Katie Cox
Q In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media products?
A There are many ways in which my media product develops and challenges
forms and conventions of real media products. I achieved an authentic look because I
followed the generic conventions of a real music magazine to create a sense of realism
and to add believability that my magazine was an authorized music magazine. I made
note of even little features/details on a real magazines and added them to my own, things
such as the borders at the top and bottom of Kerrang magazine informing readers of the
bands that are included in the magazine.
I saw that this was an significant aspect for readers to know who they would be reading
about and decided it was important to add two to my own magazine at the top and bottom
of the page. The other ways in which my magazine is similar to the real magazines I was
inspired by are through things such as the image I used. I decided that I would use an
image that would be an extreme close-up of my singers face and this would be the main
focus of the page, since my magazine included a large amount of text I thought it was
important to not have an image that would make my magazine look over crowded. I think
that the image compliments the amount of text fittingly.
Q How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
A I realised that the main colour that rock magazines use are darker colours like black, red,
dark green and dark blue, I understood that it would looks inappropriate to see bright pink and
white or pastel colours used in a rock music magazine as this would appear to look girly and like a
pop magazine for a younger target audience.
Since my target audience primarily was male teenage to adults I decided to use red and dark green
as my main colours as they fit the masculinity of the genre of the magazine although it would still be
suitably fine for others outside this target audience to enjoy this type of genre. There are many
ways in which my magazine represents particular social groups. A popular youth subculture I have
used in my magazine is the punks/rockers I decided to base my magazine on this youth subculture
as it is a very widespread trend in today’s society and I found it quite simple to put together images
Q What kind of media
institution might distribute
your media product and why?
A
Similar to Kerrang I believe that my magazine would be best sold nationwide
as apposed to an independent publisher as it looks like it is similar to Kerrang
and has the ability to become successful outside of its local area as of its
nationwide extensive target audience. As of this it could be the product of a
multinational conglomerate that is distributed by companies such as EMAP
and Bauer media group. Both of these companies have owned the distributing
rights to Kerrang which concludes that they have distributed the largest selling
rock magazines so I think they may have interest in my magazine with such a
similar look to Kerrang. My magazine would be sold in the UK and could go
nationwide if it seems a hit with audiences. With IPC my magazine could
extend to television, websites and would appeal to demographic audiences.
An advantage of it being published by an independent publisher is that a huge
profit wouldn't be needed to manage however it would be a lot less exclusive
and wouldn't get much exposure to a wider audience and my product is more
mainstream.
Q Who would be the audience for your
media product?
A I think the audience of my
media product would be males ages 14-30.
The reason I think this is because my
magazine is quite masculine looking even
though the main image is a close up of a girls
face. I think that if a magazine is masculine it
can attract both males and females however if
it is more feminine it will not attract males. I
wanted to attract both so I used my theory to
achieve this. My reader profile is valid
evidence of this and can back up evidence of a
more male based viewing for my magazine.
My key stats confirm that 76% of my audience
are males and 24% are females. I have tried to
ensure that my audience would be males ages
14-30 and by doing this I decided to base my
magazine on punk/rock youth subculture as it
is a very extensive trend in today’s society as I
have previously stated and I found it easy to
create a magazine which followed this trend. I
have also included a ‘poster special’ section
which I deliberately used male bands for the
role as it would be unlikely for there to be more
girl rock bands than male.
Q How did you attract/address your
audience?
A
In the corner of my magazine I have included the
chance to win free Metallica tickets. I included this
because it makes an audience feel more interactive
and involved in the magazine as well as having the
‘exciting’ chance to win an expensive freebie. I think
my magazine is able to attract an audience as it
looks appealing and draws in people who are
interested in this type of music to read on and to get
involved with the competitions included on the front
page.
The writing style I have used is chatty and informal so the atmosphere is like one you would share with
friends. The audience would not feel intimidated by formal writing like you may perhaps after reading a
magazine that is written in formal Standard English.
Mise-en-scène is used largely in my magazine to create a
sense of the punk/rock style, as instruments such as guitars
are popular in this sub-genre I have included one of my
models holding a guitar and the other holding a microphone
to connote that they belong in the rock band. My cover line
‘Rock like never before’ indicates a sense of chaos and fun.
In my magazine I have used colours such as red/yellow/dark
blue/dark green, I wanted to use a variety of different
colours so it looked more interesting however I selected my
colours carefully as I wouldn’t want to connote femininity
with the colour pink or purple, I believe these colours would
give the incorrect outcome.
Q What have you learnt about
technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
A I have learnt many skills in Photoshop and QuarkXPress from using them frequently
when creating/constructing my product. And to prove this I have and used Cam studio to
showing how I used the programmes I then made them into a movie using Windows
Movie Maker. Although I find these programmes extremely helpful for my product I have
also learned that they are not 100% reliable as I found out when I was creating my Cam
studio videos as I recorded everything required and then when I watched the playback it
wasn’t how it had been recorded and had an unknown fault so I then had to repeat the
recording process. I used a website called [Link] to create a brainstorm, the
brainstorm I made included information about my music magazine, details such as, cost,
target audience, genre, features on contents, name, cover line, sell line and more.
A It was very important for me to learn and understand other digital
technologies I used such as Digital SLRs, I used this high quality camera to
take pictures for my magazine as the outcome was effective and I achieved
professional looking pictures with the skills I had previously learned about
using the camera and the different settings. By using the scanners available I
was able to scan my hand drawn rough design of my college magazine front
cover/contents and music cover/contents, I then saved the images scanned
and attached them on a Google mail and sent them to my posterous account.
Q Looking back at your
preliminary task, what do
you feel you have learnt in
the progression from it to
the full project?
I feel that throughout the progression from my preliminary task to my product I have
learnt many important things about the construction of a music magazine and
terminology such as masthead, pug and sell line. When I was first allocated my task to
produce a magazine, in attempt to understand how to use Photoshop I created a college
magazine as a practice and this allowed me to have a deeper understanding on the
tools, effects and text and how they should look. When I first started my college
magazine I didn't understand much about generic conventions and how they contributed
on making a successful media text, my college magazine didn't look like a realistic
magazine, I then realised that planning was a crucial part of the task and without
planning I would struggle with my final product as I also didn't understand the softwares I
used until I practiced on my college magazine, I had little knowledge on how to use
Photoshop and had not used QuarkXPress so I originally didn't know about all the
features so I didn't use them to the extent available. However in the progression of the
task I gained more knowledge and learned how to use SLR cameras and discovered the
advantages of higher quality photos and learnt that they make the magazine generally a
lot more realistic and additionally professional looking. As the task progressed I learned
more and more knowledge on how to use Photoshop, I started using more effects like
drop shadows and glow. When creating my magazine I had a clear idea of how I wanted
it to look, I imagined that it would look similar to a Kerrang magazine but with more
colour so that it would stand out more to an audience, I understood that it needed an
effective and sharp main image and a large masthead to draw attention to the name of
my magazine. I now feel that if I was to use QuarkXPress again I would have a vast
understanding about how to use the software successfully.