Question 7 - Summary and Look Back

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

 My skills have developed a lot since making my preliminary project as I have stated in my other answers I have developed new skills with Photoshop. Over this course I have also learnt many new media key terms related to magazines such as “Masthead”, “dropcap”, “strapline”, “dominant image” and many more. All of this has helped me gain a key understanding in how music magazines use various conventions and how to identify them. For example, the masthead plays an important role in representing the magazine as a certain genre, most pop oriented magazines have big bold mastheads whereas rock magazines like "Kerrang" have their own unique typography. These different conventions instantly communicate to the audience what type of magazine it is.

 Another thing I’ve learnt is how magazines use these conventions to target different audiences. For example, with magazines targeted at teenagers and fans or rock and pop-punk like “Kerrang” has a chaotic look.

As you can see from my preliminary sixth form magazine front cover and my final music magazine cover I have used some of the same conventions and just improved upon them. For example, there are borders with text at the top and bottom, however I decided to have band names instead of a tagline as it suited the magazine better. I still have the coloured bars that come out from the edges like “ON BREXIT” but I have added artist logos to go with it as it helps communicate the genre to the audience. I also added a banner to go behind the title and the dominant image just to make it clearer whereas my preliminary cover didn’t need that. All these conventions showcase what I have learnt throughout this course.

Question 6 - Technologies

What have I learnt from technologies from the process of the construction of this project?

During the process, I used Adobe Photoshop, Blogger, a Nikon camera and basic photo editing software on my laptop. Over this course I have developed my skills with these tools. While creating my preliminary project, I used Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office Word.

 I used tools like cropping and adding effects to the photos on the basic software on my laptop and Word. Through Photoshop I learnt how adjust the settings of my pictures using various tools to give it a professional look, these before and after photo showcase the skills I’ve learnt

 Here are some examples of where I used these tools:

Question 4/5 - Audience

Who would be the target audience your media project?

 The initial target audience for my magazine were men age between 15 and 18 and fans of Rock and Pop-Punk. However, my project’s final outcome is different to how I imagined it ending up as. It hasn’t changed too much but my magazine would certainly appeal to older people in their mid to late 20s due the semi-chaotic, semi-sophisticated look. For example, the fixed lines, shadow effects and arrangement of titles and subtitles gives it a “Professional” look where as other elements like the randomly displayed text and logos, the “trashy” style of text and the “childish” or “crazy” style of photographs gives it a “chaotic” look and would appeal to teenagers as well as adults.

 Another reason why it would appeal to older generations is the fact that I feature older artists such as Brian May and politicians like Donald Trump. Older generations are more likely to read about these topics than some teenagers.  

 In the end my project would still appeal to most men rather than women because it has quite a dark, chaotic look, it features male oriented artists. However, some of the bands featured appeal to girls. My Chemical Romance and Green Day may attract some girls to the magazine.

How did I address my audience?

 I attracted men to my magazine by having bold text, a unique stylised font that suits the genre of magazine. The Red, white and black colour scheme is bold so it stands out, it is also a very popular colour scheme so people are more likely to like it. The title and its banner make it seem more masculine therefore attracting men. It is informally and indirectly addressed to the audience. It never says anything like “you” and most of the text is in capitals making the taglines seem urgent attracting more people to buy it.

 All the artists featured were rock and pop-punk therefore attracting fans of that genre to my magazine, the “Rebel” title font was stylised to suit the genre. The photographs feature the artist holding their guitar, this will attract music fans. The name "Rebel" also gives out a punk feel to it attracting fans of punk and pop-punk. Bowie and Clapton would attract older people and fans of classic rock.

Question 3 - Institutions

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

Bauer Media

Bauer Media is a privately owned, European based publishing company with over 600 magazines and many other digital products and radio stations. They publish three music magazines; “Mojo”, “Q” and “Kerrang”.  “Kerrang” and “Mojo” could possibly be competition for my magazine as they are both aimed at men, are rock genres and “Kerrang” is also aimed at teenagers. However, Bauer would be very good at publishing my magazine “Rebel” publishes similar magazines.

 Their magazines focus mainly on country side topics, fishing, music and bikes and cars. Their music magazines are aimed at young people, both men and women, “Kerrang” certainly targets men more. Most of their radio stations are aimed towards young people, for example “Heart Radio” is very popular among teenagers, this is an important aspect to consider if I  can reach another audience through different medias.

Time Inc

Time Inc is an American media publishing company based in NYC and publishes over 100 different magazines such as “NME”, “Sports Illustrated” and most significantly owning “Time”. Even though they only publish magazines each one is very successful. “NME” is the only music magazine they publish. These are their Entertainment brands, each one focussing on popular culture, and current topics.

 Obviously, their target audiences are not just music fans but people who like sports, fashion, television and movies and culture. The target audiences would differ quite a lot for these, for example “Woman” will appeal to women more than men. They publish a lot of TV related magazines which are generally targeted towards adults of both genders.

Conclusion

 Both companies would be good for distributing my magazine but overall I think Bauer Media would be more suitable for it.

 Time Inc would be good but not as suitable; it only publishes magazines so I couldn’t reach other audiences with it, they only do two music magazines and even NME focuses too much on pop and isn’t a huge magazine compared to Bauer’s Q. Bauer also have “Kerrang” which is similar to “Rebel” so they have very similar target audiences so it would be a smart decision to go with Bauer.

Question 2 - Social Groups

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Main Artist - My magazines featured artist and band are all white which is quite common in rock magazines. Unlike most bands that are featured in real magazines “Full Metal Repertoire” has “Ally C” one of the few female musicians featured in which is unlike rock magazines and more common with pop magazines. They are shown as young millennials showing them to be “silly”, “messy” and “crazy” Holding the guitar as if it was a gun, undone shirts and messy ties all helps give a chaotic look so when the audience sees them they associate the “young person” stereotype to them. This representation of the social group of Musicians is similar to magazines like “Kerrang!” when they feature bands like Green Day and Blink 182 frontman Mark Hoppus looking at the camera immaturely.

Featured Artists – All of the people featured on the magazine are musicians and the magazine mentions Donald Trump. Some are famous names likes Bowie and My Chemical Romance voicing their opinions on relevant issues and quite a lot of musicians are represented stating their political agenda such as Green Day in the Rolling Stone. Some of the lesser known artists like “George Brooks” and “Ben Semmens” are not being represented badly but aren’t being shown as positive either.

 No one featured on the magazine is necessarily represented badly, this is similar to Kerrang where it focuses positively on the artist unlike some like MTV where they would have harsh critiques of the artist and represent them negatively. 

Evaluation - Question 1

Original and Disregarded Photos

These are the original photos that I edited for my final magazine pages

These are the disregarded photos, they didn't make the final cut because of the composition and/or lighting and quality: