In what ways does your media product

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

My idea of the red came from music magazine "NME". This magazine is famous for its use of the red bold font. I opted for a much lighter red as it was much more appealing against my brick wall background. This was one of my first real decisions as I felt the typography would need to be important as people often read the headlines to indicate whether they are willing to further their interest and buy the actual magazine.

I was influenced when creating my lures (Sub-headings/Cover lines) by a Q episode which features Noel Gallagher. This episode of Q featured "Kings of Leon" and " Kaiser Chiefs", I felt I needed to indicate who was in the magazine as I felt the inclusion of cover lines was effective and appealing so I opted to include who would feature later in my magazine i.e. "Heavy Figurines, Elation returns etc. In my music magazine research I looked in depth at backgrounds and opted for a natural feel hence why I chose a brick formation as it also collated with the name of my act which is "Brick Lane". The brick wall was symbolic as it represented the band itself, I felt this was unique as it hasn't been done before (According to my research). -The arrows highlight how I used an idea from my research in my own magazine.

In some ways I didn't really develop the cover lines at all as I initially took the idea and used it in my magazine, my cover line promoted my competition. You could say this was unique as the “NME” magazine promoted the inclusion of a poster in the magazine. I feel the stars are a iconic signifier of positivity as they highlight success.

In terms of connotation I decided to use the word immunize as it had a meaning behind it. The official definition of immunize is to make (a person or animal) immune to infection, typically by inoculation. I felt this could be related to my work as I feel the music injection couldn't be immunized after reading my magazine. I feel the name is very unique and gives the magazine a USP as people want to understand why its called “Immunize”.

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

My contents challenges many forms and conventions of real media products as I feel it is the best part of my magazine. The concept of my contents was taken from the magazine to the right of this textbox, I felt the structure was very interesting and felt I could relate to it. Below highlights how I challenged the contents of my sample piece, I opted for a headline followed by a brief explanation of what is to feature on the page itself. The comparison below shows how similar the two pieces are and how I developed an idea through research.

As you can see the headline is a prompt to read on and the under-comment gives added info into what the page contains.

The inclusion of my competition as early as the contents is unique as I feel it prompts the audience to read on due to my inclusion of the audience on the contents. I feel this does challenge real media products

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

My two page spread included a question and answer page and also a small fact file about my fictional band “Brick Lane”. I compared with the two page spread taken out of Q which speaks heavily about Lily Allen. Lily Allen also speaks about her influences and past which is which I included it in

my question and answers.

These images are signifiers for the music industry and they indicate what instrument they play, they also simply represent the music industry as a collective. If I compare this to the Q two page spread, we can easily see that if we didn't know who Lily Allen was then we’d struggle to assume that it was a that of a music magazine as no images or sub headings indicate that the page is associated with music. However the large image of Lily Allen is very effective as it makes her the clear focus of the two page spread.

I feel the fact file is very interesting as my audience can relate to my fictional band as they learn a little bit about them all, in my research I concluded that not many magazines include fact files in their pieces so I opted for a fact file and an “About me” section due to it being a niche idea to include.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?The social group I aimed for in my production was mainstream music followers as the bands I promoted would produce very

mainstream music which would influence the weekly top 40 music charts. Social groups that could relate to my music are rock fans, indie fans and also maybe pop fans in general due to the inclusion of some massive musical artists in my

magazine such as “Iggy Pop”.

How have you represented teenagers in your productionMy magazine was based heavily around the teenage market as I felt I included bands who teens would frequently listen to. I also included a teenage band on the front as teens can relate to this photo as a small minority may aspire to my fictional band. I felt the inclusion of my teen band was my USP as it highlighted the age bracket I aimed my magazine to be for and teens would find that they could relate to it, In my production of my magazine I conducted a small questionnaire which showed that 95% of my participants agreed they could relate to my music magazine. My audience in this questionnaire ranged from 14-18 year olds who are known today as teenagers. How do the images represent social groups?

For my fictional band to be successful I felt I needed to research other magazines in depth and had to grasp an understanding for how indie bands represent themselves. The idea of an “underground” style caught my eye as the band are represented as being very low key but will be mainstream after this promotion. The environment the image is taken in is in some ways the story of the band as they start from a very underground beginning but progress up to the top. Many bands often have images taken in very urban areas which is why I went for the brick wall feature.

In my magazine I feel that gender is a massive issue as my magazine is very male dominated. The band on the front includes three males and also all artists mentioned on the front of the magazine are males such as Iggy Pop and Neil Morrissey. If I was to complete my magazine again then I would include females to aim my audience at a wider selection of people. This could be seen as a possible improvement for future reference.

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

Media institutions are critical to my magazine as I feel this is where distribution would considerably helped. Maslow's hierarchy of needs indicates that self actualisation can be achieved through relation to my target audience and why my audience will enjoy my magazine, key figures could later feature on my magazine so that it reaches the pinnacle of sales and has a physical affect on my target audience. To do

this I would need a media institution of some description.

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

I opted to go with BAUER MUSIC, as I feel the music magazines they promote target the same audience as me, from my research I noticed that they sell top hits such as Kerrang, Q, Empire, Heat and famous sports magazine Match! I felt I needed to pick an institution who shares the same ambition and ideas as me, I also felt I could relate to Bauer due to their strong production line of top selling music magazines. Bauer own many other subsidiary organisations such as Bauer radio limited. I felt this company would distribute my magazine as I feel they are very advanced at the forefront of digital technology and could offer further business ideas such as books and maybe even radio stations, this idea can be seen in Kerrang magazine as they have worked well with Bauer to bring out their radio station which has been noted as a massive success.

“Bauer Media owns more than eighty influential media brands spanning a wide range of interests, including heat, GRAZIA, Closer, MCN, FHM, Parkers, MATCH, Magic 105.4, Kiss 100, Kerrang and Q” – Bauer Music.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My fictional band are “Brick Lane” and they promote very indie like music due to past influences. I felt my brand identity of my piece had to be associated with

a commonly known social group which is why I aimed my piece at very mainstream music

followers, my initial plan was to aim my magazine at “rock n roll” fans, however I felt signifiers were hard

to come across to indicate it was that of a rock magazine so I made an early decision to represent 2 or 3 social groups in one magazine as this would see a rise in distribution due to it being aimed at such a wide selection of people. Targeting at this type of

audience guarantees sales due to a high amount of people in this very broad category.

On a socio-economic basis we could say that my magazine would have a C2,D and E target audience as I base my magazine around mainstream followers who would also listen to mainstream radio stations such as Capital Radio.C2 – Skilled manualD – Semi-skilled/Unskilled manualE- Unemployed/prisoners/Pensioners/StudentsThis categorisation also would lead to distribution as my target audience who listen to “mainstream” music would be prompted by radio stations to buy my magazine. This idea of socio-economic categorizing is considered old fashioned however I feel adopting this concept gives me a very good idea of who I intend my audience to be for my media product. This also isn't a way are forming my audience, its a concept in which I feel I can get a good jist of who my target audience really is.

The audience of my magazine is of huge significance meaning the audience is what makes my magazine successful or unsuccessful.

How did you attract/address the audience? For my magazine to be successful I felt I needed to attract my audience in more ways than one, I feel the attraction of my

audience is crucial as it does lead to high levels of distribution. When creating my magazine I used myself as an example as I feel when I buy a magazine I need to be able to relate to it for me to have a certain level of interest in it.

The inclusion of this image of my band is very symbolic as it instantly attracts a wide variety of people, namely teenagers. Its symbolic as it represents my target audience, this can promote sales.

A competition is very good for attracting audiences, the size of this competition is also of a good level meaning they can be intrigued to read on due to the inclusion of my competition.

The teenage audience can relate to my magazine through the clothing my models are using, this may attract females due to the uprising of a new band. Although its a male dominated magazine females may be more attracted to this due to overload of males within the magazine. However this can also be seen as a problem due to some feminists seeing my magazine as being to one side on a gender basis.

Attracting my audience would be hard to do without the inclusion of big bands and artists such as “Iggy Pop” and “Enter Shikari”. This helps sell my product due to them being worldwide phenomenon's.

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

Above shows how I integrated websites and software into my media product. Without the use of blogger, paint and 1001freefonts.com my magazine wouldn't be what it is today. I needed to use these programmes to develop my magazine and give my magazine a unique feel, through this I also could challenge codes and conventions as I opted for unique fonts and images which is why I feel my magazine brings something new to the industry.

From my research I have learnt that patience is key for a good magazine to be put together, throughout the process of the making of my magazine I experimented with various websites to see if the images I collated came of a better quality however I felt these websites to be very technical to use so I used creativity by using the programme of paint. Each image took roughly half an hour to get it to the standard that I felt suited the magazine, this showed me being patient throughout the construction of my magazine. I found the programme of blogger very aesthetically pleasing as I felt it was very easy to use when commenting on the progression of my magazine, I could easily relate back to my blogger to update how I was getting on with my magazine and how I was changing my magazine everyday. I also feel blogger benefits me as the user as I feel it shows how much my magazine has initially come on from my starting point. I initially considered using Photoshop however I felt this to be very technical so I went with paint due to its simplistic nature, I could also manipulate my images with confidence and easily paste them over into my document when needed.

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

The preliminary task was a good way of including and experimenting with symbolism and indexical signs, the pencils in my school magazine represented the school environment, from this I decided I should include symbolic images that refer to the music industry such as instruments (these feature on my two-page spread). Through research I found that the inclusion of these signs helped represent it was a music magazine, my questionnaire showed that 7 in 10 felt the signs gave positive denotation.

The inclusion of bands (fictional and non-fictional) shows how I progressed from my school magazine as I included little detail on my school magazine and felt this was a negative when looking back. The inclusion of cover lines, subheadings and lures helps refer to who later features and acts as prompt to read on.

As you can see my typography initially was very limited and very bland as it only featured black writing. I felt I need to make my music magazine stand out from the others so I included a colour combination, these being RED, WHITE and BLACK. I felt this factor would help promote sales due to it having a level of saliency about it. From this prelim task i gained a myriad of ideas in relation to typography.

I feel both my mastheads had very good stories behind them as they both were symbolic of the industry my magazine was aimed in. I thought my magazines names out with clear reference to the genre of my magazine.

Symbolism – I felt the child used in school magazine wasn't really a signifier of the school environment as it was quite a vague image so I felt I needed to adapt an image into my music magazine so I opted for a 3 shot of males who are recent to the music industry. I feel that my models used shows an improvement in reference to symbolism.

Questionnaire

1. Do you feel the magazine you are reading is appealing? YES ///// //// NO /2. Did you think the bands included seemed realistic and associated with the music industry? YES ///// // NO ///3. Would you buy a second edition if one was to be published? YES ///// ///// NO 4. Did you feel you could relate to my magazine when reading through the content? YES ///// /// NO ///5. Is £1.49 a reasonable price for the magazine considering extra’s? YES ///// ///// NO 6. What magazine appeals more to you as the reader?

1. / 2. ///// ////7. Did you feel the colour combination was prominent and worked well in unison? YES ///// //// NO /8. Did you feel the name “IMMUNIZE” worked well and did you understand the concept? YES ///// / NO ////9. Did my Headline band “Brick Lane” represent the music industry and did you find their fact file intriguing? YES ///// //// NO /10. Did the font choice appeal to you? I.e. The music Injection YES ///// NO /////11. Was the layout eye catching or did you feel you needed to search for relevant information? YES ///// /// NO //

I conducted my questionnaire in my class of current media students, I felt I needed some analysis from people in the same position as me. I asked 10 people 11 questions about my media product. / - 1 Vote.