1. Q1: In what ways does your magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
My magazine is called ‘MADNESS’. This is because it fits in with the genre of music that it will feature;
Indie/Rock. The colour scheme is red, blue, black and white. This is because the light and dark colours
contrast to represent the genre of music. I took a lot of inspiration when choosing the colours for the
magazine from ‘Kerrang!’ and ‘Q’. The lexis of my magazine is informal; the title is one memorable
word and not multiple words. This makes it easier for the audience to notice the magazine. When
creating my masthead I took inspiration from ‘Kerrang!’ and ‘NME’. The masthead goes all the way
across the page like it does on ‘Kerrang!’ and it is also bold and has a different coloured boarder
around it as it is with ‘NME’. The layout of the cover lines is similar to ‘Q’ in the way they are
positioned close together.
My main cover image uses two people; the props that I have used in the image are a mask and a
guitar. The mask fits in with the title of the magazine as it looks unusual; the guitar is used to make
them look like a real band. The background of the image is white as are the majority of backgrounds
on other cover images in magazines.The mise en scene of both the front cover and the double page
spread show that the magazine is within the Indie/Rock genre. While my magazine shows just one or
two genres there are different sub-genres within. I have tried to give my contents page balance
between text and image, as there isn’t much balance between image and text in ‘Kerrang!’
When designing my front cover, contents page and double page spread, I considered the Guttenberg
design principal. This states that the first part of the page that you see is the top left had side.
Therefore this part of the parte should be eye catching. The barcode has been placed in a weak
fallow area as it isn’t important to the reader.With my double page spread I made sure that there
was something eye catching in the strong fallow areas. The strongest fallow area of my double page
spread contains a masthead and a title for the article so that it catches the readers’ eye.My contents
page also uses the design principle because the word ‘Contents’ starts on the left hand side and it
catches your eye, there is also an image next to it that will attract the attention of reader.My house
style has continued throughout all of the pages.
I used rule of thirds when taking the picture but also when editing it to make the intersecting lines
cross on the most important parts of the image to make them stand out. Also to make sure that the
composition of the image is neat. Another reason for doing this was to get rid of unwanted
background. When taking the image I used the lights to highlight the faces of the models. When
editing the image I changed the levels to make the image brighter but not to over exposed. I also
changed the brightness and contrast to even out the colours.
The article is set out as a question and answer.
Each page is set out in a formal manner however it addresses the reader in an informal way. This is
similar to the way ‘Q’ set out their magazine. Whereas ‘Q’ exaggerate their articles and the way they
use bold but dark colours, I haven’t therefore this challenges the convention.

2. Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The images used and the article in the magazine don’t represent any particular social class. There is
no stereotype of any particular class featured in the clothing that the artists are wearing. This would
be a way of identifying a social class by looking at them. However the clothing does reflect the genre
of music featured in the magazine.
The magazine mainly features images of young adults/teenagers; they are not represented in a
negative way. The main cover image with the mask insinuates that the artist is mischievous; this is a
typical view of teenagers however it challenges the stereotype because it is shown to be playful.
It represents both males and females as they are both featured in the magazine; they are equally
represented with the main images on the cover and in the article. The contents page does feature
another female artist as well as the main band ‘Alibi’ so although both genders are equally
represented the female artists are more dominant.
Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your magazine and why?
The major publishing houses in the UK are Bauer media and IPC. Both publish music magazines and
although I took inspiration from ‘Kerrang!’ and ‘Q’.Both of these being published by Bauer media,
the genre of music featured is most like NME which is published by IPC. Therefore the publishing
company that suits my magazine best is IPC since they are published based on the genre rather than
style.
Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product?
After carrying out my initial market research, the main target audience of my magazine was defined
as teenagers and also young adults. This is the main reason my magazine represents these two age
groups. My market research showed that 90% of people asked were aged 16-25 meaning that this
90% make up my target audience.
There wasalso a mix of both males and females used in conducting my research. This means that as
they were evenly asked, my results were not bias towards one particular gender. This is the same as
with my product research, not just one gender is represented.
According to my market research the most popular genre of music within my target audience is Indie
followed by Rock; hence the reason my magazine focuses on these two genres. This is shown not
only by the cover and the images but also the cover lines and the artists’ names in the contents
page; they all fit within this genre and its sub genres. The conventions of my magazine are similar to
those of ‘Kerrang!’ and ‘NME’ as they both focus on one particular genre and target audience.
Q5: How did you attract/address your audience?
After carrying out my market research I decided that my main target audience would be both males
and females aged between 16 and 25. This is similar to the audience of magazines such as ‘NME’
from which I took inspiration when trying to attract a particular audience.
My photographs are designed to catch the attention of the audience. To do this I used a mask on the
front cover image. This gives the magazine a sense of being unusual.
I also used the Gutenberg design principle when taking my images. The mask is featured on the left
hand side of the magazine close to the top; this is the strongest fallow area.
When researching double page spreads I looked at ‘Q’ and ‘Kerrang!’. I decided

3. Q6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Whilst constructing this product I learnt about new software such as Slideshare and how it works,
also how to add a Slideshare file to my coursework blog, whilst also improving on what I already
knew about other software such as Photoshop. With Slideshare, I found that this was the best way to
add word documents and PowerPoint’s to my blog. What I already knew about Photoshop was
limited however the knowledge was significantly increasing.
I didn’t know anything about Blogger so every time I used it I became more confident and was able to
use the software successfully. I was also successfully able to upload, edit and remove the relevant
documents.
To create a focus group for y work to be evaluated, I created a closed group on Facebook. This allows
people I invite to the group to comment on my work and provide feedback. The people I ask to
evaluate the work are going to be within my target audience. I will use this information to improve
on my work.
I was able to successfully use the Digital SLR cameras; this meant I was able to take images that
suited the purpose of my magazine pages. One limitation I found with the cameras is that if the SD
card gets lost or wiped you can lose your images. The computers also affected this because if they
crash while you are saving images the images can be wiped from the computer.
Due to technological convergence, I was able to research existing magazines in order to gain ideas
about how I could make my own. I was also able to create a questionnaire to give to people who
would then fill it out and add to my research, this was then uploaded to blogger.
Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task, (college magazine) what do you feel you have learnt in
the progression from it to the full product?
Since the preliminary task, I have learnt how I can properly structure the magazine to make it look
more like a real magazine in terms of designing it and how it should be laid out. I have also learnt
more about Photoshop and how to set out the layers when creating new objects that are going to be
put on top of another image.
After creating my preliminary magazine, the knowledge I had of Photoshop expanded and therefore
the overall quality improved.
The researching of existing magazines also helped with this because I knew more about how to take
a good picture that would suit the style of my magazine. I also knew more about how to edit the
image and make it stand out on the page. This also means that the quality improved as the colour of
the image didn’t contrast with the colour of the masthead.
With the construction of the contents page I had more of an idea how to lay it out and make certain
things, such as the main article (the double page spread), catch the eye of the audience.