Who would be the audience for your media product?

From looking at my front cover, I have targeted a young audience. The image chosen is a close up which is not revealing. This decision was chosen deliberately, as I am aiming at a pop and indie audience. As I have been closely following popular music magazines such as NME, I have tried to maintain their conventions as NME targets a similar audience. The model that I chose to be presented on the front cover is 17 years old, however looks about 18/19 years of age. I deliberately decided to use this model as I believe it is important to feature a girl of a similar age to my target audience on the front cover, this way audiences can relate to the artist. The magazine is aimed at a middle class audience, it features chart topping artists and would be sold at a average price. The socio economic group is emphasised on the magazine’s contents page, with the page of ‘festival diet’, this article explains the festival diet, which is aimed at the middle class, they are made to feel comfortable. The whole magazine is mainly aimed at females, the ‘girly’ side is presented with the use of ‘pink lipstick’ and the ‘preety’ image. However, others may say that the cover may attract the male audience due to the attracting model. The model however does not have a sex appeal due to no flesh on show, this reinforces that the magazine is targeting the younger audience. I decided to aim my magazine at an audience that is interested in music, I believe it is important that they are passionate about music and are using my magazine to inspire them self. My target is to make sure that my magazine is making a difference to the younger generation, set a positive example.

What have you learnt about Technologies throughout the process of this product?

The iMac computer was essential to complete the final product. I would be using the iMac every lesson to fulfil the different task that were set. When initially doing research, I had to use the computer to get onto the internet and complete my research. The iMac would also be used to producing the magazine, I would upload all my photos onto the blog and with that edit all the photos and choose my final photos. Before this task I had never used the iMac, to begin with I find it quite difficult to adapt to the structure of everything, however through constantly uploading posts onto my blog, I got comfortable with how the iMac worked.

Picnik was the website where I uploaded all my photos and edited them. I found Picnik really useful, I could choose the font I wanted for the magazine. As I was aiming for an ‘Indie/pop’ genre, I wanted a different font. Picnik supplied all different fonts and sizes, and I had the chance to play around with it and apply the font to my image. It also had different shapes that you could apply to your image, for example in one of my drafts I used a circle on the front cover, which added more detail and interest to the front cover. I found that Picnik took a lot of time to perfect your final product, which was useful as then you could appreciate the final piece and upload it onto my blog.

                                     

 

Safari was another vital part of technology that contributed to the final product of the task. I used Safari for almost everything for the project. I would research previous music magazines to identify conventions that I needed to follow. From Safari, I could access Picnik to edit my photos, and get onto blogger to update all my work. I would not have been able to complete the task without Safari. Again, I had to get use to Safari as it is extremely different to the internet I use at home; the keys and tabs are different, after time I had thoroughly got used to Safari.

It was vital to use a professional camera for this project. My aim was to provide a professional product for the targeted audience, for me to follow this task I had to use a professional camera to produce high quality images ready for my magazine. The camera also enabled me to change the zoom and the precision of the lens to produce the shot that I wanted.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

 

 

To reinforce everything I have said, I believe I have progressed a lot since the preliminary task and have learnt a lot

 

Design

After the preliminary task I learnt that for the next task I had to have an image with a clear background, and the image I had chosen for the prelim was a disadvantage to the final product as it had a busy background, which made the font on the front cover difficult to see, this then was a disadvantage for the readers, and would also not stand out on the shelves. For my final product, I made sure the image I took for the front cover was against a plain background. The font also chosen from the prelim task was quite basic (even though it matched it's genre), I felt that it didn't have much effect on me as it's targeted audience. For my magazine I made the font quite different, it is in bold, jet black with a 'graffiti' look to match it's 'indie' convention. Both images used in the two tasks are 'preety' images, I learnt from the prelim task that an 'attractive' image is appealing to an audience, especially male. Due to my magazine being an indie pop genre, I could again take an attractive image, the models hair is 'big' with links in with the indie theme too.

The contents page of the prelim task is very basic and plain, therefore I made my magazine contents page 'busy' with many images and different sized fonts to make it more attractive for the audience. I followed the convention of NME's contents page, where there are a lot of different images and text, this gives the audience opportunity to look at many different things the magazine offers.

How did you attract/address your audience?

What kind of Media Institution might distribute your Media Product and why?

I have been following closely the magazine of NME, my reason for choosing this specific magazine is that I believe it attracts it's targeted audience; it features contrasting artists and is never afraid to go against conventions of 'usual' magazines. The publisher of NME is IPC Media, which is the UK's leading consumer magazine publisher that engages with 26m UK adults - almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men. I would want IPC media to be the publisher of my magazine, the demographic that I have aimed at are similar to NME. I have tried to maintain many of NME's conventions, as the magazine is successful. I have also created different artistic ideas that differ from NME, which would create a gap in the market for LOUD magazine.

Who are IPC?

IPC Media

Parent company	Time Inc.
Founded	1958
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Headquarters location	London
Publication types	Magazines, Comic magazines(defunct)
Official website	www.ipcmedia.com

Looking at my front cover, the chosen image is of an attractive girl who wears bright lipstick, this could appeal to the male audience as she is 'preety'. However, I believe the female audience would like this image as they can relate to the artist. The quote explains the year the artist has had, as part of the the female audience myself I feel like i would want to read further into the magazine. Stereotypically, I believe the male audience would not not be interested.
IPC Media attracts 53% of a female audience. This links in with the targeted audience of my front cover of the magazine.

What benefits would a Major Distributor bring?

A major distributor is more well known than individual distribution company. In our media exam previously we had to study the distribution of two films; one being a major successful film that had the largest distribution company, then one who had an independent company. The major distribution company had more money to spend on the product, and could publish more films in more screens. 

I put this research into the magazine industry, as IPC is well known and successful I thought that my magazine would be more of a success, it would be   more well known and more copies would be published.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I believe my media product represents my social group in a positive way. Looking at the Front Cover, I haven't set a negative tone. The quote from the artist was deliberately chosen as it is quite inspirational, it will attract the targeted audience (which is teenagers interested in music) and inspire them to follow the new artists first year of success. The image chosen for the front cover of the magazine is an extreme closeup, it does not show the artists figure, just her facial features. This suggests that I am not focusing mainly on the artists 'look', just her voice, therefore little criticism may be made in me branding the artist as a 'model'. Following the contents page, I aimed to keep the magazine topics as 'down to earth', as I can relate to the targeted audience myself, relating to the 'fry up' breakfast, is a 'normal' subject, which I believe will interest my social group. The image of the artist again featuring on the contents page shows her in an urban background, this is conventional for indie artists, they never get shown in glamourous locations, which will help the reader identify with the artist. The artist is also in casual clothes; a jumper and pair of jeans. The bands like to look like their fans, so that the fans can feel like they are 'one of them'. The contents also offers a festival guide, this gives the best opportunity to my targeted audience to find out about the latest festivals, as I aim at youngsters passionate about music, from the magazine I am offering as much as I can. The double page spread again deliberately sets a positive tone, it can inspire young musicians to follow their dreams to succeed, with the detail of how the artist got into music and her success after her first year.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge form and conventions of real media products?(Contents Page)

As you can see the top of my contents page has followed the conventions of NME’s music magazine header, as I have maintained the bold colour black for the header of the contents page, I thought it was important to make the title ‘LOUD’ a larger font, which makes the title stand out. If I was to complete the task again, I would make LOUD a different colour, just so there is more of a colour scheme conveyed throughout.

Looking at part of NME’s contents page, noticeably the page number is quite large. I wanted to use this convention for my music magazine, I believe by making the page numbers stand out it is clear to the audience of where they can look. The numbers standing out is also emphasised through the use of the bold colour, against the white background.

To the right of my contents page, I specifically made a bold, black box. This includes other page numbers of the magazine, which is set in white - again making the numbers stand out. I decided to choose a black box because it adds a different colour to the contents page, I believe it is important to add a different colour instead of having a simple white background, the music contents needs to stand out. There is a brief description underneath each image, this will explain to the reader about the page, they can then decide whether they want to read it or not.

I decided to use a ‘subscribe’ box on my contents page, similar to NME. My reason for this is that it is extremely conventional of any magazine to give their audience a chance to subscribe to the magazine to save some money. My ‘subscribe’ box is in a bold red, this was chosen deliberately to add more colour, as it is quite plain. 

On NME’s contents page, there is only one image presented. I wanted to include more images on my contents page, so it is not just full of text. NME has a busy contents page full of a lot of text. I wanted to go against that convention, as I believe it is vital to make it clear to the audience of where they can go and look for what they want to read.