PowerPoint Presentation

During my research into pop magazines as pop was the genre that I choose ,I found out that the improvement of technology has massively helped improve pop as a whole. People are becoming more aware of the genre pop as pop artists are able to produce better music through the use of auto tune and share their music online for their fans to see. Therefore, because pop is becoming more recognised people are more likely to want to read pop magazines, which helps the magazine institutions as they will be selling more magazines.

During my research I came across many conventions of a pop magazine. The ones that stood out mainly were to have a trendy model on the front page, as this will appeal to the target audience as they may look up to them and see them as a role model. Uses and Gratifications theory would say that the target audience can identify with the model featuring throughout the magazine. The artists are usually portrayed to be happy and full of energy as it could influence the target audience in a positive way. Also, pop magazines are very dance orientated. I got the idea that pop magazines want to create a happy feeling for the target audience as everything they spoke about was topics that stereotypically teenagers find interesting or enjoy doing.In what ways does your magazine product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1

Representations:Girls are represented to be very girly. They normally have lots of makeup on, trendy clothes, involved in a lot of gossip and boys. This will be appealing to the target audience as they are mainly teenage girls and at this age this is what they would normally find interesting and they may be able to relate to the content in the magazine. They will find this appealing as they will feel as if someone understands them and they may get advice from the information inside the magazine.Language: The language I have used is mainly informal this is because the target audience will be able to follow it clearly without finding words hard to understand. The target audience is mainly working class therefore we assume they will find informal language more appealing than middle class. Also, whilst doing my research I realised this was one of the conventions of a pop magazine so it would be effective.I used the magazine top of the pops to get ideas of how to fit the conventions of a pop magazine. I decided to use top of the pops because it had the same target audience as me and it seems to be a popular magazine for that age group, so I thought it would be useful to see how they appeal to their target audience, so I could follow those ideas to attract a large target audience.

I developed several parts of my front cover magazine to fit the conventions of a pop magazine especially top of the pops. I made sure that their was a lot of subheadings as I noticed that pop magazines especially top of the pop front covers are quit crammed with different subheadings. I noticed that most of the subheadings were about pop artists, clothing or boys so I tried to relate my stories to these topics as I new this is what my target audience would be interesting in reading. The model on the front page of pop magazines were normally wearing lots of makeup and someone that you would find attractive. Therefore, when I took pictures of my model I made sure her hair and makeup was done, so my target audience would be more likely to see her as a role model.However, I did challenge the genre of pop a little bit. When I was doing my research I noticed that they used a lot of blue, pinks and whites throughout their magazines, but I choose to use red,white,grey and black. The reason for this was because I thought that the red still stands out and appeals to the target audience but it creates a more sophisticated feel for the magazine which I thought would attract a wider target audience of teenagers not just 13-16 year olds. I asked a few teenagers what they thought of the colour red and they said they found it appealing and that they would want to read the magazine if they saw red as it looks different but still stands out to the audience and you can tell it is a pop magazine. Therefore I thought this would be a good way of making my magazine different and making it stand out to the people wanting to buy my magazine.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?In my magazine I have represented my model to be the ideal girl. I have done this by making sure she is wearing makeup and her hair is done and that you can tell she has made a effort with her appearance. This is because top of the pop magazines use a model that teenagers would see as a role model and can relate to. In the media today girls are portrayed to make a lot of effort with their appearance and want to attract a lot of attention. When I was taking my pictures I wanted my model to be inspired by the pop artist Rihanna, because she is a well known artist and many teenagers look up to her as a role model. Rihanna is successful and wealthy, and is seen as someone that acts herself. Therefore by portraying my model to be like her then I would appeal to my target audience as they may look up to her as someone they would want to be like or they may get ideas for the future from her, which can make the target audience feel understood.

I have represented my artist in a positive light, as she takes care over herself and she has been successful in her music career. This will be appealing to the target audience as they can look up to her and get advice from her. Whereas if I represented her in a negative light then the target audience might think badly of her and therefore not be interested to read the magazine. To represent this stereotype I edited my images to make them more bright and to add more contrast, this creates a more happy feeling in the target audience and makes her stand out from the page more.

My artist for my magazine fits the stereotype of a female as females are stereotyped to be girly, love fashion and makeup and take care of themselves. I thought this was important to fit the stereotype of a female because of the age group of my target audience. Teenagers are interested in what is popular and they try to fit in with the trends, therefore they will be more appealed to someone they can get ideas from than someone that challenges the stereotype of a female.

The artist on the front pageis wearing red lipstick, this stands out on her face and fits the stereotype that women wear makeup and want to look sensual. The use of red lipstick also tells the target audience a little bit more about the artist. We get the idea that she is outgoing and confident, not easily intimidated, and goes after what she wants. This is just what the target audience might think about her, therefore they are immediately going to see her as someone to look up to.

I used Photoshop to make the saturation of the picture more intense. This was because it made the model on the front cover stand out more to the target audience and it helped create the happy feel that I wanted for my magazine. It also helped fit the stereotype that girls wear a lot of makeup and make a lot of effort with their appearance.

What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?Institutions that would want to distribute my product are IPC , Bauer media group and Emap because they publish music magazines and they may be interested in publishing mine because it opens them up to a wider target audience and means that they will become more popular and well known.

IPC media- Is one of the Uks leading consumerMagazine and digital publishers, with a largeportfolio selling over 350million copies each yearIPC media groups titles under five magazine divisions which are connect , Inspire , Ignite Southbank and TX. They own NME and Guitar and base.Bauer media group-is a large German publishing company based in Hamburg. Operates in 15 countries worldwide and was funded in 1875 being privately owned. The music magazines this publisher provides are: Q, Mojo and Kerrang. Emap- Is the second largest magazine publisher in the UK with about 18% of the news-stand market by revenue. In 2007 the company announced a strategic review and as result the company split up and sold off to business-to-business magazine sold to Guardian media group and private equity sold to firm A pax. The new company is called incisive- Emap.

Who would be the audience for your media product?My target audience for my magazine is 12-16 year olds, but It will mainly appeal to the younger teenagers. I decided this by the type of content that is going to be included and the model that will be on the front cover and throughout the magazine.

In order to know that I was creating the right magazine for my target audience I had to gather some information from the target audience and do some audience research so I could generalise the findings and see what they liked to see in a music magazine. This meant that I could get some ideas for my own. I decided to gather this information by doing questionnaires. This was useful because I asked a set of questions about music magazines and gave them options to choose from. When I had got enough people to fill out my questionnaires I then gathered the data and found out which answers were most popular. This was useful at knowing what to use in my magazine to appeal to my target audience. I had to make sure I gave my questionnaires to the right target audience which would be the same as my magazine target audience. Therefore, I handed out my questionnaires to students at my sixth form of different ages within my target audience 12-16. The data I got back was very useful as I found out what people didnt like in music magazines and what they did like, this helped me know what to include and what to not include.

Linking my magazine to the uses and gratifications theory, I think people will read my magazine for entertainment and to identify with the artists especially the model on the front page. The model on the front cover is successful and attractive so teenagers may look up to her and they may be able to relate real life situations to hers. I think it will appeal to teenagers that are mainstream and like to follow trends as the magazine is very up to date with fashion and stereotypically everything teenagers are appealed to. Whereas someone that is a bit more unique or seen as a subculture may not find the magazine interesting as they dont like following trends/fashions in society and they would prefer to see something thats more different.

How did you attract/address your audience?My magazine attracts to my target audience in several ways. Firstly, it attracts my audience by the useof stories it contains. For example, 2015 clothing , Top music tips and it has famous popartists listed on the front page, which most teenagers will know about and they may be fans of them which means they will be interested in reading the magazine to find out about them. Also, the artist that I have shown throughout is shown as successful and a famous star thereforethe audience are going to know about her and if they like her they are going to find the magazine eye catching, whereas if they didnt know the model and she wasnt well known they may not bother looking at it. Also, I made sure the model was showing direct eye contact on the front page as this shows she is drawing the audience in and the target audience may feel included and if they see her as a role model they may feel a sense of closeness or they may feel important because of the direct eye contact with the audience.

The target audience will be satisfied because the subheadings are to do with things that teenagers will find interesting and it fits the conventions of a pop magazine, with a bright colour and lots of subheadings on the front page.

Furthermore, I have made my magazine appealing to the target audience by giving them the chance to win x factor tour tickets. As my target audience are teenagers I thought that they will watch this programme and seeing this on the front page will catch their eye and they may be more likely to buy the magazine.

Throughout my production I kept showing my work to different people, to see how I could improve my work to make it more appealing to my target audience. I found it useful asking people within the age group of my target audience as I wanted to know what would appeal to that specific age group. This helped my work as It meant I could consider changing certain parts of my magazine to make it more appealing and attracting a wider audience.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this productDuring the process of constructing my magazine I have learnt a huge amount on Photoshop. I have learnt how to use certain tools such as the colour sampler tool and the polygonal Lasso tool and I have learnt the basic skills of using Photoshop such as changing the text/font and how to insert images.

I found it difficult changing the colour of certain text at times at sometimes I couldnt find the colour I had previously used or it wouldnt change. Also, it was difficult having to find a certain layer at times because there started getting quit a few so it was hard to find them.

Whilst making my magazine I started to realise how much time it takes to make a media product, as before I wasnt aware of how long it takes how much difficult it actually is.

Colour sample toolPolygonal Lasso Tool

Feedback from my magazineThe colour scheme is very effective for standing out to the audienceGood use of subheadings and contentTry and add more subheadings to fit the crammed convention of pop magazinesMake the image on the front cover larger so it stands out more

2015-03-10T14:42:16+0000com.apple.VoiceMemos (iPhone OS 8.1.3)