Kiera Pollard AS Media Studies 2011

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

The masthead of both ‘NME’ magazine front cover and my own are both located on the top left hand side and are shown big and bold. This has been done to help the audience to recognise which magazine it is they are reading.

Underneath the mast head on the front cover of ‘NME’ shows a black circle that reads ‘JACK WHITE’S NEW ALBUM’ this is very eye catching and immediately attracts the audience to the magazine. In my own front cover, I have used the same device. I have created a red circle towards the bottom left hand corner of my magazine which reads ‘REVIEWS OVERLOAD!’ I have used this because I want the audience to be attracted to my magazine and have an interest in reading it. Beside the masthead, shows a few popular bands with the same style of genre. I have included a skyline at the bottom of my magazine reading a few different names of singers. I have done this to attract a few more people as this can be shown to try and get other genres included.

The main image shown on the cover of ‘NME’ is of ‘The Last Shadow Puppets’. This is to instantly show what type of genre it is aiming to it’s audience. I have used an image of a boy singing into a microphone to give the effect of a pop genre. By using this type of image, this immediately informs the audience that they are possible going to be featured within the magazine and it gives the audience something to have interest of.

At the bottom right hand corner both my magazine front cover and ‘NME’ have placed a price and barcode. This is something less important and isn’t really needed for the intention of the customer except from needing to know how much they are paying for what they are getting. This is why it has been placed at the bottom.

‘Q’ magazine includes a page title of ‘Content’s which informs the audience clearly what is on this page. Beside the title ‘Contents’shows the letter ‘Q’ to remind you what magazine you are reading. For my magazine contents page I have used the same masthead from my front cover to place on my contents page to give the same effect.

In ‘Q’ magazine, It has a ‘features’ sections which includes everything in the magazine. I have included a ‘features’ section to inform the audience about what is included within my magazine. However in ‘Q’ magazine, it has included a section titled ‘Oasis special’ this is going to be aimed at fans of Oasis which could be considered to be a persuasive device to get people to buy it.

The colours within ‘Q’ magazine are quite consistent from the cover, and using the three colours; red, white and black consists well together and can easily be read. For my own contents page, I wanted to keep the background colour the same however I felt the colours black, yellow and red worked quite well together on top of the background and still kept the consistency.

Both magazine contents pages feature the main image on the right hand side. This is because it will be noticed straight away when the reader turns onto this page. By having a contents page, it is an overview of the magazine and informs the audience of what is going to be in the magazine and where it can be found. Both images are a long shot and I think this works well because it shows them as the main focus of attention.

In the other double page spread, it shows an image on the left hand side of the page. I thought it would be better to place an image on the right hand side as it would be the focus of attention when turning onto the page. However on the other double page spread it has been used effectively as it is eye catching.

I titled my double page spread ‘EMMA LOFTUS’ to make it clear to the audience who it is that is actually being featured within my magazine. Underneath the name, I created two boxes which read ‘TALKS ABOUT HER SUCCESS’ followed by ‘AND HER NEW ALBUM’ This was also to make it clear what is going to be featured on this page.

Beside this, I wrote ‘Interview by Run Magazine’ to show exactly who was giving the interview. Because it is an interview that I chose to feature in my double page spread I decided to change the colour of the fonts so that it is easy for the audience to easily distinguish the difference between who is the interviewer and who is the interviewee. However when looking back at it, I feel it may have been a good idea to change the style of font and add italic into the interviewee’s statements. I think if I had changed the font styles it would have appeared more effective.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The media that I have created is a pop music magazine that I have decided to name ‘RUN’. It is stereotypically aimed at people between the ages of 16 to 24 who would have an interest in pop music. I also wanted my music magazine to be aimed at both female and male genders so after the first two drafts, I felt this wasn’t being conveyed. However I feel my final front cover meets up with my expectations. This magazine will provide them with the most up to date stories on their favourite artists and generally the most upcoming artists. Ensuring that it supplies them with everything they will need to know. I have priced my magazine at £1.50 and I feel this is affordable for what is being offered and for anyone is social economic groups. The model on the front cover has been designed in that specific look to attract a pop audience. I wanted his clothes to be quite in the latest fashion to give an ‘Olly Murs’ style. I feel the clothes I have asked him to wear will help me achieve this. I asked him to wear a top with a little bit of humour, in order to possible give off the effect that it could be showing an interest for boys and girls. In my opinion I feel I have achieved this look. The colours I have used on my front cover are all bright on top of a silver background, this is because I wanted to show a positive attitude towards the audience yet not too camp and over the top. Because my magazine is about the world of pop music, it would not have the likes of The Arctic Monkeys group featured within my magazine. This is down to the fact that they are an indie/rock band and they would be featured on the cover of ‘NME’ magazine for example. Both ‘NME’ magazine and my own magazine look completely different because of the genres. ‘NME’ has used sharp features and an in your face style. Whereas I think my own magazine, is more subtle and laid back.

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

When creating my music magazine, I kept looking back at different music magazines which involved; VIBE, NME and Q magazine. I wanted to put elements from as many music magazines as I could however I didn’t want it to be completely the same as only one magazine. I tried to play with my ideas and the ideas of others to be put into one whole different idea that was better than the two different ideas. I think that those magazines could possible publish my music magazine, RUN. I wouldn’t think NME could see my magazine as a rival as we have two different genres. However, I think it would be great if NME were to publish my magazine as I think it would be a good starting point for my magazine. Everyone is well aware of NME as it is a very popular music magazine. If they were to publish my magazine, I believe a lot of people would see the issue about my magazine. NME magazine is popular both in Britain and in America and if it were to publish my magazine a lot more people would notice my magazine too. I could also see that Billboard magazine may possibly publish my magazine as both our magazines are very similar; however I can see that Billboard would see my magazine as a rival to it. I don’t think it would be as great an idea if Billboard were to publish my magazine as it isn’t a popular magazine and I do not feel that many people would get the chance to see it.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

When planning my music magazine, my initial thoughts was for it to be aimed towards both male and female genders. However after completing my first draft of the front cover and looking at it, I felt it gave the appearance of a more male target audience than a female audience. So after giving it some thought and creating a second draft of the front cover, I re-looked over it and decided that I hadn’t really made any obvious changes apart from the background colour to distinguish that it was meant to be aimed towards both genders. After looking back at both drafts, I decided it was time to make some drastic changes to it if I wanted it to resemble a professional music magazine. I’m happy that I had looked back over my drafts as with my final product, I believe my idea for its target audience to be both genders has been accomplished. I think it is probably targeted for ages between 16 and 24. As the magazine is aimed at anyone in the social economic groups, I believe that by pricing my magazine at £1.50 is a reasonable price to ask the audience to pay for the information they are being given.

How did you attract/address your audience?

When creating my music magazine, I have tried to take in to consideration how to address the audience and involve them within the magazine. On the front cover of my music magazine, I have included a splash for the audience to win tickets to see the wanted. This will include having to compete with others, which I feel is adding more persuasion to them as I have mentioned that it is the last chance for them to do so. Within my magazine, I have mentioned about reviews and interviews and other interesting things that could engage the audience. The contents page informs them about different acts that are featured in the magazine. Once found, they will be able to find out more information on their favourite artists and know exactly when they are performing.

The main image on the cover is of a young boy singing into a microphone. I think this could attract the audience to read the magazine because the top he is wearing is in trend with the latest fashion and could be seen quite attractive to girls and possibly boys. I feel this would attract them as I have put this image on the front cover to sway the audience towards buying this magazine in particular.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When producing the product, a music magazine; Front cover, Contents page, Double page spread, I used Adobe Photoshop during the editing processes for the photographs that were taken. I feel since starting this task from creating the drafts, I came across so many difficulties. But now after finishing my final product, I believe I have learnt how to use Photoshop in more capably now. I have been able to find my way around using Photoshop comfortably whilst creating both my college magazine; which was the preliminary task and the main task; the music magazine. For the duration of the time of using Photoshop, there was many tools needed that came in really useful when editing the photographs. For example the ‘quick selection tool’ proved really useful as it was needed to select the image to transfer from its original background and to edit. The ‘blur tool’ was really handy to smooth the edges of my images to give it a nice clean effect without any noticeable horrid hard edges. After transferring images or creating any text to appear on my magazine, the ‘transform’ tool, also known as a ‘scale’ tool was of much use to enable the changing of size. It also enabled me to rotate any of the images or text that appeared in my magazine.My favourite tool, which was also really useful, was the ‘spot fixing’ tool. This enabled me to remove any blemishes or unwanted marks that were appearing on my image. Because the image I was using, appeared in quite a dark light, I had to use the ‘contrast’ tool which enabled me to change the brightness and contrast of the image. This made the image look a lot better and generally gave it a better appearance during the editing process.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When I look back at my preliminary task; the college magazine and compare it to my final product; the music magazine, it is very clear to see a huge contrast but also I think it’s clear to see a big improvement between them both, in design skills and technical skills. When producing the college magazine, although I felt my initial ideas were good it is clear to see that I hadn’t had the full confidence and experience of using Photoshop however still used what I could. I found when creating the college magazine, because I wasn’t too sure about using Photoshop it was a case of playing around with things and seeing how it turned out. However after finishing my music magazine, I feel I have made a lot of progress since the beginning of the tasks.

When looking back over both my college magazine and my music magazine front covers, it is clear to see the huge improvement on my technical skills. When producing the music magazine, I knew how to use a lot more of the tools than I was capable to do for the college magazine in Photoshop. For the college magazine, I was unsure how to change the levels of brightness as well I was for the music magazine. So when comparing them both, I feel the image used for my college magazine appears to be quite dark which makes it look a tad dull. Also, in my college magazine, I never really experimented with anything as I didn’t want to ruin it. For my music magazine I didn’t feel afraid to try new ideas because I felt if it went wrong I’d start again and that is what I had to do a few times. For example, the college magazine hasn’t been experimented with any new fonts but the music magazine has numerous different fonts tested in it. All in all, I believe my music magazine is a whole lot better than my college magazine but I feel I could still improve it given more time and thinking about new ideas.

When looking back at my contents pages of both magazines, it is clearly obvious that a lot more work, time and effort has gone into producing the music magazine. I feel the music magazine appears to be a lot more interesting and full of ideas. It shows a lot more information than the college magazine. Whereas the college magazine looks really bare with no information that would appeal to anyone. I feel the college magazine looks plain, simple and all round boring. The yellow background is the only thing that livens it up but the actual content brings it down a lot. I can’t see that the audience would even be interested in reading it. I’m glad that after producing the music magazine, it shows a huge contrast in the quantity of information that has been placed inside. This is so that the audience will be more attracted to it. All in all for the contents pages, I think the music magazine content page is a huge lot more attractive, interesting and more appealing than the contents page and I’m quite happy with how I’ve designed it.