Thomas Robinson

In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My main image is the most dominant feature

of my Front Cover. I used this image as the

most dominant feature because it shows the

importance and the superiority of the band,

and more importantly, it’s the first thing the

readers would see, because it stands out.

I used a lot of kickers to show the reader what

else would be on the magazine. The more

kickers I use the more reasons to buy and read

the magazine.

I also used a secondary

lead, by adding a

self-created album cover

for the “band” Dead Pool,

therefore making the

readers imply that there w

ill be an article regarding

that particular artist.

Although using this

method might seem a little

unorthodox, it could very

well grad the readers’

attention because it is

different, than just a photo

of the band.

I also used a selling line with the phrase “GET READY FOR A WORLD EXCLUSIVE”, which will grab the readers

attention, because if I mentioned that it was a world exclusive, the readers would opt for this magazine because it

has an interview no other magazine does, which gives it a unique selling point.

I also put in a menu strip at the bottom of the page

as well, so it leaves plenty of space for other

magazine features like the feature article photo and

the headline.

FRONT COVER

I used a graphical

feature which

said, “WIN! VIP

TICKETS TO SEE

THE BLACKOUT!”.

This would grab the

audience’s attention

because fans of The

Blackout and just

rock in general

would be interested

in watching and VIP

access to see the

band.

The headline is quite

big in order to make

the band seem

important, and the

anchorage also tells

the reader more

details about the

features of the article.

I also used a bar code to make

my magazine looks more

realistic and professional.

FRONT COVER

The name “ROCKSTROKE” appears at the top of the page

with “CONTENTS” underneath in large fonts in order to gain

the readers immediate attention.

The picture of this artist

Is the only photo in the

Contents page, which

shows her dominance

In the magazine

CONTENTS

I have also included a list

of page numbers and the

contents of the pages, to

show what pages the

different articles are on,

and to tell the reader a

little bit about the articles.

This graphic feature

Is to help encourage

The reader to

Subscribe to the

magazine.

I have included two

menu strips in order to

show the readers all

the other pages in the

magazine.

This quote from the interview

Is an attempt to enhance the

interview Greatly and to tell the

reader more about the artist’s

Personality.

This introduction

text is to get the

reader gripper

into the

interview.

Similar to the first

side, I’ve put

another quote at

the end of the

Interview with a

similar aim as

The first quote, to

build up the

Artist’s personality.

The image of the main artist shows the

artist’s dominance of the article, and by

giving the artist a whole page really

signifies the artist in a big way.

House Style

For my magazine, I decided to use a

colour scheme which consisted of

Yellow, white and black, which is a little

unorthodox, but very effective.

The Front cover is dominantly Yellow and Black in order to keep this house style in tact.

The contents Pages is also dominantly Yellow and black

How does your media product

represent particular social

groups? The social groups I was aiming to reach were the rock young

adult area, and I tried to reach out to them by using words that would grab the readers like “EXPLOSIVE” and promoting competitions that would grab the readers attention like the Blackout VIP Tickets competition on the front cover.

Also the font is mostly very large in order to grab the

attention of the readers. The magazine would also

appeal to the social groups of emos and grungers. So

I had the “artists” perform depressing and demented

looks like in the front cover, where one of the girls is

behind the gravestone and the other girl to make her

seem like a Grim Reaper sort of character, with a

hoodie on to make her seem emotionless.

However, this theme does not run through all of the

magazine since the actor on the photo of the

contents page is smiling. Perhaps I should have had

the actor looking rather sad like in the other photos.

Also, the style of clothing worn in the photos are

based really of a laid-back, rough attitude,

especially in the double spread, with the actor

wearing a TAPOUT hat, which is a brand of

clothing associated with UFC, which shows the

actor of as a hard man.

However, the girls in the front Cover are wearing

a dark gothic type of clothing, which can attract the

audience of Goths and probably emos.

What kind of media institution

might distribute your media

product and why? I believe a media institution that would

publish my magazine would be IPC

MEDIA, because when I was researching

media institutions, I discovered IPC had

distributed NME, a major music magazine,

one which I was looking to base my music

magazine on. Also, since IPC Media is one

of the most well known media institutions in

the world, so it can help publicise my

magazine even more.

Who would your target audience be and why? In order to find out what type of audience I

would need to appeal to, I would need to undergo some research. I decided to conduct a questionnaire which would give me some information on my potential market. I asked 5 college students assuming the audience would be young adults/teenagers, and asked 20 questions based on their social and personal lives. I decided to ask more females than males because I assumed that more females read music magazines than males, and it would be more ideal for my magazine.

I asked the 5 people what their religious beliefs were, because whatever religion one might follow would probably influence their taste in music, and could tell me what social group they are in. 60% of the people I asked were atheists, with 40% being Christian, which tells me that more people were non-believers than believers.

I asked what/who had the biggest influence on a person’s life. I asked this because; someone’s influence could influence them to favour a certain genre over another. The majority of people I asked said their biggest influence is family and friends, which is crucial, because, someone might have to adapt to a certain genre to fit in with their friends.

I also asked questions on what someone had planned to do as a future career, with Acting being the most popular choice. I asked what people do in their spare time, which came out with a variety of results, which included listening to music, seeing friends, acting, and just general relaxing.

Also, everyone I asked uses social networking such as Facebook and MySpace, which would have a role in influencing someone’s social group and musical taste.

One of the most important questions I asked was what the favourite genres were. I decided to allow the people to pick more than one genre, because the more results I got, the better my research with me. The most popular choice was Indie which is mostly covered in NME Magazine. Rock and Pop were also popular choices.

I also asked for the people’s favourite bands, which gave me 5 different answers, (Kings Of Leon, Michael Buble, The Who, A Day To Remember and Fallout Boy), however it appears my audience would mostly consists of Indie and rock fans.

I also asked whether TV has any influence on someone, with all 5 people saying it does, which shows how the Media has used the Hypodermic theory, to try and inject an idea in the audiences mind

How did you attract/address

your audience?The Masthead, being very large, immediately

grabs the readers attention because it stands out

from the rest of the front cover. So I decided to

have the Masthead in Black and Yellow to push

continuity in the yellow/black scheme.

Also, on the front cover, I decided to make the

headline “UNSILENCED” stand out. And I did this

by continuing the Yellow/black/white colour

scheme by typing “UNSILENCED” in yellow

across the middle of the main article photo. I

would then type “UNSILENCED” again, but this

time in smaller font and in black.

The main artists need to be the stand-out and dominant parts of the magazine. So with that in mind, I decided to give the artists’ photos a lot of space within the magazine. So, I gave the “band” the front cover photo, so it can stand out as a premier brand in the magazine. I also gave, one of the band members the sole photo of the contents as to, show her and the band’s dominance. And finally, Dead Pool’s “lead singer” Joey Danielson, has been given one half of the double spread, with his “interview” in the next. This is to show off his dominance as an artist. However, I do think I should of changed the photo, to something with a little more attitude.

I believe one of the errors I made with my magazine was failing to “speak in the Customers’ language. I believe my introductions into the interview and the contents page were a little dreary.

What have you learnt about

technologies from the process of

constructing this product? My skills in Photoshop have certainly increased during the

production of this magazine. Prior to this magazine, my

photoshoping skills weren’t great. I could see this, when I was

asked to created a college magazine front cover and contents

as practice.

Both pages are flawed by simple lack of knowledge of

Photoshop, and I what I could have done with it. One

of the mistakes I’ve spotted is that the Prior Pursglove

logo on the pages do not follow the Noir theme I tried

to use. I didn’t know how to do this then, but now, I

have learned how to erase the background of

pictures, so it could mix with the background of the

magazine page. Basically this can be done, using the

magic eraser tool.This is an example of how the magic eraser can change the background colour of

the logo.

When producing the music magazine

however, I found out more and more

about the use of Photoshop, such as the

ability to blend colours from a picture,

which came in handy when creating the

masthead. As I could fill the inside

colour of the font yellow, and thicken the

border which was black, keeping in tact

my black, yellow, white continuity.

My knowledge of Blogging also improved during

the production of the magazine. I had been using

“Blogger” to update my findings on audience and

genre research.

This is an example of the types

Of blog posts I posted. It basically

Is a genre analysis of

The Red Hot Chilli Peppers , and

Using photos of their previous album

Covers which help define the band’s

Attitudes and lifestyle.

One more technological assistance to me was the

use of Slideshare.com which is a file-hosting

website which allows their uses to upload and

view presentations or word documents. This also

came in useful during the blog use, as Slideshare

also allowed their users the abillity to embed

presentations and stick it onto other websites. I

took advantage of this by embedding numerous

powerpoints and documents onto the blog.

Looking back at your preliminary task (the

College magazine), what do you feel you have

learnt in the progression from it to full

product? Like I mentioned earlier, My knowledge has improved

much since the college magazine some of what I

learnt I already noted earlier. Like I mentioned earlier I

learned from my inability to delete the white

background from the Prior Logo, and I used that

knowledge to my advantage in the music magazime

Also, as I mentioned earlier, I

learned about the ability the

blend some of my layers.

For example, I used the outer glow option to

Add some glow onto the text, to show how

Significance of the text

I have also used the inner glow

for the selling line in order,

To make it stand out similar to

The text,