Looking Back Through Preliminary Tasks: What I've Learnt

Throughout creating my media product there are many things I've learnt in the process. After finishing this product altogether I will go away with more skills than before:

• Learning how to analyse: I spent a lot of time during the planning stage analysing different music magazines for their front covers, contents pages and feature articles. Over that time I became
  
  increasingly better at analysing; starting out with small simple observations of a problems page from a magazine and ending with analysing my own product.
• Photoshop & InDesign: I learnt a lot on how to edit and create; I started out in InDesign doing my own problem page and quickly found difficulty in the program. I already had experience with Photoshop, although by it being a different version than the one I'm used to meant it was difficult to adjust to it anyway.
• Questionnaire: I found out how useful surveys can be in order to create my magazine and make it fantastic with certain things added in that appealed to my target audience (e.g. posters).
• Brand names: I learnt a lot about the connotations of brand names and what they meant and how they presented the magazine. e.g. Kerrang! meaning the sound a guitar makes and the way the lines cross through it represent the rebellious attitude of the magazine which appeals to teenagers. 
• Mood board: I learnt the usefulness of mood boards and how they can help to develop ideas. My mood board really helped me with developing the characters of the band and was visually appealing. It helped me to find aspects of other Alternative Rock artists to include. 

If I could have done something differently, I would have taken more photographs in different locations as I feel my photographs could have been better. I also would have put more consideration into the connotations behind my work as I feel I didn't manage to do that. Overall I'm happy with my finished product.

My Audience and How To Address Them

My target audience for my music magazine is teenage Alternative Rock fans. It has been like this since the beginning of my planning, back to my initial idea of doing an Alternative Rock magazine. I think that my magazine looks like it showcases for a teenage audience, but that doesn't mean that older people cannot have it as well. The look of the pages show a more mature style than I had initially intended, but I still think that my magazine aims towards teenagers.

My finished magazine appeals to my target audience in a number of ways:

• The writing style: the mostly informal type of writing appeals to a younger audience; it's playful and fun and similar to how many teenagers talk.
• Freebies: the free posters endorse the magazine. Teenagers would rather buy a magazine with free posters in it than by the poster separately.
• The artists: my magazine features many different artists and this pulls in readers who are fans of those artist; this also makes it more likely for them to read the rest of the magazine and enjoy other bands so they buy them in future in the magazine.
• Images: using plenty of images helps to attract readers as people often prefer more pictures over text.
• House style: the style of the magazine is also what attracts the reader - the black and white main colours help provide a background for any other colour and that makes it more attractive.

Technology: What I've Learnt From The Process of Constructing My Product

While constructing my magazine, I used two main programs in order to create it: Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign. While I had quite a bit of knowledge pertaining the use of Photoshop already, using InDesign was a whole other thing. Photoshop was quick and easy to adjust to while InDesign was confusing and frustrating. After a while of using it, I came up with a first draft for how my cover would look using the image of a real artist:

After finding how much I liked the design and the font, I recruited some friends in order to be my models for the photographs. Picking the photos out to go in places was trickier than I thought it would be. I edited photos in different ways to practice. 

I also tried out pictures in the designs I'd already prepared for the cover, contents page and feature article. I struggled to find a photo which flattered the feature article, before realising that it was the layout of the feature article that was the problem.

I made a lot of edits of certain pictures in order to see how they changed the magazine style. These were a few tries:

And this is the final photo which I used in the feature article.

Which overall, looked like this:

I learnt a lot concerning how to use InDesign as well as learning more about Photoshop. Making the magazine has helped to improve my editing skills and helped me to figure out the programs.

Product Representation: How My Product Represents Particular Social Groups

In my magazine, my artist represents particular social groups. They represent both male and females in the group. This is positive and important to show the unity of the two genders as they will inspire their fans.

They also represent teenagers themselves; like the majority of their target audience, they too are young and this helps their target audience to relate to them. They have also gone through the same struggles as most teenagers and can relate to them through their music. 

Another particular social group they represent is of course Alternative Rock stars; although this may not be as positive as it could be. The Alternative scene often includes partying and doing drugs and this doesn't reflect well on the band or on their influence on younger people. I feel this is similar to the representation of the social group in real music magazines; although it may not be spoken out-rightly, it is still hinted at, especially through music and such. 

Overall, it is the same social groups that my audience is made up of. Both male and female, teenagers and fans of Alternative Rock music. With this in mind, by the band itself being a part of these social groups it helps to encourage more fans to listen to their music.

Media Institution: What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why?

The reason I am choosing Bauer to publish my magazine is because they offer the right target audience for my music magazine. They already have music magazines such as Q, Kerrang! and MOJO and especially Kerrang! has a similar target audience to my music magazine. Bauer has a publishing turnover of £1.77 Billion which shows how big their market is. Not only do they hold some of the biggest music magazines around at the moment (Q, Kerrang!) they also have a broad variety of other types of magazine which shows the broad target audience they have. 

As mentioned before, Bauer publish music magazines such as Q, Kerrang! and MOJO. Kerrang!, that specialises in Rock Music, is the closest in similarities to my own magazine and the target audience is very similiar. Like my magazine, Kerrang!'s target age audience age range is similiar to mine in that it targets teenagers and young adults, around 16 - 24 years of age. 

On the other hand, IPC Media also offers relevant music magazines such as NME and Uncut. However, both of these magazines are general when it comes to genre - NME features new big time artists and Uncut features timeless music. Neither of these connect well enough to the target audience my magazine is aimed at. IPC Media also produces less variety of magazines than Bauer; this gives Bauer a wider audience. 

Analysing The Finished Product: Feature Article

Analysing The Finished Product: Contents Page

Analysing The Finished Product: Front Cover

APPLAUSE Music Magazine Feature Article

APPLAUSE Music Magazine Contents Page

APPLAUSE Music Magazine Cover