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

Title of the Magazine

I opted to incorporate a traditional conventional masthead for my music magazine. The font I decided to use separates my product from other music genres such as pop/hip hop and connotes the area I am focusing on (indie/alternative) which should be identifiable to the reader, my mastheads design is similar to that of NME. The colour I used is blue, this colour is not repeated in the product as I wanted the masthead to be distinguishable from the rest of the magazine. I carefully considered the title of the magazine by asking for audience feedback on what they would like/not like to see. It is short and sweet without being overly long and has a definite ring to it. The line above the masthead was inspired by Q The UKs biggest magazine which I changed to The UKs number one Indie magazine which highlights the genre I am focusing on so the readers can relate to it. The name of my magazine Fleet provides an edgy alternative vibe and helps to follow the conventions of an indie magazine. The size of my masthead offers a difference from the conventions of normal alternative magazines challenging them slightly however I hope to attract audience interest with the use of my unique logo and unusual colour.

Color Layout

my magazine follows the color scheme of grey, yellow, purple and white which is my own interpretation of the House style I had seen used in many conventions of real life media products for example

Kerning's House Style Black, White and Yellow

NMEs House Style Black, White and Red Qs House Style Black, Red, White and Gold

My House style in comparison to Kerrang and NME

Cover Images

It is a recurring theme in many rock/indie magazines to use one central image on the front cover to highlight the main article they are focusing on that week and to attract audience interest. I followed from the likes of Kerrang and Q by using one blown up image for the cover to emphasize the importance of musical influence within the product

I took inspiration from Q magazine by deciding to display a full body image of the main artist in question a long shot makes them appear more realistic and not as if they are a photo shopped face being printed onto a page

Evaluation of Conventions

My magazine challenges traditional conventions by focusing on a less popular sub genre of music and diverting away from the popular areas such as pop and R&B. I found from my audience research that when answering a questionnaire they would be more happy to see a unique genre focused upon rather then stereotypical popular genres we are highly subjected to in the media (i.e. the ones I previously mentioned above) I felt as if my magazine would stand out above others as rather then completely focusing upon popular mainstream artists that are well known, mine alternates and included a mixture of old and new so the audience gets a wide spectrum f different articles to read. Rather then just have a close up of the artists face and upper body (such as in the likes of NME and Kerrang) I wanted mine to portray the full body composition of the artist/s in question I feel the target audience will be able to relate to them more if they can see them as a person and that they are real.

Typical Indie Stereotypes

Some of the immediate, dominant representations the public perceive of the Indie sub culture can be overly negative For Indie Girls - . Bleached blonde short hair, vintage dresses, red lipstick, drug dealing/taking, love for art and photography For Indie Boys - Vintage T-shirts and sunglasses, V neck shirts, plays acoustic guitar, wears makeup (emphasis on eyeliner), Drug taking/dealing, ear piercings (expanders) Not all of these stereotypes generated have any credibility and I believe some of these representations put this sub culture into a negative light. Although the music genre of my music product Fleet may have a negative connotation of indie sub groups to be drug taking and weird I have tried to come across to the public they are not what they are perceived I have achieved this through different visual camera effects

My Perception Of Indie Sub Groups

The image on my magazine connotes social expression and confidence to the audience. The two models are dressed in typical indie clothes with one wearing tie dyed shorts and the other a vintage styled army jacket so they are following traditional conventions of normal indie sub types however both females are dressed classily as opposed to messy and disorganized which is not what the public would normally perceive them as. Both females have the hair kept in a smart style disregarding the idea that all indie women have messy blonde hair. There is also a lack of piercings and drug use/mention of them clearing the perception that these music fans engage in reckless behavior

Who would be the audience for your media product

Target Audience

I aimed my media product at the public who would be around the age of 16 (late teens) to 25 (young adults) and enjoyed indie/alternative music however I wanted the magazine to appeal to as many potential customers as I could possibly attract so the precise age range was not completely set in stone and there could be certain expectations to this rule (for example potentially an older reader above my age range might take interest, this applies vice versa as well) I believed that the connotations and by lines used throughout my product would be most suited to those of the particular age range I described. The age range is aimed directly at the genre of music described as it is most common for students aged between 16-25 that listen to indie culture. The magazine is aimed at both male and females although there is a mjority of female attention I believe this wont effect my product negatively. Females need women to aspire to as role models and men gain benefit from being able to identify an attractive member of the opposite sex so it does adhere to some physical aspects.

Pricing the Magazine

Because my magazine is mostly aimed at students who are likely to be attending college or university (due to the age range of 16-25) I thought it would be appropriate to price the magazine at 2.00 neither too expensive to potentially discoruage people from buying it but no low priced as this would deterimentally effect the profit income of the company. I find this a suitable offer as most students regularly have part time jobs so should be able to afford the product whilst still having enough disposable cash remaining to spend on other necessitites.

What kind of media institution might distribute my media product

What is a Media Institution

A media institution are worldwide or national businesses that regulate and produce media products for the public, examples of which include radio broadcasts/podcasts and music magazines. They are entirely devoted to the sole construction of a product or promotional cause in particular and rarely diverge onto new opportunities. Popular examples of institutions include BBC, ITV and BSB. BSB are known as the Sky competitors to the BBC, the BBC regulate the production, marketing and self distribution of regulators with BSB directly imitating the roles of the BBC therefore putting them into direct competition with them.

My selected Institution

After consideration over all the companies I had on offer to choose from I selected Future Publishing/Bauer Media Group to distribute my finished product to the public media. This institution revolves around specialist publications in the industry, this would be beneficial to my magazine as it is specializing in alternative/indie music, which is a specific genre and therefore is specialist in its music articles. Another positive point about this company is that they are based in a country other then the United Kingdom, so this marketing strategy would allow my publication to be distributed internationally around the globe, this would introduce other countries to the genre of music focused upon and hopefully establish a fan base in these continents and a wider selection of readers. A major concept of my product is to reveal new artists/bands in the alternative genre to the public, there is however other existing markets who are searching for these undiscovered artists. In my audience research it was revealed that 62% of readers searched for undiscovered artist and bands however most found them on company websites such as Youtube which made me realize that I would need to have a feature/article specially designed and relating to these undiscovered artists, whilst still linking to the magazine. I took into consideration distributing and uploading my product to the internet as a media centered platform as it appeared from audience research my readers tended to rely on the information world wide web to find unknown artists, this would be an effective marketing strategy to get the audience redirected from that site to mine to continue their search for new music.

Expansion of my music product

In my opinion I firmly believe my magazine could be distributed and expanded further to the target audience. Firstly I could compose and create a website which includes additional information on articles that were not available in he product, other news such as festivals/gigs and images of the artists in various location shoots. Like many traditional music magazines (such as Kerrang and NME) I could establish a music station under my products name Fleet to distribute the particular genre to the public, a further marketing advantage is if my organization could sponsor a stage at the likes of T in the Park or Leeds festival to promote publicity. This would appeal to my target audience as I am attempting to identify with people who have an interest in the newest technologies, therefore they use them and could easily access my product on the likes of the internet. They would also enjoy attending music festivals to see their favorite artists so would have more disposable cash to spend on merchandise and festival tickets which would create an income for the company.

How did you address your audience

I believe the color scheme I used helped me to attract my target audience of choice. From browsing through traditional indie/alternative magazines during my research stages I discovered many opted for traditional house colors (red,black,white,yellow) and this helped them to identify with the rock/indie sub culture they were aiming at, so when constructing the palette for my cover I incorporated some of their ideas so that the reader would be able to recognize the distinctive style therefore they would know the genre being focused upon. The combination of bright and neutral tones helps everything to stand out therefore it is more noticeable to the wandering eye.

I used a wide range of distinctive cover lines to attract my potential target audience. To do this I took the names of famous artists in the indie/alternative genre (the likes of Lana Del Rey and Muse) This is aimed at my readers because of the musicians choice of music style and is aimed at people who enjoy this type of music. Potentially I believe I addressed my audience through the use of the main cover image. I appealed to them by model costume design, the clothing the artists are wearing is a direct reference to the indie/alternative style that is currently popular within fans of this genre, army jackets, tie dyed clothing and unusual accessory patterns (such as on the tights) is heavy reference to the types of things you would see these people wear so hopefully they can identify with the artists and therefore the concept of this magazine. The artists are also in the desired age range of 16-25 which will allow the audience to see them as role models for their age group.

Here on the content page I used a variety of different colorful images to attract the interest of the reader. There is no male artists featured on this page this has nothing to do with sexist traits (as I struggled to obtain male models) but I hoped both genders could relate to the female images, women could identify with them as it shows that music isnt just a male dominated industry and these could be looked up to as role models whilst for men it provides something attractive to look at. I repeated the use of the same artist from the front cover to maintain continuity throughout the product and to emphasize they are the main attraction. I included information about some of the articles such as previews of what they will entail to entice the audiences attention and encourage them to continue reading the feature.

I repeated the use of the cover masthead inside the contents page to provide a sense of consistency within the product I need to re-emphasise to the audience which magazine brand they are reading so that the articles they read will stick with them so they know which magazine to buy to get more interesting features in the future. Consistency allows the product to flow in rhythm, therefore it does not appear cluttered with many different things and wont be perceived as unorganised and semi professional

Here I have inserted a subscription box, this is a marketing strategy to draw the target audience in if I can intrigue them with potential offers that would seem beneficial to them (such as the likelihood of getting discounts and free promotional merchandise) then this may successfully earn more money for my company by getting the reader to spend more disposable cash.

There are two pull quotes included in the double page spread, I aimed to entice the audience as much as possible here by giving an almost preview of what the artist was saying in the article, the most important quotes were used so the audience would be intrigued to explore what else the artist had to express hopefully encouraging them to read the rest of the spread.

The question and answer format is quite short in appearance with the artists responses not being overly long so as to put the reader off from viewing the article, each scripted answer is of appropriate viewing length being easy on the eyes hopefully this would be enough assurance for my audience to persevere with the rest of the interview.

I repeated the use of the white and yellow background from the front cover onto the spread but ade a slight alteration by switching the position of the yellow with the white, this provides consistency within the product by repeating the colour palette

There are two visually appealing images on the double page spread one is black and white and the other full color. I hoped that the difference in quality of shots would provide a variety in my product therefore it would be interesting to view wouldnt make them lose attention

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

During the construction of my music magazine media product, my knowledge about technologies has improved enormously and they have vastly improved my media product, if I had been without them the outcome of my final presentation would not have been adequate. Whilst in the progress of creating my product I constantly blogged throughout the construction of my magazine so in parts of this evaluation I will be making references to these posts when appropriate.

To construct my media product I used a number of different types of technologies, asides from a apple IMac computer please find below a list of the other softwares that were used during construction Digital Camera Microsoft Office Word

Photoshop Express
Internet Explorer

Digital Camera

This was used to capture the images I desired for my media product and was an excellent help to me. Due to it being digital unlike a traditional camera it could instantly snap a shot of the image I wanted, then I would be given the option to preview the picture I had taken to identify any problem areas I may have encountered and whether I wanted to keep it or delete. If I thought it was appropriate I could keep all the images I had took due to the large capacity of the cameras memory space then view them in a larger size once uploaded to a PC or Mac. By being able to view the images whenever I wanted so I would be able to see whether they are what I envisioned them to appear like, this would allow me to make modifications if I wasnt completely satisfied.

It was my first attempt at using a professional digital camera so I believe I obtained a lot of new skills on how to operate one such as how to adjust the lighting, lens, focus and how to take the image itself. Also I learned how to modify the hue/saturation before taking the image.

Photoshop Express

Photoshop express is an image manipulation software/programme that is available to install on most terrestrial computers devices. It allowed me to edit the image I had taken to suit my preferences and proved extremely influential in producing the images for my product and made things achievable that wouldnt have been previously.

For instance take the image I have distributed on the front cover of my music magazine, I originally had an unwanted background that I did not wish to incorporate on the cover with the image as it would have looked like I had simply copied and pasted my image onto it this would lack professionalism. So I used the magic wand tool to remove the background and smooth out the edges on the image allowing me to achieve the look I wanted.

Internet Explorer

The Internet proved immensely helpful to me whilst constructing my media product, without its influence I would not have been able to do the research task portion of this coursework and also the creation of my blog which allowed me to post inprogress slides of the preparation of my magazine.

Whilst in the research stage of the task the internet was extremely influential as it allowed me to look into the different conventions and forms of magazines in the public eye, it also assisted me whilst I did some basic research about my task before deeply researching professional music magazine products.

The most important aspect of the internet is that it allowed me to document all my research on my blog, this showed it was clear, concise and of a professional mature standard this wouldnt have been able to achieve or supported by images and examples if all this had been constructed in a handwritten form. Documenting things on my blog allowed the examiners to obtain my progress such as the skills and experience I have gained throughout the production stages of making my magazine