How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

When creating my school magazine and music magazine, I made sure to make them represent the particular social groups that they were aimed at, by using certain techniques.

For my school magazine teachers, pupils and their parents were the social group that my media product was for. Therefore my ideas on my school magazine represents school life because the images used are of students at school and features of the school, such as the bike sheds. I have also used a brick wall for the background of the magazine, this represents school life because it links to the buildings at school. Finally the text which I have used also represents school life, as there is an ‘exclusive’ interview with the headteacher.

For my music magazine I think that young adults aged between 16-20 and people who enjoy RnB and Hip-hop music are my main target audience. Therefore my music magazine represents these particular social group by including people who are involved in the RnB and Hip-hop industr. I think that my music magazine appeals to this age group, for the reason that the stories featured in the magazine are based on what this age group would want to read. There are also cover-lines which relate to music, ‘100 hottest albums of 2008′. Furthermore it relates to readers of music magazines because it covers interviews from music stars and gossip about them as well. I have used two main colours on my front cover for my music magazine - green and purple - in order to represent people who enjoy RnB and Hip-hop. I did this because the colours are subtle, whereas on a magazine aimed at young children they would be more bright and bold, I also thought that the colours suited the genre of an RnB and Hip-hop magazine. I think that the font that I have used is also represents the target audience for this magazine, as it is much more interesting than a plain font and I think that it if it was in a shop it would catch someone's eye.

I think that my music magazine would exclude an audience who like different types of music as this music magazine is just based on one genre of music. It would also exclude another social group who doesn’t like gossip or even music all together, because different people have different likes. For example a male who answered my questionnaire said he would make it more sporty, if he could change it.

Audience Feedback

I created a questionnaire to receive some feedback for my front cover. I asked questions such as ‘what music do you like?’ and ‘would you buy this magazine?’ I handed out my questionnaire to a class of 13-14 year olds. I thought that this age group would not be likely to buy this magazine, however they would give an honest opinion.
I asked ‘would you buy this magazine?’ The majority of people said they would, all the females answered yes as well as two males, and four males said they wouldn't. I would have expected these results, as 13-14 year old boys are unlikely to be interested in reading magazines unlike 13-14 year old girls.

All the people asked, answered that they thought the genre of the magazine was RnB, which is good because that is the genre of it.

They also all thought that the layout was good and the majority of them believed that it looked good because it was all spread out, the images were eye-catching and the headlines were interesting and encouraging as they wanted to read on.

When asked if the colours were appealing all the females said yes and only a few of the males said no. I was surprised by this result because I thought that the colours I used were appealing for both genders. However they are subtle colours and the males may have thought that the purple was too feminine.

The final question which I asked was ‘is there anything you would change’, a lot of people said no, but for those who said yes I got some good feedback. For example someone said that the background was plain and needed more colour, and another person said to have more colours. I agree that the background should be changed, but I was surprised about them wanting more colours to change as I thought that if too many colours were used, it would be too busy. However this age group may be into more bright colours, instead of just two or three colours.

What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

From the process of constructing my media product, I have learnt about new technologies, for example I have learnt how to use the programme, Photoshop, which has taught me more about how to edit pictures, and create the front cover for my music and school magazine.

Photoshop allowed me to edit unwanted objects out of my images because I was able to use the magic wand tool or the lasso tool. I was also able to make my photos look more professional, for example by using the lasso tool I could cut around the models for my central image on my double page feature. This was good because it left a shadow outlining them, which I think is what made it look more professional.

Technology stopped me from using the font that I wanted. I wanted to use a graffiti font so it would go with the theme and attract my chosen target audience, but I was limited to choice. Photoshop also stopped me from keeping to the same colours but I managed to keep the same colours by copying layers.

If I did it again I would find a font which was more like a graffiti text so it could relate to my genre more. I would also rearrange the layout, in order to make more space for strap-lines. Photoshop was quite a hard programme for me to use, although it was useful to have layers so you could place objects behind or in front of other objects. I found it hard to change the format of pictures, as it was not very clear. Also it was not very simple to go from one object straight to another as a lot of clicking was involved.

Research Into Existing Media Products

I approached the task of creating my music magazine front cover and double page feature by first researching other media forms of music magazine covers and double page features.

Firstly I chose two very different covers - Kerrang and Top of the Pops - this was so I could get a good idea of how magazines vary from genre to genre, and how they use different features to attract their target audience. Then I found another magazine that related to the genre that I was going to base my magazine on (R&B), so I could gather thoughts for it.

Kerrang analysis:

• Buzz words 'Special Edition' indicates its very special
• 'Legends' is put over title to stand out
• Title: 'Kerrang' not very clear
• Price is a lot as it is a special edition
• Central image: Direct mode of address, they all look serious, apart from one who has a sarcastic face
• House style: black, white and red colours attractive for older generations
• '25 years' indicates the magazine is for older people
• Main coverline '25 years of Metallica Inside The World's Greatest Metal Band' in capitals, going across the whole page, bold font
• Along the bottom of the cover there are a list of what is inside, like a contents
  

Top Of The Pops analysis:

• 'Exclusive Pics', 'McFly Exclusive' - buzz words
• Top Of The Pops logo is used
• Title: Name of the magazine is at the top, in pink and white - bold and bright
• Central image: Mode of address is direct, although the middle person is in a black leather jacket he is smiling and has 'flashy' hair
• Heart images, indicate the magazine is for girls
• House style: pink, blue, yellow and white colours to attract young girls
• Graphic feature used, arrow with text in, pointing to baby
• Date on the magazine - shows the magazine has a limited date, and implies that there are other editions of the magazines
• Price is expensive, lots of contents in the magazine
• House style: text is big, bold and bright

Vixen - R&B analysis:

• Brown background, with a white glow around central image
• 3 bright, colours used: pink, blue and yellow
• 'Vixen' implies that is a womens magazine
• Masthead/Title simple and is big, stretched along the whole of the top
• No buzz words
• Coverlines informing and encouraging readers to buy it
• Strapline: 'Win a $1000 shopping spree'
• Central image: the only image on the magazine cover, which suggests shes's the main star of the magazine and the attention is bought to her
• Price not shown as it may be expensive because its a special issue
• Barcode
• Mode of address is direct from the central image, as it is the only image on the cover. It is also trying to get the readers attention
• All female celebrity names featured
• 'Beauty and fashion special' implies this edition is for women again
• 'Vibe Vixen' alliteration emphasises the magazine is for women this month

Secondly I chose three double page features and analysed these too in order to get an idea on how to create the look for my feature and what language techniques to use. I compared two different interviews to see the contrast between them as well.

Double page feature analyse - Carlos Santana:

Image:
- Image covers full A4 page with a direct mode of address

- Small smile and holding his necklace and showing it to the camera, suggesting it is something which is important to him

- Image would attract audiences who are fans of Carlos Santana, or audiences who want to find out what is special about his necklace

- Image makes you feel that the story is going to be quite personal, about his life and beliefs

Headline/title/sub-heading:

- There is no headline for this article, but it is part of the subheading

- Tells us what the article is about

- Kept in the same style font, but specific words like "jazz fusion" and "spiritual" are written in bold

- This is to draw in people to read the article

- "Spiritual quest" indicates that it is an article which is going to be about Carlos Santana's "spiritual" life

Vocabularly/language techniques:

- The article opens with a direct speech from Carlos Santana, grabbing the attention of the reader

- Then it goes onto giving a summary of his life as he was growing up

- "Making friends with people, black, Hispanic and white" this is a list of three and illustrates that he had friends with different ethnic backgrounds

- The repitition of "four" is used to emphasise his success, "four years and four albums"

- "Clenching his eyes shut" gives a clear image to what he is doing and implies that he thinks about things before answering straight away

- There are lots of adjectives used to describe Carlos Santana's upbringing "rumbustious border town" these adjectives help create a vivid image

Purpose/audience:

- Inform his fans about his upbringing and tell people how he got to where he is now

- I would read this article, as I enjoy his music and do not know much about him

Comparing a double page spread from 'NME' magazine and 'Top of the Pops' magazine:

Audience (Who? How do you know?)

NME: Fans of rock and Crystal Castles and people interested in rock, because of the words used "murderland". It is also for older adults because there is one image, and a lot of text with big words.

TOTP: Young girls, aged 8-13, this is because it has gossip articles and girls genuinely like to gossip more than boys. The colour and language of the text is aimed at girls.

Images (posed or unposed? What of? Size? Mood created?)

NME: The image is posed for the storyline, as the blood represents "murderland". It is a big image - and the only one - it is also quite violent. The mood created from it is quite disturbing and can be quite shocking to audiences.

TOTP: The main image is posed and is quite big, they are looking at the camera and smiling giving a pleasant mood. There are other smaller images placed around the page, some are posed but others are paparapzi images, which expose what McFly get up to.

Layout (How much of the page is image and how much writing?)
NME: The image takes up a whole page to represent the story. The headline is at the top of the page with the article on. There is a lot of writing, because audiences who are likely to read this are more interested in the interview than seeing loads of images.

TOTP: Alot of images and the titles/subheadings take up alot of the page. There are four sections of text, but they are quite short. The text near McFly's faces are placed next to the person who said it, and are used to let people know what the article is about.

Font (Size? Style?)

NME: The first part of the headline is big and "murderland" is in a different font in order for it to stand out. The rest of the font styles used are simple and not too 'whacky' for the type of audience.

TOTP: The title and subheadings are all bubble writing style, even the normal text is quite young and stylish. The size of the fonts used are big, the title takes up a width of the page, and is quite bold.

Language (Type of words? Language features used?)

NME: At the beginning of the article there is a list of 3 this gives an overview of the article, encouraging readers to read on. Alliteration is used in the subheading too "harsh-but-human" this is used to make things stay in your mind. Swear words are also used making the article quite harsh, and suggests that it is using this language to attract its target audience.

TOTP: It is easy to read as there is very simple language. It is not controversial, it is straight to the point. All text is what the band has said, no opinion from any writers, so it shows its actually them saying it and readers just want know about what McFly say.

Content (What is it about? Why?)
NME: It is about Crystal Castles "dark past", as fans may want to be informed about it, and learn more about them.

TOTP: McFly's background, it aims to inform audiences about there problems and let them know that they are like any other person.

Purpose (How do you know what the purpose is? Why?

NME: The purpose is to inform fans abou their "gruesome" story, and let them know that they can have a dark past like any other normal person.

TOTP:To inform fansmore about McFly "most honest interview ever" this shows that its purpose is to show readers what they are like.

I have noticed that real magazines layouts are all quite similar, as they always have the title of the magazine in the same place and is also usually big. Most real magazines always place their images and the text to go with it, next to each other.
I have also noticed that some real magazines have a crowded layout whereas other magazines do not have a busy layout, depending on the genre of the magazine.
The use of images on real magazines are also all quite similar, for the reason that the central image usually has a direct mode of address, as in general they are the main feature of the magazine, and therefore should be the main attraction.
The central image is always bigger and genuinely centered around the middle. If there are other images on the page I have noticed that they are placed around the central image and are smaller. I have noticed that the mode of address of other images used are both indirect and direct, this is because some magazines use paparazzi shots to catch out celebrities and expose them to the reader; hoping to encourage readers to buy it. However if there are other images which have a direct mode of address then these are likely to be posed shots for an interview in the magazine, these images are also likely to have coverlines by it.
Finally I have also noticed that real magazines stick to having 3 or 4 colours on the front cover. This is for the reason that if a magazine used too many colours then it would not look very appealing. Also the types of colour used depend on the genre, as on magazines for younger people they use light and bright colours and on magazines for older people more subtle colours are used, like red and black.

These existing media products, began to help me start thinking about my own product, because I began to start thinking about what different techniques that I could use in order to make my music magazine appealing and how I could attract my target audience.

The Magazine Industry

In order to help gain a knowledge of the magzine industry I researched the following four magazine companies:

• EMAP
• IPC
• Future
• BBC Worldwide

I researched into these companies, by using the Internet, I searched for general facts about the companies and found out what types of magazines that they publish. The purpose of this task was to help me gain an outlook about the magazine industry, so that it would guide me through the making of my own magazine.

EMAP:
- EMAP is a British media company, HQ in London
- Formed in 1947
- Stands for East Midland Allied Press
- In 2008 Eden Bidco took over the company. They are a multi platform company who owns other media companies, such as CAP and Planet retail.
- Operates major information businesses in fashion, automotive, construction and media
- Published Omega, computer and video games magazines
- They employ different people in lots of different fields

IPC:
- IPC is a leading UK magazine publisher, and is based in London
- Established in 1963
- Stands for Internation Publishing Company
- Owned by Timeline, who are part of Time Warner
- The publisher has over 80 magazines: What's On TV?, Nuts, Now, Pick Me Up, Women
- Almost two in three women and over 45% of men in the UK read an IPC magazine
- They employ over 2200 people

Future:
- Founded in 1985 and is based in Bath
- Specialise in games, films and music magazines - Top 5 magazines: Xbox 360 Official, Total Film, T3, Classic Rock and Official Playstation.
- Aim to inform people who have specific interests
- 100 magazines and over 70 websites
- They are official titles for Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony

BBC Worldwide:
- Partially government funded
- Throughout the world and the Headquarters are in London
- Examples are: Top Gear magazine (published in 30 countries), Good Food, Teletubbies and Radio Times
- RU is linked to BBC programming
- It's the 3rd largest consumer magazine publisher
- Maagazine business is one of 7 departments of BBC worldwide (others are channels and digital media)
- £916 million sales in 2007/08

My Preliminary Task

My first task was to design and create the front cover and contents page for Little Heath School's own magazine. My front cover had to include a photograpgh of a student close up, three further images, some laid out text and a masthead/title.

I approached this task by first looking into the magazine industry, and discovering what types of magazine companies there are. Then I analysed old copies of the front cover of the our school magazine (Heathsonian) and other school magazines as well. I looked at how they were presented, in order to help design my own magazine cover.

'Primary Times' is one of the school magazine covers that I looked at, in order to help create my own school magazine cover. This front cover has three main colours - blue, yellow and pink- these are all bright colours, linking to the the idea that the magazine is about young children. These colours are bright and bold as well, which attracts the attention of the reader. The images used on this front cover are of young children, implying that the magazine is for a primary school and the pupils parents. The image also clearly sets the theme of the magazine, as the children are dressed in halloween costumes, as it is an October half term edition. The cover also includes features of the magazine, to draw the reader in more.

Next I designed four front cover designs on paper.

Then I chose the two best ideas and drew them out bigger.
When designing my school magazine front covers, I focused on the layout of the magazine and how it could attract audiences.

After doing this I moved onto working on Photoshop. First I practised using the programme, in order to get used to using it and to see how it works. Then I took my own photos of students and objects around the school to use on my front cover. When I had taken these photos and loaded them onto the computer I began to create my front cover on Photoshop and then I created my contents page.

As I created my front cover I had a problem using Photoshop, by creating the brick background, as it would go blurry if I stretched it out to fit the page. I resolved this problem by cloning parts of the wall and using that on the places on the page that were empty. Another problem was that when I wanted to cut out unwanted parts of the main image, with magic grow tool it would grow onto the parts of the image I wanted. To resolve this I used the lasso tool which was a lot more helpful and helped made edges of the main image look a lot neater.

My final outcome relates to my draft design slightly. The name of the magazine "L.H.S" and the slogan "The start of a new year" are the same and kept in the same place. I have used the main image that I originally wanted but had to change the position of it as it looked out of place in the middle, and I thought that when I made the wall image the background it looked better with the main image in the bottom left corner. I also did not use a border as it would have been too busy as it had to appeal to pupils as well as their parents.

Analyse: I used the title L.H.S for the name of my magazine, because it stands for Little Heath School. I used the graphic image, of the red star, so it would stand out and attract people to see what it says. I used the buzz word 'exlcusive' so people can see that there is an interview with the new head teacher. 'A Specialist School In Science and Mathematics' is used to represent the school. I used the brick background because when you enter the school you can see this wall with Little Heath School on it. The central image is of two students, I have used it because it shows new 6th form students settling in well and smiling at the camera, in order to make a connection with the reader. I also used the slogan 'The start of a new year...' because I wanted to convince people that this magazine is good as it is a 'new year' and the first edition of the new school term. The three smaller images that I used show some of the things which are featured inside the school magazine. The colours that I used - red and white - represent the school's colour as the school logo is red and white.

I also had to create a contents page for my school magazine, I did not plan the design of my contents page because I did not think that it would be very hard to design and I also already had an idea of what I thought it would look like.

The contents page relates to Little Heath School because the background is of a painting that a student from the school did. I used it for the reason that it represents the school as it is showing the talents of the students there and lets everyone know that the school is proud to show what its student can do.

Technology extended my creative control by being able to cut out only unwanted parts of my images, as in the main image I was able to get rid of the background, and get close up to the edges. However, technology obstructed my creative control, because it was difficult to move objects around as you had to work out what layer the particular objects had to go above.
My ideas specifically represent school life as I included images of students and objects around the school I also used a slogan on the cover "The start of a new year", to represent a new school year and new headteacher for Little Heath School. There is also text in a graphic image saying "interview with Mr Ramsden" which represents school life as he is the new headmaster of the school.

My school magazine relates to existing examples of other school magazines, by having images related to the school, for example I have used images of students from the school as well as features around the school. Furthermore it is also fairly simple - like our school's magazine - and is not too overcrowded with text and images like gossip magazines.

If I could make any changes to my final school magazine I would make it a bit more interesting and eye-cathcing. I would do this so it makes readers want to read the magazine and so more pupils read it, but not make it too busy and overcrowded, as it should still represent the school. I think that the background of the school's wall is a bit too much, and if I could, I would change it to be a lot smaller, and have a different background which isn't as confusing.
The only problem with my contents page is that it may be difficult to read the text as the colour is not very clear due to the colours of the background. Therefore if I did it again I would chose a different background to use so that it was easier to read.