Friday, 27 March 2015
Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Music Magazine
Preliminary Task
Looking back at my preliminary task, I
feel like I have learnt and progressed in using Photoshop and other technologies
such as; blogger, which I was unaware of how to use. For the preliminary task I
had to create a college magazine front cover, in preparation for my music
magazines final front cover, contents page and double page spread. Using Photoshop
for the first time whilst creating my preliminary task was difficult, but at
the same time I was gaining experience and developing my skills ready for my
music magazine.
Comparing my preliminary task and final product
From the table above you can see how I have improved by the
similarities and differences, and what I have learnt in terms of codes and
conventions and how my final product differentiates from my college magazine.
If I could redo my magazine, I would have a male model as I think
having a male model rather than a female model would represent the genre of my
magazine better. Also, I would change the models outfit and makeup to make them
look more suitable for my genre, and to make it more appealing for the
audience.
Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
After doing some research I have found the media institution
that might distribute my media product. The media institution I have chosen is
ICP (International Publishing Company), it is one of the United Kingdom’s
leading consumer magazine and digital publishers, with a large portfolio
selling over 350 million copies each year. ICP Media groups titles under five
magazine divisions: Connect (women’s weeklies such as Now Magazine and Look),
Inspire (leisure and specialist), Ignite! (Men’s lifestyle and entertainment),
SouthBank (women’s lifestyle and home interests) and TX (portfolio of
television titles). In addition, there is Marketforce, the UK’s leading
magazine distribution business. Digitally they have WOTV and goodtoknow. Also,
they own successful music magazines like; NME, Uncut, and Guitar and Bass.
The main reason behind my decision in choosing ICP was due
to the fact that they have plenty of experience if distributing major magazines
as they successfully distribute, NME and Uncut, also they have a huge audience
who subscribe to their magazine and who also read their magazine, in addition
they also use multiple platforms to distribute their products, which today with
the digitalisation is a benefit. Furthermore ICP currently only publishes a
traditional rock magazine NME, and do not publish any dance/clubbing magazine,
this would benefit my magazine as it would not have to compete with any other
existing magazines within that genre that they already distribute, unlike if I
was to choose Development Hell Ltd, who publish Mixmag. However, as they
already have such successful magazines when it comes to wanting one to one
services with the institution it may become a problem if they have other
priorities. Overall, I think that ICP would be my best choice for my product
being published.
Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
When designing my product I
wanted to create a magazine representing stereotypes and age groups from the
research I did. When researching magazines within my genre I found that the
audience of Mixmag is 28% female, 72% male, the median age of a Mixmag reader
is 24. The majority of them live in cities and are single. Mixmag represents
males who are single that live in cities and are in there early/mid 20's. It
was important for me to take this research into effect whilst producing my own
research by conducting a survey, using Survey Monkey. The results from my
survey showed that 60% were male and 40% were female, 85% of the people who
took the survey were aged 16 to 19, however 15% were aged 20 to 24, and 60%
were students. Taking these results into account, I decided to produce my
magazine aiming at teenagers and young adults, also I chose to design my
magazine representing two genders equally not just representing one more than
the other. I have represented a particular social group as I made the model
make direct address towards the camera to connote confidence, this will appeal
to the audience and make them interested.
The target market of my product
is teenagers and young adults as I fit into this category it was important for
me when creating the product to represent the age groups clearly and to
directly aim it at the audience, and to make it appeal to not only the audience
but myself. I did this by using a bright colour scheme, stylish and modern
costuming and main artists who were of a similar age to my readership. These
things helped to present my magazine to young people and had a youthful attract
to it, ensuring that the product appeals to my target audience.
When taking pictures I wanted my
model to be dressed up but also look casual so it would appeal to the audience,
to do this I took pictures of my model wearing different kinds of outfits. The
first outfit was a white top and jeans this was the more casual look out of the
outfits, however I thought that it fitted in with my genre as it is a common
casual look among the age group that I am trying to represent. The second
outfit was a black and white checked dress, which is the image I used on my
double page spread, the dress represented the age of my target audience and had
a youthful modern day look about it. The third outfit I used again made my
model look youthful and fashionable, this was key as on my contents I have a
specific column dedicated to fashion. I kept my models hairstyle simple, like
you would style it day to day, I made the decision to do this because I wanted
it to appeal to students from working class/middle class background, and I
didn’t want her hair to look to extent taking the reader’s attention away from
the rest of the magazine. In each shot my models pose is different, showing her
confidence and appealing to the reader that the magazine is fun and out there
like the genre. In one of the shots my model has her hand on her hip connoting
power and dominance, this is significant as it shows that the genre is not only
dominated by males but also females. From the stances of my model it will make
the reader want to buy and read more about the artist.
Conventionally female artists are
the main attraction for female and male audiences in this type of magazine. However,
just having a female on the cover should be more appealing to males, as they are the bigger target audience for my magazine.
To get a real representation of
how my magazine is received by my targeted audience, I composed some questions
to ask various people who fit in with my target audience. Form doing this I can
get a realistic and accurate view on how people take to my magazine.
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