Who would be the audience for your media product and how did you attract/adress your audience?

For my media product my audience is folky/acoustic/alternative males and females. The type of person who would read my magazine is a Radical, who persieves themself to be different from the trend. A Radical would read my magazine, as acoustic music targets a niche audience and not a global one. Achievers could also read my magazine as I could offer instrumental techniques which they would like and find interesting as they are always looking for the next challenge They may be persieved to be radicals as they view themselves differently to the norm, in both their image and music taste. But aswell as Radicals and Achievers, Materialists and Post-Modernists could also read my magazine. This is because Materialists want to have something now and this could apply to musicians who want to develop their music playing or musical interests. Post-Modernists may read my magazine because they want to be and to have, and again just as with Materialists they may want to develop their musical knowledge.
The type of people who I think would read my magazine are people like in the photograph below.They dress with a bohemian style, which gives them an individual look, which also links in with their music taste. They are radicals as they they do not follow fashions or trends and are unique. They could also be carers to, as through out the magazine the artists they like are photographed around nature and they have natural props included in the picture.
The people I am trying to target don't neccisarily have to be musicians, they could jsut simply enjoy listening to folk music but I havine included pesific features which would appeal to musicians, such as T.A.B.

Acoustic music is played and listened to people of all ages. There are artists playing this style of music ranging from the young ages of 16 to the older ages of late 50's and onwards.



In the planning process I showed my idea's to my potential target audience to get feed back off them and see what features they liked and disliked about my magazine. Now that my product is finished I have shown it to my target audience to see what they make of it.




I felt that I was successful in attracting my target audience as when I showed my acoustic/folk magazine to a sample of them I recieved positive feed back and positive comments on how I had included certain features in my magazine and produced a product suitable for my target audience. All features of my photography which I had carefully conisderd were mentioned and noticted and pulled out as features that make me genre noticable and stand out to my target audience. I got the impression that my model I had chosen to use as my main feature artist and main sell on my front cover, and the way I clothed her and took the photo appealed to the sample of my target audience. Also my choice of font through out the magazine worked well and the 'celtic' feel really made my genre stand out and made it clear to the readers what style of music magazine it is.
Regarding preferred reading I feel that my audience understood clearly what I was trying to achieve and read into everything I had done in the correct way so therefor there was no aberrant reading of my text. I had no rejections on how I had made features in my magazine, so no oppositional reading was present in my magazine.
My mode of dress was very 'natural' and simple, using features which were clear to indicate the genre of my magazine, and which I felt would appeal to my target audience.

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

Before I could set about creating my magazine I had do some planning and preparation. This was vital in order to successfully create a proffesional product. It was important to have a set genre in mind for my magazine so as I could then undertake my audience research, and research into existing magazine's in my chosen genre, to see what features they choose and how I could use these forms and conventions as well as challenge them, in order to create a magazine suitable for my chosen genre and audience. Without doing research I could not find out what I needed to include and most importantly who I was aiming my magazine at and how I could go about targeting them successfully. In my preliminary task I only carried out a small bit of audience research and didn't really look into it as much as ai should have. My magazine didn't look as proffesional as my magazine now does. I feel that this is because I carried out extensive research into audiences and existing magazines and there for had alot more knowledge of what I was aiming to do and could carry out and complete the task alot better.
As well as the audience research and initial planning I also had to draft out my magazine and try out different fonts and layouts, colours and images. It was important to be creative whilst doing this and closely consider what my target audience is looking for in a magazine. So drafting is essential in order to reach a final product the audience could clearly see was off a chosen genre.
The planning of time and organisation was extremely important in this task as there's lots to underatake, such as the research into existing products and researching audience's, drawing up audience profiles and then the actual planning of the magazine. With out planning out the time and making sure you know what your going to do and when your magazine can not look proffesional and you can not aim the best you can to your target audience and explore deeply if you have to rush the end product, or the actual planning its self. You have to look into the conventions of the magazine its self and see how and what existing media products do in order to attract their audience. On the front cover it is important to have a catchy and appropriate mast head and make sure that your main sell draws in the readers eye and that the cover doesn't look messy. The contents page has to be set out correctly, as done in existing magazine's. Using collumns and photo's and the use of fonts and colours has to be expored.
Photographic skills are highly important in this task and it is essential that you caputure photo's which represent your chosen genre. You have to research into existing magazines and see how they use photographic skills to appeal to their audience. When taking photo's you have to consider the following .. Framing, lighting, costume, backgrounds. The photo's you include in your magazine tell the reader alot about the magazine they are reading. So getting these factore right is crucial to the success of your magazine. In my preliminary task I didn't really use the camera's to the best of their ability or explore what they could achieve and took your basic/standard photograph. There for the photo's I included didn't look proffesional and brought the whole magazine's standard down. In my real task I made sure I developed the skills I had already learnt in order to capture more arty and proffesional looking photographs.
Since the preliminary task I have developed my skills in both Photoshop and QuarkXpress. These two pieces of software are what can (if used to theire full extent) make your magazine look proffesional. I have extended my knowledge and explored more into what they offer and what can be achieved when using them.
The biggest thing I have learnt from this project is that its not what you think looks good on a magazine when creating it and that you have to consider more than what you think about genre's when producing a magazine. You must always reffer back to audience research andprofiles and make sure that you are creating a magazine which appeals to them and not jsut what you think looks good whilst in the procces of making it.

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

Through out the making of my magazine I have had to use various pieces of software and technologies.

I created my front cover using Adobe Photoshop which is quite a complex piece of software and one which took a fair bit of getting use to as there's lots which can be achieved through using Photoshop.

The basics you can achieve in Photoshop are cropping and editing images, layering and putting text onto the page and picture.

But as well as the basics, Photoshop offers a wide and extensive range of effects that you can apply to your work, which means that amateurs can produce material that looks professional. There are various tools you can use such as opacity levels, where the image is faded. I used this tool in my magazine on the double page spread, on the picture below.

The original picture

Picture with a lower opacity.

As well as the opacity there are tools to edited colours, fonts, shadows and other editing skills.

With these tools I have been able to create a magazine front cover which looks professional. I have been able to add pictures and texts and trial out fonts easily using this technology and without the use of this I would have to cut out images, draw out fonts and then stick them on paper, where the over all finished product wouldn't look as professional or neat. So thanks to the technologies available to us now I have been able to explore a lot more and develop my idea's for my magazine and make these idea's real and include them.

Whilst making my magazine I was able to keep construction logs, which are blogs showing my progress through out the task. I was able to take screen shots of my work in progress to show the examiner how I was going about creating my magazine and is also a good way of showing my idea's for colour schemes and fonts and photo's, instead of writing out what I am doing.

For my contents page and double page spread I used a piece of software called QuarkXPress.

This is a piece of software specifically used in the media and is ideal for creating contents pages and double page spreads in magazines. This is because it has guidelines which you pull out from the side so you can draw up rough plans and idea's of how you page is going to be laid out.

This is a screen shot of the basics which can be achieved on a QuarkXPress project.

As well as the actual computer software I have also been using technology for my photography. I used a Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera for taking my photo's.



Again similar to the computer software you can achieve the basics, such as taking a standard photo, or you can explore more into what the camera options can offer you, to make you photographs look more professional. You can pan and zoom using the camera lens, as well as change the colour of the photograph to enhance red tones etc.. or to make the photo of a grey scale or sepia. You can also change the different auto settings on the camera as well as change the focus of the camera for close up shots where detail needs to be captured or for other shots such as profile shots.

All of my work has been recorded in the form of blogs. The advantage of using blogs is that I can include screen shots of my work and write about these pictures easily. Without the use of this technology I would have to print out pictures and hand write my work.

Also as this is a media course it is all about using and exploring different technologies so doing work in blog forms is an advantage. You can also use different forms of technologies such as power point to create power point presentations as a form of work, which you can then embed onto your blog using a website called slideshare.net. You can also include video's you have recorded for audience research etc... and then upload them to YouTube and then embed the code of your video into your blog. So by using and having these technologies available to us we can there for widen the ways we produce our work and also its a continual learning progress.

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

The four main distributors in the magazine industry are Marketforce, Comag, Frontline and Seymour.

I researched into Frontline to find out what they do.

The company was formed in June 1986 by the magazine publisher Emap who are now Bauer Media. Frontline sells and distributes over 160 of their partners' magazines. including 54 of the top 200 best selling titles in the UK (csource ABC.) Their magazines sell nearly 8 million copies every week through over 55,00 shops ranging from the smallest corner shops to the bigger hypermarkets. This makes them the biggest magazines distributor in the UK. Frontline maximises the sale of the magzine in the most cost-effective way by connecting with their partners' knowledge of the readers with the retailers' understanding of their shoppers in order to boost their sales. Frontline employs over 120 people and has its offices in central Peterborough.

Their publishers are BBC, Haymarket, Bauer etc and they have the full responsibility for producing the magazine which includes the editorial and selling and advertising. Next is the distributors who are Frontline, Comag and Marketforce. Their key role is the arrange deliveries of the magazine to the wholesalers from the printers for further distribution. Then is the Wholesaler who are companies such as Smiths News, Menzies Distribution and 60 other wholesale houses. The wholesalers are responsible for supplying retail outlets with the newspapers and magazines. Next is the Retailer who are companies such as WHS, ASDA, Tesco and 55,00 other retailers. These ensure that the magazines are displayed for the consumer to buy.

Frontline distributes many magazines and they work with three major UK publishers, these are Haymarket, Bauer and the BBC.

The Bauer Publishing group was founded in Hamburg in 1875 and is now a worldwide publishing empire comprising of 238 magazines worldwide in 15 countries as well as TV and radio stations.

Bauer's first magazine was Bella mag in 1987, the company then launched Take A Break which has maintained its number 1 status and is currently selling over 1 million copies a week.

Then in 1990 they launched TVQuick and then in 1991 thats life! and then in 1995 TVChoice.

Bauer is now the largest consumer magazine publlishing company in the UK, playing a primary role in the Womans Weekles, Womans Interest,Womans Lifestyle, TV Listings, Puzzles, Mens Lifestyles, Music, Film and Specialist magazine markets.

Some of their music magazines are Kerrang and Q.

Kerrangs platforms are Kerrang! Magazine, Radio, TV -Sky 368, Virgin Media 342 and their website.

Their audience profile is individually minded, independant of thought and musically experienced, an audience defined by attitude, loyalty and passion.,

Since Q's launch in 1986 its been the UK's best selling music monthly magazine and has delivered the worlds biggest stars every month. It draws reference from the world of sport, comedy, film and even politics.

Its platforms are Q magazine, Radio and Awards. Their audience profile is open minded experience seekers, and they don't define themselves by the music they listen tp. Music is an important passion but their love of music will never be the detriment of their other passions, such as film, sport and comedy.

An independant distributor is Vice. The audience profile for Vice is very much radicals and people who persieve themselves to have a different image and different style of music. The brand identity is very unique and unlike other magazines. The pictures used are extremely arty and creative and quite funky and unusual. Your typical person wouldn't read this magazine as it wouldn't appeal to them as its quite a quirky magazine, touching on some unusual topics and containing strange and bizzare images.

This is the page that comes up when you click on the birmingham link. This shows you the stores where you can find Vice. These stores are Urban Outfitters, Size, Studio 4, Retro Bizzare and Tempest. These are all small outlets and independant shops. Vice has a totally different disrtubution stratergy to other mainstream compaines such as Frontline. They targett the smaller and independant shops so they can find and reach their target audience who you would find in these shops.

Because my audience I aim to target are radicals and people who have a different taste and style in music to the main stream music I think that it would be best for me distribute my magazine through an independant distributor. I think that because my audience means that i wouldd be better distributing my magazine.

Also their main passion will have to be music so selling my magazine in dedicated music shops may be good. Also I could distribute my magazine at festivals all over the UK.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I have been representing folk and acoustic musicians in my magazine through a number of ways. I have also been reproducing stereotypical idea's about this group as well as challenging these dominant idea's. We represent groups through our own interpretations of them and through what we believe is true about them. So what the media does is construct a reality which fits but this construction is not true or accurate. So the way I have been representing people of the acoustic/folk scene is the way I see them.The main way that I have been representing these people are generally through nature and all things natural. I have done this as when doing my research into acoustic magazine's I noticed that all the musicians featured in the magazine as photographed around nature, including natural props and settings.

Below are some pictures I have found from the magazine 'ACOUSTIC' where evidence of these acoustic artists are photographed in an artistic manner.

As you can see in these pictures, the men are all surrounded by nature and also the photo has been finished in black and white, this is to give the impression of the artists being 'arty.'

I have photographed all my models surrounded by nature, so I photographed in fields and tree's.

Also the men are wearing clothes of a typical acoustic fashion, which clearly do not follow the fashions and trends worn by non-radicals.

Here are some pictures of both males and females who could be seen to be part of the acoustic/folky scene.

In these pictures you can see what I would class as a typical acoustic person. All of their images are simular, but all with their slight individual style. Also the flowers in the hair is important to as I also included this in my photographs and it also links in with the idea of these people being linked to nature again.

Here are some photo's from my magazine where I have portrayed the acoustic artists in the same fashion and also used the black and white finish on the picture to portray the artist as arty and creative

I have made my model, sit surrounded by nature and look natural and not posy. I have also made her wear clothes of a Bohemian style as I am representing acoustic/folky artists as individual, arty, creative and unique. I have also made her remove all make-up so it fits in with the bare, minimilistic style and also use probs which link to nature, such as the wooden chair and scatterd flowers on the blanket.

In my magazine I have only a few photo's of men, the rest are women, which could be argued that i'm showing too many women in my magazine and not representing the acoustic audience fairly. In real media magazine's, men are photographed more than women as they are generally thought to be better at acoustic guitar and to begin with men were the only sex that played the guitar. But I feel that this is reidual ideology as more and more women are starting to play the acoustic guitar and so the emerging ideology is that women are just as good as men at the guitar, and this was something that I wanted to put across and make clear in my magazine.

So I thought I would challenge this and include more female artists in my magazine as well as using a female artist as the main sell on my front cover.

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

I have used many forms and conventions of a real media product in my magazine, but I have not only used these conventions but also developed them to appeal to my chosen audience as genres are always evolving and changing over time.

Here is a power point presentation I have created, where I have used snap-shots of images through out my magazine to show what forms and conventions I have used and ones I have challenged and how I have challenged these conventions.

How have I used and challenged forms and conventions?

View more presentations from IzzyBorder.