Who would be the audience of your media product?

My target audience would be mainly teenager girls around the age of 15 to 18 years old, however my secondary audience would teenage boys of the same age. They would be middle or working class. Someone who is from a well brought up background, as they are more likely to find the time to read a magazine and have the money to buy them. They wouldn't label themselves they would just consider themselves as individual, they would have a unique/simple style they wouldn't follow the 'rules' of fashion other than their own. They would have a broad music taste, one minute they could be listening to electro pop like Owl City or Lady Gaga and then moving on to soft acoustic rock like Thriving Ivory or Daughtry and then listen to country like Rascal Flatts or Taylor Swift. These are the kind of people I would be aiming my media product.

What do you think you have learnt about technology from the process of this product?

I feel I have learnt a lot about Photoshop such as how to insert text, how to resize an image without changing the proportions, and how to change the colours of images.

I also learnt a lot about lighting, positioning and clarity of taking a photograph. I learnt that this is very important in order get a clear professional looking photo. This was something that was also address in my feedback of my first attempt of a mock front cover.

I also learnt a lot about Sony Vegas Pro 8 when making my evaluation videos such as moving of text and pictures.

Looking back from college magazine task, what do you think you have learnt from the progression from it to the full product?

When starting the college magazine I had no idea how to work Photoshop, but after the college magazine I picked up a few skills and ticks and progressed from the college magazine. Also I have learnt how to use a camera properly in order to get decent pictures.

However the thing I learnt most from my college magazine was layout. I did a bit of research on where certain things go and where to position my pictures, this helped me with my music magazine. Also after playing around with the cell lines I found that I was able to do a lot more with the text this became useful when creating my music magazine.

The college magazine was just a starting point. Some of the ideas and layout ideas I used in my music magazine. I feel that my music magazine really progressed well because of my college magazine.

How would you attract/address your audience?

Attracting my audience relies mainly on the front cover, because if the front cover isn’t interesting then no one will pick up the magazine. On my front cover I used big bold colours that are catching and that work well together. I also used lots of pictures to show the variety of artist included in my magazine. This would attract my audience because if they are not intrigued by the main feature artist they will see that there are still artist included in magazine that they will like. I also took into consideration everything that people said in my interviews and questionnaires this will attract and address my target audience because the questionnaires were given to a lot of teenagers. This helped me to get an understanding of what the majority of teenagers wanted in a magazine.

I address my audience by using colloquial language, puns to show the magazines knowledge of the bands featured. I kept everything short and snappy, making my magazine an easy read rather than a chore.

Also free offers and competitions is another way to attract the attention of my audience.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When writing up my media product I had to be sure that I made the language I used was informal and chatty, this is because my target audience is 15-18 year olds. If were to make my writing (such as letter from the editor and the double page spread) formal my audience would lose interest as it would appear to be boring and would feel like a chore to read, so I kept my language choices modern and chatty. This will intrigue the reader and will make them feel a part the writing keeping their attention on what is being said rather than the reader simple flicking through and looking at all the pictures.

I also tired to divert away from the typical stereotypes of teenagers by making the front cover eye catching and bright but not chaotic and full of unnecessary images and text. I wanted my media product to be more sophisticated as this will make the reader feel more sophisticated reading the magazine while still being entertained by the articles in the magazine.

Also the idea of my magazine being a mixed music genre magazine makes it harder to focus on a particular social group in which teenagers would categorise themselves in. So my aim was to appeal to all the social groups and I did this by not focusing on a style of music but including many different bands.

The kind of teenagers I would be addressing are those of a middle/working class origin this is because of the price of my magazine is something affordable by a majority of the public, therefore making my product successful because it is affordable. Also they would teenager who consider themselves as ‘unbranded’ they don’t consider themselves as part of a social group like ‘chavs’ or ‘punk’ or ‘emo’ they are simply themselves. This is because if they belong to a particular social group their music taste because limited to certain bands and artists, this is why my media product is mixed genre magazine because most teenagers today don’t class themselves as a anything but themselves and without a label to held too their music tastes seem broader.

The kind of lifestyle wouldn’t be reflected in the magazine because I’m trying to be broad with my audience and becoming relatable in the text by being chatty and referring to things that all teenagers would/are going through and in some cases what they wish they were going through.

I would make sure that my media product is enjoyed by most teenagers that have a mixed taste in music.

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

In choosing a distributer I would consider going to the self published and distributed magazine, Rolling Stone. This is because they have the same kind of magazine as the one I have made myself. This is because they are both mixed music genre magazines and don’t focus heavily on a certain social group they try to be broad and wider with their audience unlike other music magazines. However Rolling Stone is for an older audience unlike my media product my product aims at teenagers aged 15-18 years of age. I feel that this will help not only but the Rolling Stone magazine because they will then have two magazines that aim at two different audiences but have the same genre. I would also ask them because they know how to market a magazine like the one I have made because their existing magazine is like my media product. Also they would know where to place it and where is would get the most sales.

If the Rolling Stone isn’t successful I would try my luck with The Word’s publisher and distributer Development Hell. I would use Development Hell because the already specialize in mixed music genre magazines; they would also know where to place and how to market my media product because they deal with this because of The Word magazine. Also they are British based magazine and distributer and they would know best about how to market my media product and how to make it popular and successful.

http://www.srds.com/mediakits/rollingstone/contacts.html

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

My media product uses most forms and conventions of a real magazine such as the use of images.
The images I have used follow the forms and conventions of a real music magazine because I have one image that I use as a background (the picture is also of the feature band) which all music magazines do. I also used smaller pictures around the edges of media product to make my cover more chaotic to fit my stereotypical view of my target audience, this is a proven method of attracting people to a magazine as magazines such as Kerrang and NME (which are both very popular music magazines and have the same target audience as my media product) use this method and their sales are very high.
However my main image challenges the forms and conventions of a typical music magazine. It challenges them because I have taken a horizontal picture, rotated it and turned it portrait and used it as my background image. This is because I wanted my image to fit my mock picture of a band during a live performance , this picture consisted of the lead singer bent over slightly signing a high note loudly into a microphone. I tried to recreate this image, by using a model who looked similar to the singer and the best way to recreate this image was to have my model stood ‘singing’ into the microphone with her hair pushed forward looking like she is bent over hanging over the stage. But as a horizontal image it didn’t fit the page and didn’t look realistic. So when I made my edits of this picture it challenged the forms and conventions. The same picture still challenges forms and conventions of a typical music magazine because most magazine used studio produce pictures, however I chose to use a ‘live performance’ picture as they proved to be a popular choice in my questionnaire.
Also my use of colour challenges the forms and conventions of a typical music magazine because the colours are very vibrant and very eye catching, whereas most magazines use nude and or pale colours for the photos and use the colour of the text to do the eye catching. I decided to change this because it will draw the fans of the band toward the magazine as well as other people because it’s a contrast to most magazines which makes my media product stand out against all the other magazines. I also challenge the forms and conventions again by using more than one or two colours for my colour scheme. Most magazines only use one or two colours as not to draw away to much from the images and over power the magazine; however my magazine uses 3 or 4 colours. This is because at the beginning of creating my media product the 1st draft was very feminine (which my research is basis towards) because there was lots of pinks and purples. When looking through my research I noticed that pinks and purples were in fact not the most popular choice (despite actually being picked and proven to be liked) so I added in blues black greys and white. This also drew away from the feminine aspect bit and made my media product look more like a unisex targeted magazine. I considered this as a positive change because this creates a wider audience and would increase the amount of people buying my product therefore making my product more popular.
The fonts (size, colours and style) follow the forms and conventions of a music magazine because they differ in size depending on the importance of the text or what is advertising. For example on my products front cover I use a large eye-catching font size in order to emphasis my main article ‘The Rise Of Paramore’ and a small font size to advertise sub articles ‘Latest Tours and Reviews’. The colours of my font change in order to be more visible and easier to read (this is a method used throughout my media product) all, if not most, magazines do this. This helps the reader read through the magazine with ease.