Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
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The visual similarities and the use of forms and conventions of media products is clear here. Both women are head canting and both magazines have puffs, menu bar and other components of a front cover which I have listed in the powerpoint above.
Q2. How does your media product represent different social groups?
My magazine is primarily aimed at and represents young people, aged 16-20 who listen to and appreciate rock music and all of its sub-genres.This means that my magazine ultimately aimed at youth. Young people who listen to rock music are usually depicted as moody and troublesome teens who do not fit into society norms. Taken From Wales on Sunday, December 9th, 2007 Nathan Barnes makes rude comments about a young boy who's mother has recently won the lottery saying, " the young goth doesn't want to leave his friends behind- besides, he's probably only recently finished paintinghis entire room black and has np doubt just perfected infusing his sheets with the rancid stench of fetid teenager", depicting the stereotype in a negative light.
This was followed in 2008 with judgemental comments made in the Daily Mail newspaper, following the suicide of 13 year old Emo follower, Hannah Bond. The newspaper reported that the victims mother said,
'In Emo it is a very glamorous death to hang yourself. The band she was into, the music she was into-the whole thing is based on the black parade which is all about dying. She called Emo a fashion and I thought it was normal. I didn't know about the cuts.' Her father said he had seen cuts on her wrists and his daughter had told him they 'were an Emo initiation'
This was followed in 2008 with judgemental comments made in the Daily Mail newspaper, following the suicide of 13 year old Emo follower, Hannah Bond. The newspaper reported that the victims mother said,
'In Emo it is a very glamorous death to hang yourself. The band she was into, the music she was into-the whole thing is based on the black parade which is all about dying. She called Emo a fashion and I thought it was normal. I didn't know about the cuts.' Her father said he had seen cuts on her wrists and his daughter had told him they 'were an Emo initiation'
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| My Chemical Romance came under attack after the suicide of Hannah Bond. |
I tried to contradict this stereotype with my use of camera images as well as colour, location and mise en scene.
The primary image on the front cover is that of a female with hair which has been dyed red, a pale face and black eyeliner. An unnatural hair colour and dark eye makeup are characteristics of many leading females in the rock business
Hayley Williams,
Cassadee Pope While using these women as inspiration for my magazine, I hoped to contradict the negative stereotype constructed by the media. In both of these images, the women looked bright and happy showing that rock was not all about suicide but that all rock fans, goths, emos and scene kids are just like normal human beings. This idea inspired my front cover image as well camera images inside of my magazine with the front cover image showing “Metamorphic” canting her head(See front cover near top of page) with an over ecstatic smile on her face connoting the playful and carefree side of youthful rock stereotypes.
The house colours of the magazine, black, yellow, red and white, are very contrasting, bold and dark colours. The bright and happy primary colours "yellow" and "red" connote a more innocent side to rock stereotypes, helping to represent them, again, as normal people who are not always depressedand suicidal.
I also tried to make the mise en scene look bright and natural, with the feature shoot taking place in a green outside garden. This helped the models to look vibrant and fresh and not depressed or suicidal.
I also noticed while planning and research that the predominant ethnicity of Kerrang!’s audience is White British. While trying to appeal to the white British audience who were more likely to buy my product, I tried to include different ethnicities in my magazine including Black and Asian, which is evident from images on my front cover and contents page. By doing this I hoped to catch the attention of members of the two ethnicity groups, making the magazine more multicultural and showing that all ethnicities are involved with rock music.Q3. What kind of media institute might distribute your product and why?
The audience for my magazine is predominantly made up of men and women aged 16- 20. This was determined by my survey results as well as my audience feedback. When I showed ten boys and ten girls aged 16-20, who are fans of the rock genre, my final product, all said that they would be interested in buying it.
When planning the magazine, I came to the conclusion that my magazine should be aimed at all classes, ethnicities and incomes. This is because I feel that most of these factors do not affect what type of music you like or whether you'll read the magazine. I feel that the price of my magazine is not too high so at £2.50 is affordable for those with all different types of incomes.
This because I feel that there was a shortage of magazines that are aimed at both sexes. Although my magazine is aimed at both genders images in the magazine are predominantly those of females. This is because I felt that females enjoyed reading about successful women, who are living their rock dream, while males enjoy finding out about and looking at women who they find attractive.
How did you attract/address your audience?
When planning the magazine, I came to the conclusion that my magazine should be aimed at all classes, ethnicities and incomes. This is because I feel that most of these factors do not affect what type of music you like or whether you'll read the magazine. I feel that the price of my magazine is not too high so at £2.50 is affordable for those with all different types of incomes.
This because I feel that there was a shortage of magazines that are aimed at both sexes. Although my magazine is aimed at both genders images in the magazine are predominantly those of females. This is because I felt that females enjoyed reading about successful women, who are living their rock dream, while males enjoy finding out about and looking at women who they find attractive.
How did you attract/address your audience?
Since my media product is a rock magazine, the audience should be made up of rock fans that love and are interested in the genre. I took this into consideration while constructing the product and writing the interview questions and the article and this ultimately determined the type of language I used while writing. This led to me using words such as “epic”. Although this may be seen as a normal word, it is a word used frequently by those who listen to rock music.
To attract my audience I also used dark colours while constructing my magazine to make it look cool. The colour black is characteristic of various different rock stereotypes including “Goths” and “Emos”, so would ultimately attract listeners to rock music and its various sub-genres. I took this into consideration when the magazine's masthead, trying to make it as dark as possible and tried to find a font which was dark but veered away from the usual block capital font.
This was the font I used in my final product. It is bold so would stand out to a reader,but also looks ruff which would appeal to rock fans.To find out how I would attract my audience I made an audience survey to determine what I wanted my magazine to look like and more importantly what I wanted to call my magazine. The results showed that I should call my magazine Rawr, which I did. I feel that this is a good name which would attract listeners to rock music and young people. In urban dictionary, “Rawr” is said to mean I love you in dinosaur and it is a word used by many young people, primarily those who listen to rock music.
When typing the word "Rawr" in Google images, this drawing appeared a numerous amount of times. The boy in this picture is dressed in the attire of a "scene kid", a stereotype of those who wear a lot of colour, try to be fashionable while listening to rock music and still being identified in rock culture. This is evidence to show that the word "Rawr" is usually identified with rock culture.
Q6.What have you learnt about technologies through the process of constructing this media product?
During the time I spent constructing my media magazine, I managed to develop my photoshop skills a lot. I learnt how to refine edges as well as use the smooth and feather tools to make cropped images look neater. As well as this I have also learnt hpw to make adjustments to layers on photoshop, ranging from changing the brightness and contrast of the image to posterizing the layer.
AFTER FEATHER, SMOOTH AND RADIUS TOOLS
AFTER FEATHER, SMOOTH AND RADIUS TOOLS BEFORE
This came in handy when trying to manipulate front cover and the feature images.
MANIPULATED USING BRIGHTNESS, CONTRAST AND BLACK AND WHITE ADJUSTMENT TOOLS
To have access to more interesting fonts I learnt how to download fonts from a website called Da font. This provided me with a wide number of fonts to choose from other than the basic ones already installed on Windows.
Other than photoshop, I have also learnt to use slideshare which enables me to upload powerpoints onto my blog, the evidence displayed earlier on the evaluation.
To get a more interesting blog layout I used a number of websites including Blogger Templates , Blog Skins , Jelly Pages and Pimp My Profile . After finding a profile which I liked called Black Splat, I copied the html code into the Edit HTML section which is in the Design Tab.
To get a more interesting blog layout I used a number of websites including Blogger Templates , Blog Skins , Jelly Pages and Pimp My Profile . After finding a profile which I liked called Black Splat, I copied the html code into the Edit HTML section which is in the Design Tab.
As well as improving on the skills which I have adressed in the previous question, I feel that I have improved at targeting an audience. By learning to draw drafts and plan I have spent more time on defining what I want my magazine to look like so that when it came to construction, it was very straight forward.
From the two front cover images it is clear that I have improved on my photoshop skills as the front cover from my preliminary task differs greatly from my music magazine. This is because I have learnt how to use blending options on photoshop, adding shadows, bevel and embossing. I have also learnt how to control these tools more, using the tools effectively and not just because they are there.
Masthead: Although both mastheads stand out, the one for my music magazine is more effective as it is bold and has been juxtaposed against a white background, which creates a harsh contrast, drawing in the eye of the reader.The masthead used for my preliminary task is less effective as the font is not as appealing ( I had no knowledge of Da Font at this period in time). It also doesn't stand out because the background which it has been imposed against has hues of the colour red, therefore no contrast has been created.
Coverlines: The music magazine is more successful in this aspect of the magazine as the font of the other magazine is not clear enough to read and I feel that while constructing the magazine, I used the blending options, which included bevel and emboss, inner shadow and outer shadow tools. By overusing these tools I feel that the coverlines have been left incomprehensible.
Framing of Shot: Although I feel that both magazines have very effective shot framing, I prefer that of my music magazine. This is because I feel that for the preliminary task, the image is slightly wonky and also, the model is too far away from the camera. For my music magazine the way the shot was framed was irrelevant for the primary image on the front cover as I used the quick selesction tool on photoshop to cut out "Metamorphic" and impose her onto a black background to make the image stand out.
Concerning the contents page, I think that I have also improved on it's construction greatly. The school magazine contents page seems to lack structure as there are no columns which is usual feature in the layout of magazines. I feel that I have improved in this task due to the contents deconstruction task I did in my music magazine research and planning. With this said it is possible that the school magazine looks so different to the music magazine because they are two different types of magazines therefore their structure would be completely different.
Font- I feel that the font used in the preliminary task is not effective in attracting it's target audience as it looks like an ancient type of writing and bears no relevance to the rest of the magazine. Also, the font throught the magazine is the same and doesn't vary, making the magazine look less attractive. I feel that the font in the music magazine is the opposite and looks more attractive. The headings are in a large, eroded font which appeals to the audience with the normal text written in a simple font which is easy for the reader to read.
Layout: From the two contents pages it is clear that there has been a big improvement concerning layout.I feel that in the preliminary task, there is not enough images on the contents page so therefore looks plain and boring. In the music magazine there are 5 images on the page overall so the reader is clued up, knowing what to expect in the magazine.
Font- I feel that the font used in the preliminary task is not effective in attracting it's target audience as it looks like an ancient type of writing and bears no relevance to the rest of the magazine. Also, the font throught the magazine is the same and doesn't vary, making the magazine look less attractive. I feel that the font in the music magazine is the opposite and looks more attractive. The headings are in a large, eroded font which appeals to the audience with the normal text written in a simple font which is easy for the reader to read.
Layout: From the two contents pages it is clear that there has been a big improvement concerning layout.I feel that in the preliminary task, there is not enough images on the contents page so therefore looks plain and boring. In the music magazine there are 5 images on the page overall so the reader is clued up, knowing what to expect in the magazine.
I think that overall by carrying out the preliminary task, I was able to identify what worked well and what didn't eg. the excess use of blending options and boring fonts. 
