2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? I looked at the magazine ‘Q’ which I then went onto evaluating this magazine to form the basis of my magazine. Front Cover I looked at all the codes and conventions which I then went on to making a front cover. I thought about the ways in which ‘Q’ used its codes and conventions, there masthead was situated in the top left corner of the page which dominated a big amount of the page also ‘Q’ is a single lettered masthead which as soon as you see the magazine, its recognizable. I also used this sort of style for my own magazine, which I had the masthead big in one corner of the page which makes it clear so you know that this is what the magazine is called. By also analyzing the ‘Q’ magazine I was able to choose what type of shot I was going to take for my front cover. I noticed that on most ‘Q’ magazines they use a mix of close up shots and mid shots, I took this into account and for my main image used a close up as this best portrays the image I am trying to get across. Also while analyzing the ‘Q’ magazine I looked at how they used there taglines and I looked at how I could use my taglines to make them stand out enough but also for them not too take up a lot of the page. I used five taglines across the left side of the main image and also used a further three less important taglines at the bottom with a red banner crossing them.
3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Contents Page I then went on to the contents page which I had to design. I used the magazine ‘Q’ which I then analyzed and thought on how I can use this contents page to develop mine. I kept to the same house style as on the front cover and kept the three colors the same black white and red. On the contents page I had page numbers on the left side of the page and then a large image which was also the main story, I had placed the image here because soon as you came onto the contents page you could easily find the main story. Also at the bottom of the page I placed a smaller image which was a less important story but more important than others. I had chosen this layout for the contents as when I analyzed the ‘Q’ magazines is that they use this type of layout as it shows all the story’s and page numbers but then also shows the main story which catch's your eye even more and drags you to that story.
4. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Double Page Spread The magazine I analysed was ‘Q’ for my double page spread, I used the codes and conventions which I then put my article on the left hand side of the page and then a picture of the artist on the right hand side. I used a mid shot for the double page spread as when analysing ‘Q’ magazine they use a mixture of close up and mid shots. The article consists of a biography and FAQ’s.
5. How does your media product represent particular social groups? I addressed my target audience for my magazine by a number of things. I first sent a questionnaire out to see what type of music magazine they would like to see also what genre of music and how much they would pay etc. I then looked at other magazines to see what genre of music they covered. This is generally how I found my target audience for my magazine also when doing my research when looking at the ‘Q’ magazine the type of artists in there magazine and they cover many different type of genres of music. I challenged this and my magazine was all around the genre of grime, the reason I chose grime because from the feedback I got from my questionnaire I sent out most people liked grime music than any other genre of music. From my questionnaire which I sent around the school I also found that my magazine would be best suited for people aged 14-18. The social class in which this magazine is for is for the lower class to middle class as the magazine is fairly cheap and would have only cost between £2-£3 I also used my questionnaire to see how much people would normally spend on and they said around £2-£4
6. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? The type of magazine distributor that would distribute my magazine would be Bauer. My reason for this company to distribute my magazine is because this magazine company has distributed many different magazine and when doing my research I found that this company is the type of company which would distribute my magazine. Also the Bauer publishes some of the biggest selling magazines in the UK. So I think this would be the best choice of magazine distributor too choose.
7. Who would be the audience for your media product? The audience for my media product would be teenagers aged 14-18. My reason for me choosing this age of an audience is because the genre of music is Grime and more of the younger generation listen to this style of music so it would be unnecessary to make my magazine have an audience for people aged 40-60. Another reason in why I have chose this audience age range is because when doing my questionnaire I sent it to people in my school and as most people are in between the age of 14-18 this is the most suitable age range. Also the magazine will cater for both genders male and female.
8. How did you attract/address your audience? I attracted my audience for the magazine by first sending out a questionnaire to see what type of music they like and what they would like to see in a music magazine. I then went on to doing my research which I based it on the magazine ‘Q’, my reason for choosing this magazine is because I think it has become very successful and I then went onto using the codes and conventions of that magazine and even challenging some of there codes and conventions. Also I looked at other magazines and looked at how other magazines such as ‘Q’ attracted and addressed there audience and tried to see on how I can improve there methods.
9. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? I have learnt many things while making/developing this magazine on various different programmes. The first one being Page Plus this is what I first used on my draft magazine to make a basic front cover and contents page which I then used to even further develop and create the magazine I have made. The second programme I have used which has developed my final front cover and contents page has been Photo Shop, I had never used this programme before and through the development I learnt how to use Photo Shop which made my magazine look much better than the first draft as I had much more customization on what I could do to my front cover and contents. The third thing was me using blogger. I had never used this before and I used it to post all my work from the research the planning and the final product. This website is good because I can easily upload all my work for other people to view.
10. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? The things I have felt I have learnt is how to use various programmes and I know if I ever created another magazine on what I could change to make it even better also I would have a better understanding on Photo Shop which would make it look better also I know how the codes and conventions work on my magazine and could put more things on my magazine.
