How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract my audience most of my efforts went into the front cover.  The cover contains a very bold colour scheme that draws your eye.  Also the sky line is bright yellow and is advertising a competition that is being held in the magazine and this will capture the audiences attention.  I also used artists such as Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, Bring Me The Horizon among others on my cover lines which are artists my target audience would be interested in.  I used Arctic Monkeys as they are super hot right now and they link in with the competition being held as they are one of the headliners for Reading and Leeds this year.  For each of the pages I designed I had a clear and eye-catching colour scheme e.g. front cover is red, contents page is blue and my double page spread is grey.  As with the magazines I analysed they also feature bold and interesting colour schemes which fit the generic conventions and I used these as a source for inspiration.  As I found out with the questionnaire I asked they responded that the most interesting feature to them in a music magazine are band interviews, which are clearly visible on the front cover.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The target audience for my particular music magazine are teenagers aged 16-19 years old, so hence forth that is why I have specifically aimed the magazine at this age demographic.  The models I used are both aged 16-17 years old which helps the audience identify with the magazine better and they are both male and female as the magazine is unisex and appeals to both genders.  Apart from their physical description their clothes also helps them to be identified as being that age and also they can easily be associated as being indie artists.  The genre of music that is featured in the magazine is usually associated with the audience being this age and this will fit the audiences expectations. The price for the magazine is rather cheap and affordable for your common teenager as it is only £2.99 and I carried out a questionnaire to find out this particular piece of information.

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

The preliminary task of making a college magazine has helped a lot as it has been like a rough draft and since then I have made great progress and have become more familiar with the software which has helped me improve.  One of the most useful parts of doing the preliminary task was the feedback I received the teacher which told me both my strengths and weaknesses and where I could improve apon certain aspects.  Another part that has helped was that I wasn’t introduced straight away to the final piece but I could instead practise and hone my skills on this preliminary task.  I got to become used to taking photos and editing them in photoshop as well as being introduced to proegrammes that I have never used before e.g. Scribd, Prezi etc.

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

While producing my music magazine I have learned various techniques while constructing this music magazine which has expanded my knowledge. In the process of constructing my magazine I have learnt various aspects of different technologies.  I have improved my ICT skills, and have been introduced to different websites such as ‘Blogger’, ‘Scribd’ and ‘Prezi’ for the first time.  Firstly using a blog was for me and I love learning and experiencing new things, as it helps me expand my knowledge and brings me new challenges.  Blogger allowed me to make posts and create pages expressing my work in new forms of
media.  Scribd and Prezi are very similar as they are both way to upload specific pieces of work which you embed in Blogger.

Though I was familiar with Photoshop before I have become a lot more confident with this software.  The programme which I have learned the most is Adobe InDesign which I have never used before.  Apart from computer based software I got to use a digital camera and take multiple photos and to make sure that they were all in focus and then manipulate them in both Photoshop and InDesign.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product are people who are interested in music more importantly indie / metal genres.  The age range for this particular magazine are 16-19 year olds mainly male readers.  The audience will chances are not have the largest of budgets and this was the key reason for making the magazine affordable at £2.99 each issue.  Most people in the age demographic of 16-19 year old will have a part time job and this means that it is easily affordable for them to buy.  Also before I finally created the magazine I carried out a questionnaire which proved to be pivotal and gave me evidence for who my target audience would be and what they would want to be featured in a music magazine.

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

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

Hi my name is Alex and I am currently attending City College to study Media AS Level.  I am doing Media because it seemed very appealing and it interested me a great deal.