Looking Back at Your Preliminary Task, What Would You Feel You Have Learnt in the Progression from it to the Full Production?

In the preliminary stage, I was not as confident with the programmes I had available to me to use. I was also not very well informed about the music magazine industry.

I now know of many different programmes I can use that are available for production and editing. I am aware of different forms and conventions of music magazines and of magazines in general. However, I know of what limitations I can be faced with in the making of further magazine based products.

I am more aware of how to attract an intended audience, through specific uses of things such as images, colours, layout and style.

What Have You Learnt About Technologies from the Process of Constructing this Product?

I am more confident when using media programmes, such as Publisher and photo editing programmes such as Fireworks. I feel that I can now use them to their fullest potential.

I now know how to research necessary information, and am able to find reliable sources, as the internet can sometimes be risky and contain false information. I know that I have to back up my points with evidence from real products.

I have also learnt that I can not entirely rely on technology. For example, programmes have limitations, therefore stopping me from other things that I could have gone on to do.

How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

As mine is targeted at mainly men, my magazine could be seen to stereotype what men like, such as using black and blue as they are ‘masculine’ colours.

The age I targeted were adults, which highly influenced the style of writing I had to use. I wrote in a formal style, with a relatively complex writing style. However, I would use some formal stuff, such as conversational speech for the interview in order to make the reader feel comfortable. I also used formalities such as exclamation marks to express emotion throughout the text.

I used an image for my front cover of a man in the same age range as my intended audience, which can be seen to represent that age group.

How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

The target audience for my music magazine are men of the ages 28 to 35 with a special interest in acoustic music and acoustic guitars.

The use of text and background colours that are typically seen as dark and masculine help to attract a male audience.

The only time when they are not typically manly, is when there are features on woman based articles, which need more feminine colours to suit the content.

Text and language is more mature and formal for the age targeted.  However, there are hints of informal conversational tone so it is not boring. This style also helps to form emphasis and show emotions.

It is in a clear format that is easy to read and understand for many different ages.

Images are typically manly, unless once again they are for female based features.

As I am not in the age range of my intended audience, I found it quite difficult to ensure my magazine would relate to those targeted, but I got a lot of help from conducting questionnaires.

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

I think a publishing company such as Bauer Media would be interested in my magazine.

This company publish many music magazines, including MOJO, Q and Kerrang! and other non-music magazines such as Empire, FHM and MATCH!

They publish Fashion magazines and hobby and interest magazines, for example golf, photography and motoring.

They also specialise in media such as radio, websites and TV.

They may well be interested in publishing my magazine, as they do not already cater for the Acoustic genre.

The kind of place that may wish to distribute my music magazine are retail stores such as WHSmith.

In WHSmith there is a wide range of magazines that are available, and it would be a perfect place to attract the attention of my intended audience.

When doing my research, I went into different stores and noted down the magazines that they sold. WHSmith was the only store that sold a wider range; others stuck to fashion, celebrity, male interests, puzzle, and a very slim choice of each genre were available.

Newsagents may be less likely to distribute my magazine as the demand for Acoustic magazines is not as high as other magazines, for example, Celebrity, Fashion and Rock magazines. A newsagents will only distribute the most popular magazines.

Evaluation - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real music magazines?

All magazines I researched have some kind of house style, meaning the colours and fonts and general layout of pages are similar and continuous in all issues. I made a house for my magazine layout which includes the same font and layout for pages; I used the same layout I would use for all features on my article, but I changed the colour in order for it to compliment the content. For example, on my article, the colours used are green white and black as they match the image. However, these colours, despite the light green which is feminine due to the article content, are still masculine colours.

My magazine has several similar forms and conventions of real music magazines, such as those I researched. I have used similar ones that tend to make a magazine attractive and popular, such as pugs, main images, gender targeted colours.

I have mainly used very similar forms and conventions on my front cover, for example, a large title, drawing the attention of passer bys.

Underneath the title is a puff, which helps to sell a magazine by emphasising how good it is.

I have got a barcode at the top right corner, which is necessary for the readers when they go to buy the magazine

I have highlighted and changed the colours of important bits in the sub-headlines, called Buzz Words. I feel that this is a bit different to other magazines.

Many magazines have a promotional offer, a special item that they are including with the issue of the magazine for free. Mine is a free CD which is common amongst music magazines, especially in acoustic magazines.

I have a banner across the bottom of the page which includes other artists that are featured in the magazine. This is very similar on front covers, even of different genres. I feel that I have challenged this tool by the placing of images on it.

Although I have used and developed forms and conventions, I have also tried to challenge some. For example, although the main image is in the middle of the page, I have taken it will a real background as opposed to a plain backdrop, such as in this one.

A thing that is similar though is the showing of the artists’ guitar, as it is partly essential for people to recognise what kind of genre the magazine it is.

Another thing that is similar is the covering of a bit of the masthead (like in the image above). My pug covers the 's', but this is common in well established magazines as they are still recognisable to their target audience and even passerbys.

The title of my magazine, Strings, a one syllable word, could be considered a challenge. Magazines try to create a title that is easy to remember. This can be done by a peculiar title, such as Big Cheese, or by using short, snappy one word syllables. I feel my title is good as it is short, so will stick in peoples mind, but it is also relevant to the content of the magazine, which not many magazines achieve, such as Big Cheese.

On the article and contents page, I have done some things that I feel are a bit different to some other magazines.

I have put borders around many things, which help to make the page neater. I have noticed that many magazines do not do this.

The contents page, I think, is very different to most. It is very simple, whereas most are rather crowded, making them difficult to understand. Also, the colours here are intertwined to the colours on the front page, which would be a continuous things throughout all the issues in my magazine, following the house style.

In my article I have used different colours for the questions asked by the magazine and for questions asked by fans. Not many magazines do this, but I think it is a good idea so people can differentiate easier.

Also, I feel that other Acoustic magazines are aimed at a higher age range, so I chose to target a slightly younger age group. Not only is the acoustic genre then more accessible for many ages, the competition against my magazine could perhaps be reduced.