These four examples of double page spreads on the left which were the ones that had appealed to me . On the right I have made four drafts of this in my own version of my story while using the same ideas of their layouts.

Since I saw that the first three drafts looked too simple to create on Photoshop, I had decided to upgrade my last draft. I don’t know if the last double page spread example is from a ‘VIBe’ magazine, but I have chosen this because it is nice and unique by the way the title has been cut up into single letters. I really like the font of the title too because it makes it look young just like how my intended audience would write. I had followed the same example of positioning the title at the top and leaving space for the image to stand out on the whole of the right side. I had decided to refer my colours back from my front cover so that it is stable and prevents confusion. Under the title, I have written a sub-heading to make the page look more like a magazine just like this ‘VIBe’ double page spread example. Because the image was light, I have used a dark background to contrast, and I have added a purple shadow just to give the page a 3D effect rather than a flat, simple effect. I had to think about how I was going to position the text boxes as I would want to avoid putting the text boxes in the middle of the double page, so I thought of an imaginary line.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My intended audience are for girls in the age range of 14-19 years old. My reader profile on the right shows what type of things that my intended audience are interested in such as foods, drinks, TV music channels, shops, celebrities and many more. To help create my reader profile, I had a few of my intended audience’s interests and included my interests too since I am in this age range too.

From my market research, I found that this demographic was most likely to buy their magazines in a shop rather than by subscription – 98% would get the magazine this way. Therefore, I had to make sure that the front cover was immediately eye-catching to this specific target audience. The best way to do this on the front cover is to use a model of their age group, so they can identify with her; see her as a role model or something to aspire to.

Contact sheetThis is a contact sheet of the pictures that I have taken of people for my magazine. They have not been edited but just rotated.

Audience and Representation – Front coverThe model is young, wearing a hoodie which has connotations of gangster style and rebellion, and is a common style choice for R’n’B artists. She is dressed quite youthfully, again helping the target audience to identify with her.

She is black with quite light skin. Most R’n’B artists are black, so this makes the genre of the music magazine easier to infer. Her hair is worn down and she looks very natural, so this is breaking with conventions of R’n’B. This is because I want to represent my intended audience as more than just superficial, but as powerful women with intelligence, not just beauty.

The mode of address is a mixture of both formal and informal language. The sociolect used represents and constructs the target audience by speaking to them like a friend would, which helps them to identify with that social group.

Audience and Representation – Contents Page

In general, I didn’t use any props because they would draw attention away from the models. The other images I have used show a girl break dancing (Photo DSCN0467 slightly cropped), which represents my audience as active. I used photo DSCN0481 to show girls in agroup socialising, to represent them as fun-loving.The photo DSCN0430 of the cover model I used on the contents page shows a funside – although she has attitude on the cover, this shows her less serious side.

Audience and Representation – Double Page

I used a bubbly, young font to represent my target audience as young and trouble free. The different font sizes also add to this effect as it’s quite informal. The yellow and red on a black background refer back to the front cover, but are more contrasted, which creates the idea of being young and rebellious again. The image I used (Photo DSCN0456) has been edited to exclude the other model, which emphasises the pose of this Model. She looks confident, Again representing positive attributes for my intended audience.

Media InstitutionsIPC Media is the UK’s biggest publisher of magazines. It sells over 350 million copies of various magazines every year, and also has a digital division. It is owned by Time Inc. which is a massive multinational company.

Because of this, IPC Media would be a great company to publish and distribute SWAGGA.

They have three sections:Connect — mass market womenSouthBank — upmarket womenInspire — menSWAGGA would be in ‘Connect’, so with IPC it could be distributed widely. They have a lot of money and can afford the advertising need to launch a new magazine. Because its parent company is Time Inc, there would be opportunities to advertise through Warner Bros. etc. and offer very good competitions.

AdvertisingAccording to my survey results, I can see that the most preferred place to buy a magazine would be in shops.

These are m ideas of where I would want to publish my magazine. Referring back to my reader profile, it shows images of music channel logos that my intended audience would watch such as ‘FLAVA’ and ‘MTV’, and radios such as ‘Choice fm’, ‘KISS’ and ‘BBC 1xtra’.

Other ideas for publishing my magazine are advertising on television, social sites such as Facebook and Twitter, putting posters in public, and probably YOUTUBE.

Attracting an Audience for my media productFrom my audience survey, I found that 92% of my respondents were female and just 8% male. Because of this, I included images that were relevant to this group and easy for them to identify with. I also included, in my double page

spread ,an interview, which would be interesting to girls, specifically of the age group 14-19 as they are interested in the personal lives of celebrities. The respondents also said that they would buy a magazine for a tempting competition. In this case, I included a talent competition, “Show your Talent” asking the reader to show their personality and shine. Teenage girls love talent TV shows, so this will be a draw to them.

I didn’t offer free giveaways, as, although my readership suggested it, I looked at other similar magazines and saw that they didn’t do this.

What Have I Learnt?• PlanningAs I didn’t have Publisher at home, I had to use Word to create

my preliminary draft. Zoomerang was a very useful tool for carrying out my market research as I could reach a much wider audience. SlideShare also helped me to present my planning in a more accessible way. The Internet was really useful, as it helped me to research different media products, and helped me to identify the codes and conventions of media products. It also helped me to research media Institutions and to realise the importance of them in media production.

What Have I Learnt?• HardwareI had used digital cameras before, but this time I had

to be more aware of what picture I was taking, and why. I had to make sure the lighting was right which is something I hadn’t really thought about before. Also, mise-en-scene had to be taken into account to represent the audience. At first, I didn’t do this as thoroughly as I could, so I had to take some more images of different people and using different angles and shot sizes for variety.

Using the Macs for the first time was a challenge as I had to learn a different operating system to Windows.

What Have I Learnt?• SoftwareI had used some image editing software before, and found

PhotoShop quite easy to use once I got the hang of the controls. Using layers was different to what I’d done before, and found cropping and editing images quite painstaking and time consuming. The outcome, however, was worthwhile as it gives a more professional look in the end.

What Have I Learnt?• BloggerUsing a blog was new to me. It was quite similar in some ways to

Facebook and other social networking sites. It was an effective way of presenting my work, as a folder would need me to print a lot – especially as I did a lot of drafts. It also allowed other people to look at my work and comment, helping me to evaluate and improve what I was doing.

Progression from Preliminary to Full Product

Progression from Preliminary to Full ProductThis school magazine is much more basic than my final magazine because:• It looks ‘flat’ – the background seems plain and uninteresting without a colour or gradient effect on it. • The colours are quite simple and not chosen specifically for the target audience• The images are not edited• The image at the top right is too big• The image at the top right is supposed to be a logo, but is not stylised enough to look like one• The second image looks too busy as it hasn’t been edited

On the plus side…• I have taken into account my target audience by including competitions and addressing them in the right mode of address and other things that would interest them.

Progression from Preliminary to Full ProductSimilarities…

Masthead using appropriate font for target audience - youthful

Integrated text and image- But different layout

Models the target audience can identify with due to them

looking at the camera

Progression from Preliminary to Full ProductDifferences…

Masthead in different places

More text

Different tone and mode of address

Less text