How did you attract/address your audience?

How does your media product represent a particular social group?

 My music magazine represents the social group of 11-15 year old girls. The popular and inspiring pop magazines are read by my target audience when they need to relax and have some alone time. At the beginning of the project, I did not know how I was going to represent my chosen social group. I made sure I used as many research methods as I could include interview sessions and surveys. I asked them questions such as: What is your favourite colour, do you listen to pop music etc. Once I found the results from my market research, I went onto to look through existing pop magazines that were my competition. With this big market, I evaluated each pop magazine so I could understand the structure, layout and the colours/font used. Once I had done the research and evaluations, I moved onto the conventions of the magazine. I recognised that the magazines I had been looking at all featured female models. I think this is simply because the target audience admire and respect older girls so they can aspire to be them. This also helps the target audience to relate to the artist and feel connected. I wanted to create a magazine where there is no sexualised context and it is purely based for young girls at the age of 11-15. I did this because I feel that girls at this age are still trying to find their pathway, usually at this age, they have many un-answered questions on who they really are. This is why I chose to not stereotypically put them in a social convention where they would be represented as the typical 'moody-teenager'. By choosing colours favoured by all girls it had opened my target market (not only feminine girls). 

Coming from a teenage girl myself, I believe that girls should be portrayed innocently in the 'Golden Ages'; the study from The New Rights in 1960 - 1070; whilst they are growing up. I tried to show this in my work when I used pictures of a young happy teenager simply enjoying herself. The vibrant and energetic colours are used to excite my audience and present them in a positive way. For most of the magazines that I analysed I saw a trend in the use of white backgrounds or block colours. They had done this because it is a psychological way on unconsciously calm down the mind and unravelling from cluttered thoughts.

 For most pop magazines, the use of props was very limited, occasionally there were instruments but with limitations, I could not find any instruments to use. I came up with the idea of using a pair of headphones. I did this because when I was doing my research, a lot of my target audience enjoyed listening to music rather than making music. By doing this, it helps my audience to relate to the artist. As for the artist I featured, I made sure my model was young, vibrant and enthusiastic. This is because when a model has these types of characteristics; it is usually portrayed in their photographs. I wanted to use a female model because I wanted my target audience to be inspired and look up to the artist instead of adoring a male artist; a role model rather than a crush. The costume I got my model to wear was a crop top and a skater-boy skirt. The reason I did this is because I know that my target audience are interested in fashion. This means that they will be interested as soon as they see that the artist is dressed well. A crop top symbolises a playful and fun personality whereas the skater-boy skirt contradicts this and portrays a cheeky ‘tom boy’ who likes attention. I think in some elements of my magazine it does conform to a stereotype (the colour scheme is very predictable); however, I have tried to show my target audience in a positive spotlight. By using a female to represent women’s power instead of a male to show a patriarchal male dominant society.

 I have chosen to represent my target audience in this way because I want to show that all girls are not always what they are portrayed like in the media today. They are simply just young girls that enjoy having fun and relaxing with friends but unfortunately they are seen as sexual and moody which I did not want to show in my pop magazine.

Here is an example of my target audience.

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

Although it is desirable to work with these successful institutions, there are limitations to these big companies because magazine numbers are falling, the use of the internet is becoming more popular leading to a fall in consumption of magazines. A way I could overcome this problem is by targeting my magazine to smaller institutions such as 'Frontline'. This company distributes magazines and newspapers specifically to the UK. They distribute 'gossip magazines' which are usually targeted at the UK audience. A advantage is that they also work with other distribution and publication companies such as  Bauer, Immediate Media Company and Haymarket. I believe they would distribute my magazine because they have magazines ranging from TV listings, Gossip magazines, Car magazines and many others. This is an advantage to me because I know that they do not distribute any other pop magazines, this is beneficial because it shows that they already distibute a wide range of magazines and my pop magazine will potentially be chosen. 

However, a way I could challenge this would be by self promoting my magazine through advertising space in other magazines or newspapers. This would be quite expensive to achieve, so another way that I have thought of to improve would be to share and distribute it through social networking sites. This would be fairly cheap. Specialist social communication programmes such as Facebook, Blogger, YouTube (viral's) can really help you distribute your magazine virtually for free. Even though the amount of publicity will not be as much as going through an institution which could do it on a wider scale, it is one of the best ways to spread the publicity of the product. 

There are many different types of media institutions that might distribute my magazine, but most importantly, you could work alone and distribute your own piece of media. 

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

Overall, my magazine has challenged, use and developed conventions of a real media product. 
USE:
My magazine has used many conventions that pop magazines have which is shown through colour scheme, use of typography, type of shot etc. 
CHALLENGE:
Some conventions of my magazine challenge the normal conventions of pop magazines. This is because I wanted my  magazine to stand out and to be unique among all other magazines on the market. The reason I had done this is because the number of magazine consumers is dropping rapidly. If I challenged the conventions of a magazine, it will bring up the sales because customers will be more interested to buy the product. 
DEVELOP: 
I believe that I have developed my pop magazine by presenting my product for a more sophisticated target audience. Although I have the genre of 'pop', it is usually portrayed as a young and playful luxury, it takes my target audience (11 to 15) more seriously to expose them to real life issues. I think this has proved that I have developed the conventions of a pop magazine aimed at 11 to 15 year old girls. 

How have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this project?

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Whilst constructing my pop magazine, I used many different programmes such as ‘Publisher’ and digital cameras. Whilst working with my camera (Canon 400D), I have learnt to take main images at different angles to highlight certain parts of the face (medium close up shots). I have also learnt to use the camera on manual and changing the focal points of the lens, this will help me get what I want focused in the picture and what I don’t want to be, this will create shallow and long depths of field in my images. I also decided not to use the internal flash of the camera and simply use a reflector to shine light on the model. 

These new skills I have learnt during my project have really helped to construct my main pieces. The main technology programme that was used is ‘Photoshop’. As you can see, in my presentation, there are different steps that I took to produce each parts of the magazine, for instance the pull quotes, sky line and adding in thumbnails. I believe that I have learnt many new skills from the constant use of ‘Photoshop’. By using the effects of changing the opacity of my shapes (for the skyline and pull quote bubble) is a new skill that using this programme has taught me. I have also learnt to airbrush the skin. This is heavily used by magazine companies who hide blemishes and spots on all the models skin making it look flawless. By trying to replicate this, it had made my main image look professional which imitates real conventions of a pop magazine. I have learnt new things about different types of technologies whilst constructing my main pieces. 

By using these technologies has enabled me to produce this high level piece of work. Now that programmes such as 'Photoshop' has become available to purchase; although it is quite costly; (and in some cases free through illegal downloading), it has made it very accessible to produce and manipulate products at the same standards of real products on the market. 

Besides from the practical elements of the technologies I have used in my constructed pieces, I have also learnt the importance of Web 2.0. This is because it is the main research source I had to refer to and compare, use and evaluate from. For example, the evaluation process of real pop magazines were found using the world wide web. This has taught me how I can use the internet as a strength to improve my work. I understand that a maybe half a century ago there was a restriction towards getting information through the internet and it is not as open as it was. I have learnt that I am very advantaged to be able to have so many resources from technologies that I can in co-operate with the construction of my project. 

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

Continued...

As you can see, this image shows how I have progressed from making a plain simple pull quote bubble to a more attractive one that stands out towards the audience. My photo shop skills have improved and it has enabled me to create better features on my full product.

A problem that I found when I finished my preliminary task was that I had text which became drowned out by the background. The way I fixed this issue for my final product was by adding a boarder on the font to make it stand out. This was a problem that was addressed to me in my preliminary task so therefore I made sure that my writing would stand out for my full product. 

Other than the technical changes that I made, the preliminary task has taught me that I should take my images with a variation of shots. The first photoshoot that I comprehended with consisted of images that was 'long shot', this made it hard for me to create my front cover and therefore had to crop most of the images that I took. For my next photoshoot, I took a range of shots further and closer showing 'medium close up shots' and also 'long shots'. This really helped my to progress my final piece because it meant I could choose from a range of shots to make sure I had the best image possible. 

I have learnt many new things from my preliminary task, one of the main things that I have learnt from my preliminary task was the use of photoshop and how I would and could improve the professional look of my magazine. Without the preliminary task, my final piece would not have been as good as I would have wanted it to be. Learning from my mistakes that I had made from the first attempt, I was able to change and improve my final piece for it to be the best that it could have been.

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

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