How does your media product represent particular social groups?
As with most general music magazines, my magazine represents a wide cross section of society and the music business, with indie, rock and also rap portrayed on a page throughout the magazine.
Additionally, through marketing, I would attempt to to portray people of different races, cultures and gender equally, by showing artists popular with different elements of society, and additionally female bands to give females equal representation. Despite this, I used a male dominated front cover, as throughout the research I conducted this was common.
Furthermore, the stereotypes that some people hold against people of other genders and cultures can be challenged in my magazine. This allows me try and break the negative stereotypes, and gives me an excuse to display a wide diversity of artists in my product.
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Evaluation V
How do you attract your audience?
Rather than creating a product conforming to the conventions expected of a certain genre, simply because I liked that style of music - I chose to create a magazine that adheres to what fans want. My questionnaire I posted previously revealed a set of results that wanted an indie style magazine with interviews and reviews of concerts. You can see that I took notice of this through my 'Swoop to Conquer' feature in my double page spread. Furthermore, I found the Q forums an endless source of complaints about current magazines, which allowed me to capitalise on what many readers thought was missing in the current productions.
Rather than creating a product conforming to the conventions expected of a certain genre, simply because I liked that style of music - I chose to create a magazine that adheres to what fans want. My questionnaire I posted previously revealed a set of results that wanted an indie style magazine with interviews and reviews of concerts. You can see that I took notice of this through my 'Swoop to Conquer' feature in my double page spread. Furthermore, I found the Q forums an endless source of complaints about current magazines, which allowed me to capitalise on what many readers thought was missing in the current productions.
Evaluation IV
What have you learned about technologies through constructing this product?
Initially, our brief suggested that the use of desktop publishing was necessary. So during the creation of my preliminary task, I became increasingly aware that Microsoft Publisher, which was used - did not have the same capabilities of programmes I have extensive knowledge of, such as Adobe Photoshop.
As I progressed onto my main task, I used Photoshop, so that I could capitalise on the skills I had learned through previous use of the program. It allows me to create effects, manipulate images and generally design in a way light years ahead of any desktop publishing program.
I fitted all of the components I created on Photoshop together using Adobe InDesign, another desktop publishing program used by professionals to create magazines
Throughout the production, I used blogger.com to track my progress. I learned a number of techniques, as initially I had no idea how to use the program. Implementing polls, post formatting and simply inserting images I had no idea to do, until I used blogger.
Initially, our brief suggested that the use of desktop publishing was necessary. So during the creation of my preliminary task, I became increasingly aware that Microsoft Publisher, which was used - did not have the same capabilities of programmes I have extensive knowledge of, such as Adobe Photoshop.
As I progressed onto my main task, I used Photoshop, so that I could capitalise on the skills I had learned through previous use of the program. It allows me to create effects, manipulate images and generally design in a way light years ahead of any desktop publishing program.
I fitted all of the components I created on Photoshop together using Adobe InDesign, another desktop publishing program used by professionals to create magazines
Throughout the production, I used blogger.com to track my progress. I learned a number of techniques, as initially I had no idea how to use the program. Implementing polls, post formatting and simply inserting images I had no idea to do, until I used blogger.
Evaluation III
Who is the target audience for your media product?
My research, conducted through an earlier posted questionnaire revealed that my target audience should be staunchly towards the 16-20 male demographic, of which represented 80% of those who completed my questionnaire. You can see that I adhered to the common ideas and conventions expected in productions that aim at the aforementioned demographic during my production, first of all by choosing to make an indie production, a music genre that has been revitalised amongst the younger generation in the last 5 years.
My research, conducted through an earlier posted questionnaire revealed that my target audience should be staunchly towards the 16-20 male demographic, of which represented 80% of those who completed my questionnaire. You can see that I adhered to the common ideas and conventions expected in productions that aim at the aforementioned demographic during my production, first of all by choosing to make an indie production, a music genre that has been revitalised amongst the younger generation in the last 5 years.
Evaluation II
What kind of institution would produce your magazine and why?
I would approach http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauer_Media_Group to be the producers of my magazine, due to its affluent history, including the production of "Q" and "Kerrang!" I believe that my magazine would fill a gap that is exposed in the lack of diversity between the aforementioned magazines. While "Kerrang!" focusses heavily on the metal genre of music, Q although originally an indie publication, now tends to focus on other mainstream artists heavily. As previously stated, my magazine conforms to the conventions similar to that of "NME" - and due to the nature of competition between Bauer and IPC media(the producers of NME) I believe that Bauer would produce my magazine in order to have a competitor with IPC in my specific genre of magazine. Furthermore, I believe that Bauer could capitalize on the success of their radio channels, Q and Kerrang! to advertise my magazine. Additionally, its recent purchase of EMAP, a major competitor, has shown that it has the capital to stay afloat in the current difficult economic climate, and subsequently would be able to fund the advertising and production of my magazine easily.
I would approach http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauer_Media_Group to be the producers of my magazine, due to its affluent history, including the production of "Q" and "Kerrang!" I believe that my magazine would fill a gap that is exposed in the lack of diversity between the aforementioned magazines. While "Kerrang!" focusses heavily on the metal genre of music, Q although originally an indie publication, now tends to focus on other mainstream artists heavily. As previously stated, my magazine conforms to the conventions similar to that of "NME" - and due to the nature of competition between Bauer and IPC media(the producers of NME) I believe that Bauer would produce my magazine in order to have a competitor with IPC in my specific genre of magazine. Furthermore, I believe that Bauer could capitalize on the success of their radio channels, Q and Kerrang! to advertise my magazine. Additionally, its recent purchase of EMAP, a major competitor, has shown that it has the capital to stay afloat in the current difficult economic climate, and subsequently would be able to fund the advertising and production of my magazine easily.
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Such similarities include:
- Top left placement of masthead
- Text with advert to specific article placed above masthead which spreads across the width of the cover
- List of bands/artists featured in the issue
- Barcode placed in the bottom right
- Quotes from specific articles placed on the front cover, used to entice potential buyers into buying and subsequently reading the relevant article
- Puffs and text placed over main images
Double Page
As with my front cover, my double page spread conforms to the conventions apparent in many music magazines. It is one distinct image with a solid block of text, each on a different page. The image has been edited to give it a lighter feel than the original image and blurred either side of the main focus to make the artist appear sharper and draw the readers eye towards it. As is apparent in many newspapers and all magazines, my text is placed into thin columns, this makes it easier for the customer to read, but also allows more room for images, you can see an example here of where this has been used.
Contents Page
Throughout the production of my product, the colours red, yellow and black have been prominent, my contents page is no different. It conforms to the conventions that readers have came to expect from media magazines by having a large contents on the left hand side which uses buzzwords such as "EXCLUSIVE" and "EXPOSED." Furthermore, my page has titles like "Features" and "Regulars" - something far from uncommon in other magazines of a similar genre.
On the whole, my magazine Transmission conforms to all of the conventions we have came to associate with a wide range of magazines in the genre. This point is exemplified by the stylized, individual and noticable masthead. It was made it in contrasting colours, a feature seen in magazines such as Q and NME. The distinguished and prominent font style also gives the impression of it being a logo rather than just a masthead, I capitalised on this idea by again placing the logo on my "We give you the lowdown" section of my front cover. My front cover is heavily influenced by the widely popular NME magazine, a magazine that doesn't conform to the same clean stylised conventions as the likes of Q and Mojo, but favours a messy style, friendlier to the target audience of the 16-25 male demographic. As you can see, my front cover, shown in an earlier post shares many of conventions as the NME front cover shown below
- Top left placement of masthead
- Text with advert to specific article placed above masthead which spreads across the width of the cover
- List of bands/artists featured in the issue
- Barcode placed in the bottom right
- Quotes from specific articles placed on the front cover, used to entice potential buyers into buying and subsequently reading the relevant article
- Puffs and text placed over main images
Double Page
As with my front cover, my double page spread conforms to the conventions apparent in many music magazines. It is one distinct image with a solid block of text, each on a different page. The image has been edited to give it a lighter feel than the original image and blurred either side of the main focus to make the artist appear sharper and draw the readers eye towards it. As is apparent in many newspapers and all magazines, my text is placed into thin columns, this makes it easier for the customer to read, but also allows more room for images, you can see an example here of where this has been used.
Contents Page
Throughout the production of my product, the colours red, yellow and black have been prominent, my contents page is no different. It conforms to the conventions that readers have came to expect from media magazines by having a large contents on the left hand side which uses buzzwords such as "EXCLUSIVE" and "EXPOSED." Furthermore, my page has titles like "Features" and "Regulars" - something far from uncommon in other magazines of a similar genre.
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