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

I believe that overall my front cover and double page spread doesn’t really challenges many forma and conventions as I have tried to keep it similar to other music magazines I have seen such as NME. I have used bright colours (such as hot pink) in the front cover to attract the reader’s attention when first initially glancing at the magazine. NME uses colours such as yellow and red and they have the same affect towards the audience as my magazine does. On the other hand my table of contents does challenge the forms and conventions of other music tables of contents, as I have never seen anything similar to my product. It is quite unusual to see a picture used to fully take up the background, but I believe that this worked well with my contents page. With such a busy background I was still able to make the editorial content visible and stand out by placing it in front of an opaque black box in which the white writing clearly could stand out. I was also able surround the box with more pictures to relate to page numbers and the information present in the box. This way I did not need to have any writing on the pictures themselves all I needed as to have the numbers there. This layout is very unconventional for a music magazine’s contents page but I believe it is still able to compliment the rest of the magazine.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine represents a young social group, including people who are in new bands and interested in music. Also those who like to play instruments such as piano, guitar and the drums. It would also be of an interest for those who like editing sounds and music. My magazine does represent the young individuals or bands as their social group as I would also expect them to be part of my target audience.

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

I expect my magazine to be distributed in newsagents and any other companies which sell different ranges of music magazines such as Sainsbury and other supermarkets also WH Smith and other regular shops.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My music magazine is aiming for young people who enjoy listening and making their own music, it particularly aims for new bands and encourages them to take the next step in the music industry. The magazine does this though promoting competitions in the front cover. My media product represents the new sounds and upcoming artists. I would expect my main consumerism to be between 14-30 and a mixed gender.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my target audience members by having bold colours such as hot pink on the front cover of the magazine which is very eye catching. I also included and “Exclusive Interview” with a new act as my main cover line showing its importance as this music magazine is all about new acts making it in big in the music industry. This shows and represents hope for my main consumerism as they are in the same position that this act was in the past so they can get advice from the interview. I have also included a completion where they can win a guitar which should definitely attract the audience members.

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

I have learnt many new skills as I have had to increasingly use Photoshop so my editing and cropping has improved. I have also had to download many fonts from 1001frefonts.com and used my camera to take my pictures included in my media product. I’ve also had to upload everything into blogger.com and make sure everything is readable and presentable.

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 help me by allowing me to discoverer the new technologies I would need to use in this final task and this has been very helpful as I haven’t needed to use the computer for editing before. I’ve had the experience of planning a magazine cover before so it was much easier to repeat this a second time as I felt more in control and confident this time. I knew a lot more about which colours and fonts complimented each other and I knew more about structure. I found it easier to overcome problems such as making writing stand out from a busy picture background and those difficulties were easier to resolve. I realised that the final task involved a lot more time and effort as I faced more problems than I had originally anticipated, but I was able to solve this by asking other student’s opinion and I found that with some constructive criticism from them and my teacher I was able to conclude with a good overall product.