- 1. MEDIA STUDIES AS: FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO
ABBIE TAYLOR 2.
- For my project I chose to do a print product in form of a music
magazine. In this project I had to create a front cover, contents
page and feature article featuring a band. This included the help
from four girls to pose as a pop girl group called The
Revivals.
3. Q1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
- All magazines that are in the market follow the same rules when
it comes to magazine conventions. They all have to include the
following:
- Celebrities/ famous people/ stars etc
- Front cover with sub headings catchy titles
- Contents page- bright and colourful with text grabs and
images.
- Colour scheme house style
- Feature Article- images, text and enlarged quotes
- Without conventions of the magazine genre it cannot become
successful with making profits or even selling. Therefore I wanted
to produce a music magazine with conventions of the magazine genre
pop, to meet the standards and expectations of the target audience
for it to become successful
Example of a conventional fashion and lifestyle magazine Vogue
is an international selling magazine that is very successful
because it follows the typical conventions of the magazine genre.
4.
- I wanted to produce a unique, fresh and new music magazine, to
do this I chose the genre pop. I chose this particular genre as I
think it is the most popular. I found this out from previous
research;
- Audience questionnaire- most popular genre for a new magazine
was pop.
- Top 40uk charts had majority of pop charts.
- Overall, this shows that there is a missing gap for a music
magazine with the genre pop as it is most popular and there are
currently no magazines of this genre on the market. This gave me
the perfect opportunity to produce a magazine following the
conventions of a music genre.
- These magazines Billboard and Sugar are magazines with
conventions that I needed to follow as they both have special
features that I wanted to include. Enlarged headings and
subheadings that catch the readers attention are used. Also both
have colourful colour schemes that stand out and images using
direct address that follow their individual genre. They are both
very well known and successful; this shows they follow conventions
of the magazine genre. Billboard is a music magazine that focuses
on a genre of what ever is top in the charts whereas Sugar is a
magazine for teenage girls that is based on boys, real life stories
and fashion. I wanted to create a magazine that includes special
features from both magazines put together in one.
Examples of music magazines with conventions I needed to
follow... 5. USP
- My magazine will be unique from the rest of the magazines that
are already out on the market for music magazines as it will be
creative, bright and eye catchy. After browsing through the top
40UK it clearly shows that pop is one of the main biggest interests
in types of music and is lacking this type of music magazine for a
certain age. My music magazine will feature a front cover, contents
page and double page spread. I will base my target audience on an
age of 12-16 years old.
- My unique selling point was to combine a fashion/lifestyle
magazine and a music magazine together for a female teenager
audience. This is certainly different as there is no other magazine
similar to this on the market. Although this keeps to the
conventions of a magazine with music genre. It will include the
latest music charts, fashion, real life stories and based on a girl
teenage target audience that all include conventions of the
magazine genre.
Fashion Celebrity Gossip Music Girl teenage audience + + + 6.
HOW MY MUSIC MAGAZINE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS
OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS FRONT COVER MY MUSIC MAGAZINE TYPICAL MUSIC
MAGAZINE (SUGAR ) Straplines Big catchy title, stands out. Medium
close-up, direct address. Both female pop group icons. Sub titles,
coloured fonts. Barcode and price of magazine. Busy layout,
attention grabbing colour schemes.Female dominated, developing
music magazines that do not have pop magazines on the market 7.
CONTENTS PAGE MY MUSIC MAGAZINE TYPICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE
(NME)Subtitles and text grabbing the readers attention Variety of
images and bright colours that stand out. Competitions and offers
to attract more readers Editors letter, appeals more to the female
population, Informal text drawing specific attention to certain
articles. Fun colourful shapes to make it more appealing to younger
readers. Although my music magazine is based on a pop genre and the
other typical music magazine (NME) is genre of rock they do have
similar conventions. There are no other pop music magazines to
compare for my magazine, which makes it very different and unique.
Main image and focus point that attracts the readers attention.
Numbers to make it easier to follow page numbers and to attract
main articles 8. MY MUSIC MAGAZINE TYPICAL MUSIC MAGAZINEFEATURE
ARTICLE Pop group name, bold, stands out from the rest, different
font, eye catchy. One main exclusive enlarged image- draws
attention. Develops the convention a typical music magazine as it
has more text than images. This may be because the font is bigger
making it easier for the younger age group to read it is also
interesting, more to read about, fun and different to a normal
magazine making it better for younger ages as well. Colour themed,
different use of fonts and colours. Coloured background 9. AUDIENCE
FEEDBACK
- After I had finished producing my final product I wanted to
create a questionnaire to find out research on whether my choices
and different genre worked efficiently for my audience. I asked my
target audience specific questions to find out whether my music
magazine would also be successful in selling.
I asked 10 people from my target audience what was the specific
genre of my music magazine and whether I had met the conventions of
a music magazine with a pop genre. 8- POP 1- ROCK 1- INDIE 10. Q2.
HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?
- Social groups are often portrayed as stereotypes through any
type of media. In my magazine I represent two main particular
social groups:
- The group that my music magazine mainly represents are pop
girls that are interested in fashion. Overall I believe the
stereotypes I have chosen are associated with the music
industry.
- Pop girls are often stereotyped as the type of young, fun, and
happy sort of people. They are interested in fashion, follow the
latest trends, their up to date with all the latest music and know
all gossip there is to know.
11. MUSIC STARS/ CELEBRITIESMy front cover of my music magazine
features a enlarged medium close-up image of a female four girl pop
group that I made up named The Revivals. Details that specifically
construct the idea of a pop group representation: Costume The four
girls have their own unique outfit that fits their personality.
Hayley-Wearing black and white dress accompanied by high black
heels. The cute one out of the group she will be looked at as the
fashion icon. Jess- Wearing black leather skirt and
blouse.Patterned tights and black high shoes will also be worn.
Accessories will be earings and a bracelet. Jess is the loud
character and also the lead singer. Danielle-Wearing short playsuit
with short ankle socks and heels. The funny one who is always
laughing. Vicc-She will be wearing white/black floaty dress with
knee high length socks and high heels. The pretty one. 12.
- The members of the girl pop band all have make up done and look
like celebrities that follows the pop group representation. Their
pose on the front cover image shows they are posed in that position
and look like fashion icons that many girls will look up to! This
is good as most celebrities are posed on front covers which shows
their following the pop group representation.For example, the spice
girls.
- For my double page spread I made questions up to ask the four
girls. There speech were informal which made the interview
appropriate for my target audience to read. Their answers given
were chatty and lively which will appeal to my target audience to
make them want to read it.
13. YOUNG FEMALES
- Throughout my front cover, double page spread and contents page
I have tried to make it appropriate for my target audience and
representation of young females.
Brightly coloured themed. Interesting information about boys and
fashion that represent you females. Enlarged image, less text to
read. Represents young females as they prefer to look more at
images than text 14. Weekly competitions to get the readers
involved and give them chance to take part is special events or win
prizes. Represent young females as they would be interested in
this. I believe that in my magazine I have represented young
females as it is aimed at things they like. E.g. fashion, boys,
celebrities and music. The bright colours and images represent
young females as it is very female dominated using girlie colours
e.g. pink and images of girls. Fancy fonts and enlarged text making
it clearer and easier to read.Love heart shapes and pretty colours
are used to appeal to the young female audience. 15. Q3. WHAT KIND
OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND
WHY?
- A media institution is an established, often-profit based
organization, that deal in the creation and distribution of
advertising, entertainment and information services.
- A magazine has to be supported by a media institution in order
to be successful. A media institution helps produce and distribute
copies of the magazine. Here are some examples of media
institutions.
16.
- IPC Media produces over 60 iconic media brands, with print
alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men
almost 26 million UK adults.
- I think that IPC would be the best option to produce and
distribute my music magazine because they already produce well
known products for example, NME music magazine. I believe they
would be interested in a pop music magazine as it would be a very
popular product but also different from what they do already which
would interest them. It would become as big as some of the leading
magazines today because of itsuniqueness and different from what's
being produced today. However, i have not chosen EMAP becauseI do
not feel they would produce and distribute my product of a pop
genre music magazine as well as IPC could.
17. Q4. WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?
- After researching a lot into target audiences and their
preferences, I have come to conclusion of what age to base my music
magazine on. A lot of my important research has come from my
questionnaire i did previously. Audience questionnaire and
identifying target audience
- I produced a questionnaire asking six questions to seven
different people to find out further research to help produce my
music magazine. 1. Are you male or female? Male: Female:
|||||||
- 2. What age are you? 14:||| 15:| 16:||| 17: 3.How much do you
usually spend on a music magazine? I dont buy them: ||| 1-2:||
2-4:| 4-6:|
18.
- 4. What type of music genre do you like best? pop: |||| indie:
rock:| r&b:|| 5. What attracts you to buy a magazine? bright
colours:|| celebs:||| music: fashion: music & fashion:|| 6.
Does direct address make the magazine front cover appeal more to
you? yes:||||||| no: My researched showed that from all seven
females aged from 14-16 years old their interested in more pop
genre but a lot do not buy music magazines. This suggests that they
do not buy music magazines because there is nothing to buy for them
in the pop genre. Question 5 'what attracts you to buy a magazine'
had a few popular answers for example, bright colours, celebrities
and music& fashion. This research has made me come to the
conclusion that i will create my music magazine to be bright and
colourful with a use of music and fashion as well. Direct address
was the most common answer, therefore i will use direct address on
the front cover of my music magazine. This questionnaire has helped
me to establish my target audience and produce the best for my
music magazine.
19.
- Demographic Profiling:For my target audience i have placed them
in two C bands, C1 and C2. To put my target audience into
demographic profiling i have to chose a band. I have chosen C band
because the SEC will most probably depend on the readers parents as
most of the buyers are too young, students or do not have jobs.
Therefore depend on parents which is why i chose C band. Although
if some of the readers are employed they will most likely to be in
segment D, but the majority of the readers this may not apply to
them. Psychographic Profiling: I have decided that the audience for
my magazines are a mixture of Aspirers and Mainstreamers because
research has proven that the genre pop is the most popular. This
suggests that some will buy well known brand names and others will
follow the trend buying high brand names to achieve a status and
maintain popularity.
- G ender: Female R ace: All races
- A g e: 12-16 SEC ( S ocio EconomicS tatus): Student
20. Q5. How did you attract/ address your audience? I chose the
title LOUD for my magazine because it represent some connotations
from the word music. It stands out, and is short and sweet
memorable title. The font helps to create it to look 3 dimensional
like its popping out. Its big, bright and colourful making it
appeal to young audience which shows it will be successful. The key
image on the front cover is enlarged and fits most of the front
cover. The pose features four girls all smiling close together
showing a close relationship and friendly atmosphere making the
photograph look professional. It is a medium close-up and uses
direct address. Their hair, make-up, and outfits all look
professional creating a band image that attracts the audience. He
use of storylines have shapes to stand out more for example, hearts
and circles. Celebrity gossip is used to interest the target
audience. Feature articles, exclusive pictures and popular artists
are featured on the front page to encourage the readers to buy and
want to read inside. Starring the girl band The Revivals using
outlines, text boxes, fonts, and colour themes to appeal to the
female audience. 21. The editors letter on the contents page uses
informal language and a tone to appeal to a younger audience. It
makes the letter interesting to read using not too much writing to
bore the reader.Enlarged subtitle, with fancy font and two bright
colours, draws attention to the text and attracts the audience.
Bring colours, stands out and catches the audiences eye. Feature
articles that will interest the reader. Images used to make the
page look more eye catchy and interesting. Large image to brighten
the page up and support main article. 22. Headline in a funky font
emphasising on the pop genre with a fuchsia pink colour appealing
to a female audience.Brightened image of the girl pop group. Using
direct address the four girls pose in the image that has been
edited and cropped. The background has been erased for it to look
professional. The image has been lightened to stand out more. The
article itself has a total of ten questions. Informal language is
used to make the article fun to read for the specific target
audience. Coloured theme is used of pink, black and grey, this is
to create is simple but stylish. The page is kept to a simple
layout using text that is easy to read without using to much and
just one enlarged image that relates to the article making it
attract the target audience. 23. Ideologies
- I feel that my product represents celebrities positively. The
audience will respond to these and see them as icons to aspire up
to. The images and article show their lifestyle is fun and the
girls themselves are down to earth, intelligent and dedicated to
their career in pop music.
24. Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process
of constructing this product?
- I have used different technology and software to help me with
my research and produce my product throughout the whole
project.
- During my research and planning I have used the following:
- Internet- I used the internet a lot in my research planning and
production! The main advantage is that it is very fast and easy to
find specific research you are looking for. I found a lot more
useful websites through the internet.
- Magazines- I bought a music magazine and young girls fashion
magazine to combine specific features from both to combine them and
change them to make them different to help me find out what would
be needed to make my product.
- Blogger- I used this to keep track and up to date with my blog.
This was a very efficient and helpful source as I could edit up
load and look back on my work. It helped me to produce organised,
well presented work with clear writing and a use of images.
- During production I have used the following:
25. Evaluation
- I used different technology such as printer, questionnaires to
hand out to people, camera, USB and photocopier to help produce
research for my planning. For example I used the printer to produce
questionnaires for people to fill in. I used the USB to move photos
from my camera to the computer to upload them produce my
product.
- Technology has been a very efficient and very reliable, useful
source that has helped me through out my planning research and
production.
26. Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel
you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? As
you can see, there is a massive difference from when I first began
learning to use the software and attempting to create a front cover
of a school magazine to creating my front cover for my music
magazine.Although, I made my preliminary task very quickly in a
short period of time I did not know how to use the tools in
Photoshop and Indesign to create a better one. Overall, you can see
I have learnt a lot through out the progression of my project, I
have learnt many new skills and developed my knowledge in many
ways. Fonts and text boxes have been developed to look more
professional Photography and use of lighting has changed completely
Colour themes and fonts have made big progression as I developed
skills to produce a better quality The logo in this front cover is
very dull, boring Front cover is boring, not interesting and plain
colours Looks more professional, more fun and interesting to read
for my target audience. 27. Conclusion
- Overall, I believe my final product has been produced to the
best of my ability and I am happy with it. At the start of creating
it I worried I would not be able to produce a successful product
but through the progression I learnt new skills and developed my
knowledge quite a lot.
- Strengths during my product are that I have gained skills in
working with Indesign and Photoshop. I have learnt how to edit,
crop and airbrush photos in Photoshop. I have learnt how to create
different features on my front cover, contents page and feature
article to make it a better quality using fonts, text boxes and
help to keep to coloured theme through out my pages. The different
images on each page use direct address and have been edited to look
like photographs out of your typical magazines.
- I tried to make the product appeal to my target audience as
much as possible using features that will appeal to them for
example, bright colours, heart shapes and girl dominated images. I
am pleased with how my contents page turned out, and feel it
appeals to my female target audience using storylines that would
appeal to them. I am glad my magazine feature article turned out as
good as I hoped, I feel it is fun, interesting page to read. I also
feel that the genre of pop was well shown throughout each page In
some way or other.
- If I could change anything within producing my music magazine I
would try and use my time more efficiently.