Mathew's AS Media Studies coursework blog

In what ways does your magazine product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The normal conventions of a music magazine(Masthead, puffs, cover lines, pictures, colour schemes etc) are used to draw an audience into reading the magazine. My magazine uses an eye-catching masthead, a contest advert, cover liners that relate to the articles in the magazine, pictures of the bands included and an eye-catching colour scheme that also stays within the genre of the magazine.

The average contents page includes article headlines and often pictures which may or may not have a caption beneath. They occasionally contain an editor’s note where the editor of the magazine can leave their own opinion on the articles in the magazine. Double page articles normally have a large interesting masthead above text. There is normally a large image relating to the article and maybe some smaller pictures beneath or separating the text so the page retains its original interest.

My contents page and double page spread use most of the conventional themes; my contents page utilises pictures and a contest banner to break up the text. The page uses the same colour scheme as the front page to keep it eye-catching but I didn’t include an editor’s note. My double page spread uses a large masthead to introduce the theme of the article, a large picture of the band, two smaller pictures to break up the text and the interview text.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My target audience is rock and metal fans. Keeping with the stereotypical view of heavy metal and the popular idea that it is dark, my magazine colour scheme contains mostly black but I also included blue and grey into the colour scheme to challenge the stereotype. The images are mostly related to the bands and have either a greyscale effect or a light blue overlay. There is more text than pictures, however the text is quite informal keeping with the conventions of teenage magazines. I decided to both challenge and accept the stereotype because it will appeal more to my target audience to see a magazine that appeals to them while also standing out from the rest by not applying the common stereotype to it’s audience. This will also allow me to sell more copies of my magazine because it will be more desirable to readers.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A possible media institution to sell my magazine could be Future PLG,a publishing company that already stocks a metal magazine, Metal Hammer. I would choose this company because they already stock a magazine of this genre and therefore have experience in the best places to stock the magazine.

Another possible institution could be Bauer Media. They stock similar genre magazines(Kerrang, Q, Mojo) but no true metal genre magazines. This could work in my favour because my magazine would provide new oppurtunities for the company by opening new target audiences to them. Because they stock similar magazxines, they would also be knowledgable of what venues do best when stocking this genre.

Who would be the audience for you media product?

My target audience is teenagers and young adults of any gender, the age range is 16-21, on minimum income. This is shown through the informal language used in my magazine, the low price and bands in the magazine(the newer generation bands tend to be more popular among young ‘metalheads’ and so there is a larger number fo them inside although there is still some older bands included). The magazine also makes use of technology readily available to teenagers. For exapmle I included a section in the magazine where readers could email in their veiws on past issues and what should be put into the next issue. This also gives the audience some degree of control towards the content in the magazine. The audince is a niche audience because the music isn’t mainstream and is very unique in terms of genre.

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract my audience I used an eye-catching masthead, used fonts that apply well to the genre, bright colours that also stick within the stereotypes of the genre and a low price that will allow anyone to buy it. The front cover is dominated by a picture of the feature band so will instantly draw in fans of that band. My audience feedback indicated that the brightly coloured masthead instantly drew their eyes and the further colour scheme made them want to buy it. I also used the promise of free things to draw the reader’s attention to the magazine.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When creating my media product, I used Photoshop to edit images and put the page layout together, I used InDesign to add text to the pages and Blogger to show my progress through the media work. I used a digital camera(Canon EOS 1000D) to take my featured pictures, I used the internet to find the fonts(dafont.com) and Facebook to advertise for photoshoots.

Overall, I have learnt that technologies can be both easy and difficult to work with depending on what you are trying to do. For example, trying to put the page layout together in InDesign took too long and didn’t look as good as it does when done in Photoshop. However, using Photoshop to add typed text took too long and I had problems with the iMac freezing while trying to type the contents page so I did it in InDesign and it went much more smoothly. I also experimented with the camera to see what effects I could put into the photo before editting it, this would reduce the time I would have to spend in photoshop with individual photographs, and found that zooming and changing the focus and angle made the image much sharper in key areas.

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

My preliminary task was a practice run using the programmes and experimenting as much as it was a piece of coursework. Since finishing the task, I have been experimenting more with Photoshop and InDesign and applied much of this knowledge to my final prudct, giving the pictures an overlay of colour, for example, allowed me to change the colour and add in certain patterns just through changing the degree of obliquity in the colour. My questionnaire for the final piece was much more specialist to the magazine because I knew what questions would stimulate the answerer into choosing carefully and apply their own tastes into the answer. Leaving open-ended questions gave my answerer a chance to leave their own remark and give the final piece a personal feel to the audience because of the answers that were given.