In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In my music magazine it includes both challenges and uses of forms and conventions with features of real media products such as the style and features of common music magazines including a central image and a big and bold title that stands out. In representative of my product it is inspired by Kerrang. By looking at the front cover it shows the title of the magazine is large and bold with a bright colour that stands out as an attraction to the audiences which follows a common feature of real related music magazines. But a feature that differs is the phrase/slogan used above the title as an introduction line to the main attraction of the title. I thought this could be an extra feature to sell the magazine. The title of the magazine, Pulse, was thought through by researching various music magazine and taking ideas from theirs. Pulse was thought of from the idea of the way music can make you feel. As my genre to be punk/rock, the style of music is more strong and loud and could get your heart and mind excited which is where Pulse came from. The more entertaining the music is the faster your pulse is racing. I also thought through the style and syllables of words that could attract readers of which usually magazine will rely on as their main aspect to get readers to buy. A single syllable word can catch more attention than making your title long as it wont exactly shoot out to them quickly, which was also how I thought of the title of my magazine, Pulse. The front cover of my magazine includes a central image of the main attraction in style of the type of genre of the magazine which is popular with real media products as well as in general, as the product’s centre of attention and also the written style of the way my article is presented onto a double page spread instead of in collums. These are also features that I used in relation to real music magazines.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
As shown on my media product, particular social groups such as punk/rock music listeners are represented through the colours used and the style of images that has been taken. The name of the media product could also be another feature that represents the genre of the product to suit those groups that has interest in a specific music area such as punk/rock. The artist used such as the LA GIRLS and TRIPLE-EX are recognised to be at the age of 18+ which means that their music are mainly addressing to age groups from 13+. This also means that the music and information of which the media product includes will be relatively the same styles of music listeners are interested in these days.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for my media magazine are for those that are interested in punk/rock music and teenagers from the age group of 13-19. The way these are recognise are by the design of the magazine with the colour used of just red and black which are seen pretty dark as it represents the genre punk/rock. The layout of the magazine is quite straight forward and easy to understand what it is about with basic text and by the way it is presented. It is intended for no specific age group but usually teenagers from 13 subscribe magazines. The central image mainly stands out the most to readers, are of two young girls who looks at the age of 18 represents that the magazine are catching audiences of young readers.
How did you attract/address your audience?
By looking at my media product, the way it attracts audience can be seen from the title as it’s big and bold but the disadvantage of the title is that it is situated where it wouldn’t be the main attention to readers, at the bottom of the page. When readers take a first look at the magazine they wouldn’t be attracted by the title straight but the central image, which saves the magazine from being noticed as the image gives a quick attention to their act and the question of “who are they”. This creates an intrigue attention to the readers to read on inside. By viewing this I would decide to change around a few features to make the magazine more noticeable to become a more popular product.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The company I would choose to publish my magazine would be the Bauer media company because it’s the second biggest magazine publishers in the UK and the style genres of their products are more related to the product I’ve created. With this known, it seems as though it could be recommended as the company that suit well with my magazine to distribute. By completing research of Bauer media, my attraction found was about their audiences who are music lovers is also a bonus for my product as it is a music magazine that I’ve made. Choosing Bauer media institution would also be an easy way to publicise my magazine via internet as it could be more convenient to readers to receive updates and by doing this it would also increase profit and popularity rates which shows success.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout the making of my product I have learnt a few things and more advanced from what I first knew from the technologies I’ve used. During the process of constructing my music magazine I’ve used software such as Adobe Photoshop to design the magazine and from my previous experience with this software it has now improved more than from what I use to know from the basics. The skills I’ve learnt from just playing around with Adobe Photoshop, you just find yourself doing things that you’ve never thought you knew how to do, such as the different effects you can include on images, gradient and transparent on anything you want to become transparent, it’s amazing what you can teach yourself. From the images that are used in the magazine, it has taught me an experience of how a professional photographer will act like as I learnt how to take images in a professional technique. During the construction of my magazine it also includes uploading my production onto a blog, which was quite new to me as I have never created my own blog before. By having my own blog I’ve learnt how to organise and design it from uploading images, posting and editing old or recent messages, choosing a suitable layout and a little bit understanding of HTML basics. From what I have created on my blog I have also learnt how to include features such as a poll for viewers to participate in making my magazine by choosing the most suitable title that readers themselves would find appealing. I have also learnt how to create links onto my blog like I have to other people as an easier way to navigate around.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
By comparing the preliminary task that I’ve made to my full product of a music magazine, I have learnt how to create not just a music magazine but another different style as my preliminary task was based on a college scene. My progression since the preliminary task to the actual final piece has been a more advanced as you can tell from the designs of the two front covers. Throughout the process I felt that the preliminary task was a more easier production because we was already given our background such as our college, it was more efficient to find images and information to inculude into our magazine which therefore did not involve much work on making it. When I was moved onto the making of my music magazine I have found it more easier to use the software as I have already experimented with the features when I was creating the preliminary task therefore found that my skills has improved by the progress of what I have learnt in the making.
Audience feedback
For my magazine product I've included a poll to recieve feedback of what viewers think of what i've produced. By completing the poll it shows whether my magazine was a good product or not. From this result the feedback of the poll shows that it was a good attempt as 25% of viewers voted Excellent and 75% Good. By looking at these results it has proved that the outcome was average. Viewing the product has also pointed out that the more weakest area was the front page as it was not the best effort I could've included. This is because the image on the front cover steals the attention of the material when the title of the magazine should be more of the attraction as it's bold and noticeble. If I had another chance to create a magazine I would use a more vibrant font style and make it look more noticeble than using the central image as the main attraction. This makes the title a hidden feature because it is not represented in a up-beat unmisaable context which should be the main selling point of a magazine including the features on the front cover.
This data shows the results from the the audience feedback poll.
