In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My magazine uses the conventions of real media products, as it is clear to see when it is compared with this real magazine of a similar genre. The image I have used is very similar to the image used by “College” magazine; the models both have the same “fresh-faced” student look about them, and both appear to be around the same age. The costume worn by the models on both magazines are similar in that they are casual, and fit the genre of student magazine. The shots are both of a medium close up, and the pose of both models is similar; they are both facing straight at the camera, not looking up at it or down, signifying that the model is on a level with the audience, and is neither superior or inferior. This, combined with the casual costumes of the models, gives the audience the impression that the magazine is friendly, familiar and relatable. The use of lighting on the “College” magazine is more natural as it is taken outside, which gives the magazine more of sports edge to it, also the impression given by football style T-shirt worn by the model. The plain background, indoor lighting, and the file used as a prop on my magazine generally connotes more college-related and educational content, although the sell lines don’t necessarily give this impression. The page layout of both magazine covers is similar, although the image on my cover is more positioned to the right hand side of the page, therefore most of the text is positioned to the left hand side. In both cases the title of the magazine is the largest text and positioned at the top of the page where it is most noticeable. The colour of the font used for the “College” magazine relates with the colour of the models top, with the red colour contrasting with the green background. This looks very bold and effective, and makes the magazine seem very gender neutral despite the female model. I used a fairly light purple colour for my cover as this is immediately recognisable with this particular college, and I used black text for the sell lines. I was aware of the fact that, along with the female model, the purple title could give more of a feminine impression of the magazine, which led to the decision to use black text throughout the rest of the page, also using the green banner across the bottom to attempt to bring across more of a gender neutral impression. The colour of the top worn by my model is fairly contrasting with the white background, also contrasting with the blue file, and I believe that the colour of the top gives the cover more of a “grungy”/alternative impression, contrasting with the preppy image used by “College” magazine. My magazine features a banner across the bottom with one of the sell lines; I think this looks effective as, along with creating a more gender neutral theme, it adds more content to the cover, and the colour theme also adds more colour. The green background and yellow text of this banner relates to the content of the sell line; if someone was to glance at the magazine cover, the colours used here immediately connote festivals and outdoors, which immediately strikes interest from the audience of students. The font I decided to use throughout my magazine cover and also the contents page, Varsity, is very bold, and I believe it suits the genre of the magazine very well. I believe all of my sell lines would be very appealing to students, both male and female; the ‘College Survival Guide’ feature is relevant to the college and the new students joining, ‘Summer Gossip’ is appealing as it is a chance for students to catch-up on topics they feel are important that they may have not heard throughout the summer, and the ‘Festival Reviews’ feature would be very appealing as festivals are annual summer events extremely popular with students.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I have represented the student body by using a student as the model as fellow students can relate to their peers, and I have also included content that I know appeals to students. This is important as it makes the audience feel as though they can relate to the magazine and that it is at the same level as them. My initial aim for my magazine was to make it appealing and accessible to most different social groups within students, but I found that it was difficult to decide on fonts, colour themes, images, costumes, sell lines, content etc that would appeal to all of these different groups. My magazine doesn’t appear to be directly aimed at any one particular stereotypical group, although I think it is more appealing to more alternative social groups. The aspects I believe signify this are the model and costume, and also the content. The fairly dark, grungy colours of the top signifies more of an indie ‘vibe’ about the magazine in general, along with the dark font colours, and more importantly, the ‘Festival Reviews’ sell line. Festivals are generally associated with the more alternative scene amongst students, and I believe that this sell line particularly would appeal to these social groups.
My magazine isn’t particularly based around the educational aspect of college, it is more based on the social aspect, offering advice, tips and entertainment, which is important as the opportunity to escape busy schedules would appeal to students. Despite this, the career pages listed in the contents page and also the use of the file as a prop in the cover image, challenges the idea that students are lazy and don’t care about their future. The way I have encoded the model aims to give a casual impression; the audience wants to read about something they can relate to, and by giving off a casual message in the encoding of the model, this will automatically have appeal. The costume, make-up, facial expression is very laid back and understated, reinforcing the casual image of the magazine, and reflecting the general familiarity and friendliness of the average QE student.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Who would be the audience for your media product?
This collage shows an example of who would be the audience of my magazine. It contains images of the type of fashion that would interest my target audience, shops such as Topshop and H&M. It also contains images from Leeds and Reading festival and festival crowds, showing that my target audience are interested in that type of event, and also features images from the programme Skins, as not only is this a TV show that would interest my audience, but also the characters are students and the type of people my magazine is aimed at. I have also included images of Florence and the Machine and Kings of Leon, an example of the type of bands that would appeal to my audience.
How did you attract/address your audience?
Knowing who my target audience is definitely made the process of designing a magazine cover and contents page a lot easier, as I was able to decide on colours, fonts, images, content, language, costume and props based upon what would appeal to this audience. I used a model and costume that fit with the social group I wanted to aim my magazine at, I also used a bold font and fairly dark colours for the text due to the target audience, and I used content that I knew would appeal to this audience specifically, for example, ‘College survival guide’, as they are students, and also ‘Festival reviews’, as this is something I know appeals to my target audience in particular. The language I used for my sell lines and throughout the contents page is informal and laidback, as the content itself is informal and fun. This would appeal to the audience because it signifies that the magazine itself is informal, laidback, and fun, which is what the target audience want. After asking for opinions on my cover and contents page from an audience very similar to my target audience, I found that the general opinion was that they wanted to see more colour and images on the contents page. Including more images was part of my original flat plan, but due to time constraints it was more sensible to use one image. If more time was available I would definitely attempt to include more images in different locations using different models. Another suggestion was that, due to the audience of alternative/indie audience, I could have included more content suited to this audience, for example a gig guide. Other than that, the audience liked the image and the look of the model, and particularly the ‘Festival Reviews’ feature.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt a lot about all the different new technologies I have used throughout the process of creating my magazine cover and contents page. Most of the programmes and equipment I used was new to me, such as InDesign, blogger, the apple macs, the cameras and photography equipment, but I found that the more I used them they were fairly easy to understand. I found that learning to use the photography equipment was most beneficial because it results in very good quality images which overall made the magazine appear very professional. Photoshop and InDesign were extremely useful in making sure that the text was aligned at the sides which definitely benefitted the finished product as that also made it appear much more professional.
