Jake's AS media

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I feel that my media text follows many of the forms and conventions that a music magazine follows. When designing the layout of the magazine I used my previous research of other related texts so that I could apply a conventional layout to my media text.

When I chose the colour scheme I went with black, yellow and white. The colours black and white withhold connotations and associations with my chosen genre (Grime) which originates from London; when one thinks of rap style music from London we think of council estates which are grey and dark alleys lit by dim yellow lights. However, the colour yellow challenges the connotations and associations for a Grime magazine, which usually uses a colour like red along with black and white. I chose to use yellow because it adds an electric vibe which is eye catching. The colour yellow is usually used in media texts that relate to the genre of Dance music and one subcategory of this genre is Dubstep, which is a well established genre in the UK and is fast growing overseas; this link between the colour yellow and Dubstep is key to my decision of its use, because Grime and Dubstep are often played together. By using a colour that is associated with Dubstep my magazine will attract its fans that also listen to Grime in their music and when looking for media texts that relate to their genre (Dubstep) my media text will be seen and due to my genre and Dubstep already being associated together some will be attracted to my media text by doing this I will hopefully attract a greater number of audience.

Throughout the piece I kept a colour scheme (house style) which follows the forms and conventions of all successful music magazines; by doing this the product is easier on the eye and forms an identity for the product, for example Q magazine is associated with the colours red and white, so by using a colour scheme I hope to form an identity like many other successful magazines have.

When looking at my photography I have used a range of shots, ranging from: mid shots, long shots, close ups, medium close ups and wide shots. The conventional shot in a magazine of this category is a medium close up, however all other shot types are often applied. In my music magazine I have avoided using medium close ups which are usually the most conventional, I have done so because such a shot can make it harder to show the detail within the image which helps represent the character type. By using mid shots more, I have enabled more detail of the character to be shown, which allows the reader to identify the character type in the picture, they will do this from reading into the detail. Using semiotics they will notice such items like a hoody which is symbolically learnt in the UK to represent youth or other items may be indexical or iconic.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Gender representation – At a glance the front cover shows a young male wearing a hood, the colour scheme is dark and has an underground music vibe to it. From this we can tell that it is aimed at males and represents males. We can also see this when looking at the text on the page; the genre mentioned is grime which is primarily male fan based.

Age representation – The target audience is between 16 – 30 years old, this is because this is the age group that mainly follows the music genre. This group is represented by the main image of a young adult who fits within the age bracket of the chosen target audience and the way that he is dressed, the semiotics of the hoodie are symbolic and represent youth and young adults. In children’s magazines freebies are offered, such as small toys like a yo-yo, I feel the free CD in my magazine is a bridge between the childish freebie and a more dull adult magazine that offers nothing. The freebie plays with the childishness of the audience member and entices them to buy the magazine. This method to attract audiences is also done by a successful magazine called Mojo, who give a free CD that relates to the featuring article of the issue (Usually of the featuring band/artist) my magazine advertises a free CD and has a disclaimer in the bottom right corner in small print, I have adopted the idea because it is a good way to attract my selected audience.

Social groups – The social group is anyone within the age range who is interested in the chosen topic who can afford the magazine, there is no boundary on wealth, the price of the magazine is £3.50, which is slightly above the average price for such a magazine, because it is a monthly magazine where as others are weekly. This is a reasonable price and due to the readership it needs to be above the average to make up for the small readership of similar magazines that relate to grime.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

After looking at various media institutions such as Bauer, Emap, National Magazine Company, Conde and Dennis I decided that my magazine would fit into IPC Media. IPC Media produces over sixty iconic media brands such as NME, World Soccer, Nuts, Rugby world and many others. Almost two thirds of females in the UK and 42% of men which is almost 26 million UK adults overall read them. I think that my product would fit in well because the company already does magazines that have a similar layout to mine however they seem to lack a magazine that covers the genre and this is a gap in the market in which my product could fill because it has the IPC look and this would attract people who buy IPC magazines because of the layout of the magazine. I also considered Bauer because it is a well established media institution; however it already produces such magazines as Kerrang, Mojo and Q magazine which I feel would over shadow mine and the institution does not suit the style of my magazine as much as IPC does.

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience I am aiming for are 16 – 30 year old Grime fans. As well as Grime fans there would also as mentioned in Q1. be dance music fans including Dubstep fans; this would be because of the choice to use the colour yellow which is symbolically learnt by these fans and through associations of the colour and genres they will also be attracted. The audience I believe would be primarily male because of the genre of music the magazine focuses on which is mainly male supported and because of the way I have presented the magazine. The colour scheme and pictures used throughout are dark and give an impression of an underground music scene; I think this would attract males more than females.

After production I asked a focus group: Would you say my magazine is…Male orientated…Female orientated…or both?

Below is a pie chart showing the responses:

97% said male orientated

0% said female orientated

3% said both

Before deciding on anything for my media text I decided that whatever the chosen genre of my magazine it would have to have an audience that I can relate to and am part of myself this was because by having my own personal knowledge I would be able to apply my thoughts and understandings of the topic rather than making up things that may to be related to the chosen topic. So overall I am the audience of my media product.

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted the audience with the use of a bold masthead and cover lines; they were made to stand out more by using either yellow or white on top of black. This was very effective and made it clear to read and it catches people’s eyes. The colour scheme is very dark and is aimed particularly at males, I deliberately chose to use the colours yellow black and white because I felt they were bold colours that worked well together, as mentioned before the yellow has connections with other genres and through this I have broadened my audience. When considering this I thought of the Hypodermic syringe theory (that the media is like a syringe which injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audience) due to their already established connection with the colour yellow through their interests the colour yellow on my magazine would draw them to it without them even considering that they are unrelated. The single image on the front of the cover was of “Route-A” - a famous grime artist. The midshot of him is very eye catching, when editing the picture I added a green lining around him and his clothes this made the image more eye catching and caused an good effect, I found this method to be a subtle way to catch people’s eyes. When taking this picture I had to consider the thought that the image was the main attraction point of the front cover and it needed to deliver its message very quickly and catch the eye of the intended audience. I did this by considering the clothing of the character. I chose for him to wear a dark hoody and sunglasses. I used them along with the signs and signifiers theory. (A sign can be physical form to which we can see or hear – I.e. words, diagrams, pictures, music or a siren. The signified is the meaning which we attach to the signifier) The items I chose for my model to wear are associated with particular things and are signs that most people understand, these particular signs are symbolic which means that they are culturally learnt and in the Western hemisphere of the world hoddys are associated with youth. By doing this a person who is interested in a topic that involves youth and music will notice the magazine because of the hoody that the model is wearing.

The overall structure of the design was very simplistic for all of the pages I felt this was necessary because I wanted the magazine to be one that some could just pick up and find something out about one of the artists or something else, by keeping it simplistic it is easier to read. This easy reading suits the majority of my target audiences who live a fast passed life and often don’t have much time to sit down and read a magazine, by having an easy to read magazine it suits them best and will attract them as there are not many magazines that meet this need.

The writing style is very simplistic and has a slightly informal tone but, does, in some cases, hold its formality. By having a good mixture it allows a wider range of audience to read the magazine, those who prefer a formal text and those who prefer informal text. This style of writing also suits the easy to read style that I aimed for in my magazine. When writing I acted as if the reader already knew what I was talking about this is because it is quite a niche genre and the people who are reading the magazine most likely have an interest in it and will probably know a lot about the artists that are written about in the magazine.

My use of pictures was used to attract people, overall I used fifteen photographs that I took myself and edited, the amount of pictures in the piece will attract people because they can look at them, quite often a person will decide upon reading an article based on the picture, because of this I deliberately used striking photos that would grab the attention of the viewer. I did this by using different shots and angles and also by the use of editing.

Whilst making the product I made sure that I considered the Uses and Gratifications Theory (We all have different uses of media, and we make choices over what we view. We use the media for Information, personal identity, integration and social interaction and also for entertainment) I had to make sure that my music magazine met as many of these uses as possible. I feel that I met all of them, within my double page spread I delivered information on an artist that the consumer would be interested in. The characters within the magazine are all role models for the consumer and they can personally identify with them. The information within provides topics that consumers can talk about with one another about, due to this I have given the use of integration and social interaction. Finally I have provided fact, light humour, news, general information and images that all together should provided entertainment for the reader.

Overall I think I attracted the audience by using striking colours, text and particularly pictures throughout my piece, from the use of this I created an eye catching product.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the creation of my media product I have used different technologies to carry out different tasks. First of all I have used the internet to research music magazines and the forms and conventions of them so that I could make informed decisions on how to carry out the task. I have also used the internet to use blogsot.com which I have used to record my work and progress. From using blog spot I have learnt about blogging which I had never done in the past and did not fully understand. During the process of blogging I learnt that it was such an easy way to record work or share work with others anywhere in the world, blogging can be done anywhere in the world as long as there is internet, due to this it is a practical way to deliver information, whilst using it I saw all the different uses people had for it, from sharing family picture to over sea relatives to raising awareness of a charity event or in my case recording my research and work that I have done.

When taking pictures I have used a Sony DSC-W130 and another digital Sony camera, both of which feature steady shot which reduces the chance of taking a blurred picture and allowed the lens to stay in focus. During this process I have learnt to use a camera more effectively, I have learnt how to change the settings on the camera effectively to get the right shot. When taking the pictures of the main artist I used the Media Department's green screen and umbrella lamps so that the editing process can be simplified. The umbrella lights removed any issue of poor lighting and they allowed me to remove shadows so that editing was much simpler when using quick selection tools on the photo editing software’s that I used. When editing if there are shadows and the person in the image is wearing dark clothing it can be hard for the editing software to distinguish between the person and the shadow and this can result in uneven cutting an parts of the shadow may be left or parts of the person may be cut away. So by removing the shadows using the green screen this was not an issue.

When editing my pictures I used Adobe Photoshop which allowed me to manipulate them to how I wanted them.

For the picture on the left I first of all used the quick selection tool on Adobe Photoshop, which allowed me to remove all of the background. I secondlyused the skin clearer tool to improve the tone of the image. I then lowered the brightness of the picture by 15% and raised the contrast by 80% which resulted in an overall tone that I was happy with I finally added a spotlight effect on the head of the artist, which brings him forward, the overall effect has given an image that could be of a person performing on a stage.

For the previous picture on the right, I first of all used the quick selection tool and removed the background of the image and then as with the other picture I changed the brightness and contrast and then added an effect I I chose to use this type of effect because I felt that it made the character in the picture seem as if they are steeping out of the page, this effect was enhanced when I added a spotlight onto the image using the photo editing software, this gave another dimension to the subject and along with the shadows in the picture it added to the aim to make it come out of the page. The spotlight on the person also adds to the mise en scene, where the music artist is on a stage and a spotlight is on him.

I also used a more simplistic tool called paint. I used paint to make the faded yellow shapes throughout the work.

Such things like the sprayed shapes were effective and I learnt that paint can be an effective tool when used correctly.

During this process I have learnt to improve my model's skin tone. For the picture below I created a new layer and used the healing brush tool and spot healing tool to remove any blemishes as well as moles. Then I created a new layer and used a soft edge Paintbrush 40-80px with the opacity on 20%. I sampled by holding the Alt button to set to color, and painted over the desired areas. By doing this I removed any more unwanted markings like lines underneath the eyes.

I also learnt to improve the overall tone of an image using Adobe Photoshop here is an example of a photograph that I improved

Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In my preliminary task editing was almost nonexistent, I merely enhanced the shading of a picture and increased the green of the grass in the background, when I started the main task I began to pick up editing because I realised it was vital for me to do if I wanted to produce a successful magazine. Since then I have learnt how to use the editing software at a good standard I have learnt from this that every single detail is important when it comes down to the production of a magazine, whereas in my previous piece I did not look at little things and the overall and the finished product looked shabby. I have learnt about the complexity of creating a specific music magazine and making it attractive by following some forms and convention and challenging others.

Through this process I have learnt that the visual appeal of my front cover is primarily the most important factor in the creation of my main product as it has to attract and draw in the audience, this means that the aspects of cover such as main cover lines, Images and Company name were absolutely crucial. My knowledge has developed throughout the process of creation by studying examples of real media texts, research of genres & styles on the internet and exploring the use of design in terms of layout, images colour schemes, audience & institutions etc.

I have learnt quite a bit about photography and that the mise en scene is very important and within pictures there should be motivated signs that signify particular things, and through the use of semiotics the audience denotate and conotate the images and understand to them either because the sign is culturally learnt, or it shows what it represents and is Iconic or is indexical and has a connection to what it represents but does not actually show it. When taking photos for the magazine I ensured that the images were appropriate for the magazine, before taking any picture I created a plan and then decide upon what sort of pictures I wanted. I also learnt to consider framing and composition as well as shot distance and colour and resolution from this I gained better quality images and overall a better product.

I have also learnt that the use of focus groups is very helpful when producing a media product, and use of them allows you to receive criticisms on the product and you can adopt ideas that are given to you. Throughout the process I used focus groups in the production of my media product and I applied changes that were a result of feedback.

Throughout the process I have had to consider theories and how they relate to the task. Through this I have gained a greater understanding and seen how they apply to media, in particular semiotics, signs and signifiers, Uses and Gratifications and the Hypodermic Syringe.

My technical ability has improved during the time of the production of my media product; this has mainly increased through trial and error, and making amendments to my work. This increase in ability has allowed me to complete my media product to a greater standard in comparison to my preliminary task. In the past I would not have been aware of small details and I would not have spotted errors in my work, a good example of this is my preliminary task where there are many errors which I did not notice previously whereas now I can see them easily.