Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

If you look at both of my magazine covers you can clearly see with practice I have been able to target my audience a lot better. My actualy music magazine looks like a music magazine you may see being sold at news agents and retailers whereas the preliminary task doesnt really have a clear target audience even though it was meant to be aimed at 6th form students. In my personal opinion I believe that the preliminary task front cover looks more like a music poster from a distance instead of a music magazine, it doesnt really attract an audience because there isnt much that stands out even though the image has got a higlighted area with a black and white background.

I have realised the higher the production rate is, the better your magazine will actually look, with a lot of effort the magazine would look like a conventional music magazine if you have done the right research, especially the research into what your audience are hoping to see in the magazine.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout this project I have learnt and developed my skills in different areas. These areas included using Photoshop, publisher and I improved my skills in photography during the production stage when I had to plan a professional photo shoot.

During the stage of my photo shoot, I had to make sure that I had planned it thoroughly a few weeks before so I knew what I would be doing on the day of the photo shoot. This was a useful thing to do because it allowed some time to get things ready for the shoot, which made the whole shoot a lot more successful than it would have been if things were unprepared.

Using Photoshop to design my magazine was really helpful because I had to make sure all the measurements were correctly positioned, also the composition of some of the things I had included on the page had to be perfect, so it looked like a magazine instead of looking like a poster. Although I have had previous experience on photoshop, this allowed me a chance to practice a different style of editing images and using photoshop.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My audience mainly consists of male teen readers. This is because the genre of music is seen to be a more male dominant genre of music, whether it be the artists involved with the music or being the audience listening to the music. I decided to try and attract a lot of students too by making sure the magazine wasn't too expensive or didn't relate to the audience, my research stage really helped me make my decision on who my target audience should be. I had then looked at the Users and Gratifications theory, by looking at the Users and Gratifications theory, i was able to concentrate on making the magazine represent the social group i was aiming at so the audience will end up reading the magazine due to Personal Relations or Personal Identity portrayed within my media product instead of reading it for diversion or surveillance, this is so i will end up having a loyal fan base for my media product which will mean they'll always be a consumer of my product.

How did you attract/address your audience?

In my media product I had made sure that the language used related to my target audience which meant i had to use some form of colloquial language and standard English language instead of formal language. Also the images used portray the everyday male teenager quite well, so just by taking a quick look at the magazine, consumers would be able to relate to the magazine almost immediately. My research also helped me decide what to include on the front cover of my magazine because there is one crucial thing i made sure i had included on the front cover, in the sky line of the front cover i have mentioned a famous dubstep artists name (Skrillex) who is well known by my target audience. I know this because of the wordle i had made from the feedback i got from the research stage.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

If my magazine was to be published by an exisiting publisher i would think that a much smaller publishing company may distribute my magazine instead of a mainstream publishing company. Big publishing companies such as Bauer Media Group may not fit in with my type of magazine because its not as flashy as Q magazine which is a product that Bauer Media Group publish on a monthly basis. My magazine may fit in more with a self publsihed magazine or a much smaller publishing company such as IPC Media which in fact publish NME magazine and other UK consumer magazines. This may be a better distributor because it means instead of having a large flashy company publishing and distributing the magzines per month, it allows my music magazine to gain more fans in a shorter period of time being sold weekly.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I decided that my front cover should in fact adhere to a lot of music magazine conventions. Conventions such as having a big masthead, a plug in on the front cover, having the most important cover lines on the front cover and having an image of the featured artist on the front cover all add up to make a well thought music magazine cover because it allows the audience immediately realise that the magazine is a music magazine, the photo I have used is a direct address image because the artist is looking at the . I chose to follow these conventions because other magazines such as Vibe, Q, NME and other mainstream magazines generally follow these conventions and have done quite well in the magazine industry, so following these examples allowed me to make the decision that i want my magazine to be recognised as a music magazine which from some brief feedback was successful.

Although for the front cover i had chosen to follow the conventions of music magazine, i had decided to challenge the conventions of music magazines for my contents page. Instead i decided to follow the conventions of my music genre and base it around the iconography of the dubstep genre. I had decided to call my contents page a playlist and not a contents page because by doing so, it would immediately have an impact on the audience because it has challenged the conventions of music magazines. By doing so I have built up some form of brand identity and by including the UKF logo it increases the iconography of the music genre which is good. The ideology of the dubstep genre is basically about technical equipment being used a lot and I have adhered to the ideology of the music genre. The sound bars in the background also link into the genre of the music but don't really follow the conventions of other music magazines.

For my double page spread I wanted to adhere to the conventions of other music magazines as well as challenge it at the same time. So i decided to base my double page spread around the conventions of music magazines but almost adapt those conventions to suit my music genre. By that i mean i had taken photos of the artist in a way that would probably only be acceptable to use in a dubstep magazine and the editing wasnt so complex. This shows how i have followed the conventions of not over editing the image of the artist but the shot type i have adapted to fit in with my music magazine. Also the layout is quite conventional too, by having the artist cover the majority of the left side of the two pages i was able to concentrate the text on the right side of the magazine which allowed me to make it a little more text heavy than i planned which is good because then it may get more readers interested in the magazine on the whole. Although it seems like i have followed a few conventions, i havn't included a box out on my double page spread which is generally used in a lot of other magazines, instead i have just included the twitter name and facebook page at the bottom of the right hand page, which in a way is both conventional for some magazines but unconventional for other magazines.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

1. The costume the artist is wearing relates to the social class of the target audience. The target audience are teenage boys (between the ages of 15-19). The costume relates and represents the social class because the artist is not dressed in any fancy brands such as gucci or prada, instead the artist is dressed in a way that any other normal teenage male would dress.

2. The price of the magazine also represents the social class of my target audience. Due to the reason my target audience would most likely to be students ( Looking at the demographic table my target audience fall into Band E). This is the reason why I have decided to make the price of my magazine only £1.99 so it seems to be a cheap magazine but for good quality.

3. The language used also represents the social group because it isn't formal English being used. Instead its on the verge of colloquial language. This represents the target audience and the social group i have targeted. The "wub wub wub" also represents the social class because it relates to the people that listen to dubstep.

1. The image of the artist on the contents relates to the social class of students and working class people because the attire he is wearing isn't too fancy, as well as the fact the headphones aren't very expensive to buy it shows that the magazine is trying to relate to the audience by promoting affordable equipment. Also the social class would most probably be very similar to the artist in the image which represents personal identity within the community the audience may feel they fit in with.

2. The branded logo of the "UKF" is a good way to represent the audiences social class, this is because although the company is funded independently its very well known in the dubstep fans and industry, and this may represent the audiences lives; they may be quite independent in society but within the dubstep community they feel like they are important.

3. I think the assertive language and language on the whole used on the page represents the social class quite well because it isn't too formal but at the same time it isn't just plain colloquial language, which actually does represent the social class of my target audience.

1. I believe the fact that the double page spread includes a little something about the social network sites represents the social class very well, this is because the targeted audience being made up by a majority of students i believe that a lot of them would have some form of active social networking site such as twitter or facebook. This shows that the magazine is representing the target audience very well.

2. The article also represents the social class because i have made sure the article represents the youth of the modern day quite well by including some colloquial language. This will help build a personal relation with the audience and it also represents some of the readers which links into why the audience may want to read the magazine whether it be for diversion, surveillance, personal identity or personal relationships.

If you click the following link, you can see that the front cover of my magazine is a similar resemblance to this professional magazine cover. I think I have done well to adapt the styles of the magazine into my designs to make my magazine look quite professional and a bit more conventional. You can also look at the past issues of the magazine to see how the magazine covers differ from the past issues but although the style does differ, the magazine has kept the house style the same, which is what I have done with my magazine.

Link: http://www.woofahmag.com/

Final Designs of Music Magazine