In what ways does your media product use

In what ways does your Media

product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real

media products?

I wanted my magazine to reflect an existing magazine, so for this to happen I have tried to use all the conventions

included in a magazine. The genre of my magazine is pop so looking at an existing pop magazine helped influence

my decision as to the creation of my front cover. http://kategxoxo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/conventions-of-

magazine.html

Barcode

Date/Price

Cover Star using

direct address

Masthead

Cover line – Puff

Exclusive Interview

Main Cover line

Selling Line, not in

it’s original place

I wanted my magazine to be unique so I intentionally put the selling line at the bottom to subtly challenge the

convention but everything else is placed correctly as I do want my magazine to appear realistic.

Here shows two existing magazines and my magazine. Both magazines influenced the creation of my own, as I

liked the simplicity and old fashioned style of ‘Photoplay’ but I also feel ‘Top of the Pops’ relate more to my target

audience and it is in fact a music magazine with pop music as the genre. By meeting halfway I feel I kept the

vintage feel of ‘Photoplay’ but as it is a modern teenage audience I am aiming at ‘Top of the Pops’ certainly

helped create a more girly, music magazine with contemporary conventions. Both magazines, use a cover star and

direct address, essential features of a magazine, I knew I would need to do this in order to create an engaging

magazine for my audience.

Here is ‘Top of the Pops’

contents page and my contents

page. There is a clear contrast

between the two, however I did

base my contents page on this

magazine but again did not

want it too look to crowded

and opted for less being more.

If I could change one this

about my contents page it

would be the contents page as I

feel it looks rushed as

‘Editor’s’ Note’ feature

although appearing in

magazines regularly was a last

minute decision due to the fact

I needed 4 original images in

my magazine. However the

content of the contents page

i.e. ‘Cringe! Your real life

embarrassing stories’ I feel fits

well with my target market.

Here is my double page spread, I’m very

pleased with it, instead of doing a

generic question and answer interview, I

decided to actually write an article with

some bits of direct speech from my Cover

Star, this enabled me to fit a lot more

writing on than before. I also added her

new single ‘Love Birds’ at the bottom

which I felt made the article seem more

realistic, using celebrity endorsement.

The cover star is again using direct

address which I feel is crucial, engaging

the reader. The small piece of pink

writing, is normally used in magazines, a

direct quote from the article. I also tried

to keep in with the vintage theme as well

and I feel I have achieved this. Below

shows again Top of the Pops’ double

page spread it is quite similar, and I

based my double page spread on this. I

liked the big photo on one page and the

article on the other.

How does your media product

represent particular social

groups?

My magazine has a target audience of teenage girls. I feel my magazine beats today’s stereotypical view of

teen girls, as through the images and content of my magazine a girly, innocence view is represented. I also

wanted a stereotypical 21st century girl... Even though my magazine is a 50’s based magazine. As you can

see on my target audience slide, there is a typical girl who would read this magazine.

What kind of institution might

distribute your media product

and why?

BAUER MEDIA

Record magazine would be distributed by this company, as BAUER MEDIA appeals to mass markets

distributing magazines such as Closer, Gratzia etc. My magazine appeals to a mass audience of Pop

music lovers. I also feel my magazine would be popular amongst my target market as it is original and

not any typical pop magazine.

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

Who would be the target market

for your media product and why?

This is a typical reader of my magazine.

Age: 16

Interests: Music, fashion, friends, tumblr, her

boyfriend, social networking, Starbucks, likes

watching old films and going shopping.

My target market would have a quirky edge

to them whether it be through their hair.,

makeup or what they wear.

How did you attract/address your

audience?

The 50’s/vintage theme of my magazine plays a huge part in attracting my target market. Many

tumblr pages have been made by girls, dedicated to the 50’s and vintage etc. I felt by making this type

of my magazine that appeals to today’s girls would be successful.

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/50s

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/vintage

The language/features used also attract my target market as words like ‘Cringe’ are relatable to my

target audience. I also used features I feel would attract more of a mass audience Justin Bieber for

example as he has over 30 million followers on twitter, and he’s such a big star.

http://kategxoxo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/analysis-of-language_29.html

My masthead also is consistent with the theme but also adds a girly touch to my magazine which I

felt was important. The colour pink being the main colour I feel is very attractive to young girls, but I

didn’t want to do it over the top so it looked tacky.

The pictures used also add a vintage retro feel, through editing and manipulating them on my

computer I could achieve the vintage/retro appeal they have. I also used a website

www.photogramic.com to get the sparkly effects on them.

What have you learnt about

technologies from the process of

constructing the product?

I enjoyed using Blogger as it was all computer based and no need for lots of sheets and folders, I

could update when it suited me which was also another bonus. However time management was

something that I had to remember when using Blogger as you can’t change the date, so therefore I

and to make sure the number and time of blogs was consistent throughout.

I used Paint.net and Publisher to create my magazine. At first I found Paint.net extremely hard to use

and manipulating photos very difficult, it took me a while to familiarise myself with all the different

effects and tools on there . I did an blog on experimenting with Paint.net which helped a lot.

http://kategxoxo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/paintnet-expriment.html

In the end I used Paint.net to create my front cover and I was extremely pleased with it. I used publisher to create my contents page and

double page spread, I felt it was easier as there was a lot of text so publisher was the best option.

Here shows my preliminary task and how much I have improved on both Paint.net and Publisher.

Strengths

• Lots of effects that make my

magazine look more professional

• Once you get the hang of it, it is

extremely easy to use.

•Enables you to edit photo’s and

both can be saved as jpegs and then

can be uploaded on to blog.

Weaknesses

•It can be quite time consuming if

you don’t know how to use it

•It often crashes and sometimes

there is a problem with memory

•The different layers are hard to keep

up with

Looking back at your preliminary

task what do you feel you have

learnt from the progression to

your final product?

I feel I have improved an awful lot from my Preliminary task for example my magazine looks a lot

more professional. The big star on the first cover looks childish. However I have kept the simplicity

by not crowding my front cover with lots of cover lines. I have also learnt how to get rid of the

background. I feel my final piece is a lot better, and look a lot more professional.

I feel my final contents appeals to my target market, I like the little features I’ve added for example

‘The Marilyn inspired makeup.’ I also like how my cover appears on my contents page and shows a

clear link through the colours as well.

What do you think about your

final product?

I am extremely pleased with my front cover, and I feel, it fits in with the criteria I aimed for right at

the start of my project. I feel it is original, and still fits with my target market. My contents page I feel

is good and fits the criteria of a pop music magazine contents page if I were to do this project again it

would be the first thing I’d do as it took a lot of time. I am happy with my double page spread too.

By Katie Greaves