As Portfolio

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

Front Cover

I believe my final product does use some of the forms and conventions of real media products. The research I had done prior to development stage of my coursework was influential in the inclusion of real life media conventions within my magazine. The popular magazine NME had a part to play in this as it was the magazine that a lot of my research focused around.

The front cover of my magazine as you can see above features a large distinctive masthead that is made to stand out with the use of bold colouring, formal serif font and a contrasting coloured background. A convention I took used from the magazine RollingStones is the banner at the top of the page, above the masthead advertising what is contained in the magazine, I decided to make this issue of the magazine about the band Bloc Party therefore the banner advertising this to the potential customer straight away in clear writing.

Puffs are used on my front cover to again advertise what the magazine contains; they are around the side of the main image as I found out during my research that a typical convention is to have the puffs around the side of my main image or focal point as to not disrupt the images mode of address.

The bar code/price tag are other convention I have followed and are it located in bottom right hand corner, this is a typical place for its inclusion on real life music magazines as you can see from the example to the left of it. Finally the overall colour scheme of my front cover fits in with certain conventions as the colours used are often similar as not to confuse the reader and the important feature are prioritised by importance with the sue of bright colours, e.g. the masthead.

Contents Page

The contents page I have created also uses forms and conventions of real media products, the most obvious one probably being the masthead. In order that the reader can differentiate between a contents page and a regular page I had to include certain conventions, these include a masthead, article/feature descriptions, page numbers and images. I tried to make the masthead stand out so that the reader immediately could identify what the function of the page was; large font size, bolding and a serif font help achieve this.

The magazine brand name is also included on the masthead to promote a sense of consistence within the magazine, this time the full name is displayed instead of its abbreviation. Two images are used, both have relevance to the front cover and the articles advertised. The first is of the band bloc party's lead singer and is included again to promote a sense of consistence as this is a bloc party special edition.

The Page numbers are big and stand out due to the bright red colouring, this is because the purpose of a contents page is to tell the reader what pages to find featured articles, therefore this was a high priority.

Another typical convention from real media products that I have used in my contents page is the 'Editors Note' this feature is popular with music magazines because in a way it makes the product more personal.

Double Page Spread

Again, there are numerous examples of forms and conventions included in real media products contained on my double page spread. The first thing i did to the page was to write the article, this ultimately is the main reason for purchasing a music magazine therefore I paid particular attention to its structure.

During my research I analysed the structure/conventions of such articles allowing have a better understanding when using them. I did not use the inverted pyramid format but instead started with a review of the bands latest gig followed by an interview, biograph, bang banter and my own journalistic comment, while also announcing the news the bloc party will be taking a 3 year break.

The lede for the article sets the tone and hints at the news the article will announce. The lede is also a pun on the bands name, is in a larger font to the rest of the text, and has a contrasting colour scheme to the rest of the article. One way I have possible developed a convention of real life media products could be by including closing sentence with a similar style to the opening Lede, which achieves a distinct, visual beginning and end to the article. The caption uses typical real life media product conventions as it is located on the image itself and is a sort factual statement on what the image includes.

Finally in an attempt to break up the wall of text, in certain parts of the article I enlarged key phrases and made them stand by colouring the enlarged pieces of text green. I believe that this was successful in doing its job of making the article more entertaining to read.

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

A social group is a group of people who share the same beliefs, ideas, likes, dislikes or style; they're many different social groups that represent many different institutions. Social group can be utilised by business in order to focus a product to their needs therefore entering a niche market. Typical social groups associated with music genres and therefore music magazines include; Indie, Rockers, Metal fans, Hip Hop/Rap fans, Ravers, Punk Rockers, Mosher’s, students etc. I believe that my final media product represents Indie and student social groups for a number of reasons.

The 'Student' and 'Indie' social groups are represented by my front cover in a number of ways for example; the low cost, 'Indie' genre bands being interviewed/reviewed, Indie/student Mise en Scene 'Oli Moore' is wearing in the central image, brightly coloured puffs and the free poster promotion located on the pug in the bottom left hand corner.

These two social groups are again strongly represented on in my content page, for example; the bright colour scheme, the central image of Kele (lead singer of Indie band Bloc Party), the colloquial language used in the Editors Notes, the Leeds Festival Ticket promotion and the page number descriptions of 'Bloc Party' related features.

Evidence can also be found of representation of the 'Indie' & 'Student' Social groups on my Double Page Spread. Such evidence includes; The fact that the band at question specialise in Indie style music, The band were all formally university students, the coordinated contemporary colour scheme & main image and the colloquial language used throughout the article.

In conclusion I believe that my finished product represents the Indie and Student type social groups well and has achieved this by using many forms and conventions discovered with the results of my primary and secondary research.

This conclusion is relevant to Indie/Student social groups because out of the sample audience who participated in my questionnaire 80% were aged 16.5 - 25.5, the stereotypical age range for students. As well as this, the majority of the sample audience said that an Indie type music magazine was the genre they would be most likely to buy.

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

One of the main reasons why I would choose this institution for the distribution of my media product is the size of the business and the economies of scale it operates with.

Economies of scale are the advantages of being a big business, and in the Bauer Media Groups case, due to the buying power they posses, they would be able to keep costs in terms of supplies & shipping at an absolute minimum therefore increasing the potential profit margins of my product.

Although the Bauer Media Group already own two very successful music magazines I believe that there is still a gap in the market for my product. Seeing how Kerrang targets predominantly the Rock genre and Q, as of late, more mainstream artists I think Bauer might be keen to distribute my product as it, stereotypically speaking appeals to an Indie/Student type, therefore opening up a new demography/niche market.

Bauer Media Group would also be well placed to advertise my media product; this is because of its recent success with Kerrang Radio and the fact that it owns a 50% stake in 'Box Television' (Q TV, 4Music, Kiss TV, Kerrang! TV, The Box, Magic TV, Smash Hits TV). With such a wide reaching media network Bauer Media Group would find promoting my new media product very easy and very cheap.

In terms of modern day distribution to the average customer, a lot of the sales nowadays is done through subscriptions and consequently delivered through the postal service. Although this is one of the main methods of distribution I would want to focus a lot of attention on, I would also want to make my product available through other channels of distribution, so that people unwilling/unable to commit to a monthly subscription for example will have access to my product.

This issue was something that I implemented into my research stage. When creating the questionnaire I included a question to discover what channels of distribution my sample audience predominantly bought their music magazines from.

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

As I have previously stated, the design and creation of my media product has been heavily based around the results of my primary and secondary research.

With the results from my primary research I sculpted the design of my product around the opinions of my sample audience and the secondary research I had completed into existing media products. This method of design basically ensured that the design of my media products would be aimed at the people within my sample audience, therefore I can say with a certain level of conviction that my target audience consists of; Young males, within the stereotypical age group for students, who enjoy Indie and Rock type music magazines.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

Seeing how I knew who my target audience was from an early stage in the project, attracting/addressing their needs was something that played a big part in any decision making I took, especially within the design stage.

Ways in which my product attracts/addresses my audience are as follows:

The main Image on the contents page is of Kele, the lead sing from the Indie band Bloc Party, this is another way in which my products address their target audience.

There is also a king of casual feel to my Contents Page, I think this is epitomised by the colloquial language used in the 'Editors Notes' section something that will address/attract my target audience into buying the product.

Another example of colloquial language being used to attract/address my target audience is evident on my Double Page Spread; although the review of the gig is very formal/informative the language used while interviewing the band takes on a different, more casual feeling, which again, stereotypically appeals to Indie/Student readers.

The final way in which my products attract/address my target audience is, in my opinion the colour schemes used in each of the pages to achieve their primary objectives. The front cover uses bright colours to gain the attention of the targeted audience, the contents page uses a mixture of bright colours and darker ones, to highlight the important information and I feel the mellow colour scheme used in my double page spread symbolises the mode of address contained in the article itself.

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

Sam Sharp

As Evaluation

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

Looking back at my Preliminary Front page that was created in Microsoft Publisher, and comparing it to my finished product in which Photoshop Elements 7 was used, my preliminary looks kind of primitive in comparison.

The same can be said for my preliminary Contents page, in comparison to my finished product, the difference in the features of the software used are vast and I think the result of this is pretty evident.

In conclusion I feel as if I have learnt a great deal from the start of the project to the finish, whether that knowledge was in an improved skill level in advanced software packages such has Photoshop or a greater overall understanding of the forms, conventions, institutions and channels of distribution within the music magazine industry.

This project has in my eyes been a great success, not only for the reason already stated, but because it has allowed me to express some of my creativity and in turn improve my confidence when dealing with media related matters.

The kind of media institution that might distribute my media product would be a company such as the Bauer Media Group. This firm is a large German Publishing company that is based in Hamburg; it operates in roughly 15 different counties and has a weekly circulation of 38 million magazines a week.

Another reason why I would choose the Bauer Media group is the proven record of success it has with other Music Magazines, for example the firm currently own and distribute 'Q' magazine and 'Kerrang', two extremely popular & relevant media products

During my research stage, a lot of the secondary research I carried out was on the music magazine 'NME', as a result of this a lot of the typically used conventions from NME music magazine can be found on my front page/content page/double page spread. With this in mind a smaller yet still significant reason why Bauer Media group might want to distribute my media product to increase levels of competition with 'ICP Media' who are currently one of Bauer Media's rival competitors.

As you can see 80% of my sample audience, excluding subscriptions, buy their music magazines from Newsagents and local retailers such as Supermarkets and Petrol Stations. It will therefore be a priority of mine to make sure these kind of 'local' distribution channels will be kept open, as not to isolate a large proportion of my target audience.

As you can see from the results of these 3 questions, the sample audience that filled in my questionnaire where predominantly Male, between 16-25 and enjoyed Indie/Rock music magazines.

The Bright contrasting yellow and white puffs on my front cover attracts a lot of attention, something that is a typically use convention with music magazines trying to appeal to an more 'Indie' social group.

The pug containing the free poster promotion should in theory, appeal to a student type demo graph, a person who is stereotypically short of money and decorates their rooms with posters.

Blogger.com was I new technology that I learnt a great deal from during the whole of the project. It was my first time using and maintaining a blog and I think the simplicity of the features and the clarity they bring where invaluable to me. The skills such as; posting, editing, hyper linking and uploading images will stay with me, and I will certainly use this website again for my A2 Level portfolio.

Finally, Prezi.com is the website I created my evaluation in. At the controls of the website where hard to learn, however the learning curve was short lives and when i was used to its features, I found it to be a really fun and effective way of displaying my evaluation.

The most influential piece of technology that during the process of constructing my product I have learnt the most about was probably the software package, Photoshop Elements 7.

Before this project I had no prior knowledge of how to use this software, however during the process of trail and errors as well as some help from online tutorials I learnt how use a wide variety of useful features such as the layers system, inputting text, adding effect, changing the colour, changing the size, lowing the gradient etc.

I think it would be safe to say, without Photoshop my construction stage would have been a lot more difficult because of all the useful features and (once I became familiar with) the simplicity of it.

Before creating my product I first undertook a research task, to learn more about the typical forms and conventions used on existing music magazines. The secondary research phase of this task was helped along greatly by the website Google.com. Google searched through billions of websites and images for me, which greatly helped me in my search for research material.