AS Media Studies Coursework Evaluation

Amy Towers

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

products?How typical is your cover?

My music magazine cover follows most conventions of real music magazines as it includes the following: masthead, banner, pug, crossheads, splash. It follows a colour scheme that fits with the target market of my pop magazine (teenage girls). My cover resembles a typical teenage girl magazine. I couldn’t find an existing pop music magazine cover targeted at teenage girls, however I found a lifestyle magazine cover targeted at teenage girls (Sugar) and a music magazine with a wide target market that includes teenage girls (Billboard). My cover is very similar to Sugar magazine as it targets exactly the same market, therefore my cover and Sugar magazine’s cover contain similar colours such as pink, both my cover and Sugar contain a photograph with the model looking directly at the camera and smiling, this is because both magazines represent what teenage girls want to see and read. However my cover differs from Billboard magazine as Billboard magazine has a much wider/larger target market, therefore the cover is not as ‘girly’ as it targets boys/men as well as teenage girls and women, it doesn’t contain bright colours such as pink and contains duller colours such as red and brown to reflect the market that it is targeting.

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

products?How typical is your contents page?

My contents page contains all the features of a conventional music magazine contents page: small photograph of front cover, different sections for the different types of articles, article names and article page numbers, letter from editor. As my magazine is aimed at teenage girls, the colour scheme is pink, I have used different shades of pink in order to make my magazine products more effective. The photograph on my contents page is very similar to a lot of music magazine contents page photographs as the model isn’t looking directly into the camera, this is effective because it draws the reader into finding out what is in the magazine by looking at the titles of the articles. As with most music magazines, my contents page is sectioned off, the different articles are placed under different titles in order for the page to be more organised and for the reader to be able to navigate through the magazine easier. The photograph on my contents page has the name of the corresponding article and page number over lapping it in order for the reader to find the corresponding article quickly.

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

products?How typical is your double page spread?

My double page spread contains all the features of a conventional music magazine double page spread: article, pulled out quote, page numbers, photograph. As with most music magazine double page spreads, the photograph dominates the page and the article is placed around the photograph. Some music magazine double page spreads contain more than one photograph, mine only has one photograph as I wanted that photograph to dominate the page.

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

products?Layout, fonts, colours, type of photo?

My media product follows the conventions of real music magazines as it includes the following: masthead, banner, pug, crossheads, splash. It follows a colour scheme that fits with the target market of my pop magazine (teenage girls). My cover resembles a typical teenage girl magazine and has a resemblance to existing music magazines aimed at teenage girls. My magazine has a theme (pink circles) that is used throughout the cover, contents page and double page spread, existing magazines also use a theme throughout in order for the reader to recognise it and associate it with the magazine.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

What sort of people are represented by your photos, colours, fonts, articles (age/gender/class/group)?

Like most magazines aimed at teenage girls, my magazine represents teenage girls as being happy and carefree; my photographs throughout my media product illustrate this. My photographs show the girl smiling directly at the audience/camera, this is effective as teenage girls will see the magazine cover and be able to relate to it. Most magazines aimed at the same target audience as mine also have similar photographs for this reason. My media product is suitable for all teenage girls as it doesn’t have a clear divide into a certain social class; teenage girls from all social classes will be able to relate to it, and therefore want to purchase it. I have used the colour pink throughout my media product as it is a favourite colour of the audience that my magazine is targeting. My media product uses fonts that are associated with teenage girls; many magazines will the same target audience use similar fonts as teenage girls are more likely to want to read a music magazine with a font like minipop, pop up, cutie pop or sunshine poppy rather than a font like Times New Roman. The articles in my magazine are the types of articles that would be found in existing music magazines for the same genre/audience. For example, I have included articles about popular current pop singers/pop bands that my target audience would be interested in reading about.

2. What are you suggesting about these people?

The images, fonts and colours in my media product suggest that the people who purchase and read my magazine are care free and happy, this is suggested through the photographs used on the front cover, contents page and double page spread. The colour pink is a light colour and suggests happiness. The fonts I have used are all very ‘girly’ fonts.

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

My magazine would be published by Hachette Filipacchi, they publish a large number of magazines of a similar genre to my magazine and a similar target market. My magazine will not be published digitally as my target market of teenage girls would find it much easier to buy my magazine in a shop; only 17% of magazines are published digitally. My magazine will not be given away for free as I think that it is of a higher quality than a free magazine, also the genre of my magazine does not match the genre of magazines that are usually given away for free in clothes shops, music shops, ect. My magazine will not be available through social networks as some of my target market would be unable to access social networks via the internet as they are too young.

3. Complete a case study of an institution (MusicMags, Factory Media, etc)

Future plc is an international special-interest media group that is listed on the London Stock Exchange. Founded in 1985 with one magazine, today they have operations in the UK, US and Australia creating over 180 special-interest publications, websites and events for people who are passionate about their interests. Our biggest-selling magazines include T3, Total Film, Classic Rock, Guitar World, and Official Xbox Magazine. Future sells 3.2 million magazines each month. In addition, Future exports or syndicates publications to 90 countries internationally, making them the UK’s number one exporter and licensor of monthly magazines.

Hachette Filipacchi (UK) Ltd is a subsidiary of Hachette Filipacchi Medias, the world's largest magazine publisher which is present in 39 countries and publishes 262 titles - selling over one billion copies.In the UK they publish seven major titles - ELLE, ELLE Decoration, Red, Sugar, Psychologies, Inside Soap and All About Soap. The company was created in October 2002. HF UK grew out of the purchase of Attic Futura and the merging of that company with Hachette's UK titles, ELLE, ELLE Decoration and Red, which had previously been held as a UK-based joint venture with EMAP.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my magazine is teenage girls from all social classes, my magazine is suitable for all social classes because is not too expensive for some people to purchase, but it remains a high quality. I have attracted my target market through my use of colours, fonts and articles. I researched popular singers/bands before creating my magazine in order to attract the audience that I am hoping to attract.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?How would you get the attention of your audience?

I attracted my target audience through the articles, colours and photographs used in my media product. I researched popular singers/bands before creating my magazine and included these in my media product in order to attract my target audience. I used colours in my media product that I knew were popular with my target audience in order to attract them. I included photographs that followed the conventions of popular music magazines of the same genre and with the same target audience as my media product as I knew that these would be successful in attracting my target audience. I would market my magazine through advertisements placed in other popular magazines of the same genre and with the same target audience as my media product as this method is used by a lot of successful/popular magazines and had proven successful. It is also a relatively cheap method of marketing for a successful magazine.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?What aspects of your cover attract your audience?

I have used eye-catching and bold fonts in order to attract my audience, my magazine cover contains the cross heads of articles that I know from research that my target audience will be interested in reading. The photograph on my magazine cover can be related to by my target audience, therefore they are more likely to look twice at my magazine.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?How have your products been written (language) and

constructed to address your audience?

As the target audience for my magazine is teenage girls, I had to make sure that the language used in my magazine would be clearly understood be my target audience. Before writing in my media product I read existing magazine with the same target audience in order to know the style of writing that would be suitable. My contents page includes a letter which would be a regular feature in this type/genre of magazine, therefore I read existing pop music magazine letters before writing my own in order to enable me to capture the correct style of writing.

6. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the process of constructing my media product, I have used Blogger, Slideshare, Fireworks and digital cameras in order to construct and display my media product. I had never used Blogger or Slideshare before making my media product but I had used Fireworks and digital cameras. Even though I had never used blogger or Slideshare before constructing my media product, I found them easy to use, I also found fireworks simple to use as I had used it a lot before constructing my media product. I have learnt that blogger can be used for writing only or to display images such as my magazine products as well as writing or on their own. Slideshare is used for displaying power point presentations, I used Slideshare a lot during the research and planning stage of my coursework to display presentations of evaluating existing music magazines and also school magazines for my preliminary task. Through the process of constructing my media product, I have learned a lot about Fireworks because, even though I have used it before I had not used a lot of the tools. I found Fireworks extremely useful for editing photographs taken from digital cameras, I also used the shape tool a lot for drawing the different shapes on my magazine: circles, boxes, star.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the

full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task, I can see how much my knowledge of media has helped me significantly in making my final media product. For example, I now know how to successfully use programs like Fireworks to edit and create a media product. I also know how to make a magazine that is conventional thanks to the research and planning stage of my coursework. From looking at successful existing music magazines, I was able to make my own magazine look authentic. From analysing existing music magazines in correspondence to their target audience, I was able to understand who my target audience were and how to attract them with the use of picture, text, colours and fonts. I also researched the way that magazines write to their specific target audience, from this research I was able to write in the style that my target audience would understand and relate to. Looking at my preliminary task of creating a school magazine front cover and contents page, I can now see the effectiveness of not using a block colour background as my final music magazine backgrounds look far more authentic. My music magazine photographs also look like they are of better quality than my school magazine photographs as I chose the clothing in order for it to fit in with the colour scheme of my music magazine.