Question 1: In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I am going to compare my music magazine ‘Plectrum’ to the music magazine ‘Acoustic’ front cover. I am comparing them to see the ways in which my magazine cover might challenge or develop forms and conventions of that of a real music magazine cover. I decided to use the magazine ‘Acoustic’ as it appears to have the same target audience as my magazine and will be easier to make note of the similarities and/ or differences in the styles of magazine covers.
My magazine cover is similar to ‘Acoustic’ in many ways, as it uses some of the same conventions in the design elements of the magazine. This can be in as much as the color scheme is very similar. In my magazine front cover I have used a deep blue along with reds and grays. I decided to use these colors as it instantly targets towards the male audience. The color scheme I chose is very similar to the dominant colors on the ‘Acoustic’ magazine cover. This will attract my target audience to my magazine, as the colors are not very bold, they are more “relaxed” much like the genre of music that the magazine is promoting. Another similarity between my magazine cover and ‘Acoustic’ is the font I decided to use. The font I used has a rounded edge to it, and therefore doesn’t appear too formal, reinforcing the relaxed, young adult friendly appeal to the audience. ‘Acoustic’ also uses a more rounded text font, however, they have decided to use more than one type of font on their front cover, possibly attracting the adience to the more important parts of the magazine. An example of this is where they have chosen to write the word ‘Exclusive’ in a more formal font, making it appear to the audience that this part is more important, as the formality of the lettering implies status. Another similarity between the two magazines is that they use a similar i.e. a main centre image. This is largely to attract the audience to the magazine by showing them who the main focus of the magazine is. I decided to use someone male, and aged 19 as this is the target audience for my magazine, and therefore this is someone that my target audience would aspire to be like.
My magazine cover has also got some differences to ‘Acoustic’ as it also uses some conventions that aren't used on 'Acoustic' but are on other renowned music magazines. An example of this is my use of cover lines. ‘Acoustic’ has used many cover lines, making the cover look quite busy and exciting to read. I decided to use less cover lines, as I didn’t want to distract from the artist on the front cover, I wanted them to be the main focus. This is because I implied that the artist was fairly new, therefore not many people would know them and so I wanted to make sure the main focus was on introducing and promoting the artist. My magazine cover is also different to ‘Acoustic’ because of the use of supporting images on the front cover. I decided to use less supporting images, as I didn’t want to distract from the main image too much. On ‘Acoustic’ however, they have used several supporting images possibly to reinforce the dominant ideologies about their target audience, as there are several images with guitars. I have, however, stuck with this theme and used an image, which reinforces the ideologies about the target audience also. Although I have reinforced the conventions that are already used on music magazine covers, I feel I have also developed some conventions, possibly even challenging some of the ideologies. I feel I have done this by making the conventions much more specific to my target audience, making it more personal and attracting my target audience’s attention. This could be seen as a negative thing, however, as I haven’t used the conventions to attract the attention of people who are outside my target audience yet still interested in my magazine. Through comparing my magazine cover to ‘Acoustic’ I have been able to show how I both developed conventions in similar magazines (‘Acoustic’) as well as challenging some conventions by modernising them. By using this comparison, I have been able to make sure I am using the right techniques to attract my target audience.
With regards to my contents page, I believe I have successfully been able to target and represent my target audience in a lot of my design developments in my contents page. I was able to appeal my target audience with my contents page through the use of colours. I decided to use the same colour scheme that I used on the front cover, as it reinforces who my target audience is, and makes it feel personal still, as it is such a specific target audience. The layout of my contents page appeals to the target audience, as it appears quite organised and as my target audience is mostly going to be older students, or young members of the public who are in full time work, they are most likely to be quite career headed people and therefore have organised characteristics. The content of my contents page would appeal to my target audience and their social group, as it includes ‘stories’ and events that centre around their music genre type. An example of this is the competition I have advertised, in which the audience are able to get a chance to go to a Jason Mraz concert. This type of competition would appeal to my target audience, as Jason Mraz is considered very influential in their music genre.
My magazine cover has also got some differences to ‘Acoustic’ as it also uses some conventions that aren't used on 'Acoustic' but are on other renowned music magazines. An example of this is my use of cover lines. ‘Acoustic’ has used many cover lines, making the cover look quite busy and exciting to read. I decided to use less cover lines, as I didn’t want to distract from the artist on the front cover, I wanted them to be the main focus. This is because I implied that the artist was fairly new, therefore not many people would know them and so I wanted to make sure the main focus was on introducing and promoting the artist. My magazine cover is also different to ‘Acoustic’ because of the use of supporting images on the front cover. I decided to use less supporting images, as I didn’t want to distract from the main image too much. On ‘Acoustic’ however, they have used several supporting images possibly to reinforce the dominant ideologies about their target audience, as there are several images with guitars. I have, however, stuck with this theme and used an image, which reinforces the ideologies about the target audience also. Although I have reinforced the conventions that are already used on music magazine covers, I feel I have also developed some conventions, possibly even challenging some of the ideologies. I feel I have done this by making the conventions much more specific to my target audience, making it more personal and attracting my target audience’s attention. This could be seen as a negative thing, however, as I haven’t used the conventions to attract the attention of people who are outside my target audience yet still interested in my magazine. Through comparing my magazine cover to ‘Acoustic’ I have been able to show how I both developed conventions in similar magazines (‘Acoustic’) as well as challenging some conventions by modernising them. By using this comparison, I have been able to make sure I am using the right techniques to attract my target audience.
Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I have targeted my audience in a range of areas, and styles. I have used images of a young male aged 18, who appears to be the “norm” person to find in my target audiences social group; this group can be seen as the ‘preps’. I have shown that this is the target social group because of the clothing that the “artist” I have used is wearing, particularly on the front cover. I have made him wear a ‘baseball jacket’ which is part of the latest fashion, implying his social group as the kids who follow trends, and follow a popular genre of music. On my front cover, I have used an image in which the “artist” is sat down with a guitar, showing that they have a relaxed attitude, also implying that this is something they do for a hobby rather than something they do as a job, which also implies that they are elsewhere during the day i.e. a student. I have also used images which show the “artist” to be stood in front of a microphone. This implies formality, however in the sense of the artist being wealthier, which reinforces their age as they are not a young student, say about age 16, but a student that has the possibility to be in full time work and earning a salary. On my front cover I have used colours like dark blue, red and white. These colours aren’t very bright, and therefore have connotations of a “maturer” target audience, rather than a young teenager. The colour blue is also a colour which has connotations of being a very male dominant colour, which appeals to my target audience. The cover lines on my front cover help to represent my target audience’s social group, as the “stories” are very specific to their particular genre of music, making the magazine feel more personal towards my target audience. The layout of my front cover is very minimal, the main focus is on the cover image of the new ‘up and coming artist’ and there aren’t very many cover lines. This makes the audience focus on the cover image, which is the part that should appeal to the target audience the most, as it represents the “norm” genre of music that their social group are interested in. I think that if there were more cover lines, or images then it would distract from the main image too much, and deceive the audience into thinking the main focus was on other parts of the magazine, rather than the new “artist”.
I believe I have successfully attracted my audience’s attention mainly through the design work in my double page spread. This is because the article goes into more specific details on the new “artist” and therefore covers the same kind of likes and dislikes of the target audience. I decided to use the first page as just a large image with a few quotes etcetera over the top, as this reinforces the idea of the artist being fairly new, and depending on their image. This appeal to my target audience, as they like to have a good image, and keep up with the latest “fashion trends” which is shown through my “artist” wearing an outfit which is supposedly the latest fashion. I think that I have communicated my target audience’s social group in a positive way, as I have shown them to be light-hearted yet focused and passionate about their music, shown through the contrast in front cover image, and layout of the contents page (relaxed and organised). Again, I have continued the same colour scheme from the front cover, which appeals to the target audience as they get a sense of recognition when reading the article, making them remember the article more and remember the new artist. I think I have reinforced dominant ideologies about my social group, as I have shown them to be quite calm and relaxed people, much like their genre of music (acoustic). I believe I have also challenged the ideologies by representing them as people who are able to focus on careers and become organised people as well. I have also reinforced who my target audience is, through the use of language in my article. I have used quite formal text, representing their age, however, I have also used informal language such as ‘banter’ to show that the social group’s ideologies can be challenged.
Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?
Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
When I started the preliminary task, I wasn't sure about how i'd cope using the new programs, and a Mac computer. Although I have used a Mac before, I've never done such extensive work on one. When I look at my skills audit, however, I saw that I was able to master the basic skills to at least get started on my design work, whilst proving room for improvement. I didn't, however, have the skills that were specific to our tasks, such as having my own blog, or using InDesign before hand, which meant I was unsure of where to start. Although I didn't necessarily have the resources for some of my tasks, I felt I was able to find solutions to these problems efficiently. We were taught the basics of InDesign with a lesson on how to work with the programme, and this gave me the confidence to go in more depth into what the programme could acheive for my magazine. When moving on from the student magazine designs to my final product, I found that my skills had developed vastly and I was able to work with the programmes in a more sophisticated way, creating a more professional looking magazine. I felt that my student magazine was very simplistic with minimal creative techniques used, however in my music magazine I was able to develop my design skills and look at the layout of everything in a better way. I felt that I was more prone to creating more interesting shapes and including relevant images, rather than keeping the basic level from my student magazine. In my student magazine, I tried to keep much of the text the same, however in my music magazine I tried to use several fonts to increase the creativity level and make the text more interesting to read.
In my student magazine, I tended to stick to using as few tools as possible, especially in InDesign, where as in my music magazine I was more open to trying different tools, shapes, images and colors. Also, my research skills have developed from my preliminary task. In my student magazine, I was using minimal sources and so my research seemed to only achieve some level of depth on the subject. In my music magazine, however, I learn new ways to find information from a range of sources; internet, books, magazines, as well as new ways to present my research; prezi's, online power-points etc. I think my skills have also improved in 'taking photo's' as although I knew how to do the requirements on the skills audit, I am able to achieve a higher level of quality in my photo's and am able to edit my photo's in a more efficient manner. You can see this through my choice of photographs on my front covers. In my student magazine, my photo is slightly pixelated and doesn't appear as "enticing" as my music magazine. You can also see that my skills have developed because of my use of black and white photo, which shows I have been able to successfully change my photograph to appeal to my target audience more efficiently.
