Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• My magazine is aimed at for all ages and genders but is mainly aimed female teenagers-young adults (15-23) who enjoy punk rock music.

• They will fall into lower/middle class of the socioeconomic group. They will also be students who are studying and/or have temporary jobs nothing with a high salary.

• The audience I am aiming at should be Interested in Punk/rock music and finding out lots of personal information on punk/rock bands as well as a lot of news on music events such as concerts and gigs, also reviews of the latest songs by punk/rock bands. Krash is for those interested in the behind the scenes of punk/rock bands and music doesn't focus on normal mainstream artists or media cover up. Krash, although focusing mainly on the real artist, will also contain some gossip to attract more of a female audience.

• It attracts both genders as I have included both male and female artists throughout the magazine (e.g. The cover photo is of a male, the double page spread article is about a female duo act).

• The colour scheme I have used also is not one sided, it doesn’t contain just the usual stereo typical boy or girl colours and has a mixture of both. (using reds, blues, yellows, blacks and pinks).

• To attract the age group of 15- 23, the people in the images I have used are around that age so the readers have a connection as they are similar ages and are bought up in the same generation and are more likely to be familiar with there music.

• As my magazine is a punk/rock magazine I have used many stereo typical colours that you would link with being rocky. These include dark colours such as blacks and dark red. This is too attract the rock audience rather than the typical pop magazine which uses lots of bright colours and is very busy.

• The age and social group my magazine is aimed at would prefer a high picture to text ration and this is why I have done so. The pictures are used to attract the audience and not a great chunk of text is used as readers could become bored or reading a long article which could then lead to a negative affect on the magazine sales and interest levels.

• The language I have used on my cover page, contents and double page spread is welcoming and isn’t vulgar or too complicated and is down to earth, so all ages can read it and understand it.

Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and

why?

• A media institution that is likely to distribute my magazine will have to be an institute that already distributes magazines with a similar genre to mine. For example, the Bauer media group distributes magazines such as Kerrang! And Q. Selling my magazine along these would be a good idea because many readers will be familiar with these magazines and know the quality so will start with a good reputation. Also as the company has been running for a long time as sells many different successful magazines, the experience in the industry means they will know what to do to help my magazine be as successful or even more successful than the rest.

Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

• The audience who I am aiming at is both female and male young adults, ages ranging from 15 to 23, who enjoy and have a passion for punk rock music. The typical reader will be always be listening to punk music and it will be a big part of their life. Their IPods will be filled with the latest punk music and they will be first in line for the festival tickets. They will either be at school or uni with a part time job but not have steady income and mainly rely on pocket money. This means they don’t shop at expensive shops but mainly sticks to shops for example Primark and New Look, but they won’t really care about fashion and normally wear tops purchases at a past concert. They will also be into new artists on the scene and what they have been up to but never into mainstream gossip or media covered stories.

Question 5

• Must of my focus was on my front cover, this is because this is what will stand out most when people see it in shops and base their decision to buy a magazine on what it looks like the first time they see it.

• Although I have used quite dark colours to stick with the genre of the magazine, I have also used some yellows to highlight some important points as the bright colour will attract the reader to the magazine.

Having the price set as £1.90 attracts the audience as it is a reasonably low price to pay for a magazine that comes out every two weeks that contains a lot of things inside.The website also attracts the audience as they have more than one way of reaching the magazine as they can interact with Krash online

• The photo also has direct address as the artist in the picture is looking directly into the readers eyes and they feel like they have a connection and more inclined to buy it. The photo also has a symbol of a drum kit in it as the magazine is a music magazine and the artist is a drummer so this contrasts well together.

• The language I have used is also important to the social groups I am representing. I have used simplistic language and nothing to ambiguous or crude it aims at a wide range of people, it also makes the magazine seem more mature and language that everyone can understand and read.

• The cover lines will then make the reader want to buy it as they don't give away to much information and draw in the reader.

• I have also kept a degree of organisation to the page so the readers know what story is what and they aren't put off by busy, clustered page.

• The double page spread is relatable to the audience as it is a typical punk rock band and it is about how they are back on the music scene, something fans will be interested in. The title is also so blunt that it makes a point and makes the article sound interesting as the return indicates they have been somewhere so fans will want to know where they have been and why they have comeback.

The use of different pictures also attracts the audience as it is almost like a story of the duo in pictures and fans like too look at pictures of bands and not being serious and having a silly side to relate to fan base as they are real people

• By asking people in my target audience to vote on different things and have their opinion really mattered in the making of my magazine as if it didn’t go with what they wanted they wouldn’t buy it.

• I put up polls on my blog and when I was making the magazine I asked people how they think I should change things to make it more appealing to the audience so their was more than one opinion in the making of the magazine, although some of the responses was from people outside my target group it was beneficial as every opinion matters and helped me make a magazine that fulfilled expectations of target readers.

Question 6

What have your learnt about technologies from the process of

constructing this product?

• Whilst making my music magazine I used many different technologies including Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Publisher, Blogger, Digital camera, Microsoft Power point and Imovie

Photoshop • I have never really used Photoshop before so when making Krash I

picked up many new skills in order to edit my picture and fonts. When editing my picture I used many tools such as the lasso, the paint bucket, the wand and experimented with colours and different effects such as texturize and saturation.

• My first time using Photoshop was changing a picture of a crab into a recipe book. From then I think I have developed new skills and learnt how to use it properly to make my music magazine look more professional than my school magazine which was created when I was still a novice user.

Publisher • I have had a lot of previous experience with publisher so I knew

most of its functions and didn't’t have much trouble with the tools it offers. I mainly used it for my double page spread as I need to have a double page and guides to where the center fold would be in a real magazine. Publisher also helped with the text a lot as there is much more fonts to choose from and you can put it into columns by following the guides. Even though I used Photoshop to edit the pictures, publisher was more helpful when organising the page.

Blogger• Blogger is one of the main things and one the most

important things in making my magazine. It tracked my progress and I was able to get feed back and results from my target audience. It also kept out records very organised and a great way to check out each others progress. It was also very fun in the way we can create our own backgrounds and make the blog ‘our own’ with our own style. I feel confident in using it and have picked up many skills, for instance, creating polls for my audience to vote on. This made it much more easier to receive feed back from my target audience and too look back on posts I have previously made to see how I am progressing.

Digital camera • For all my photographs I used the same camera which was

the Nikon D5100 digital camera. This camera was good o use as it has 16.2 megapixels and takes picture in HD, it also has flash which was helpful when shooting pictures out side in the dark. When I first starting using it I didn’t understand many of the different functions but as I had many more photoshoots, the more familar they became. I used different functions such as zoom and flash to capture the most proffesional looking photos. The digital camera was main part in making my magazines as if the photos didn’t look good and proffesional, then the magazine wouldn’t look realisitc.

Microsoft Power Point and IMovie. • Power point and IMovie are what I have been using to do my

evaluation. I have had a lot of experience with power point so I knew all the functions and how too use the different tools to display the text and pictures . The evaluation has helped me use it more and I have gained more experience. IMovie I am not so familiar with as I don’t use it often, it was hard to understand the tools and functions it offered but as the evaluation went on I picked up how to add pictures and change the speed in which the movie is played at, I was also able to add music so it wasn’t so boring too look at.

Question 7Looking back at your preliminary task, what do

you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

• Since creating my magazine my knowledge of the different technologies used has increased, the main one being Photoshop. At the beginning I was completely new too Photoshop and didn’t understand many of the tools, this is a reason my school magazine is so plain and nothing really stands out. My knowledge began to increase to more I used it, this meant that I was able to create a front cover that really stood out to my potential audience. I was able to lasso pictures too crop out things I don’t need and also shape the picture around the text to fall meaning everything was readable but the picture stood out. This was also helpful on my contents page when I wanted to put the guitar and amplifier in the same picture although they were separate photographs. Using layers has also helped with making my magazine and making it look more attractive making my use of Photoshop more effective.

• One problem I had with my student magazine was I didn’t have a range of fonts and the ones I used were pretty basic which doesn’t make the magazine look ‘realistic’. However, I learnt how to download new fonts that stand out and make my magazine more attractive as they aren’t fonts you can just get off word that everyone has seen before.

• I feel I have learnt a lot about different colour schemes and what colours go well with each other and compliment each other and which colours represent different social groups and what different colours attract different ages and genders. This makes my magazine look more real and attract more readers as the right colours will draw the right people in and make my magazine stand out.