In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products
My magazine doesn’t really challenge or develop forms and conventions of real magazines. My magazine uses conventions of real magazines by having images on the front cover, the title of the magazine and a main heading. Whats more the front cover does look like a front cover of a magazine because it has information of whats inside and a price on. The conventions of my magazine looks like the ones you’d find in other music magazines.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In general the social groups classified by the National Readership Survey (NRS social grades) that are represented by my media product is the ABC1 social group. The ABC1 social group consists of 3 specific social groups, A – upper middle class, B – middle class and C1 - lower middle class. The other set of social groups classified by the NRS is C2DE, consisting of skilled working class, working class and lower class. Certain sections of this social group would read my media product, but the main social groups represented by my media product are ABC1. The majority of festivals goers are white, middle class and are represented in the ABC1 social group, students are a prime example of this.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Media institutions that could distribute my media product could ones that want to touch or appeal to younger audiences and readers. The CN group is a media company based in Carlisle and distributes various media products such as: News and Star newspaper, Cumbrian life magazine, Carlisle living, Dumfries & Galloway life and The Cumberland news. All of these products are all aimed at older and more mature audiences and all based on similar topics. Also institutions such as the Bauer group who publish Kerrang and Mojo music magazines could distribute my product because they already distribute music magazines and have the expertise at doing so, another institution could be Haymarket who produce FourFourTwo magazine, Classic FM magazine, Sky Sports magazine, What Car? magazine and many more. Haymarket do not distribute a magazine like my one, Classic FM being the closest but that doesn’t appeal to young music lovers as much.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The targeted audiences for my media product are people who have an interest in music; it is after all a music magazine. Specifically though it is aimed at people who want to learn how to play a musical instrument and the history of that specific instrument. Also, I have targeted people who are planning on going to music festivals, specifically festivals that last a few days. The targeted age range of the audience for my magazine is 14 – 25 males and females. Although the 14 – 25 age group is primary audience grouping the magazine may well be of interest to people outside this age range as plenty of people learn to play instruments later on in life. The specific musical genre of the magazine is rock and indie music. In general most 14 – 25 male and females attending festivals tend in general to favour this kind of music. People attending festivals of this nature tend in general to fall within the ABC1 social grouping. This is partly due to the pricing of the tickets, which depending on the amount of days covered by the festival can range from £100 – £200.
How did you attract/address your audience?
Given that the targeted audience for my media product are aged between 14 – 25, I have addressed the audience in a less formal way than you would find in the Classic FM magazine for example but more formal than you would find in a children’s magazine. “One thing that is for certain during British summer time is bad weather”, this is an extract from some text on the double page spread of my magazine, which shows us that it isn’t perhaps as formal as you would find in a more mature magazine like Classic FM, but it is more formal than you would find in a children’s magazine. The title of the magazine is ‘Musik’, and by replacing the ‘c’ with a ‘k’ I have straight away given it a youthful appearance. As my target audience is people going to music festivals or learning about/how to play specific instruments, the guitar for example, I had to make it known to passers by. The print of a guitar outline on the front cover immediately catches the eye of people who are interested in music. The colours help to attract the reader, and they stand out against the white background. The blue text on the front cover gives the reader good information on what is inside the magazine and the text on the front cover uses imperatives to address the reader by commanding the reader to do this, read that and see this. Again the text isn’t as formal as in more mature magazines. The pictures, like the colours, help to draw in the reader. The double page spread is also designed to be appealing on the eye; the cloud/sky background goes well with the topic being about festivals and the summer. The font style on the double page spread is almost messy and dirty, and the style again, has a very youthful look to it. The guitar as a background to my magazine cover is representative of specific genres, namely rock and indie music. This would attract people to my magazine who like this genre of music, not Hip Hop, rap or dance music.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The construction of my product required me to use Photoshop for the first time and Blogging for the first time. I learned many things about Photoshop during the construction of this product, ranging from how to edit and image to designing a layout for my product. As is evident from the front cover and the contents page of my magazine, I learn’t of and tried different ways of colouring and designing a background from the same image from the same guitar. As well as learning about different aspects of Photoshop, I have also learn’t more about using Apple Mac’s and how different they are to standard PC’s, something that I hadn’t really done before.
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 task, I feel I have learned a lot since designing it, for example I have learned advanced techniques on Photoshop and different ways of editing an image, like the way the guitar image has been manipulated on the front cover, and on the contents page. Also the front cover looks more like a front cover of a magazine than my preliminary task did, it looks more professional and stylish than the preliminary task and what’s more it is possibly easier on the eye than the preliminary task. Other than learning about Photoshop I have also learned more about myself in this process, and I would feel more confident if I were to be asked to produce something similar now because I am more familiar with the technology used in the process of making a magazine and I know my way around it.
No comments:
Post a Comment