2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products.
• My magazine generally follows the major
conventions of a music magazine because I felt
that I wanted my magazine to be easy to read and
recognisable by the readers. I had a colour
scheme run through the whole magazine with
red, white, blue and black following the colours of
a Union Jack, which with my theme being British
bands I thought would fit in well. With my master
head having a Union Jack running through it. I
also included pull quote in my double page spread
also with page numbers look like the ones found
in the magazine Q which I thought people would
be already used too. I followed an interview
writing style with four columns of text which
when I was doing my research I noticed that was
the average amount of text. I also chose to use a
plug on my front page to draw people in but
instead of it being a sticker I chose the style of a
medieval wax stamp to follow with the British
theme running through the magazine. Also I
chose to have the front page photo have a blank
background to make the text stand out more and
grab the audiences eye.
3. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
• My magazine was aimed at people who where
interested with British bands and I feel this is
portrayed throughout my magazine. My
magazine is aimed at a large age group from
teenagers to middle aged adults this was done
with a wide rage of new and old artists and bands
but with the common theme of Rebellion, which
is generally how teenagers are represented in
media but also how when older groups in the
magazine where and are still rebellious in the
history of music. The language used in my
magazine is very different the magazine is written
as if there talking to the audience in the contents
page. Relating the audience to the contents page.
Also the different rage of bands would attract
many different age groups however the fact I
have teenagers playing the artist it makes Jarvis
cocker look much younger making it more
representative of that age group. Also Jarvis was
known for rebelling the stereotypes of gender
and nudity while performing that’s why my Jarvis
has such pink lips and isn't wearing a shirt.
4. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
• The Institution I would pitch my music magazine
would be to Bauer media for many reasons. One
is they already have an established music
magazine selection and I feel the Rebel could fit
along nicely of each magazine and become
integrated with there repertoire of magazines.
The music magazine they do sell are high quality
mainly monthly magazines which is great for my
price range and contents however I’d want my
magazine to come out of a different day to
other magazine such as Q and Kerrang to allow
the readers to buy more than one magazine.
Also they own many music channels which
would allow rebel to one day have its own
broadcasting channel with would feature the
bands from the magazine. However Q do often
publish things about bands that would feature
in my magazine. But I feel that because my
magazine is fully about British bands that there
is a place in the market through Bauer for my
magazine.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
• As my audience truly enjoys British music I felt
that that should be the main focus of my music
magazine, the thing that I feel draws regular
readers back like my focus reader alexander the
magazine relates to the reader in a way that the
magazine is written as if it was talking to the
reader and I think this appeals to most people.
Also I represent the particular group of people
who still buy vinyl records including album
reviews in the magazine which as we've found
out in recent news that the sales of vinyl records
are up I feel that this would only boost sales of
the magazine. The buzz word I used of a free CD
would attract my readers as I feel Freebies
would bust sales and appeal to my target
readers. Also the fact my magazine is so British
it doesn’t just appeal to my core target audience
also people outside of Britain who have a
fascination with British culture would buy the
magazine.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing
this product?
• I used many different type of software during
this project, using the blog and the Microsoft
office pack I found easy as I’d been using them
for years. But the learning curb came when
using the camera and the production software.
The camera for me I’ve had for a while however
I never really knew how to use it to its full
potential so I studied for a while on tutorials
how to use all the different settings. Using
adobe Photoshop was the hardest thing to
master as I had basic knowledge of Photoshop
as in terms of the tools from the side bar but
nothing about changing the levels and contrast
in the photo’s but once I had learnt that I found
the magazine making enjoyable until it came to
adding text to my magazine which is when I
found out Photoshop wasn’t very good at text
formatting so I used adobe InDesign to add my
text which I found clunky at time when adding
different layer to add a white box behind my
text but it all came together.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
• I’ve learnt the most is that you should always
plan because the more planning you do the
more easier it is to make the product work, if eel
I stuck to my plan well however I changed a few
details once I got more confident with the
software. Another thing I found out is that text
look better on a blank background because it
allows the text to stand out more but also the
placing of text such as the headline to be behind
the models head makes him look more 3-D on
the page. Also the fact that you don’t need a lot
of pictures look make your magazine look
appealing. I only used two photos and three
album artwork which I made myself. Also the
fact that saving is key I lost about 4 hours of
work due to the program either crashing or not
saving properly which meant I was rushed at
times but I feel that if I could go back I’d always
back up a copy. Also I learnt that text can be
read more easily if you have a white column
behind it when it’s a darker picture. Also that
less is more when it comes to editing photos.
