§ Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I wanted to make my magazine as realistic as possible so I thought the best way to do this is to look at a couple of music magazines that are based on the same genre of music as me just to get and idea of what type of posses the models did and if they had any meaning also the position of the masthead and coverlines. There are some things that I kept original for example the the placement of the masthead and also the colours used. I dcecided to get my model to pose in that certain way as it shows that he is a singer/rapper and he is pointing in the camera which could also be portrayed a interacting with the readers, as you can see none of the othet two magazines have done that. I choose to use the magazine of 50 cent as I used it for my analysis of a front cover.
§ Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Music magazines can represent particular social groups for example, what the magazine is about, if the magazine is about D.I.Y and has a man on the front with his tools then automatically the audience would know that it is a magazine directed at men to help them learn how to fix and make things. This is also the same with a magazine with cars on the front cover,appealing to males who enjoy reading about cars. However if a magazine had a lady on the front dressed in and apron and had a bowl in her hand then the audience would know that the magazine was appealing to women aged late 20’s and onwards learning how to cook. A social group can be of anything and as my coursework is on a music the social group would be on certain people liking a certain genre of music, my magazine which has a young male on the front dressed quite urban/ street looking with a mic in his hand should appeal to a male and female audience from any ethnic background, aged between 15 – 25, that are interested in hip – hop and R&B, sometimes you can also identify the type of audience that your magazine will appeal to by there dress sense.
§ Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
If my magazine was going to be published I would publish it with the company IPC Media as they only have one other music magazine which is NME which promotes a different genre of music to mine so there will be no competition between two magazines from the same publishing company. I would also say that my magazine brings something that no other magazine brings which would create more of a competition to other magazine companies who would see my magazine as a threat.
§ Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience that I am trying to attract for my magazine is people aged between 15 - 25 who are interested in the genre that the magazine covers which is hip - hop & R&B also people who are intersted in reading interviews from new and up coming musicians and like to be in the know when it comes to music.I could also say people with open minds as music influences some people in many different ways wheather it be in their dress sense, physicality etc.
§Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?
I believe that to attract an audience to my magazine the magazine has to be based on something that like and have in common with other people. As the audience that I am trying to attract is around my age it gives me the upper hand as I know what people my age who have the same interests as me would like to see in a magazine this also ties in with why I produced questionnaires which gave me more information as one of the questions were what attracts them to a magzine, also in the first set of questionnaire I gave the audience a choice of three different magazines from different publishing firms and had something different in each magazine for example one magazine had more pictures than others, another had bold writing and the other had bright colours, the choice that the majority had choosen would give me ideas in what type of thing on those particular magazine the audience liked.The picture on the front cover also helps to attract the audience it could be a certain pose that the model is doing which attracts the audience because it could mean something or they could relate to it. The type of font and the use of bright colours can also attract people to magazine bold fonts and bright colours can be very eye catching. Or maybe just the coverlines or a snappy slogan.
§ Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
By making a music magazine front cover, contents page and a double spread I have learnt the processes that have to be done in order to create a good quality magazine.I have learnt how to use a professional camera and remembering to take into consideration the type of scene im trying to create and also what camera angle I could choose which could mean something, for example if I took a picture of my model from a low angle then I could be trying to portray them as strong and powerfull. Also throughout the process of creating my magazine the use of photoshop has increased my knowledge on what it can do which has helped me to increase the quality of the pictures and also the design of the magazine.
§ Q7. Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to a full product?
The process of making the magazine has been very long but the end result and the exsperience has made it worth while. One of the major things I have learnt about is time mangaement, I decidedto print out all the tasks and write a date that each task had to be done by so that I wouldnt start falling behind and ticking the tasks off when I had completed them also working outside of lesson a college time.The main thing I have progressed in is the knowledge I have In photoshop wheather it be adding effect or text to using tools like the spot healer to make things look even and smooth.
