When creating my magazine I used and challenged the forms of conventions. I have used the magazines in similar genre for inspiration, in particular We Love Pop, and Top of the Pops. From these I looked at the magazines and looked at what they had in common and conventions that are used in more issues of the magazine. I have tried to include some of the conventions and then to challenge certain conventions.

In this example I have used the title in the same position as Top of the Pops. I have done this as I tried having the title on a slight angle and it did not look right, so I made it all across the screen. I have used the convention, but at the same time I feel that I have challenged the convention by adding 2 colours and also I have made it bolder and I have made it so that the title stands out more than all of the other text and images on the screen. I have also added a spotted outline to the text, which makes it look cool and more aimed at my target audience. I have added two colours black and blue to add a dimension to the title and to make it more appealing and professional. I have made it so the title takes up an 7th of the page to enforce the brand identity and to theoretically ‘shout’ the title. I have added a bevel to the title to make it stand out, and to try and make it look like it is coming out of the page, so that the audience are attracted to the magazine, rather then all of the other flat titles in competing magazines.

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

I have used a common convention of both of the competing magazines, We Love Pop and Top of the Pops, which is to write over the main covering image. I have done this so that then audience know who the person is on the front, and to make he image stand out more and the article that will obviously be the main seller of the magazine. Also I feel that I have slightly challenged the convention by using a bold text, whereas all of the others that I have looked at have used skinny texts. I thought that this would make the text stand out more and that it would add more urgency to the magazine and invite more people in to look at the magazine.

For the background of the magazine I have completely challenged the conventions as I have added a background to the magazine. I wanted to add a missing depth to the magazine and a warmth of colour that otherwise would not have existed. I wanted the magazine to shout colour, and feel that it looked more professional with the background as I wanted to minimise the white space and a clinical feel, which I feel that the magazine has achieved. I also think that it makes all of the elements in the magazine stronger.

Continued…

I have used a yellow circle to be able to make a point more visible and stand out more to the audience. And make that part of the magazine look better. I have also looked at the other magazines that have used a similar convention, however they do not hold as much information as I have used. However, I still feel like the convention has worked and gives the same effect as it has done on the professional media products.

I have used a medium longshot of the artist that I have chosen to use. I have don’t this as most of the magazines I have looked at use this as a convention. Also it focuses the reader onto the artist and to look at the artist, so that it is emphasised that this is the artist and it is in this magazine. It needs to be big to make the reader respond, and buy the magazine, as it is the main focus of the magazine. I have not challenged any of the conventions here.

I have used a strip at the bottom of the magazine to promote the freebie that is in the magazine. Some of the magazines that I have looked at have just used the bottom to promote posters in the magazine and others have not used any as a solid convention. I think therefore that I have challenged the convention.

I have added a fashion section to make it look very realistic and to capture the audience. Most magazines had this section o the front so I thought it would be the best thing to also have the section.

I feel that the institution that would distribute my magazine would be the supermarkets , and the publishers. To meet the demand of the institution I looked at and wrote about some magazines in my genre. I felt by doing this I would have a grater understanding of the genre that I was trying to replicate. It would also help0 me to look at all of the conventions the magazine would use, so that when I created my magazine it would look like my genre and appeal to the audience. I feel that supermarkets would be the best way to distribute the magazine as there is a variety of competitors to chose from, but it would also have a wider audience as lots of people got tot the supermarkets and is convenient form my target audience. I feel that the magazine looks quite professional, which would entice the target audience. With the publisher distributing the magazine I believe that the magazine would take off as they have quite a lot of contacts and they would be able to put the magazine to the public and they would be able to look at the magazines that they would be able to assess whether they would want to buy the magazine. However there would be a downside to this. The music magazine genre pop, that I have selected for teenagers may be quite cramped, and this would mean that the magazine publishers and the supermarket may not want to stock the product and the publishers may have to honour the existing customers. Also there would be an increased competition, but then I would think that my magazine looks better and more interesting than the ones on sale already without too much editing. But of course i9 have not perfected this yet.

What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?

How does your media product represent particular social groups.

To gain inspiration I have bought a selection of magazines so that I could deifier the age group that my media product and so that I could get a feel of the different social groups that the competing magazines represent, and what I can to add a new flavour to the magazine genre of teenage pop. After a lot of careful planning and dissecting magazines I have decided to aim my magazine in the pop genre for 12-18. generally the magazines that I have looked at were aged for people 10-14. I thought that I found a little niche that could compete with the other magazines in the same genre but make it look and seem for older users. I also thought that there was nothing out there particularly for the age group that I have selected and what is on the market is limited.

I have chosen to do pop. This was because I thought I knew more about the genre and that I could execute it better than the other genres on the market. I have also decided that there is not a lot of competition or choice for the people that like and read the genre. In reality, the pop industry is worth millions and I think that magazines, comparing to other magazines it is not very well represented in this format. I thought that it was a shame and that I had a good enough understanding to tackle a pop magazine, as expectations are quite high in the genre.

The main focus of the magazine will be girls. I think that the colour scheme that I have used shows that well. The pinks and the purples in the magazine suggests the target audience, but also it makes the magazine bright and airy so that it looks inviting and appealing. I feel that this is the secret into getting the target audience to buy the magazine. I also did this by featuring a female solo artist. This may attract the lads to buy the magazine and they would be classed as the secondary target audience, and was not intentionally my audience. I also wanted to use a lot of female artists instead of male artists, so that the audience can relate to some of the stories. This was a risky strategy, but I want for females to respect the female artists as much as they would the male artists.

I have not used the language of teenagers to engage with them., I have used proper English grammar in a simplified format, so any technical terms I have used I have explained what they mean, so the magazine is not to technical and a boring geeky read. I felt though that the magazine needed to instil proper grammar into teenagers and not to encourage text speak, as it is quite sloppy so to speak. I wanted to be quite formal in a casual way, but to be honest I feel that the teenagers may not notice that I have even done this.

I asked people in the class what they thought of the colour scheme and I had to change it from my original ideas from the research. I am quite glad I did this as it is not what I liked that mattered, so the target audience chose what colours they wanted. This plays a big impact onto the types of people and the popularity of the magazine and the people that buy it. My original ideas was that I would used deeper colours like reds, oranges, browns and a blue. However people thought that this was a horrible combination and did not go with the genre so the target audience was happier when I changed it based on their recommendations.

The images that I decided to use was a big decision as I did not know what angle I should take. Eventually I came up with the idea that I would focus the magazine around women. I thought about this for a while and put it to a few colleagues in the class and they said that it was a good idea and a different approach to the male dominated magazines that we see ion the shelves today. I also thought that I should be able to express myself through the medium of pop.

I have researched two magazine from the same genre. I researched We love pop and Top of the pops magazine. I noticed that the magazines had the same conventions that made them suitable for the target audience, like the magazine being busy. So I looked at all of my research in detail and thought that I would have to do the same to make the magazine suitable for the genre and similar target audience. I would have to copy the conventions but add my own twist on the magazine to make it different from all of the other magazines. Also I had to adapt the language as the magazine that I was doing was for teenagers. I had to be able to make the reader understand the language, but then not feel that they were being belittled. This was an important factor in getting the magazine to capture the audience. I added onto the front cover the names of the band that related to the genre and did an article on them. This makes the audience look at the magazine and makes it obvious that this is the target audience and the genre that I am trying to get. It will also brand the magazine as some customers may buy it becu8ase it is their favourite people on the cover. They will remember this and will then next time they see the magazine they may want to buy it. I think that my magazine would target 12-18 year olds in the pop genre. I feel that the audience would be young, due to the colour scheme and feel that this will attract them to read the magazine. I also think that the articles that are in the magazines wold suit the audience, which would be the main focus for them.

I feel that the product that I have created is a mass market product. I think this as I have a wide age group that the magazine is targeted at and I would say 95% of pop music magazine buyers are female. I have targeted the magazine at girls, but I feel that I have not fully focused it as the colours that I have used are unisex, so boys could read it as well as a secondary audience, and not feel too out of place. This makes my prodct open to the mass martket and also the stroies inside are generalised to the wide target auidence.

Who would the audience of your media product

To address the audience I did some research to see what the target audience wants out of the magazine. I had to make the magazine easy to understand and read, still making it look busy and interesting. I think that I addressed the audience well, incorporating all of the factor that it knew the target audience. I used quite a new and funky masthead on the front of the magazine as I thought that the audience would like to see this and I felt that it looked better than the mastheads on some of the previous magazines. I thought that it fitted the genre of the magazine and I also think that it addressed the issue of targeting the audience. This will make the audience think that the magazine will be made specifically for them.

How did you attract/address the audience