All magazines, whether music, fashion or lifestyle, all follow the same rules, they can either be

monthly 'glossies' or cheaper weekly magazines. They have an image,

colour scheme and name that all fit the content and the target audience.

Most magazines have a title and a slogan, these create a brand

image make it instantly recognisable for the audience.

There is normally one main cover star either in a close up or

medium shot. The leading caption dominates the page and usually links to the cover star.

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

Most magazines use direct address, not many magazines use indirect address as

it is less conventional. Most writing in magazines is friendly and informal.

Magazines normally include celebrities or starts that are admired and

aspirational, the main aim of this is to sell the magazine.

Contents pages should be bright and colourful to entice the reader, on these pages image dominates text so images

are used with page numbers to direct the reader. 

The magazines cover price doesn't pay for the magazine to be published. Therefore the

magazine has to appeal to its audience and sell well to make profit, the magazine will

charge for advertising space.

The main advertisement of the magazine is the front cover, because this represents the

whole of the magazine, they should be bright, interesting and eye catching, the colours used should reflect the genre of

music and the target audience.

Feature articles in magazines are normally a double page spread

(if not more). They include headlines and subheadings to

explain the story. Most artists will not appear in a magazine unless

they have something to sell. There is normally one large

image with several others spread out across the pages. Some

music magazines use slang and swear words as these may be

relevant to the music genre and may appeal to the target

audience. Many articles use text grabs these are usually

controversial, funny or rude. 

Unique Selling Point

I decided to create a magazine for young girls (11-14 year olds). I made my magazine stand out form other magazines for this age group by adding elements of fashion and 'gossip'. I used bright eye catching colours and large fonts to make it easy for a younger audience to read. My magazine will be a weekly glossy yet

for a younger audience, it will be priced at under a pound, as I felt this will draw in the target audience more and attract them to reading the magazine, as many of

them may receive pocket money from parents and may not be able/ want to spend all of this on an expensive magazine. The tone of the magazine will be

informal as this will help the reader connect. If I use these techniques this will help me create a 'house style' and make it more appealing to the reader.

Both magazine’s have a shot of the featured ‘celebrity’ on the front page. On my magazine the shot is a medium long

shot, and on the professional Sugar magazine the shot is a close up. Both of these types of shots are conventional to

the magazine genre. However, even though both covers feature a slogan about

the cover star, on the Sugar magazine cover, this is not the leading caption.

These magazine’s are both made for a similar age group

and target audience, this is why both have a very girly

colour scheme and name for the

magazine. Both magazines have

used direct address, which is also very

conventional.

As the main advertiser for the magazine is the

front cover it needs to be

colourful and eye catching, both of these covers fulfil that requirement

Both of these magazine feature articles spread across two or more pages, this is very conventional for

the magazine genre.

Each of the text contains ‘text grabs’ these quotes from

the article that are made

bigger to break up the columns

Each article uses a pastel colour theme to link and attract their target

audience.

Both articles include images, the text has been ‘text wrapped’ around

these images to make the article look more pleasing

My target audience is young teenage girls aged between 11 and 14. The

magazine features a mixture of music and

fashion as I think the age group find this more

appealing.

The magazine is brightly coloured and

the fonts on each page are easy to read, this is

due to the fact my target audience are of that of quite a young

age

I have used the stereotypes of young pre teen girls as I feel

this would be more effective when it

comes down to sales of the magazine

The colours used throughout the magazine are quite girly and are bright and eye-catching, to draw the reader in and make them want to buy and read the

magazine

How does your product represent a particular social group?

Many social groups are often portrayed through stereotypes in the media. These stereotypes are often the media re-presenting something to us that we are

supposed to feel is “normal”

I feel my magazine appeals to the stereotype of young teenage girls. These are normally represented in the media as having bubbly personalities, lots of

confidence, and as someone who enjoys playing with their friends and doing “girly” things such as dressing up, and experimenting with make up.

The social groups these type of ‘characters’

represent are, “teen female pop stars”

To create my ‘celebrity’ I used images of real celebs to help me. These celebs play up to typical

stereotypes such as, girly girls, fun loving, confident and bubbly, this is the side of Jessica’s personality I wanted to show. To do this I dressed

her in brightly coloured clothes and used soft lighting. Just as the images of Pixie Lott do below

Many young girls look up to celebrities as a form of inspiration. This is

why I have used an older model, than those of the age group of my target audience, to be on the

front cover of my magazine.

The model on the front cover, “Jessica”, looks very glamorous on the

front cover and on every page of the

magazine. This helps persuade the reader to buy the magazine as it may make them feel as

if, if they buy the magazine they can

look like her.

Jessica is wearing bright, trendy, fashionable

clothes. Although she is older than the girls of

my target audience they will still feel as if they can look like her and dress like her as she isn't too much older.

Jessica’s facial expression and body

language suggest that she is just a normal girl having fun, which helps the reader warm to her and makes her seem

down to earth and “normal”.

The institution that I would like to use to distribute my music

magazine is IPC. After carrying out research about different distributors I decided on this

company as I feel they relate to the type of magazine that I wish

to publish.

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

They publish lots of popular magazines from a variety of genres, including weekly and monthly magazines for

both males and females. Although they only publish one music magazine (NME) I feel there is a gap in their market for

a magazine like the one I want to make. All of the magazines they

publish are priced between £4.80 - SuperYacht World and 49p - TV Easy,

this shows that they publish for all types of people. 

After carrying out my questionnaire I have discovered that most young girls receive weekly pocket money but don't wish to spend this on expensive

magazines, therefore I am going to price my magazine at below £2 as many of the girls I asked the questions to said that they don't want to spend anymore

than £2 on a magazine.

Lots of them also prefer to read

articles, I found this surprising as I

thought many of them would prefer to look at the pictures

rather than read magazines.

The final question on my questionnaire was asking about if the young girls would prefer a music magazine or a

fashion magazine or a mixed magazine. The most common reply was a mixed magazine, this means that my feature article can contain questions on music and

fashion to the cover star.

Below are some of the questions I included in my questionnaire

1) How old are you ?  8                      9                      10                    11                    12                    13

2) Do you receive weekly pocket money ?Yes                   No

3) How much pocket money do you receive ?£1-£2               £2-£3               £3-£4               £4-£5   £5 or above

Who would be the audience for your media product ?

The readers of my magazine will be a young teenage girls aged between 11-14. She will be

the girl within her peer group that will know the latest news on her favourite bands and artists

and she will filter this information through to her friends. Her friends look to her for music and

fashion advice, as they know she is clued up on both topics.

She will receive weekly pocket money from her parents and this determines how much she

spends on clothes, magazines and music. She will not only read the magazine for the latest music

and fashion gossip but she will also use the internet to check out new songs and listen to her

favourites.

She will be a typical girly girl who loves bright

colours and her favourite genre of music is pop, however she also likes dance music and some RnB. She enjoys school and loves reading my

magazine with her friends at lunch and break times.

By using GRASS and other theories I have identified my audience…

Gender – female

Race – mainly white british

Age – 11-14

Socio-economic Status – depends on parents income (C1-D)

The young people who will be interested in my magazine will more than likely be “mainstreamers” and be people who seek security in conforming and tend to buy

well known brand names.

Although there are magazines already on the market for this audience I feel there is a gap in the market for a music, fashion and gossip magazine. Most of the young

girls will receive pocket money and will spend this on magazines, I feel they will be more attracted to buy my magazine than any other as it has a range of genres and

does not just stick to one specifically.

Demographic and Psychographic profiling

How did you attract/address your audience ?

I used direct address on my front page to attract

the reader and make them feel as if the artist

on the front cover is looking into their eyes

and making them want to buy and read the

magazine

The bright colours and variety of fonts help

create a house style for my magazine, they also help reflect my target audience as these are

colours they will be interested in

The multiple captions help attract the

reader as it lets them know that the

magazine is ‘jam-packed’ with things for them to look at

and read

The strap line across the bottom of the

front cover resembles a border and helps highlight the main features in

the magazine

The fact that I have told the audience there are, exclusives and free posters inside the magazine help attract them, as do the

features in the magazine described on the front cover

I have split up the contents page into

boxes as this makes it easier for

the reader to understand and navigate around the magazine

The repetition of the magazine

logo, helps create a house style and

reminds the reader of which

magazine they are reading

The informality of the language used helps attract the

reader as it shows that the same type of language will be used throughout

the whole magazine

I have used more than one image, and a text grab to show

variety and to link to articles

The text grab has been taken from the article to inform the

reader about the type and style of interview

The text grab also makes the artist seem down to earth

therefore making the reader feel as if she is similar to

them

The magazine

logo is repeated

again for the reader to familiarise

with

The three column layout is

very conventional

to the magazine

genre

The layout of question

answer helps make the

article easier for the

audience to read and

grasp

The language used in the article is very informal and this helps attract the audience, “sometimes I feel like I could just do with a girly night in and a Chinese takeaway!!!” because it is easy to

read and the questions asked are of the type a typical fan would ask. Therefore it is getting the information that the fans want to

know

The lighting and style of pictures are

very naturalistic

and her facial

expressions make her seem very

friendly

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

To create my magazine I used a number of technologies. For each part of the project I have had to learn how to use different programs, software

and devices

Before starting my project I had to complete a preliminary task, this involved creating a

front cover for what would be a college magazine. Looking back at this and at my finished project I can see how the more

frequently I used the software the better my technique became and the better my work

looked.

Technologies used: Digital camera, Photoshop and InDesign

To keep track of my progress I used the website, www.blogger.com. On here I could post my work and it helped me keep up to

date. I feel this is a much easier way to keep work organised as I could look back onto my

blog and check what I had done and what needed to be done next.

As part of my research I used the internet a lot. This was really helpful as I had no limits

as to what to search for and what I could find. But, I found that sometimes the

information I found was not always reliable and accurate so this was a small issue.

To take the photographs for my magazine I used a quite high tech camera, which was very easy to use. After taking the pictures I had to edit them so that they fit onto the pages, and that they matched the mock up. To do this I used Photoshop,

this program was really useful in the helping of this process as it is easy to use and helped me get the exact result I wanted. I wanted my photographs to look as

if they were for a fashion magazine and with the help of cropping and cutting them out, and rubbing out parts that weren't needed I feel I achieved this look. As I used the program more it became a lot easier to use however this was the most

lengthy part of producing my product as it took time to make changes to the photos.

To actually create the magazine front cover, contents page, and feature article the main program that I used was InDesign. Like Photoshop I found this program useful and easy to use. It helped me make my pages look professional and give

them the finish that they needed. I didn’t find any problems with this software as I wanted to keep my magazine simple yet colourful and eye-catching and I feel this program helped me fulfil this. I found the rubber tool very useful as it helped me create an airbrushed effect on the image which made it look more authentic and

professional.

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

There is a very noticeable difference between the two of my products.

When creating my final piece I had obviously had more practice on all of the programmes so this was a major advantage to this piece looking better. I spent a

much longer period of time working on my final piece, I spent a lot longer planning and researching for my finished product, whereas with my preliminary

task I created it in a matter of a few hours.

The colour scheme on my preliminary task is very basic and not very eye

catching at all

Unlike my finished product there are only two colours

used and two fonts, this makes the

magazine look boring and not very

appealing at allThere is only one image on the front cover of my preliminary task this makes it boring and the reader would not be as

interested because they may think that the magazine is very

text heavy

My finished product has many colours on the front cover and is very eye catching and appealing

I have used a variety of fonts and to make the cover a lot

more exciting

The number of articles indicates that the magazine is fun and exciting and enjoyable to

read

Conclusion

Overall I am very pleased with my finished piece. I feel that it looks professional and authentic.

When carrying out the preliminary task I struggled to get to grips with the software and the technologies I was going to be using, sometimes I got

frustrated because I expected it to be a lot easier at first. After using the software more and familiarising myself with it I found it a lot easier to use, once

I had grasped the basics it was much more simple. I think the fact that I completed the preliminary task so quickly, was another reason why I struggled

and felt frustrated.

After doing some research on other magazines of a similar genre to the one I wanted to create, I found that they all had a specific house style which helped the audience familiarise and relate to. To create my own house style I used a

similar colour scheme on all of the pages and repeated the logo to help create a brand image. The colours also reflect my target audience and the type of people I want my magazine to appeal to. The direct address on each of the pictures on my front cover draws the reader in and gains their attention, thus helping sales

of the magazine. I am also pleased with both my contents page and my feature article. Both of the colours used on each page link back to my front cover. The style of

journalism used in my article is informal and friendly which I feel makes it seem professional.