In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I did my research on other popular indie/rock magazine. The ideas I chose from them were things such as, having the masthead in the top left hand side of the cover. Most magazines do this as it looks unusual to have it anywhere else. Another idea was having the main cover line sitting directly infront of the picture to show people that they are linked. If the cover line was in another place people might mistake it for something else.
Another idea was on the contents page, where there is not a lot of details about less important things in the magazine. The contents page only focuses on the main features, therefore people don't have to look at things that they don't need to. I only used three pictures on my contents page, from my research some magazines don't have pictures at all or only have a few. Other magazines had loads of pictures on their contents page but I thought it looked a bit much. Again I put the title contents in the top left hand corner of the page just like any other magazine would. I also used the same fonts and colours to make them match and to prove that they are featuring in the same magazine. I placed the pictures next to headings that they are featured in. For example there is a heading that says 'The Cutouts win surface festival, and next to that heading is a picture of the band 'The Cutouts'. I thought this would be useful to people and show them who some of the band/solo artists are and what they look like. I also took another idea for the contents page and that was to advertise a competition to win tickets to some great gigs and concerts. The fonts for the headings I used were the same every time. In professional music magazines the headings and sub headings are always in the same font to show to viewers that these are all connected.
On the double page spread I used a lot of ideas from other magazines such as having one giant photo taking up one of the pages. A quote was placed infront of picture, some magazines do this to show to viewers what gets said in the magazine. If it's an eye catching quote then that makes the audience want to read on and see why they said what they did. At the top of the second page of the article there is the name Ruby Daze in large writing. This informs readers that the article is about that person. Also the font is like a trade mark to the artist. I added a small paragraph that will then lead onto the interview. Magazines do this to give you an inside of what is going to be talked about in the article. I used columns in my article as it's the easiest way for readers to follow. Last of all on the double page spread three pictures sit at the bottom of the page. They are the same size and are of the same person. This is an idea of a magazine as pictures don't always need to be so big.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
When I designed my media product I focused on a particular target audience. The age was 14+ and the particular genre of music people were interested in was indie/rock alternative. Therefore my magazine was represted for both male and female. I used a female artist on the front cover and on the double page spread therefore the magazine mainly focused on women.
I didn't focus on ethnicity as I didn't really think about how it would affect the readers. Using a white model does not exclude out any race. It just simply means that the model I chose was the first person I approached to do the photo shoot.
Nor did I focus on disability. I wanted my magazine to look like another professional music magazine such as NME. Music magazines don't normally have people with a disability in them as no one in the music industry are disabled. Not having a person with a disability on the front of the magazine doesn't stop someone with a disability from buying it. It just means that wasn't the look they were really going for.
Sexuality didn't seem important to deal with. People who buy the magazine can be of any sexuality they want. There is no rule to say that just because they are for example gay that they can't buy the magazine.
I focused on age more than anything else as a 60 year old person would not really want to read a magazine like this. So I focused more on the younger generation.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
After looking at and reading through the websites I have come to a conclusion that Bauer Media would advertise my magazine. The reason why I think that this particular website would distribute Blur is because Bauer Media mainly focuses on representing and distributing music related magazines. This media distributer is responsible for the very famous 'Kerrang'. Kerrang was one of the magazines I focused on getting inspiration off. As my magazine is exrememly similar to Kerrang I most likely thought that Bauer Media would be quite happy to distribute a indie/rock alternative magazine.
Who would be the audience for your media product?/How did you attract/address your audience?
The audience for my media product would be people from the age of 14 onwards who like music in the genre of indie/rock-alternative. After analysing my front cover I decided that no one outisde of the specific genre of indie/rock-alternative would actually like the magazine. On my front cover to attract the particlar audience I wanted I used cover lines that included bands and events that the specific target audience would know. For example I used the band The Cutouts and the event Surface festival. I also used another popular event called The Split Festival. These would attract the specific target audience straight away.
On my contents page to attract peoples attention I used popluar bands in the features and news such as The Wombats, Muse, Blink 182 and Thriving Ivory. I also used a picture of a new band that would catch the audience's eye. Attracting a target audience can be tricky, so I even thought of using specific fonts to see if that will catch their eye too.
On the double page spread I used a quote 'Music is my religion'. People who love music would most likely want to read on after reading the quote. Also articles and interviews get interesting when they are about music therefore people in a specific target audience would be happy to read about music.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
From starting Media in sixth form I have learnt a lot. For starters I didn't really know how to make an image better on macromedia fireworks but after playing around with some images for my magazine I now know how to make pictures look professional. I already knew how to work a camera but I never used to pay attention about the lighting and posing. Now I know how to take a decent picture as I know that such as the glare on cameras is not good at all. Also When taking a close up, I know that the image would look terrible if the model is in a bad position.
I know how to create a double page spread using publisher. I've never done that before, for example putting the article into columns and adjusting pictures and words to make the whole page look better. Also on the bottom of the article I made the three small photos look better than what they were as I grouped them and made a border around each photo. Therefore they look connected.
Another idea was on the contents page, where there is not a lot of details about less important things in the magazine. The contents page only focuses on the main features, therefore people don't have to look at things that they don't need to. I only used three pictures on my contents page, from my research some magazines don't have pictures at all or only have a few. Other magazines had loads of pictures on their contents page but I thought it looked a bit much. Again I put the title contents in the top left hand corner of the page just like any other magazine would. I also used the same fonts and colours to make them match and to prove that they are featuring in the same magazine. I placed the pictures next to headings that they are featured in. For example there is a heading that says 'The Cutouts win surface festival, and next to that heading is a picture of the band 'The Cutouts'. I thought this would be useful to people and show them who some of the band/solo artists are and what they look like. I also took another idea for the contents page and that was to advertise a competition to win tickets to some great gigs and concerts. The fonts for the headings I used were the same every time. In professional music magazines the headings and sub headings are always in the same font to show to viewers that these are all connected.
On the double page spread I used a lot of ideas from other magazines such as having one giant photo taking up one of the pages. A quote was placed infront of picture, some magazines do this to show to viewers what gets said in the magazine. If it's an eye catching quote then that makes the audience want to read on and see why they said what they did. At the top of the second page of the article there is the name Ruby Daze in large writing. This informs readers that the article is about that person. Also the font is like a trade mark to the artist. I added a small paragraph that will then lead onto the interview. Magazines do this to give you an inside of what is going to be talked about in the article. I used columns in my article as it's the easiest way for readers to follow. Last of all on the double page spread three pictures sit at the bottom of the page. They are the same size and are of the same person. This is an idea of a magazine as pictures don't always need to be so big.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
When I designed my media product I focused on a particular target audience. The age was 14+ and the particular genre of music people were interested in was indie/rock alternative. Therefore my magazine was represted for both male and female. I used a female artist on the front cover and on the double page spread therefore the magazine mainly focused on women.
I didn't focus on ethnicity as I didn't really think about how it would affect the readers. Using a white model does not exclude out any race. It just simply means that the model I chose was the first person I approached to do the photo shoot.
Nor did I focus on disability. I wanted my magazine to look like another professional music magazine such as NME. Music magazines don't normally have people with a disability in them as no one in the music industry are disabled. Not having a person with a disability on the front of the magazine doesn't stop someone with a disability from buying it. It just means that wasn't the look they were really going for.
Sexuality didn't seem important to deal with. People who buy the magazine can be of any sexuality they want. There is no rule to say that just because they are for example gay that they can't buy the magazine.
I focused on age more than anything else as a 60 year old person would not really want to read a magazine like this. So I focused more on the younger generation.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
After looking at and reading through the websites I have come to a conclusion that Bauer Media would advertise my magazine. The reason why I think that this particular website would distribute Blur is because Bauer Media mainly focuses on representing and distributing music related magazines. This media distributer is responsible for the very famous 'Kerrang'. Kerrang was one of the magazines I focused on getting inspiration off. As my magazine is exrememly similar to Kerrang I most likely thought that Bauer Media would be quite happy to distribute a indie/rock alternative magazine.
Who would be the audience for your media product?/How did you attract/address your audience?
The audience for my media product would be people from the age of 14 onwards who like music in the genre of indie/rock-alternative. After analysing my front cover I decided that no one outisde of the specific genre of indie/rock-alternative would actually like the magazine. On my front cover to attract the particlar audience I wanted I used cover lines that included bands and events that the specific target audience would know. For example I used the band The Cutouts and the event Surface festival. I also used another popular event called The Split Festival. These would attract the specific target audience straight away.
On my contents page to attract peoples attention I used popluar bands in the features and news such as The Wombats, Muse, Blink 182 and Thriving Ivory. I also used a picture of a new band that would catch the audience's eye. Attracting a target audience can be tricky, so I even thought of using specific fonts to see if that will catch their eye too.
On the double page spread I used a quote 'Music is my religion'. People who love music would most likely want to read on after reading the quote. Also articles and interviews get interesting when they are about music therefore people in a specific target audience would be happy to read about music.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
From starting Media in sixth form I have learnt a lot. For starters I didn't really know how to make an image better on macromedia fireworks but after playing around with some images for my magazine I now know how to make pictures look professional. I already knew how to work a camera but I never used to pay attention about the lighting and posing. Now I know how to take a decent picture as I know that such as the glare on cameras is not good at all. Also When taking a close up, I know that the image would look terrible if the model is in a bad position.
I know how to create a double page spread using publisher. I've never done that before, for example putting the article into columns and adjusting pictures and words to make the whole page look better. Also on the bottom of the article I made the three small photos look better than what they were as I grouped them and made a border around each photo. Therefore they look connected.
