2. In what ways does
your media product
use, develop or
challenge forms and
conventions of a real
media product?
3. Forms and Conventions of a Magazine
Kerrang Front Page
Masthead – eroded
font, capital letters and
large font size.
Advertising free poster –
exclamation marks create
emphasis.
Central Image – black
top against red
background.
Competition - sticker like
border. Fits in with colour
scheme
Strapline – bold capital
letters that are eye
catching.
Red, yellow, black and
white house style
colours. Red, black and
white are often colours
used on rock or alternate
music magazines.
Paper tear
Banner strip – stands
out due to bright
yellow colour.
Barcode
5. Front Page Masthead
•
The masthead of my magazine is at the tope of the page, this is where it is predominantly located in most magazines, including Kerranng. My ANAR-KEY masthead
is similar to the masthead of the magazine KERRANG, in that it uses a large, bold print with capital letters making it stand out clearly. Also the eroded style of the
font is something that I have used that is similar to the scratched out or broken looking parts of the KERRANG log. This is an example of how I have developed my
own media product from my style guide, a Kerrang Magazine.
•
My masthead is not straight, the letters vary in the height that they are as some are higher than others. This is one way that my media product challenges other, real
media products. Also, there is a safety pin in between the words ANAR and Key, so I have used an object to link the two words together. This differs from most
media products which would be inclined to use a hyphen between two words. The choice of the safety pin links to the audience that the magazine is aimed at,
showing that this is a tactful divergence from the normal conventions of a magazine‟s title. One final point on the masthead is the fact that I have used the same
colour scheme of black, red and white that many other rock magazines also use.
6. Front Page Barcode
• On the front page of my magazine, I have used a barcode, which is a normal
convention for real media products. However, I have developed this by adding a
leopard print background to the barcode. This links to one of Banksy’s leopard
and barcode graffiti, as it displays how barcodes act as a cage, representing
establishments and products that are produced. To develop this, I created my
own leopard print on Photoshop to place behind the barcode cage.
7. House Style and Colour
• The house style of my magazine is a development of many magazines that I have looked at. The main house
style that I have taken ideas from is the popular Kerrang! magazine. I have developed on the most common
house style colours for a music magazine, red, black and white, by using the colour blue as well. My choice
for this colour was because it contrasts strongly against the red. This effect is often used on film poster,
(using orange instead of red) as it makes the image stand out.
8. Front Page Bricolage Style
• The Bricolage effect that I have adopted when creating my magazine is a development of the fanzine magazines such as Sniffin’ Glue, Up
Yours and Vague, as punks use an anti establishment style, where they make and repair by hand as an act of rebellion against the norms.
This is shown in the scrapbook style of the fanzines. Kerrang! Magazine is a much more developed version of this, however it still uses
layering and texts at angles which reflect those styles. In my magazine I include the layering of boxes underneath texts, using polaroid
frames, the angles that texts and pictures are placed on. These all add up to create a scrapbook type of style that links to the Bricolage
effect. Punk’s used the Bricolage effect to create their own styles, as demonstrated by fanzines.
• My use of torn paper on the bottom right of the magazine goes against the conventions of a magazine in a few ways. Firstly, the paper is
torn, creating a un-neat scrapbook kind of style which links well to the DIY attitudes of the punk subculture. Also, the un-straight angles that
I placed the writing on top of the paper is again to show how punks go against the expected behaviours of society, this is shown by the fact
that the writing is not between the lines of the piece of paper as well.
9. Front Page Background
• In the background of my front page I have used images of circles that to emit from the Anarchy symbol on
"Spike's" top. This makes it similar to the drawn on Anarchy symbol on "Spike's" top, perhaps creating the
graphic match effect of showing two items that are similar in shape and linking them together, the circle on
the anarchy symbol and the concentric circles. Concentric circles are circles that seem to be either emitted
from the centre of the circles, or from the outer circle moving inward. There seems to be a direction to
which way the circles are moving. I used this idea a Kerrang! front page, where Kellin Quinn of Sleeping with
Sirens, is holding a and the background of this page is lined with these concentric circles. This makes it
appear as though he is shouting into the megaphone and the sound-waves are projecting outwards linking
to the band name ‘sirens’.
• My use of these concentric circles links to punk rock which is clearly a loud and hardcore genre of music that
is not for the faint hearted. This is similar to the Kerrang front cover above, the implication of noise being
projected outwards for everyone to hear.
10. Forms and Conventions of a Magazine
Kerrang Contents Page
Contents Title – white
against red stands out and
fits with house style colours.
Main image – takes up most
of the page as it is an
important competition that
is being advertised.
Button – links to the picture,
bright red and yellow stands
out against the low lit
picture in the background.
Information about the
competition, links to the
button and the main
picture. Also sticks to the
white and yellow colour
scheme.
Note from the editor with a
picture beside it.
Banner with issue and cover
date written in white
against the red background.
The layout follows a pattern
where each of the titles are
in a black box and their font
is yellow. Then the content
bellow is written in bold
black with extra
information in a smaller
font. The number of the
page is written in red. These
contrasts make the main
text that is important easy
to read. The red stands out
against the black and the
bold font is much clearer.
12. Contents Page Banner
• The banner along the top of my magazine’s contents page is similar to the banner
of Kerrang. It is a good way to highlight the masthead of the magazine. However, I
have developed on this by creating a London Underground style button behind
the word “Title”. This links to the main target audience of punks as they are often
associated with London, where the movement is thought to originate from.
• I’ve looked at a number of different banners and found that they contain the
masthead or magazine logo and sometimes the date. I only used the issue
number of my magazine as the date is on the front cover.
13. Contents Page Main Image
• I have chosen my main image, a picture of “Buffy”, similar to Kerrang’s Parkway Drive image. My image takes up most of
the page as it is an important article, advertising the chance to win a prize as well as a double page that is later on in the
magazine.
• In order to improve my double page spread, I would have made the main image a little smaller in proportion to the rest of
the page. However, I found that Kerrang magazines sometimes have a large main image that takes up a large amount of
the page. This is why I kept the size of the main image.
14. Contents Page Layout
• I have used the layout of the contents page of Kerrang magazine in my own magazine. This includes the black boxes
around each of the headings and the red numbers beside the bold contents in a black font.
• The layout of my magazine does not exactly follow the layout of the Kerrang contents page, however they both contain
very similar features. The differences are where the note from the editor are and the content within them.
15. Forms and Conventions of a Magazine
Kerrang Double Page Spread
Quote
Main image
Black, red and
white colour
scheme.
Large, bold
font
Text
17. Double Page Spread Main Quote
• The main quote on the left page of Kerrang’s double page spread is an idea that I have used in my
own double page spread. But I have spread it out across the two pages rather than restricting it to
the left page. I have also used a font similar to Kerrang’s as it links well to the Bricolage style of
my magazine. I took this idea because I like how it appears similar the kidnapping note effect, a
font used by the famous punk rock band The Sex Pistols. The font I used is called phorssa, I found
this font on dafont.com, a website that has free fonts available for download.
18. Double Page Spread Background
• The double page spread of Kerrang uses a plain white background, where as in my own double
page spread I have used a violent red background which I created on photoshop using a tutorial
and adding my own personal effects to it to incorporate different tones and temperatures in
different places. I moved away from just using a plain background as I wanted the page to stand
out and be eye catching. Also, the colour red, I found from research, has very powerful
connotations including anger and blood.
19. Double Page Spread Text
• The text on the Kerrang double page spread starts with a much larger font than the rest of the writing. This is something that is used often
in articles and so I used the idea for my own text to make it look more professional.
• My text describes a band and one of the members in particular. The layout of it is meant to reflect the layout of a magazine column. It is
structured as a magazine column would be in terms of the spacing and the way it is split into three columns.
• The text includes a few quotes from an interview, this reflects the normal conventions of a music magazines. I looked through some
columns of Kerrang magazine to compare it in terms of the content and layout which helped me with developing my own.
20. How does your media
product represent
particular social
groups?
• My punk magazine mainly represents the subculture of punks, as
well as other social groups around and within this scene such as
Scene Kids, Emos, Skate Punks, pop punks, pop rockers, etc. The
immediate dominant representation of a punk would be that they are
loud, aggressive, rebellious, angry and violent. In my magazine I
conform to these stereotypes about punks to build up a Bricolage
image of the subculture in a number of ways.
21. Front Page
•
On the front cover of my magazine, I have included a main image of a teenage punk
called “Spike”, he is representative of young adult, male punks. He has his bright red
hair spiked up into a Mohawk, which is a typical punk hairstyle. It is an unnatural hair
colour which portrays how punks fight against regular hair styles and colours. He is
wearing a torn white shirt with the „A‟ of the anarchy symbol drawn on roughly by hand.
This reinforces the representation of punks being anti-establishment and acting out
against the government. The fact that it is hand drawn onto the top symbolises the DIY
nature of punks, using their materials and resources to customise clothes for example
the safety pin. This creates individuality and diverges from large corporate
manufacturers of clothing, thus, reinforcing the representation that punks dislike big
businesses and conformity. He bears a moody facial expression, frowning slightly as he
looks up to the camera. This represents punks as being moody and slightly arrogant,
following the stereotype of punks generally being unhappy but also being confident
enough to stand up to the norm.
•
This also links to the magazine title: ANAR-KEY, a homonym of the word Anarchy. The
Google definition of anarchy is firstly “a state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority or other controlling systems” and secondly “absence of
government and absolute freedom of the individual, regarded as a political ideal”. I
chose this title for my punk magazine as it describes the attitudes and ideologies of the
punk subculture, as they are anti-capitalist and are not discreet about their feelings and
beliefs. The word „KEY‟ in the title ANAR-KEY, represents punks as being musically
orientated, as key is a term in music for the chords played.
•
The concentric circles that emit from the anarchy symbol were chosen specifically for
the background due to how they relate to punk music, which is relevant to the magazine
genre and how they could be representative of the punk movement. Punk rock music is
loud and would be projected loudly out of speakers at concerts and gigs, my media
product shows the punk subcultures as having a passion for loud music using these
circles. Also, the concentric circles are representing the movement of the punk
subculture, they show punks as being influential as their movement spread out
worldwide. The circles demonstrate this power and dominance that punks have in terms
of expressing their views out loud, despite others reactions.
•
I chose a rough and unpolished style for the front page, which continues throughout the
magazine, which is an embodiment of punk culture. This represents punks in an
unorganised way portraying their dishevelled attitudes.
22. Contents Page
•
•
•
On my contents page I have included a main image of a girl who is also on the cover of the magazine,
called “Buffy”. This image is to represent the female side of the target audience, making it more
appealing to them. Although she appears very innocent and her calm facial expression is calm, her
clothing is more suited to the style of the magazine. Tartan is often associated with punks, especially
when worn with doc martens. As well as this her short hair cut could be seen to link to the skinheads
era of the 1960s. These factors contribute to the representation of female rockstars, creating a wider
audience of women and girls who will benefit and feel considered by the producers of the magazine
as I am not using solely the social group of males for the magazine.
The guess the venue feature, bellow the main image, shows a wall covered in posters, some which
are quite explicit. This was taken from a rather grotty venue, I felt this would be a good image to
represent the subcultures around punk for a number of reasons. Punk’s are often associated with a
working and lower classes, living in rough areas and taking part in violent and socially unacceptable
activities. The posters show some sexual images, punks were less discrete in sexual terms, wearing
leopard print and being the a strong inspiration for Vivienne Westwood’s shop SEX. The bright
colours are similar to the retro punk styles and this is to appeal to the target audience of people with
a taste in rock music.
I have used another picture of “Spike” on the contents page, where he is putting his middle finger up
so that it covers his face. This is quite a violent and punk like pose, it is representative of the more
aggressive side of punk culture. This is also demonstrated in the picture of the editor, where I am
using the devil horns hand symbol and pulling a face.
23. Double Page Spread
• Following the theme of showing the aggressive nature of punks, I have used a
number of features showing this on the double page spread.
• The main image shows a band member Zack, putting two fingers up to the
camera, partially blocking his face. His hair is not typically punk as he is more
representative of other subcultures of rebellious youths, perhaps a scene kid.
He supports a fashionable coat, showing the more modern day styles of
subcultures and his platinum blond, grey hair goes against the normal hair
colours of society today.
• My choice of the bright red background links to the meanings behind the
colour. Red is thought to signify energy, danger and violence. It is known to
raise blood pressure and is the colour of blood. I thought this colour would be
a good representation of punks because they are sometimes known for their
aggressive behaviour. The fact that it raises your blood pressure links to how
it evokes feelings of danger. I thought this would be an appropriate
representation of the punk subculture who were known to act out against the
norms of society and do things that would be considered wrong by the
majority of society. As well as red, I chose the colour yellow to go with the
black and white. All together, this made an almost fire like effect. I chose this
style because fire is often linked to rage and anger. I thought this was an
appropriate emotion for the background to portray, as subcultures that are
acting against the government are often considered angry, especially at large
establishment.
25. Bauer Consumer Media
• My magazine would be distributed by the Bauer Consumer Media, this is
because the style guide that I chose for my media product would be Kerrang
which is distributed by Bauer. Although Bauer is a popular and mass producing
establishment (which goes against Punk ideologies), it would distribute my media
product because it would be sold across the country, widening the opportunity for
it to be bought and therefore increasing sales.
• Bauer Media not only publishes magazines, but also radio station, television
channels and websites. They expand some of their most popular magazine
products, such as Kerrang, which has its own television channel, radio station
and website.
• Although my magazine is already similar to Kerrang, I would still want it to be
published by Bauer Media, because they often create magazines which are
noticeably similar but this doesn‟t affect the popularity. For example Closer and
Heat magazine are both celebrity gossip and fashion magazines with the same
target audience of women, but they are both distributed by Bauer Consumer
Media.
26. Research Into Bauer Media (from my
powerpoint on slideshare)
• Bauer Media is an international media company that is based in
Germany, Hamburg.
• It operates worldwide across 15 countries.
• It was first found in 1875 by the Bauer family and has been
privately owned by the Bauer‟s ever since.
• Bauer Media has 19 million consumers every week with some
of the most influential brands in the UK.
27. Why this Media Institution
• I would choose Bauer Media to distribute my magazine as it
invests time into researching what sells well and how to appeal
to its target audiences. For example, the Bauer Project Phoenix
look at the trends and influences of music consumption within
the UK. They use this knowledge in their products to create
magazines that are popular and well known. Kerrang is a good
demonstration of this. Although a mass producing media
institution like Bauer Media goes against punk‟s anti
establishment ideologies, it is necessary for a magazine to
make a profit, a loss would be costly to the producers of the
magazine.
28. Who would be the
audience for your
media product?
• The target audience would be similar to the target audience of magazines similar to
Kerrang, the pop punk nature of some of the music is appealing to teenage target
audiences, but the more heavy metal would appeal to older audiences. In terms of sex,
the majority of the people on the front cover are male, however there is one female. The
overall age group for my magazine are younger people. Also, the punk rock nature of the
magazine would means it is aimed at working classes who are sometimes antiestablishment in their ideologies.
• The people who‟s picture I used for my magazine would in fact be representative of my
target audience – Buffy is a regular reader of Kerrang, Zack who likes alternate scream
music, Terminal Moraine are a heavy metal band and so like this kind of music, and Spike
who also enjoys rock music.
• I took feedback from a number of people asking who they thought would be the target
audience for my magazine.
29. My Target Audiences
• As my music magazine is based on punk and rock bands I have a specific target audience of people who
listen to this style of music. This would generally be working classes and rebellious youths as they are the
social groups who used to be and still are involved with the punk subculture. My main audience in terms of
sex would be men. This is because punks and anti establishment subcultures are known for being aggressive,
a behaviour more often displayed in men and teenage boys than women. Arguably this could be due to
higher testosterones levels in men than women. However, the magazine is also open to female audiences,
there is a female punk rocker displayed on the front cover and she is the main image of the contents page.
The primary age range of my media product would be older teenagers, 15 year olds, to around 30 years olds.
This chosen target audience for my magazine is because it is around a similar age to the largest audience of
Kerrang magazine, my style model.
30. Feedback on Target Audience
• I asked a number of people which target audiences they thought my
media product would appeal to and these are a list of their verbal
responses.
• Punk
• Goth
• Emo
• Anarchists
• Alternative
33. My Magazine Questionnaire and
Interview Findings
• I gave out the magazine questionnaire to a random group of people. I
used a range of open and closed questions to gather my results so
that they had the opportunity to add their own answers if the
answers given were not what they would choose.
• As well as this I did a several interviews to find out people’s opinions
on my magazine when I was half way through finishing it.
34. Front Cover
• From the interviews and questionnaires that I distributed, I have found that
the front cover is a strong factor in appealing to audiences. From these
findings, I decided to emphasize features that would be appealing to my
target audience. I focused on attracting my target audience of younger
adults who are interested in rock or alternate music and who are rebellious
in a number of ways, including the fonts, the pictures and the layout of the
magazine.
• To do this, I used “Spike” who represented the more rebellious side of
young people. He is wearing a torn up shirt with the anarchy symbol on,
this links to the title. I felt that this would attract my audience to the
magazine as teenagers and young adults are often thought of as being anti
conformist; they will challenge the normal conventions of modern day
society by acting out against parents, teachers, and occasionally the law.
35. Contents Page
• The main image on my contents page shows a girl wearing tartan and doc
martens, these are examples of punk/mod era clothing. She also supports a
short boyish haircut which goes against the social norm of acceptable hair
for girls. With these features, I have demonstrated an example of a reader
who might have a similar taste in fashion and their ideologies.
• The audience is likely to follow the punk’s anti-establishment views, and so
they feel they can associate with the celebrities portrayed on the contents
page.
• My font choice references the fanzine’s that were around during the
original punk era and so it is a modern day interpretation of the style. Most
of these fonts are eroded and distorted, this echoes punks altering their
own clothes by ripping or tearing them and using safety pins or buckles to
attach the broken parts together.
36. Double Page Spread
• The fiery, explosive background could be thought to link to punk’s
violence in riots, for example, the San Bernardino riots, where the
punks used fire to express their anger against the police (representing
authority figure). Punks despise authority as they see it as a
controlling force against personal expression.
• The ‘V’ sign that the main image shows is an iconic punk symbol as it
is a visual mode of communication. This could be similar to the
attitudes displayed by readers of the magazine, they may also share a
lack of respect to authority figures.
37. What have you learnt
about technologies
from the process of
constructing this
product?
• From the process of constructing this product, I have acquired the use of
photo editing programmes such as Adobe Photoshop and paint. In Adobe
Photoshop, I have learnt how to cut out the background of a photo so that
it leaves the main focus of the image only.
38. Creating a background
• I have also learnt how to create my own background using Adobe Photoshop, I
found a website that gave a step by step guide to create an explosion like
background which I then used for my double page spread.
• For the image of “Spike” on the contents page, I cut out and spread the cloud sky
background to cover the entire image. This blocked out the middle class scenery
(yachts and posh flat blocks) which were subverting the stereotypes of a punk.
39. Simple Shapes
• Also, on paint, I was able to create more simple shapes. Firstly I made the
background to my front page, the emitting circles which had an outward boom
kind of effect which was helpful in the representation of punks in a number of
ways (in terms of music, the wide spread of the punk movement etc). To make
this, I used the circle tool which I then followed over the top with the airbrush
tool, to replicate the hand-drawn ‘A’ on “Spike’s” shirt.
• On Paint I made a mod circle to go on my contents page, again simply by using
the circle tool but changing the thickness and colour of the circles.
40. Layouts
• Finally, I created my layouts using a number of tools in Adobe
Photoshop for each of the pages, mostly using squares to create
boxes around texts, headings, page numbers and pictures. I also was
able to create a Polaroid style frame for two of the images on the
front page of my magazine using a picture that I found on Google
Images as a template.
41. Looking back at your
preliminary task,
what do you feel you
have learnt in the
progression from it
to the full product?
42. Institutions and Target Audience
Feedback
• From my research into Bauer Media, I have learnt the importance of
institutions and distributors of media products. This has helped me in
the production of my magazine as I have l been able to find about the
ways that Bauer Media research their target audiences, for example,
in the Phoenix Project, where they did an in-depth analysis of music
trends. Prior to the making of my media project, I did some research
into what would be appealing in my magazine and used this to help
me with the production of my own.
• In my preliminary task, I did not research institutions or look to
audiences for feedback on what would help me with my magazine. I
think that in doing this for my full product, I was able to benefit from
learning about the background of magazine production.
43. Research into Subcultures
• In the preliminary task I did no research into the audience, which would be parents of children at secondary school, where
as in my coursework I did extensive research into the target audience of my magazine.
• My genre for the magazine was rock music, punk rock in particular. This automatically impacted the audience for my
magazine, so I looked up the subculture of punk in depth and took ideas from what I found to use within my magazine. An
example of this is my research into the mods, a pre-punk subculture. I took their use of the RAF Roundel and placed it into
my magazine contents page in place of the dot on top of an ‘i’. I looked at how the mod’s took this symbol and made it
representative of their subculture, in a Bricolage kind of fashion.
• From this research, as well as research into Bauer Media, I have learnt the importance of understanding the target
audience when creating a magazine. A magazine is more likely to be successful if it is appealing to it’s target audience.
44. Kerrang Magazine Model
• For the preliminary magazine there was no model for me to base my magazine on, however, with
my final media production I had time to research into music magazines and fanzines. This helped
me in terms of the layouts and styles of my magazines, where as in the preliminary task I had
nothing to base the way I structured my magazine on. Therefore, I have learnt the importance of
a style model when creating my magazine as it gave me a lot of ideas for my own coursework. An
example of how it helped is the emitting circles, which I took from one of Kerrang’s front covers. I
was able to give a number of reasons for my choice of the circles in depth due to how they could
be linked to the punk subculture, where as I could not deeply evaluate my preliminary front cover.
