By Francesca Hayes

The media product I decided to do is a music magazine and I’ve tried to make it as realistic as possible by using and developing conventions of a real music magazine.

Through my research which is shown on my Blogs, I found out what makes a music magazine professional and a real magazine, I then tried to apply these conventions to my own magazine to make it more professional and realistic, however I did develop some conventions and challenge them to make my magazine unique and individual.

So on the next few slides I will list the typical conventions of a real music magazine, and numbers will appear corresponding to the conventions on the list then on my print screen shot of my magazine too, this will show where I have used the convention on my magazine.

• All titles of the magazines are at the top behind the pictures and bold enough to notice it and viewable enough behind the picture to read and notice it as the title being the trademark slogan. (1)• The title of the band or artist is always in front of the picture and in the middle or bottom of the picture and not covering the artist’s faces but being clear on the picture to label who it is. (2)• They stick to 3 colours within all aspects of the front cover , mine being red, black, white and grey (3)• The 3 colours also always fit the genre of the magazine for example my magazine uses red black white and grey which fits the genre of it being an indie type magazine, rather than if I’d used baby blue, pink and lemon colours which would give the impression it was a teen pop magazine. (4)• All titles and font on the front covers are always the same style and font so it looks ordered and neat and also professional and sophisticated having the same style throughout and theme. (5)• The main feature of the magazine is always the background picture, as my magazine has Joe as the background to show he is the main feature. (6)• Small pictures are also shown on the front cover to give a small insight to the other features in this issue and tag lines too, I have challenged this convention by not having any small pictures on the front cover but I do have tag lines. (7)• They all have a barcode, price and date the magazine is published (8)• Magazine front covers often have a banner across the top often with the slogan about the magazine, for example Q magazine often has the banner ‘The Uk’s biggest music magazine’ and Kerrang has a banner at the top of every issues front page that states something in the magazine that issue, like an article. (9)

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•All have the magazine trademark logo/title at the top in either the left or right corner. (1)• All have a banner announcing the contents page and usually having the date and magazine website too. (2)• All stick to the front cover colour scheme and carry it on in the contents page. (3)• All have a feature photo usually in the middle of the page or middle aligned to the left or right. (4)• Most contents pages have extra little pictures on it to show other features in the issue, I have challenged this by having no pictures of other features in the contents page, developed this convention by instead having a little picture of a new editor in the magazine, which is developing the convention by adding a twist. However I have also kept to this convention by following Q and NME that often don’t have smaller pictures on the contents page. (5)• All have lists of what is featuring in the issue and usually in a list form down the sides of the page. (6)• All have smaller fonts for the features down the sides, and bigger fonts for the headings. (7)• All have a page number at the bottom (8)• Some magazines have a box at the bottom usually or the side on it, that is either a subscription advertisement, or a message from the editor. I’ve developed on this convention by adding a picture and a piece about a new editor in my magazine under the news section, so I have combined news with a bit an editor might add. (9)• Most contents pages have a box or banner somewhere advertising subscription to the magazine, I have used this convention by having an advertisement for subscription, but also developed it by having my subscription in a bubble at the top instead of a banner. (10)

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• A big main picture of the subject either across one side of the double page, or just across one page. (1)• The article next to the subject or on the picture but not detracting from the image. (2)• Pull quotes out of the article in bold and extracted onto the page somewhere else to draw readers in and grab attention. (3)• The Subject of the Articles name or Title in bold somewhere on the page in big font to make it stand out and immediately let the audience know what the articles about. (4)• An introductory paragraph or few lines before the article starts to set the background for it and entice readers. (5)• The article is spaced out and the picture of the subject reflects what the article is about. (6)• Often various pictures are used on the article of the subject or maybe just one dependant on the layout. (7)• A colour scheme is always kept with about 3 colours and to suit the article and the subject the articles on. (8)• A typical element on a double page spread is that the artist has a music style, I have challenged this convention by my artists music style being a cross between slightly indie and slightly country western . (9)•Page numbers on the bottom left or right hand corner. (10)

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I believe my magazine represents the particular social group of teenagers aged 16-23, who are interested in music, I’ve represented this social group by having black, white, red and grey as my 4 colour scheme through out my product, which represents both genders giving no gender preference in the magazine.

I have used a model as my main feature artist of my magazine who is actually 18, but could look 19, so my main feature artist represents the age group as a artist who could be appealing to younger people or older.

I have represented my social group as typical teenager with little money, which is why my magazine is only £2.50 for one issue that is only released once a month.

I have represented my social group as teenagers being very interested in music through the magazine being filled with just music related features.

My media product represents teenagers as aged 16-23 as people who skim read a magazine as they choose a magazine on the features in that issue and not necessarily because of the magazine brand. Teenagers need a lot of colours, bold titles, pictures and clear layouts to attract them and I have represented them with this view through making my double page spread bold, with big pull quotes, a clear layout and an eye-catching picture and simplistic, bold layout. I have also achieved this representation by my front cover having lots of eye-catching short titles and my contents page having a simple and ordered yet effectively eye-catching layout.

Magazines are distributed through their printing house so to have my magazine distributed it would have to be published by a company. The two magazines I styled my magazine around were NME and Q magazine, when looking at these magazines I researched the publishers. The publishing house for NME is ICP media, which when I researched I found produces over 85 iconic media brands, therefore if I was distributing my magazine i think ICP would publish it and then they could distribute it through retailers and also their website. Q magazine is published by Bauer Publishing house, which publishes 282 magazines in 15 countries, so this would be another option of a publishing house that I think would publish my magazine and distribute it through subscription off their website and through retailers.

Publishing houses like ICP and Bauer distribute magazines through retailers that sell magazines, for example; high street shops such as WH Smiths, Supermarkets such as Tesco, Asda, and Local newsagents. I believe these kind of institutions would sell my magazine because they sell magazines from publishing houses Bauer and ICP. Furthermore, my magazine would attract the desired audience through these retailers as music magazines are magazines that very much attract the audience through what’s in that specific issue, so more of their buyers might not subscribe to get the magazine every month but instead browse for a magazine and pick it up because of the content shown on the front cover. So i believe retailers like WH Smiths would want to sell my magazine because Teenagers go to shops to find a music magazine and mine would be popular through this distribution type.

The audience for my media product I believe could range from aged 16 to 23, I’ve set it in a style that’s similar to both Nme and Q, taking aspects of both to make it suitable for an audience that ranges a little bit wider than NME. NME is for younger audiences maybe 15 to 21, yet Q I believe has a target audience of aged 16 to possible 25, its has a more sophisticated and mature air to it, with older artists featuring in it as well like Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney and various others, that younger people wouldn’t be as interested in. So my audience would be teenagers mainly, but branching out to young twenties too.

I’ve also made the magazine so it’s target audience is people who are music orientated, I think that NME and Q are both magazines for people who like music and all the features in my magazine are music related without extra’s to distract from it being a music magazine like fashion pages which I believe are more elements of a celebrity gossip magazine. So I think my magazine is aimed at teenagers interested in music and doesn’t have a specific social group, I believe it would attract more ‘indie’ typed teenagers than the rest, however it could range between all types of social groups, as it has a wide range of artists in the features and band index. The only social groups I would say it doesn’t target is teenagers that like R’n’ B, hip hop, pop music and heavy metal. Those genres of music don’t feature in my magazine as much so it they might be the audience it doesn’t target.

I also would say my magazine has no gender preference, I believe both males and females are the target audience for my magazine, as the colours seem quite masculine but really aren’t offensive to females either and the artists listed as features in the magazine could appeal to both genders.

On the next slides I will show a picture of each part of my product with labels of where techniques are to attract and address my audience. I attracted and addressed my audience in many different ways. Firstly I looked at how NME and Q attracted and addressed their audience with my audience range being similar to there’s, I found that they attracted there audience by having certain aspects and I then used these techniques to attract my audience.

I used big bold eye catching tag lines to attract my audience, highlighting artists and features that would appeal to that audience for example rock songs from the 90’s which is the era my audience were born in so will know.

I used a reasonable price for a monthly magazine that teenagers would be able to afford.

I used a banner across the top of the front cover addressing my audience of music interested people by it saying; ‘the Uk’s biggest informing music magazine’.

I used a picture of an artist that targets that age group with my artist being 18.

I used feature artists and bands in my magazine that are appealing for 16-23year olds.

I addressed my audience with informal language in the news section on my contents page and used a model who was within my target audience to be the ‘new team member’ so this attracts my target audience by showing the FTM team is of that age so will give the contents that audience will want.

I used feature artists and bands in my magazine that are appealing for 16-23year olds.

I used a subscription banner saying 33% off which attracts readers by being eye catching and looking like a good deal.

I used a picture of an artist that targets that age group with my artist being 18.

I used a bold title of my artist on the double page spread to be eye catching and therefore attract readers.

I addressed my audience by using pull quotes as if talking to them, these pull quotes also attracted my audience by making them want to read the article.

I attracted my audience using questions in my article about Joe that a teenager would want to know.

When i first started my magazine i had very little Photoshop skills, as shown on my prelim magazine with basic texts, not knowing how to change the font appearance with strokes or even how to change the font style, poorly edited pictures and minimal layers. I have learnt a huge amount more about Photoshop and how to use it to create my magazine, i have learnt skills of how to edited pictures, cut pictures out, how to create and edited text, how to master the layering and every other aspect there is. An example to show this is on my preliminary task to the side the title of the text is in a plain font and plain colour, with no effects, this is because I didn’t know how to make my text any different, however on my front cover for my magazine you can see the text is edited and a lot more advanced, this is just one example of the advances I have made in using Photoshop.

Overall I think I have learnt a lot about many different technologies whilst constructing my product, I have learnt about Photoshop, Blogs and how to use equipment such as camera’s and professional lighting.

I have learnt how to use a studio, set up proffesional lighting and how to use the nikon cameras. I used a Nikon D3000 camera to take my pictures of my model and before doing this work I had never used this camera or any camera like it, so I have gained knowledge on how to use the professional cameras and the equipment in the studio needed with them like controlling the studio lights and where to have my model stood to get the best picture.

I have learnt about blogs, it is a new media technology and before this product I had never used blogs in my life, however through doing my research and planning and having to document it all on blogs, I have learnt how to use blogs, including how to publish blogs, how to edit blogs, how to create blogs and I’ve seen just how useful they are as an online diary.

Overall I think I have learnt a massive amount from doing my preliminary task through to completing my product, as can be seen from looking at my preliminary piece and comparing it with my final piece. On the following side I have written what I have learnt.

•I have learnt how to make a magazine look professional and realistic as shown by my final piece being a lot more realistic and professional than my final piece

• I have learnt how to use technology to create a realistic magazine like using Photoshop and the camera’s properly to make my edit my photos therefore making my magazine look better

• I have learnt what elements magazines need and have and how magazines are put together, for example my preliminary had no tag lines, no bold colours and an distanced picture, whereas my front cover has developed into having all the elements a real magazine needs.

• I have learnt how to develop ideas and learn from previous mistakes, like learning I must have a close up or mid shot picture for my front cover to show who the feature artist is and attract my audience, which I didn’t on my preliminary.

• I have learnt how to target audiences and why magazines have small things to attract people for example I have learnt that front pages need bold big text and lots of features on the front to attract the audience, I didn’t have this on my preliminary making my front cover dull and unrealistic, however I put all of this on my front cover.

• I have learnt the reasons behind the putting together of magazines and that they actually have a lot of thought put into them to create a final piece.

• I have learnt that research and planning is crucial to completing a piece as I rushed my preliminary and did no research into how magazines should look or should be pieced together so it resulted in being dull, boring and not looking professional however I hope I have researched enough and applied my research into magazines onto my final piece to achieve an eye catching piece.