My media product reflects and challenges many conventions of real media products. I know this because when starting the media coursework, I researched into the conventions of music magazines in order to help me produce and shape mine so it is as real as possible. As part of this research, of which can be seen on my Blogger page, I analysed other music magazines including front covers, contents pages, and feature articles to help gain an understanding of the conventions real media products have and how I can relate them to my media product, doing two of each to show the comparison of different genres of music magazines and how their conventions are similar and different. Particularly the difference in conventions between different genres of magazines. To look at an example of how conventions differ with different genres, you can look at rock magazines in which they almost always feature a ‘Live’ section in which they talk about a live performance of a band or artist. This differs from other magazines of a different genre (i.e. Pop magazines) which hardly ever feature a live section in their magazine as they focus on studio recordings.
I also analysed specific parts of a media product such as its title block to help look behind the meaning of its title and see why they have chosen this and how I can do this with my own media product. Not only did I look at just the media product itself, but I also analysed the publishing company behind the product to see which company would best suit the genre of magazine I am publishing. I looked at 4 of these of which I will go into more detail later on in the evaluation. So by doing all of this research, it allowed me to gain a good understanding of the conventions of a music magazine and how I can apply these conventions to my magazine to make it more authentic and real.
I applied this knowledge by creating my magazine based on these conventions I had learned, first starting with my title block. Looking back at my analysis of title blocks I noticed that all had a special meaning and layout adjacent to their chosen genre. An example would be 'KERRANG!'. This magazine is targeted at people who enjoy heavy metal rock music. So the name of the magazine reflects this through the use of onomatopoeia as the word 'Kerrang' sounds just like the sound a guitar makes when you pull one of the strings, a very loud sound to reflect the loud heavy metal that the magazine represents.
If you link this to my title block and my genre then you will see that ‘Revolution’ also suits my genre as ‘Kerrang’ does to rock. This is because the name Revolution refers to a ‘drastic political or social change that usually occurs relatively quickly’. It means to go against the social norm and change something making it different from the rest. This reflects my chosen genre as this is exactly what indie music is about. It goes against the norm of pop music, etc. and changes things making them different and less conformative.
I then looked at other things such as the puffs on a magazine. I noticed these through my analysis of front covers of real media products, and how common they are to magazines, making them a convention and how the puffs are related to prominent information on the contents page. I applied this knowledge I gained from puffs and created my own of which I placed on my media product to make it more authentic, including 'Cassie B: An Album With A Difference' and 'On Location: This Week We Visit The World's BIGGEST Skatepark'. An example of a puff that I looked at which shaped mine was on my front cover analysis of 'Kerrang' magazine in which it reads 'Red Hot Chilli Peppers: Anthony Kiedis On The 'Intense' New Album!' in which they talk about their new album, much like my puff about 'Cassie B' in which she talks about her new album. These puffs are constructed in a very brief but informative way, making them short and sweet so the reader can get the vital information they need to know about the article which will either make them want to or not want to read it.
These two examples of how my title block and puffs where constructed by prior research shows how I stuck to the typical layout and conventions of a music magazine. There are much fewer examples of how I challenged the conventions of a music magazine as I tried hard to stick to the conventions in order to make it more convincing, however one example would be my use of images throughout the whole process. A normal convention of a music magazine is to use many images, especially within their feature article. An example would be my analysis of 'Q' magazine's article on Cheryl Cole, in which many pictures are used throughout the article. This is on contrast to mine as I only use 2 images for my whole feature article, which is unconventional to a normal music magazine. The reason I chose to do this is because I wanted my article to be main priority over the images, leaving hardly any space for images regardless of how many I had taken as can be seen on my Blog. Therefore less images were used and my article took main priority.
My media magazine is aimed at teenagers and young adults aged 16-21. I am not specific about the gender of my target audience as my magazine can be appealed to both sexes. This magazine represents this specific age group and throughout my magazine as my feature article artist is within this age range, therefore appealing to my specific target audience. Other things that I have also included which appeal to this age range would be looking at the 'Top 50 Up & Coming Artists' which means that the artists will be young and new to the business, instead of looking back at somebodies career which would appeal more to an older age range as they will know more about an artist's career due to them being around longer.
If I go deeper into the sub-cultures of my target audience, another category within this would be the location of the readers. As my magazine has just started, this being its first issue, the magazine can be found in the UK only, therefore categorising the target audience to people who only live in the UK. This means that other countries such as USA, Canada, etc. are singled out from the target audience of the magazine due to its availability to only the UK, creating a sub-culture within the target audience of 16-21 year olds. An example of how I show a positive portrayal of this age group is by portraying my feature article artist as successful and ambitious as he is within this age group. I portray him as a child who came from a poor background, but because of him ambition he was able to become rich and successful, making people of this age group also look like this therefore showing a positive representation.
If you look at my primary images that I took for my media product this can also reflect my representation of the artist. In my images my artist is seen playing instruments in a forest. This gives my artist a positive representation because it makes him look very hard working and ambitious, with the forest symbolising his poor working-class background due to it being messy and dirty, etc. Therefore it makes him look ambitious and hard working, like no matter where you come from if you work hard you can still achieve your dream.
If you compare my images to that of which are featured in other media products such as ‘NME’, ‘Kerrang’, ‘Q’, etc. then there is generally a differ in representation of young people from my media product to theirs. This can be told because generally in music magazines such as these, young artists and bands are portrayed as partying all the time and just going through life with no structure or plan, getting drunk and playing small concerts on a cramped stage. This shows no ambition and no drive, giving off a negative rather than a positive representation. This idea of a working class teenager working hard is the main theme that I am pushing in my magazine, such as if you look at my article that also focuses on his childhood and that sense of ambition from going from having nothing to having everything.
Now if you look at the language I use in my article this shows how I give a positive representation, for example, ‘Daniel Simmons. This is the name of a 19 year old who was born and raised in East London on the Isle of Dogs… he may be slightly better know more recently as a man who managed to reach number 1 with his first ever single ‘Turning My Back’ on just iTunes downloads alone.’ This highlights his working class background but at the same time portrays him positively as hard working and ambitious regardless of his background.
As I mentioned before, many aspects of my magazine such as articles, reviews, etc. reflect my target audience. Therefore this gives them a sense of belonging as they feel like they can relate to the magazine and the stories it publishes as it is what they like and what they're life is about. An example of how this magazine can make the reader feel like they belong is my puff on the front cover reading, 'On Location: This Week We Visit The World's BIGGEST Skatepark'. This can make the reader feel as if they belong as I am talking about something they enjoy to do, therefore showing a reflection of themselves and making them feel like the magazine is specifically made for them and they fit right into its target audience giving them gratification that it appeals to them so greatly.
During my planning of my media product I looked into 4 distribution companies and the magazines they distribute. These 4 are Bauer, IPC Media, BBC Magazines, and Development Hell. I believe that the distribution company that would be the most suitable at distributing my magazine would be Development Hell. Development Hell is a much smaller distribution company compared to the others I researched as it only distributes 2 magazines. These two magazines are both music magazines like mine and called 'The Word' and 'Mixmag'. 'Mixmag' looks specifically at dance and club music making it kind of a niche magazine compared to 'The Word' which is much less specific in terms of genre.
I believe that this company best suits my magazine as both of those magazines are aimed at young people as is my magazine, with the logo being in a bold red to represent the young and vibrant audience it targets at and relating with the word 'Hell'. This relates to my magazine as my magazine could also be classed as niche due to it being a less popular genre compared to things like Pop or Rock, therefore categorising it with the 2 other magazines they distribute compared to the other distribution companies which produce more magazines and tend to be more mainstream yet with many different genres to them.
I chose Development Hell over the more larger and international companies as even though Development Hell is a very small company dealing with niche markets, it is much more specific to my magazine genre than the other companies. This can be seen through their distribution of ‘Mixmag’ and ‘Word’ being where as the other companies look at many different magazines such as fashion, health, food, gardening, gossip, quizzes, etc. Also, as my magazines genre is very much popular within only the UK (specifically London), then the fact that Development Hell is a smaller company helps as my magazine wouldn’t do as well internationally, therefore being able to stick to the UK which is where the target audience is.
As I already mentioned earlier, my target audience for my media product is 16-21 year olds of both sexes. Their interests are listening to Indie music as they buy my magazine for this and enjoy going places like skateparks and small concerts with performances from artists that are young and new to the business. I also mentioned earlier that the location of the target audience would be the UK, however to be more specific than this then there would be certain places in the UK where the music featured in this magazine is more popular so the sales for this magazine would be higher. An example of a place where this magazine would be rather popular would be London, as this has the most people of one city in the whole of the UK. This means that there are more people who would possible like the music that is featured in my magazine and more opportunities to go to small concerts and performances like I mentioned earlier with more places that my target audience would enjoy such as a skatepark in which one of my puffs explain.
My genre can be catered by other magazines in a general sense, that being magazines such as NME, Q, etc. as they feature music similar to the music I would feature in my magazine, however if I were to be specific about my genre then this would create more of a gap in the market over the other magazine as this is the only magazine that focuses specifically on Indie Pop bands and artists. However this wouldn’t have been the case a few years ago as NME used to solely focus on a rock/indie genre, but as the years have passed and they were in need of a wider audience, they chose to broaden their genre range to include pop and even hip-hop artists such as Jay-Z and Lady GaGa which is an example of people that have been on its cover since its change of audience. This would make my magazine unique as it is the only one of its kind, however this in itself then makes the magazine rather niche as it caters to only a very specific target audience instead of a more general range, making it similar to the old NME before it’s opening up of a wider audience.
My genre can be catered by other magazines in a general sense, that being magazines such as NME, Q, etc. as they feature music similar to the music I would feature in my magazine, however if I were to be specific about my genre then this would create more of a gap in the market over the other magazine as this is the only magazine that focuses specifically on Indie Pop bands and artists. However this wouldn’t have been the case a few years ago as NME used to solely focus on a rock/indie genre, but as the years have passed and they were in need of a wider audience, they chose to broaden their genre range to include pop and even hip-hop artists such as Jay-Z and Lady GaGa which is an example of people that have been on its cover since its change of audience. This would make my magazine unique as it is the only one of its kind, however this in itself then makes the magazine rather niche as it caters to only a very specific target audience instead of a more general range, making it similar to the old NME before it’s opening up of a wider audience.
I used many things in order to attract my audience. By looking at my front cover the first thing that can be seen that can attract the audience to buy the magazine would be the use of competitions and free stuff. An example of how I use this to attract my audience would be the banner going across my magazine reading, 'WIN A CHANCE TO MEET DANIEL AT HIS NEW CONCERT!'. I wrote this as it can be spotted right away when looking at the magazine due to it being so eye-catching, making them read it and think that if they buy it they'll be able to meet my central image artist Daniel Simmons. Another way that goes hand in hand with this special offer would be my central image of Daniel, in which I use the mode of address by having him look at the camera to make it seem as if he is looking directly at the reader, making them feel special as if they are the one he is looking at and making them want to buy it.
As well as using this mode of address, the other thing along with the central image that entices the reader to buy the magazine is the anchorage text drawing the attention to the reader of who is on the front cover, my example is by having 'DANIEL SIMMONS' in big bold lettering to make it stand out. To even further this tactic to attract the reader to the magazine, I use specific eye-catching colours to make it stand out from other magazines and draw people’s attention. An example of how I use colours in this way is my using red for my anchorage text to contrast other points of the magazine to make it more noticeable. Another example in which I used this contrast of colour to my advantage is in my competition banner by having only specific buzz words in red such as 'Win', 'Meet', and 'Concert' which are the most appeal words in the sentence and tell the story straight away, therefore making them most noticeable so the reader buys it thinking they have a chance to meet Daniel.
I used many technologies while creating my media product. The two main technologies I used where Blogger, and Photoshop. Blogger, in which you are using right now in order to read this, allows people to create their own website with their own URL in order to post things for people around the world to see. This includes images, videos, text, etc. and you are able to customise your Blog to make it individual to you. When starting my media coursework, I was relatively new to Bogger, so was unsure of what to do in some aspects of the website. However as the production of my media product went on, I learned more and more about it and how it is used. An example of something I learned during my experience of using Blogger would be how to follow other blogs. When I first created my Blog, I didn't know how you could follow another Blog and how you would see the posts that they had posted once you had followed them. However after talking with my classmates and getting help from the Internet, I learned how to access somebodies Blog, how to follow them and that once you had followed them any posts they post will show up in a little box on your Dashboard.
Another technology that I used in the process of creating my media product was Photoshop as I mentioned above. Photoshop allows you to edit an image in many different ways specific to how you would like it in order to change it or make it look different from the original image. This software includes many different features in order to change an image which left me a lot to learn when it came to editing the images that I had taken. Before doing final work on my images in Photoshop to add to my media product, I chose to experiment with it to get some familiarity and learn the basics. Evidence of this can be seen on my Blog as I have posted 2 examples in which I have experimented with an image in Photoshop and changed something about it so it looks different at the end result. An example of one of these experiments that I have previously posted on my Blog would be an image of a woman with her hands in her hair. After experimenting with this image, I learned how to change the colour of things in Photoshop, resulting in me changing the colour of her hair, eyes and dress all to a dark Pink/Red colour. Other skills that I learned was how to add brightness to a specific place, (i.e. around the person in the image), change the colour of the images background and also how to make something smaller/skinner by using Liquify.
The two above images show a before and after of my music magazine production skills and how they have developed from my preliminary task to the creation of my final piece. In this progression, I feel I have learned many things that have contributed to my final piece. Some of these things I have already mentioned, these being the skills I have acquired through the frequent use of Photoshop and Blogger. I have also gain a very good understanding of the conventions of a music magazine, which allowed me to make my final piece more appealing and realistic than the one I created in my preliminary task.
This included figuring out my chosen target audience, then finding out what they find appealing so I know what to include in my magazine. This was done by holding a questionnaire on the website SurveyMonkey and allowing people from the college to take the survey as they are within the specific age range that the magazine is targeted at. An example of how I learned how to appeal to my target audience in contrast from my preliminary task would be how I talk about the 'Worlds BIGGEST Skatepark', talking about something the target audience want to hear. This contrasts with my preliminary task as the puff in which I mention the student council shows my lack of understanding of what my audience want, as young people are generally not interested in the school council and what they are up too.
I also learned how the construction of an image is important when using them in a music magazine, as it helps make the reader feel connected with the magazine and the band/artist in the image. This was developed by now having my central image go over my title block as it appeals to the mode of address and reaches out to the audience. This makes the image stand out and gives the impression that the person in the central image is looking/connecting with the reader in contrast to my preliminary task where the title block is going slightly over the image. With my understanding of the typical conventions of a music magazine, I also learned the conventional layout of how a music magazine is usually presented, and was able to apply that to my final magazine in comparison to my preliminary task by analysing front covers, contents pages, and articles.
As an example I learned that typically on a magazine front cover, the band or artist's face is always clearly shown and visible to the audience. The difference between my preliminary and my final piece shows this as in the preliminary the person in the central image has their face slightly covered by their hand, with their hand having more significance over their face. This makes the artist stand out less and be less appealing. This contrasts my final piece as the artist's face is clearly shown with nothing covering it and looking directly at the camera appealing to the mode of address.
By Harry Luke Mulvany
