I would also like my magazine to be published online on websites such as

3D Issue, Web Publication, Digital Magazine Publishing. This is because

my magazine is conventional and professional-looking.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for my magazine is mainly male teenagers aged between 16 and 20. I am aiming my magazine at young people who like the Indie genre of music and bands such as Arctic Monkeys and Foo Fighters. I am trying to attract male and female teenagers (mainly male) by using stereotypically male colours (blue) and some gender neutral colours like white, black and red.

Aspects of my coverI am trying to attract male and female teenagers (mainly male) by using stereotypically male colours (blue) and some gender neutral colours like white, black and red. I chose a male model wearing blue because I am targeting mainly males. The fonts I have used are simple and bold and attracts both male and female teenagers.

How did you attract/address your audience?

How did you attract/address your audience?

How my products have been written/constructed

I have written my article in an informal way to attract a younger audience and make it easier and more fun for them to read and enjoy. The fonts and colours are easy to read

and appeal to the target audience as black and white are gender neutral colours and blue and red are more stereotypically male colours, which is the audience I am trying to

attract: mainly boys, but some females who are interested in this type of music.

Adverts/marketing

How would you attract/address your audience?

To address/attract my audience through adverts, I would advertise my magazine using signs/posters in shop windows, in other magazines with the same genre – indie – such as Q, Kerrang, NME, etc. The shops that I would choose to put the signs and posters up in would be newsagents and some supermarkets. I would also advertise my magazine online on social networking sites such as FaceBook and YouTube as these are probably the most common sites used by young people and my target audience. I would advertise my magazine on online magazine publishing websites so that people would want to buy the online version of it.

In the shops, my magazine would be displayed with the music magazines, just above the middle shelf, with other magazines in the same genre. This is because it is at the young peoples’ eye level and they would look towards my magazine if that is what type of genre they are interested in.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this

product?

Blogger

Adobe InDesign

Fujifilm Finepix s1500

I used Blogger to post updates on the development of my magazine

I used Adobe InDesign to construct my magazine.

I used my Fujifilm camera to take the pictures that I have used in my magazine.

Blogger

This is a screenshot of the first thing that you see after you have logged in. From here you can view your blog, edit and upload new posts, view Blogs that you are subscribed to, view your blog, view your blog’s stats.

This is the most recent blog post of mine, my final double page spread. From this page, you can change the layout of the blog and edit the posts.

This screen is the ‘New Post’ screen. You can add pictures, videos, links, etc. to your blog. And you can change the fonts, colours, size, and layout of the text. After you have finished writing the blog post you can either upload it or save it as a draft.

Adobe InDesign

This was the first time I have used this programme, and I didn’t find it too difficult to use as I am familiar with PhotoShop and the layout is fairly similar. I wanted to use InDesign as opposed to FireWorks because I feel that it gave a more professional outcome.

Digital Camera

I played around with the settings on my camera when I was taking the photos, I changed around the white balance, and found that ‘Shade’ was the best and I played around with the ISO and found that ISO 200 was the best because there was no noise and let the right amount of light in.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Technology

How to make an authentic magazine

I have learnt to use Blogger effectively to upload my coursework, I have also learnt to use InDesign effectively to create my front cover, contents page and my double page spread.

I researched and looked at professional music magazines being sold and took inspiration from the fonts, colour schemes, images, etc. and included that in my magazine.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Conventions of typical magazines

I have looked at other magazines and the conventions of them. Magazines such as Q, Kerrang and NME use colours such as red, black and white because they are gender neutral and link with the genre of music, this attracts both males and females that enjoy listening to indie music.

How to target and attract an audience

I feel as though the main thing that would attract an audience is the colours on the front cover and the image on the cover. These have to be eye catching and draw the audience in and make them want to pick up the magazine and read it. For example, I went with fairly gender neutral colours and an image of a teenage boy for my front cover as I am trying to attract male and female teenagers with an interest for indie style music.

How to communicate?

I have learnt that using more informal language in a music magazine targeted towards younger people, makes it more fun to read and more enjoyable, and that also the font, the font size, the colour, and the layout can also have an impact on how much the audience enjoys the magazine.