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

Within my time creating the magazine I have learnt how to space out the time that my work was done, as normally in my work not enough time is spent on it however by doing this task I had to do the task’s set to me in time limit, so therefore by doing this task it helped me organised the time I had to do the task’s and work provided to me. Also within this task I had learnt new equipment and also learnt how to use these equipment’s. The equipment used help me understand how a good picture is taken and what is needed in order for a image taken to be bright and professional and by knowing how to use these equipment it helped me take reasonable professional images.

Within the process of this task I have learnt a number of technical skills and I think the most important skills that I had learnt was knowing what camera’s and lighting to use and also how to take the image because without this if a normal image was taken and it was dull and dark then it will make the magazine look unprofessional and also project to the audience that this is a fake magazine where as the impression I want to give is that this magazine is real. Moreover I have also learnt other technical skills and that is being able to edit images in Adobe Photoshop. With these skills I was able to edit large, small, portrait and landscape images in order to make the image suitable for a magazine. Skills that help a lot involve being able to import text and editing the font so its readable and visible, by editing the font also helps makes the magazine more appealing.

As much as choosing the right model to stand and pose in the right position it is also important on what font should be used, because the different type of fonts can determine if people are attracted to the magazine or not. Normally people will be attracted by who’s on the front cover however if the font is in a stylish way then it will help attract people to purchase the magazine as it will look good and professional. Choosing the correct font is very important because if it was plain and simple then it won’t be attractive therefore no one will be interested in the magazine.

The magazine that I created has a lot of strength’s and only a couple of weaknesses.

The strength that my front cover has is:

Looks professional
Like the use of matching colours (writing font and bandana)
Font chosen is good
The background matches well with the font chosen
Like the way the final front cover looks

The weakness that my front cover has is:

The layout of the text
The brightness of the cover lines
Too much cover lines with different font colour

The strength that my contents page has is:

The text stands out
Easy to read
Font chosen
The star design at the bottom of the page

The weakness that my contents page has is:

Doesn’t look professional
The design looks plain
The layout of the text
Should of used more of a mixture of pictures

The strength that my double spread has is:

Presentation is good
Well chosen colours (matching with front cover and contents page)
Layout
Text is easy to read

The weakness that my double spread has is:

Could of added more text
Black hoodie blends with the background

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

I have learnt in the process of taking my picture that it is important to take a picture in a certain angle to give impression’s when the image is looked at. I have also discovered that when the image is taken appropriate lighting has to be used in order to the image to come out properly and look professional. On top of that a professional camera will have to be used in order for the image to look good and professional.

In order for me to take my picture these are the following equipments that I had used:
· Canon Eos 400d Digital Camera
· Bowens Gemini Flash Unit with soft box
· Radio Trigger
When using the equipment I was under my teacher’s supervision for health and safety reasons.

The equipment used in the process of taking the photograph I now know how to use it comfortably, I now know how to function the options provided in the camera and also the flash so that the image will come out clear. I have learnt overall that in order for a image to come out properly and look professional the lighting, camera used and the angle of the image taken is very important.

In the process of creating my magazine I had also used different software’s to help me achieve the best possible outcome I could for my magazine. I had used a total of two software’s as I designed this magazine, the first software was Adobe Photoshop which was the main programme that was used to help edit the image and add additional text, also the second programme used was Adobe Illustrator, I had used this programme only just once and this programme so to help me create shapes. Adobe Photoshop was the main programme used as it was used to edit the image in order to make the image look better and text was also added using this software so that it had looked like a magazine. Adobe Photoshop help me create the magazine and make it look like a real magazine. Within Adobe Photoshop I have learnt to make an image brighter, also remove spots from a person in an image, also how to edit a whole image so that it looks professional and many other tools provided by Adobe Photoshop.

5.How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to attract my target audience I made my model, dress in a certain way and also pose in a certain way. Another way I attracted my target audience which was teenager’s was getting a model that was similar age so that it will interact with the audience more as they will know that this magazine to is also about teenager’s.


When taking my pictures I told my model to pose in a certain way so that it can relate to teenager’s more. The idea behind the model posing like he has gun’s was to relate with the amount of gun crime in the UK and also the teenage audience should also be familiar with this pose as, ‘gangs’ normally pose in this certain way when taking pictures, so by having my model pose like this it can attract more of my targeted audience.

This image was used for my front cover and the impression I wanted to give to reader’s was that when they first approached this magazine they will be attracted to it and it gives them the impression to think that this person is in a gang or involved in a gang, as he has his hood up and a bandana across his face covering it. By using this image as my front cover I was hoping that audiences will be attracted to this magazine as mostly people are attracted by the use of image for the front cover which attracts people to buy the magazine. As shown in the image the only two props I had really used were the hoodie and the bandana to help give the impression that this person is in a gang. Make-up was not used when the photograph was taken.

The language generally used in my magazine is Standard English, within my text as shown in the image the band ‘Boy Better Know’ was mentioned, I had chose to mention this group because UK teenager’s who listen to rap or similar type of music should know the group, so therefore I put this group name to attract readers.

4.Who would be the audience for your media product?

I had a lot of ideas on what sort of type of genre I wanted to make my magazine and what sort of audience am I targeting, after all of the research I have done and all the data that I have collected from my questionnaire, I had chosen to create a magazine that is more appealing to teenager’s as it was the most popular audience and as being a teenager myself it is easier to create a magazine more appealing to teenagers. Also I narrowed down my target audience by also targeting teenager’s that are more interested in music such as Rap and RnB. I chose to narrow it down to RnB and Rap because my questionnaire gave me results that showed that the people that had done the questionnaire were most interest in these types of music.

This is the pie chart result for one of my questions. The question asked what type of music you like. With these results it helped me choose my target audience. As shown from my pie chart results that the most popular choice is RnB, so I used this result and created a magazine to target RnB teenage lovers. Also with a high percentage was other so when I asked the people I surveyed what they meant by others, it was said that they meant rap when they said others, so from all my results I decided to design my magazine involving hip hop and rap. My second pie chart above also shows the age of people that I had surveyed and with this result it made me decide that the magazine will be aimed at teenager’s as the people who had done the survey were all teenager’s so therefore when I created the magazine I took into consideration that the magazine will have to be appealing most to teenagers if not then my magazine will not make a lot of sales.
Also by looking at the results it also made me decide that when creating my magazine I should create a magazine about rising stars as the percentage of my pie chart shows to me that 65% of the people who took the survey would like the magazine to be about rising stars.

So overall I had decided that my target audience will be teenagers and the magazine will be about rising stars in the hip hop and rap culture.

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

The media institution that I would consider to distribute my magazine to will be Harris publication, this is because this media institution have already published quite a few music magazine’s, so therefore they should be specialised on how to promote a music magazine so by distributing the magazine to this publisher will mean that they will know how to distribute the magazine. I would consider Harris Publication because although they have a lot of other music magazine, they don’t have a music magazine that is similar to the one I had created because the one that I had created is specialised to target teenage audience.

Also compared to other magazine my magazine mostly is about star’s that are rising, therefore my magazine will be talking mostly about new artist’s where as other magazine published by Harris publications is about existing star’s, so by having my magazine released will help the publisher target to teenage more, as the new stars are likely to be teenager’s, therefore teenager’s may chose to purchase this magazine as it could include someone they know or it can help them know what rising stars to look out for. This is the difference between my magazine and existing ones is that mine is about new stars and not about existing stars, the magazine will be purchased because there is not many magazines out there that writes about rising stars instead most are about top stars that has already made it or finishing making it to the top.

By publishing my magazine will mean more teenager’s will purchase this magazine more meaning this publication will be making profit as this magazine idea is fresh and not many firms are publishing magazines similar to mine.

Harris Publications has published many other music magazines before therefore they would also know how to promote and distribute my magazine. However I would recommend my magazine to be distributed to certain places and areas. I would distribute my magazine into different shops such as: Corner shops and newsagents. The reason why I will choose to distribute my magazine to these shops because most teenagers (targeted audience) will generally shop at these shops therefore by having the magazine sold here teenager’s will be able to see the magazine. I would not choose to sell it in bigger companies such as WHSmiths generally don’t sell this type of genre magazine and although if they do teenagers are more likely to visit these small businesses instead of shops like WHSmiths.

I would also encourage my magazine to be distributed in youth clubs, this is because generally most teenager’s will normally be at these places to socialise so therefore by distributing it at youth clubs teenagers will know more about the magazine, also it will mean another place will have this magazine for sale meaning there is more of a chance of this magazine being sold, leading to more profits for Harris publication.

The way I would go about distributing this magazine in the chosen locations is that first for different stores such as the newsagents and corner shops I will try to sell my magazine to the store and as for the youth club I would ask for permission for my magazine to be sold in the club, and in order for the youth club to accept they will get a dividend of the money from sales of the magazine. I will also have it advertised around on billboards and other advertisement places so that it can be promoted. Teenagers will also be informed through leaflets of the new magazine.

2.How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My music magazine was designed to appeal to teenagers that are interested in the culture of rap or other hip-hop or RnB. This magazine was made to appeal most to teenagers. In order to appeal mostly to my audience which was teenager’s I had taken pictures of my model in certain ways and made my model dress in a certain way which is appealing to targeted audience so it is more attractive.

This is the image taken of my model, for this picture told my model to pose in a certain way and wear certain things so that the design had looked professional. My aim when taking this picture was making my model look like a rap artist and at the same time project to people that he has a faith he believes in. For this picture I did not use or take any ideas from existing magazines, so the way the model is dressed was my ideas, as I thought what can sort of represent a teenager and at the same time appealing.

For this picture to make it more appealing to the teenage audience I had made my model to wear a hoodie, by doing this it sorts of gives a idea to the teenage audience that this person, is also someone who is in the “rap” community, and possibly gives the impression that the person is also a teenager. I had also made my model wear a bandana which had covered his face, the idea of this was to represent that the model used is in a gang and represent the colours of his gang through wearing a bandana. This was used because the teenager’s generally would have a bandana and wear it in a similar way, so by having this it sorts of connects to teenage reader’s. These were the only props I had used on my model for these pictures, the hoodie and the bandana; both materials were used because teenager’s use these materials’s nearly day to day, so when these props were used the idea was that it will appeal to teenage readers. However a convention that I had used was the pose of my model, the idea behind this pose was to show that although he does rap music he also believes in Christ.

This was the image I had looked at to take the idea from, the pose was taken from legend rap artist ‘Tupac’, so by having my model pose like that was from this design, also ‘Tupac’ was very famous so I had hoped that people would have remembered the pose as I wanted the pose to help make the magazine more appealing.

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

My music magazine that I had designed, is a magazine designed to appeal to people who are interested at the hip-hop and rap culture. The design of my music magazine was chosen from examples of existing magazines. In order to make my design of my music magazine more appealing and recognisable to the audience, so that the audience will have the impression that this is a music magazine, I chose to go for a conventional design. This means that the design I chose for my magazine was a typical design that a music magazine would have.

This is the design of my masthead of my music magazine front cover; this design is a convention as I had used ideas from existing music magazine to create my masthead in this way. This masthead is located at the top left hand corner of my front cover page. Locating it at the top left hand corner was also a convention as the design was also taken from existing magazines. This design offront cover was popular as existing music magazine had also used this design a lot. Another convention of a real media product was that instead of having the masthead written out I had it changed into an abbreviation with the meaning of the abbreviation under it, so it is clear what it means, this was also used often for existing music magazines.

These are the designs of two different existing music magazines and both had used the idea of the abbreviation and locating the masthead at the top left hand corner. I had chosen these magazines and used the ideas that had been used.