Media

In what ways does your media product

use, develop or challenge forms of real

media products?

When I was designing my magazine I took a lot of my ideas from already published magazines. I looked particularly at the style of Vogue magazine. I took ideas that Vogue magazine used and proved to be successful and changed them slightly to challenge the ideas that have been proved successful to try and develop new ideas that attract my target audience. Some magazines I looked at e.g. Smash Hits, I thought were a bit all over the place. There wasn't a consistent colour scheme throughout and the cover looked very crowded. I tried to challenge this by designing my magazine to be very consistent regarding the font and colour scheme and to make things look spaced out and tidy.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The genre of my magazine is indie music. There aren't really any music magazines old that are solely based on indie music so I looked at Kerrang magazine instead. The reason I chose to look at Kerrang magazine was because the music style is similar to indie and it focuses on the same age group and would therefore be categorized in the same social groups. The type of people who listen to indie music like going to gigs and concerts. Indie music is also quite easy going and the style of indie music I was designing my magazine after is quite unique and different to other types of music. This is why I aimed my magazine at a higher class of teenagers and young adults. I did this by choosing to put my model in a leopard print fur coat and with unusual piercings.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for my magazine is both males and females however I would imagine that there would be more females buying and reading my magazine than males. The age range my magazine would attract would be from 16-24. The social class of my target audience would be c1 and c2. This is because the majority of the people buying my magazine would either be students at high school, college or university or people just starting work which would make them in a lower social class. The genre of my magazine is indie which is quite chilled out and easy going which is more associated with girls rather than 'rough and tumble' boys. I chose the colour scheme for my magazine to be quite unisex using red, white and black which can be associated with both males and females.

How did you attract and address your audience?

The audience for my magazine is both male and female but was swaying more towards females. This is why I chose a unisex colour scheme for my magazine but it would still attract girls more. Because it was swayed more towards girls I used a girl model. Girls take a lot of pride in their appearance so I clothed the model fashionably and in high class clothes.

Indie music is quite easy going and the people who listen to it like going to gigs etc so in my magazine I featured a competition to win festival tickets. This would draw my target audience in and help make them want to buy the magazine. Another way I tried to attract my target audience was by using bright contrasting colours (red is very easily seen on a white background), and by using simple yet not too slobby words.

What have you learnt about technology from this process?

In order for me to complete this assignment I had to learn to use many different types of software which were completely new to me including photoshop, blogger and prezi. From looking at the first task I had to do using photoshop and my final product you can tell that as I used it more and more I found out different ways of enhancing what I was making to attract and address the audience more. In my first assignment I was only using the basics of photoshop like blending in colours but now I know how to change the saturation, curves and lines etc.

When I first started using blogger it felt quite strange but as time went on I realised how good it was to help me keep track of the work that I had done and what needed doing. It was also very helpful in letting me see how much I was progressing from our first assignment right through to the final product.

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

When I first started this assignment I had no idea how many different softwares there were to use in order to design and create a magazine. I also had no idea about how much skill and research went into the process of constructing a magazine. Looking back at my preliminary task I realise how plain and boring it looks and doesn’t have anything to attract the target audience. As I progressed I started to realise how much research is needed into different things. One thing I have learnt is how much research goes into finding out about your target audience and how they are stereotypically viewed. Once you know what their likes and dislikes generally are it is fairly easy to construct a magazine aimed at that particular social group.

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

The media institution I think would distribute my magazine would be bauer media. The reason I chose this media institution is because it operates in 15 countries worldwide. It also sells 282 different magazine worldwide in these countries. Amongst the magazines that Bauer publishes are Q and Kerrang. Both of these magazines I analysed when researching for my magazine. I particularly looked into Kerrang magazine because of the similarities it has with my magazine.

Bauer media also has a 50% stake in the British television company so it has a high reputation.

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