Final Product

Front Cover

Contents Page

Double Page Spread

Evaluation

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

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

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

I believe that the ideal institution to distribute my product would be IPC Media. This institution is hugely successful in the UK and sells approximately 350 million magazines per year. IPC Media is responsible for publishing NME which would be a similar magazine to 'Jam'. 'Jam' is the same price as NME and would be directed at similar people. I believe that 'Jam' would be distributed by IPC Media because it fits in well with the other magazines that they publish in the form of price, style and target audience. 

4. Who would be the audience for your media product? 

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5. How did you attract/address your audience? 

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

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

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

Audience Feedback for Contents and DPS

Here is the transcript from a question answer session with a member of my target audience...

Q. What do you like about the contents page?
A. I like how you have like a collage of pictures as the background, I think that looks nice and it shows the reader like, what's in store in the magazine. I think the 'subscribe now box' is good too.
Q. What could I do to improve?
A. Maybe make the text stand out more like, how you have the word 'Jam' at the top as the actual logo of what was on the front cover, use that within the articles as well.

Q. What is appealing about my double page spread?
A. I think the picture you've chosen of the artist to have as that main picture is appealing to the audience, and I think it's good how the background on the other half of the page matches in with that picture cause it like carries on the brick wall so it keeps it the same.
Q. What could I do to improve?
A. I think the only thing would have been to put like links to twitter or facebook or something in there because then it would have made it more interactive with the readers. And maybe put something else down the left side because it might look a bit bare.

Audience Feedback for Front Cover

Double Page Spread

Developing my double page spread

Contents page

Developing My Contents Page

I will put the text in the middle of the page in the white box. I thought this would be a good idea for the contents page because all the pictures give the reader an idea of what to expect in the magazine. I took all of the pictures, four of them are of my model Tyra, three are from a Katy Perry concert I went to and one is from a Kooks concert I went to.

Front Cover

Here is the finished version of my front cover. 

When I put the title block on there it partly covered Tyra's hair which took away attention from her face so I erased part of the title to make it look like it is behind her head. I took all the pictures used including the one of Katy Perry. 

Editing Cover Photo

This is the original photo that I took of my model Tyra

This is the edited version that I will be using for the front cover

Firstly I cropped the photo to make sure the model was central. I then boosted the colour and increased the contrast to make the colour of her hair and her dress stand out more because in the original they both look quite dull. I also increased the temperature because it was a cold day when I took the pictures and you can sort of tell from the original that it was cold, but in the edited version you can't tell.

Typography

The name of my magazine is 'Jam' because it is a term used a lot by musicians and so it would relate to them straight away. This is the font I will be using for the front page:

This was taken from the band 'The Jam' s original logo. At first I was unsure on whether or not to do this because I thought that maybe people would think it was a magazine all about that particular band. But I spoke to my target audience and most of them didn't even really know who the Jam are, let alone know what their logo looks like. Also, the audience that I am aiming for probably wouldn't know about the Jam because they are not around any more and the genre of my magazine is current rock/pop. I therefore decided that it would be acceptable for me to use the logo. This is the original Jam logo for the band...

The font I will be using for the name of the artist on the front cover is from www.dafont.com and is called 'Sex Pistols'. This is what it looks like when I type in the artists name to this font preview on 'dafont':

I have chosen this font because it quite quirky (like the artist is supposed to be) and stands out. I probably will not keep it black however, I will see how it looks on the page and decide what colour I am going to make it. It will probably be a bright colour to stand out against her dark skin and the black dress that she is wearing in the photo I am using. 

Photos for front cover

These are some photos that I took during the second photo shoot I did that I thought I could use for the front cover. I like all of these photos and didn't know which one to choose for the front cover so I asked my focus group and the outcome was to use one of these ones...

I have chosen to use the one on the left (the one without the graffiti) because I thought the would take away focus from the model and although I could have photoshopped the graffiti out of the picture, I much prefer her facial expression and pose in the other one. She is very slightly smiling whereas in the other one she looks too moody. 

Semantic Fields

The genre of my music magazine is indie rock / pop. Here is a list of words that belong to the semantic field of this genre...

 - pop
 - indie
 - rock
 - techno
 - beat
 - rhythm
 - hot
 - fresh
 - edgy
 - loud

I will use some of these words and other associated language throughout my magazine to create a connection with the readers.

Intertextuality

In my magazine, and in my article, I will use certain references to connect with the reader and also for them to connect with the artist.


The artist...
Favourite food / restaurant: Nandos
Favourite film: School of Rock
Favourite bands / influences: Blondie, The Noisettes, MGMT, Florence & The Machine
Favourite place to be: London
Favourite place to shop: Urban Outfitters and Camden
Other interests: Fashion, film, ice-skating, dancing, traveling, also maybe an interest in tattoos?


To connect with the reader, references to things in popular culture will be made, for example...
Clothing and brands
Urban outfitters
Topshop and Topman
Nike


 

First Photoshoot

Here are a few of the photos that I was pleased with from the photo shoot. I would have to edit these before I was totally satisfied with them, because some of them need cropping, and also I don't like the back ground. So if I was to use any of these, I would cut Tyra out from the photos. I need to do at least one more photo shoot in a different location. 

If I was going to use one of these photos, there is quite a lot I would need to edit before they were useable. I have edited one of the photos a little bit just to show the kind of thing I think I would do with the photos.

As you can see, firstly I cropped the image so that the black bit in the top left corner is gone, and (as I would be cutting her out of the photo anyway if I was going to use it), got rid of the guitar. It may look like I have sharpened the image but I have actually just boosted the colour of it. In my opinion this makes the photo clearer overall. It also makes the bright colours of the dress stand out which makes it eye - catching. 

Flat plans idea for double page spread

Flat plans idea for contents page

Flat plan idea for front cover

Reader Profile

A reader profile is something that is created by the marketing department to show to advertising. It is about their target audience.

Here is the reader profile for my magazine 'JAM'. The two people in the middle are examples of my  target audience, and the pictures around them are all things that they are interested in - this gives potential advertisers an idea of whether or not an advert from their company or brand featured in the magazine would be successful or not. 

Audience Questionnaire

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Target Audience

My target audience is teenagers and young adults, you could probably class quite a lot of the target audience into the 'indie' sub culture but it is a pop/rock magazine so really it would appeal to a very wide audience as far as sub cultures go.
         From my focus group, the average age is seventeen. 50% are male and 50% are female. Common interests are music (obviously), shopping and eating. Looking at my audience profile does provide me with some good information about my target audience but to find out more, I have made this an audience questionnaire. I would ask the questions in the questionnaire to people who fit my target audience and put the results on my reader profile.

Youth sub culture and Music Press history

Youth Subculture

There is no mainstream, there are many 'streams', because culture, especially youth culture is changing all the time and their values and beliefs are always changing. Cultures can be created on the basis of lots of different things, the most common are music, class, and beliefs about / views on life. 

Music Press History

For a magazine to be classed as a music magazine, not everything included in it HAS to be music related. For example, politics, philosophy ... obviously the articles would still be in some way relevant to the magazine but they wouldn't just be focused on analysing the music or the artist. 

History of the UK Music Press

History of uk music press

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Prezi on Generic Research

Generic Research on Prezi

Youth Subcultures

Definition: a youth based group with distinct styles, behaviours and interests.

The are loads of different subcultures 1960's there were mods, rockers and hippies, and today there are still loads of subcultures such as punks, emos, ravers ect. The study of subcultures consists of the symbolism attached to music, clothing ect. Certain subcultures listen to certain types of music and prefer certain bands. This can sometimes cause opposition between the subcultures.

Record Industry in Crisis

• album sales dropped for 6th year running in 2010
• HMV announced that that it was closing 60 UK stores in twelve months after Christmas sales were down 10%
• growing numbers of illegal downloads and putting music industry under strain
• 76% of the total number of tracks were illegally downloaded in 2010

Analysis of Contents Page

Contents Page

Analysis of Front Cover

Front Cover

Photo for Front Cover

This is the photo that I am going to use for my front cover. I will crop the photo before I use it so that Bethany is more centred and to make sure it is a medium close up. I have chosen this photo because the magazine is an Autumn term edition, and the sunlight and colour scheme reflect this quite nicely. She is smiling and holding school folders which implies that she is happy to be there. Also I think the setting is nice, in front of the school and all the green in the background fits in with the SHSG colours.

Flat Plan of Contents Page

Flat plan of Front Cover

Here is the flat plan for my front cover. I have decided to call my front cover 'Get Smart' because it 'rolls of the tongue' easily and makes the overall tone of the magazine more fun and fresh than 'Achieve'. I will put the website on the front cover, quite near the top, so students can access extra school information easily. I plan to feature an article about the School Birthday on the front cover because that is coming up soon so I think that will be appropriate for an 'Autumn Term' edition of this magazine. 

Practice Typography

I am not sure yet whether my magazine will be called 'Achieve' or 'Get Smart'. I think Achieve is a good name for it because it would be an encouraging title. I also like Get Smart because it is catchy and fits in nicely with the idea of a student who has just started sixth form, especially one from another school. I like the idea of the Masthead looking like handwriting because the student will be able to associate with it, and it will give the whole magazine more a casual feel and connect it with the reader more. 

Analysis of Sixth Form Magazine

What I learned 20/09/2011

Signs and Semiotics 
Everything we see is a sign and carries a meaning. A sign is exactly what you see (denotation) and the semiotic is what that sign implies or represents (connotation). For example, a skull and crossbones. The sign is skull and crossbones, and the semiotic could be danger, pirates, death ect. It all depends on the individual and the different ways in which they interpret things. - polysemic

Audience
There is a primary and secondary audience in all aspects of media. The target audience is the primary audience, and the other people that may watch / consume that certain part of media. For example, the primary audience of a health and beauty magazine would be women, but there might be some men who would want to read it too, which is the secondary audience.

Hybrids and Parodies
Every genre has its own specific conventions (ingredients), however sometimes there are a combination of two genres to make a hybrid. A popular example of a hybrid genre is horror and comedy. This has been carried on over the years and now there are the quite well known 'Scary Movies' - these types of films are known as parody films because they are taking the mickey out of other films and putting them into one to make a comedy. Other examples of film parodies are 'epic movie' 'disaster movie' and 'vampires suck'.

Micro and Macro
Within films, there are micro elements, which are very small details in the mise en scene. All of these small details add up to make the macro, and this give the overall feel of the film or television program a more authentic feel .. for example, the program 'Mad Men' is set in the 1950's, so the directors sourced lots of things that genuinely were from the 1950's such as costumes, furniture, even really small details like the fact that everybody used to smoke. All of this adds up to make an overall effect - the macro element.

Editing Photos

This is the original photo that I chose to edit. I chose this one because it has good depth of field (the two girls are in focus and the trees and other girl in the back ground is quite blurry), this has a good effect because it brings out the girls and makes them more clear. When editing this photo I firstly sharpened it to make sure that it was totally clear. I then increased the temperature to firstly make it look like it was a really nice day when the photo was taken, and also to give the photo a warmer feel.

The next photo I chose to edit was this one of Emily, I chose this one because I thought it was originally a really nice, flattering picture and so I wanted to see how I could improve it. I turned the photo black and white to make it look more professional, and then I boosted the colour so that it didn't look as dark or boring.