In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I have used the conventions of real media products while creating my own magazine to make it seem more convincing. I then developed and challenged these original conventions to make my magazine seem more unique.
I looked at music magazines such as “NME” and “Kerrang”. Both of these magazines had their mastheads in the top left-hand corner. I decided to place my masthead on the top-right-hand-corner of the page, breaking traditional magazine rules. As my magazine concerns gothic music and lifestyle, my target audience would be seen as quite “different”, so placing my masthead somewhere other than the usual compliments this fact.
To make my masthead stand out, I decided to incorporate some gothic qualities to it. As the title is “Resurrect”, I extended the “t” so it looked more like a crucifix, adding to the “death” theme, and decided to include my tagline in the design. I placed it above my masthead, both sides of the “t” to make it look fuller. I added a white background and cut around it so it stands out more.
My magazine uses conventions to have a set colour scheme of gothic colours, black, white and purple. Like mine, most magazines only stick to a colour scheme of 3-5 colours, to create a clear brand identity, and to avoid the audience being distracted from the stories.
Font is also very important to a magazine, and must associate with the genre and target audience. For example, if there was a Pop magazine aimed at young girls, the font wouldn’t look like this. Instead, a lighter font with girly colours such as Century Gothic or Arial would be used. I used this tip to find a font for my magazine. For my masthead, I found a font from Dafont, and edited it in paint to make it more block-like. For some of the writing inside, I used Copperplate Gothic as it matched the magazine’s theme perfectly. It’s important not to use too many fonts, as it could get both distracting and confusing for the reader, and wouldn’t make a clear brand identity.
For my front cover, I wanted the image to stand out. In “NME”, the main image is a medium shot with no background. This is the standard theme amongst most magazines. I wanted to break this rule by a) including a background and b) using a long shot. My image was hard to shoot, as I was adamant that I wanted to use a graveyard for it. Once I got the opportunity to go to the cemetery, I shot a lot of pictures, all with different poses. The one I chose for the front cover was perfect, as there was a good use of levelling, and there was a good view of at least one headstone. I blurred the writing on this headstone to include more conventions. My feature image was a similar idea.
For my contents page, I wanted one main image to take up roughly half the page. I decided this should be a close up, to make the readers feel closer to the artist. However, I got her to look down, so that although they feel close to her, there’s still an element of alienation.
Language is a key element in all magazines. The written text must relate to the target audience, so that they feel more in their comfort zone. As mine is for gothic teenaged girls, I made my magazine seem more approachable, by using friendly chit-chat, but still sticking to Standard English. “Goths” tend to seem wiser than their years, so by constantly using Standard English, it adapts to their lifestyle.
Language devices like puns, alliteration etc. are used throughout media products, especially magazines. My main aim while thinking of devices I could include was to make my magazine, again, more approachable. On the cover, I used alliteration (“Introducing Infernal”), and in the feature, I used rhyme (“Up close and personal with Infernal”). Both of these make the magazine friendlier.
Layout is a huge part in magazine production, and it also one of the main selling points. I used a number of layout conventions to make my magazine more interesting.
- Banners – not only frame the page, but can also include added information that wasn’t included in the article/cover etc.
- Pull quotes – break up the text in an article. By using interesting quotes, it draws the reader’s attention and makes them want to read on.
- Columns – make the text easier to read. They make the reader feel like they are actually reading a magazine rather than an essay.
- Categories – in the contents page, separate the different sections of the magazine. My headings are straight to the point (On the Cover, Live, Features, Win) , so it’s easier for the readers to search for what they’re looking for.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My magazine represents “goths”, particularly teenagers aged 17-18. When “goths” are mentioned in everyday life, the response is generally quite negative. They are seen as “scary” or “different”, when the truth is, they actually aren’t much different than “normal” people. Goths are rarely seen in the media, so it’s hard to get this “scary” image out of our heads. I played with this while picking my image for my front cover. In the end, I chose the one where one of the girls is smiling and the other looks moody, to show that personality differs between people, goth or not.
Saying that, I did, however, have them wearing the stereotypical goth look; black clothes, dark eye make-up etc. as this helps create the brand identity:
I played with the “scary” stereotype, and challenged it with friendly chit-chat in my interview. I wanted to show the readers that goths aren’t what they seem to be, also mentioning that they got “bullied in school for being different”. Especially as most of my readers would be goths themselves, they could sympathise with this, and agree that there’s no need for it.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
As my magazine is not a mainstream product, I would have an independent institution distribute my product. Although using a major institution such as IPC, Emap etc. would have a bigger budget, there would also be less control. I also think it’s more appropriate to use an independent institution, as major institutions appeal to a wider audience, whereas there isn’t a huge market for goths. My magazine would be sold in music shops and online, rather than the usual shops that major institutions would sell them. Another reason for using independent institutions is because goth’s are known to be different from the mainstream, so most goth’s wouldn’t want to buy, or be involved with mainstream products. Independent institutions have more freedom.
Who would the audience be for your media product?
My target audience would be white teenaged girls, aged about 17-18 years old, and would be in the C2-D demographic. They would be goth/emo girls – people who are different than everyone else.
A typical Friday night for them would be;
- Listening to/playing music
- Going to concerts
- Going to Metal/Emo clubs
My target audience wouldn’t shop in the normal mainstream shops, such as Primark, Topshop etc. Instead, they would buy their clothes from more unknown shops, such as Hot Topic. Shops like this sell all sorts of “unusual” clothing, such as band t-shirts, which you wouldn’t find anywhere else. Mainstream music stores such as HMV, don’t usually cater for every musical taste, mainly stocking Pop/Rock music, rather than Gothic. Instead, they would buy most of their music from iTunes, or online stores.
Although they are goths, they are teenaged girls. So like a lot of teenaged girls, they would be interested in supernatural things. They would be fans of the popular Twilight Saga (films and books), and would also watch shows like True Blood, The Vampire Diaries etc.
How did you attract/address the audience?
I have attracted the audience in many ways, image being one of them. For my front cover, I made the girls look exactly how a gothic teenager would look. I believe this would draw in the audience, as they would feel comfortable with the images. I also used competitions and free giveaways, such as:
to make them want to buy my magazine.
The language I used throughout the magazine, was informal, but standard English. This was to make the audience relate to it, as they would write like that themselves.
Colour and design was also used to attract the audience, by using goth-related colours such as white, black and purple, throughout the entire magazine.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Technology has developed rapidly over the years, allowing us to experiment with new things. Throughout the process of constructing my magazine, I learnt to use an image manipulation software (Fireworks), to change my images. Fireworks is handy for a lot of things, including changing the focus of an image. As I took my images in a cemetery, I wanted to remain respectful of the graves, so I blurred out the names on the headstones, like this:
Fireworks also enabled me to use colour to manipulate an image, or in my case, take away colour. I toyed with the saturation levels to change my image:
I also learnt the importance of the camera whilst creating my magazine. I learnt that it’s very important to have a high quality camera, with a lot of mega pixels to capture my images. Although a lot of mobile phones don’t capture images properly, I decided to use mine, as it has a 12.1 mega pixel camera built in. This was a better choice than my digital camera, as that only had 8 mega pixels.
Also, the use of angles is important while using your camera, as different angles can determine whether or not the shot is good. For example, when I took the image for my contents page, I took a number of shots as a regular close up. However, these didn’t look right. So I started to tilt the camera and try to capture a different shot. I realised that a high angle shot really suited her, and hit the light just right so it lit up her face. There was no need for image manipulation:
I feel that I have come a long way from my preliminary task, as I have learnt new skills throughout my magazine’s progression:
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| Prelimenary |
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| Final product |
From these images, you can see straight away that the quality has been improved dramatically. In my preliminary, I didn’t know what kind of image I wanted, so I went for a typical medium close up against a blank wall. This was the easiest option for me, as it allowed me to change the background colour and layer it with puffs, without the background getting in the way.
For my final product, I wanted to be different than other magazines. So I used a long shot, with a background in it, framing the girls so that the headstones could be seen. This made the mise en scene look really good. I then manipulated the image to make it black and white, as I thought this fit with the goth theme.
In my final product, I also thought a lot more about page layout. I made sure that my background was appropriate for my genre, and as I had space on one of the headstones, I layered some writing on it to make it fuller. I also used varied text size, to make it more interesting.
I think I made a lot of progress since my preliminary task, and I ended up with a magazine that I feel quite proud of. Looking back at my preliminary, I can see that I have learnt a lot. It takes a lot of time and effort to make a magazine, and I can appreciate that a lot more than I used to.
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