Zoe's blog: March 2011

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

What are the conventions (key ingredients) of music magazines?

The key ingredients in a music magazine are information about your favourite music artists, dates for tours gigs that are coming up. Music magazines should also include latest songs out at that time and reviews on films, singles, albums and video games. A music magazine should only focus on one or two genres of music e.g. rock and metal. Exclusive interviews with your favourite artists or exclusive information is a key ingredient because it shows if you buy this magazine the information you read will be up to date.

What does the front cover have to include?

The front cover has to include a bar code with the price and issue of the magazine. It also needs to include a master head for the title of the magazine. It has to show what is included in the magazine e.g. exclusive interview with Justin Bieber. A picture or pictures should also be included for the front cover to show what is in the issue of that magazine. There might be a link to a website to contact the people who work for the magazine and another way to read information about the magazine.

What is a typical contents page and DPS like?

A typical contents page would have a title saying content with the date and issue number and maybe the title of the magazine. A content page would also have columns which contain the contents with subheadings like ‘features’ and ‘most popular’. There are also pictures which include the page number to show what’s on that page. There is also an editor’s message on a typical content page, maybe with a picture of themselves with an artist they have interviewed or something else work related.

On a typical DPS the two pages are link together maybe with an interview or an article. On one of the pages there is normally a full size picture covering the page with a quote or a heading to full in the reader before they have started reading the actual interview. There is also normally page numbers on a DPS with maybe the title of the magazine at the sides. The font used for the DPS interview or article is mainly really small font about font size 11; this means a lot of information can be fitted in a smaller amount of space. Interviews and articles should be written in columns to make the pages look more organised and professional.

How have you included these conventions in your own mag?

For my front cover I have included a bar code, the price of the magazine, issue number, cover lines which say what is included in the magazine. I have included the master head which is very bright and bold with a top heading. I made sure I used my picture as my background instead of using more than one and making the page look too busy.

I have added an editor’s message onto my contents page with a picture of myself as the editor looking welcoming. I have also used a column for my contents with subheadings like features and music. I have also added pictures with page numbers in my contents page to show what is included in those pages. I have also included the date and issue number with the title of the magazine. I made sure I included a link to the website with a way of contacting the magazine company.

For my DPS I did an interview. I have used a picture to full in one side of the page with a quote from the interview. I cut out the background of the picture to make it look more professional. I have also included page numbers at the side corners with the title of the magazine in each corner. For my subheading I used another quote with a top heading to make the page look professional.

Have you done anything differently?

For my front cover I have included a star shape for the competition price section to make it stand out.

For my content page I have used a more colourful title because I didn’t have a coloured background. I did this on gimp which I don’t use a lot. I have only used one column for my contents.

For my DPS I have cut out the background from my picture. I have added a top heading to say what is included in the DPS. I have added a different background for the questions.

How have you pushed the boundaries of this form?

For my contents page I have used a bigger range of photos. I used gimp to edit the contents title. I have added more information and writing by adding a paragraph for the editor’s message and more contents.

For my DPS I have cut out the background of the picture in gimp so it goes against the blue background. I have also stuck to a colour range and tired not to use too many colours.

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Which social groups have you represented e.g. teenagers?

My magazine is represented for teenagers around 13 – 16. This magazine is also for females. The music genre that I have chosen for my magazine is pop. This magazine is very girly, young and for pop fans.

How have you represented them?

My magazine is for teenage girls around 13 - 16 I have represented them as girly, fun and into pop music. I did this by using bright, girly colours in my pages. I haven’t represented them as typical teenagers. I have represented this magazine for any social type of teenage girl, but it’s mainly for teenage girls who like celeb gossip. The image that I used for my front cover is of a teenage girl, I have edited it so it makes her look more tanned. I have also used a picture for my DPS of another teenage girl with a guitar to show it is music related but still girly. I have used a range of different pictures for my contents page to show a variety. I have also included a picture of myself which I’ve used a welcoming picture of me smiling. The language that I have used is very informal and welcoming for the editors message, I have also made the interview very chatty and friendly. I have defiantly included more writing than pictures but the pictures that have been used are mainly big so they stand out on their own.

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

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

Candy Floss is aimed for young teenage girls around the age of 13 – 16 which means they will still be at school. My magazine is going to be affordable so their parents are going to be mainly working class. My magazine is going to be aimed at any type of social classed group but mainly for girly teenagers who want to know the latest celeb information and gossip. Candy Floss is for girls who like to know the latest information about fashion, celebs, music artists, horoscopes, advice about boys and problems that may occur at school.

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

Which technologies have you used (publisher, coral, paint, gimp, digital camera, MP3 recorder, blog, polls?) and what have you learnt?

I have used paint, digital camera, gimp, polls, dafont.com, blog and publisher. I have learnt how to use gimp and I am now more comfortable using these programmes. I have learnt how to use a website called dafont.com to get different fonts instead of fonts from publisher. I have also learnt how to make pages look more realistic by editing pictures and using better fonts with a different range of fonts. I have also learnt that the more you work on editing and tweaking your front cover or other pages the more realistic and professional they look.

From the audience feedback I have learnt that they liked the colours on my front cover and think they go well together, they also like the picture that is used as the background of the cover. I wasn't sure if the logo for the title was too bright but they didn't mention it and liked it. They said you can tell who the magazine is aimed at but the front cover and colours used. I have taken their advice by adding more writing and changing the font styles.

From the audience feedback I have learnt that they liked how I used a lot of pictures on my contents page to show what is included in my music magazine. They also liked that I included an editor’s message in my magazine with a chatty, informal language. They weren’t sure about the plain background, but liked the colours used and fonts. I added more pictures because it looked too bland.

From the audience feedback I have learnt that they like my blue background which I used for my DPS. They also like how I cut the background out the picture I used for the left hand side of my DPS. Plus you can tell it’s a music magazine because there is a guitar used as a prop in my photograph. They weren’t sure if the title stands out from the rest of the page, but I like the colour that I used so I didn’t change it.