EVALUATION QUESTION 1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My media product includes most conventional aspects which are common in other magazines. I have based my product on my target audience by looking at their likes and what’s common in existing magazines. Therefore I based the conventions of my product on what would attract and relate to my audience. The masthead is the main part of the magazine I wanted to attract my audience. The name had to be very relatable to the idea of my magazine and the target audience. I wanted to capture the idea of writing your own songs, having deep meanings, for personal use rather than just to make a hit and with the purpose of helping people in the same situations. I also wanted the masthead to be a short word which is easy to remember because a longer name might get lost in the media whereas something short but with lots of meaning could stick with some people, and those ‘some people’ would be my target audience. I wanted to use a word that related to writing and being expressive, and could also mean the musical side of writing. Therefore I chose ‘Note’ to be my title because it conforms to writing music notes, writing lyrics, jotting down life experiences to become songs, and showing the expressive side and being creative in people’s lives. Everyone has writing in common, therefore the magazine will relate to a larger audience, however not all of them have actually writing their own songs and making it big in the world as a passion. This then defines my target audience in a more personal way as it relates to their aspirations. I placed the masthead in the top left corner as that is where the masthead is typically placed in most magazines. This makes it more relatable to the audience as it conforms to this particular convention. I have used an NME magazine to compare because this magazine contains the same kind of content and has the same approach as my product. This masthead is name up of 3 letters, which is easy to remember. That is why I chose to adopt this function and use a small word to make it easier for my target audience to remember it. Against the black background the white font stands out. This is useful as it makes the masthead eye catching which is the function of a masthead. The rugged style of the font displays the more expressive and untidy side to the genre I am conforming to. It also contrasts with the rest of the cover as the lines and fonts are more pristine. The colour scheme and ‘house style’ of my front cover and contents page relate to each other and it is easy to see that they belong to the same magazine. The colour scheme is gold, burgundy, black and white. I chose these colours as producing my cover before my contents page, I
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EVALUATION QUESTION 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product includes most conventional aspects which are common in other magazines. I have
based my product on my target audience by looking at their likes and what’s common in existing
magazines. Therefore I based the conventions of my product on what would attract and relate to my
audience.
The masthead is the main part of the magazine I wanted to attract my audience. The name had to be
very relatable to the idea of my magazine and the target audience. I wanted to capture the idea of
writing your own songs, having deep meanings, for personal use rather than just to make a hit and
with the purpose of helping people in the same situations. I
also wanted the masthead to be a short word which is easy
to remember because a longer name might get lost in the
media whereas something short but with lots of meaning
could stick with some people, and those ‘some people’
would be my target audience. I wanted to use a word that
related to writing and being expressive, and could also mean the musical side of writing. Therefore I
chose ‘Note’ to be my title because it conforms to writing music notes, writing lyrics, jotting down
life experiences to become songs, and showing the expressive side and being creative in people’s
lives. Everyone has writing in common, therefore the magazine will relate to a larger audience,
however not all of them have actually writing their own songs and
making it big in the world as a passion. This then defines my target
audience in a more personal way as it relates to their aspirations. I
placed the masthead in the top left corner as that is where the masthead
is typically placed in most magazines. This makes it more relatable to the
audience as it conforms to this particular convention. I have used an
NME magazine to compare because this magazine contains the same kind of content and has the
same approach as my product. This masthead is name up of 3 letters, which is easy to remember.
That is why I chose to adopt this function and use a small word to make it easier for my target
audience to remember it. Against the black background the white font stands out. This is useful as it
makes the masthead eye catching which is the function of a masthead. The rugged style of the font
displays the more expressive and untidy side to the genre I am conforming to. It also contrasts with
the rest of the cover as the lines and fonts are more pristine.
The colour scheme and ‘house style’ of my front cover
and contents page relate to each other and it is easy to
see that they belong to the same magazine. The colour
scheme is gold, burgundy, black and white. I chose these
colours as producing my cover before my contents page, I
got the colours by capturing the colour of Katy’s lips to be the burgundy as it also matches Zak’s
(right) shirt. A part of Scott’s (left) hair is burgundy, so this colour related to all three of them. The
gold is taken from Katy’s hair, and goes well against the burgundy. I decided to keep this colour
scheme going into the contents page to make it relatable that they belong to the same magazine;
however the double page spread contains other colour schemes but also has little elements relating
it back to the cover and contents pages.
I chose a blue theme for my double page spread
and kept the font of the title and the pull quote the
same colour. All the arrows are pointing to where
the blue has been significantly used. The title, pull
quote, and the gig dates box at the bottom of the
page all have conform to the blue colour scheme. I
also made a blue effect as the background from the
bottom right corner, and it shows up quite nicely
through the text. I chose the blue colour scheme as
I felt that blue represented this story quite well as
it show’s Kaya’s rise to fame but in a calm way and
how she stuck with her dreams. It isn’t a loud story, so isn’t a loud colour scheme. However, to
relate back to the cover and contents page, I made the corner information the same gold and
burgundy as the original colour scheme. I have done it in this way because then the reference to the
colour scheme won’t obstruct and ruin the rest of the double page. It conforms to typical
conventions of other magazines because the double page spread/feature aritcle is supposed to
stand out as it is a unique story.
This is a double page spread from
Kerrang! magazine. Typically, this
magazine’s cover is so busy and
scratched and has a very loud rock
band effect to it, whereas the
feature article is a lot more calm in
this case and focuses on the artist
only. I wanted to base my article on
this kind of lay out as I wanted to only address one artist.
The mis-en-scene and technical code of my main cover image to other images is shown through
making a certain image I want my cover band to portray. I wanted my band ‘Iridescence’ to portray
an idea of being the idols for undiscovered artists to look up to and follow. Therefore the word
‘Iridescence’ showing a sort of glowing and aspiring image to follow is suitable for this purpose. I
placed Katy in the middle as she is the lead singer and this is typical for most bands to have their
lead singer in the middle. She is also the only girl therefore makes her more unique and gaining the
most attention from the audience, in the sense that she will be
the face of that band and will be remembered more for it. I
wanted to keep this
image in all the photos of the band, being confident and inspiring. The eye contact with the camera
involves the audienceand promotes the message of being confident. Addressing the audience also
helps promote the message of the magazine itself regarding believing in yourself, write your own
stuff and make it big.
However the images of Kaya I have constructed to make it look like she has struggled with her claim
to fame. This is definitely relatable to the target audience because it helps them realise that it is in
no way easy to become famous. It also helps make the image of this star
more down to earth and promotes the message that she is only human, as
are all famous people. However her images also show that she has stayed
herself and hasn’t changed. Her confidence comes from her and not the
message she is showing to the audience. I have done this through her body
language. Smiling, hands on hips in some of them, and addressing the
audience. This all shows that she is engaging and very focused on what she
wants to do. In regards to the other images (cover and contents) Kaya’s
images are relating the message of the magazine as well as them all.
The drop cap I have used in the double page spread has only been used once and
that is at the beginning of the whole article. This is typical of most articles as it is
an indication of the beginning of the article/paragraph. I have used a different
font as it makes it more eye catching and interesting for the audience.
The pull quote used in the double page spread consists of a saying that I came up with which
represents the reality and the relatableness to the ‘artist’ in the sense that no matter
where you come from, if you try hard enough then you can do whatever you want to.
The repetition and easiness of the pull quote makes it easier for the audience to
remember and makes it easier to relate to regarding the fact that people who live in
small not-well-known places still have an equal chance of living their dream.
EVALUATION QUESTION 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The group I was aiming to present my media product was to Pop Rock fans. This genre consists of
music which isn’t too loud but can be loud where it needs to be. This genre includes powerful songs
which people can relate to more often than most, and is on a more Earth related level. By this I
mean that traditional rock and metal bands write with such deep lyrics that people who are truly
into this genre will be able to relate to and understand. However the genre I was conforming to is a
more modern rock genre which the lyrics consist of sayings which are commonly used by youths and
other sub-groups. This then creates a target audience who will be influenced but this genre of music.
Bands which I was trying to conform to and particularly use as a guide are The Script and Maroon 5.
These bands were chosen because the majority of the content in their songs are about love and the
struggles of love. There are other factors included in their songs which will particularly relate to
teenagers and the youth sub-group. One of these factors is sexual needs and wants, the need to feel
wanted and loved. Another factor would be about inspiration. These two bands particularly focus on
the idea of inspiring young people (and older) to pursue what they want in life, and to follow
passions and generally inspire them to do well in life. A common message in indie rock music is to
live young as much as possible, to take opportunities as they come and to enjoy all the pieces in life
and this message has reached quite a large population.
My Front Cover
To appeal to this group (pop rock fans) I needed to
include colours and images that will stand out to the
audience. The colours need to stand out and be either
bright or just bold. This is to conform to traditional rock
being loud and attention-grabbing, but also get the
audience’s attention to inspire them to make it big and
stick to their dreams and be excited about it. I made the 5 stripes in the
background the signature pattern for this magazine on the whole as I used
it in the Contents page too. I think this conforms to Pop Rock fans as it
makes the magazine cover look quite busy in the sense that if it were just a
black background it wouldn’t nearly have the same effect as it does with
the stripes. I wanted the band on the front to represent a passion and how
they make the most of what they have and the time to do it in. I used my friends and kept their
names the same, that way I could relate them to a lot more people as they
actually are people who aren’t famous (yet). This means that the band can
symbolise and represent how people who work hard can achieve their dreams
and they embody that message into their band name, their appearance and
their text. I found it a lot easier to create this band when I kept their names the
same as I could relate how they actually are into the band which worked really
well and seemed to fit the role. I tried to conform to the stereotype of how