1. These four examples
of double page
spreads on the left
which were the ones
that had appealed to
me .
On the right I have
made four drafts of
this in my own
version of my story
while using the same
ideas of their
layouts.
2. Since I saw that the first three drafts looked too simple to create on Photoshop, I had
decided to upgrade my last draft. I don’t know if the last double page spread
example is from a ‘VIBe’ magazine, but I have chosen this because it is nice and
unique by the way the title has been cut up into single letters. I really like the font of
the title too because it makes it look young just like how my intended audience
would write.
I had followed the same example of positioning the title at the top and leaving space
for the image to stand out on the whole of the right side. I had decided to refer my
colours back from my front cover so that it is stable and prevents confusion. Under
the title, I have written a sub-heading to make the page look more like a magazine
just like this ‘VIBe’ double page spread example. Because the image was light, I have
used a dark background to contrast, and I have added a purple shadow just to give
the page a 3D effect rather than a flat, simple effect. I had to think about how I was
going to position the text boxes as I would want to avoid putting the text boxes in the
middle of the double page, so I thought of an imaginary line.
3. How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
My intended audience are for girls in the age
range of 14-19 years old. My reader profile on
the right shows what type of things that my
intended audience are interested in such as
foods, drinks, TV music channels, shops,
celebrities and many more. To help create my
reader profile, I had a few of my intended
audience’s interests and included my interests
too since I am in this age range too.
From my market research, I found that this demographic was most likely to buy their magazines in a shop rather than by
subscription – 98% would get the magazine this way. Therefore, I had to make sure that the front cover was immediately
eye-catching to this specific target audience. The best way to do this on the front cover is to use a model of their age
group, so they can identify with her; see her as a role model or something to aspire to.
4. Contact sheet
This is a contact sheet of the pictures that I have taken of people
for my magazine. They have not been edited but just rotated.
5. Audience and Representation – Front cover
The model is young, wearing a hoodie which has connotations of
gangster style and rebellion, and is a common style choice for
R’n’B artists. She is dressed quite youthfully, again helping the
target audience to identify with her.
She is black with quite light skin. Most R’n’B artists are black, so
this makes the genre of the music magazine easier to infer. Her
hair is worn down and she looks very natural, so this is breaking
with conventions of R’n’B. This is because I want to represent my
intended audience as more than just superficial, but as powerful
women with intelligence, not just beauty.
The mode of address is a mixture of both formal and informal
language. The sociolect used represents and constructs the
target audience by speaking to them like a friend would, which
helps them to identify with that social group.
6. Audience and Representation –
Contents Page
In general, I didn’t use any props because they would
draw attention away from the models. The other
images I have used show a girl break dancing (Photo
DSCN0467 slightly cropped), which represents my
audience as active.
I used photo DSCN0481 to show girls in a
group socialising, to represent them as
fun-loving.
The photo DSCN0430 of the cover model
I used on the contents page shows a fun
side – although she has attitude on the
cover, this shows her less serious side.
7. Audience and Representation – Double
Page
I used a bubbly, young font to represent my target
audience as young and trouble free. The different font
sizes also add to this effect as it’s quite informal. The
yellow and red on a black background refer back to the
front cover, but are more contrasted, which creates the
idea of being young and rebellious again.
The image I used (Photo
DSCN0456) has been edited to
exclude the other model, which
emphasises the pose of this
Model. She looks confident,
Again representing positive
attributes for my intended audience.
8. Media Institutions
IPC Media is the UK’s biggest publisher of
magazines. It sells over 350 million copies of
various magazines every year, and also has a
digital division. It is owned by Time Inc. which
is a massive multinational company.
Because of this, IPC Media would be a great
company to publish and distribute SWAGGA.
They have three sections:
Connect — mass market women
SouthBank — upmarket women
Inspire — men
SWAGGA would be in ‘Connect’, so with IPC it could be distributed widely. They
have a lot of money and can afford the advertising need to launch a new
magazine. Because its parent company is Time Inc, there would be opportunities
to advertise through Warner Bros. etc. and offer very good competitions.
9. Advertising
According to my survey results, I can see that the most preferred place to buy a
magazine would be in shops.
These are m ideas of where I would want to publish my magazine. Referring back
to my reader profile, it shows images of music channel logos that my intended
audience would watch such as ‘FLAVA’ and ‘MTV’, and radios such as ‘Choice
fm’, ‘KISS’ and ‘BBC 1xtra’.
Other ideas for publishing my magazine are advertising on television, social sites
such as Facebook and Twitter, putting posters in public, and probably YOUTUBE.
10. Attracting an Audience for my media
product
From my audience survey, I found that 92% of
my respondents were female and just 8% male.
Because of this, I included images that were
relevant to this group and easy for them to
identify with. I also included, in my double page
spread ,an interview, which would be interesting to girls, specifically of the age group
14-19 as they are interested in the personal lives of celebrities. The respondents also
said that they would buy a magazine for a tempting competition. In this case, I
included a talent competition, “Show your Talent” asking the reader to show their
personality and shine. Teenage girls love talent TV shows, so this will be a draw to
them.
I didn’t offer free giveaways, as, although my readership suggested it, I looked at other
similar magazines and saw that they didn’t do this.
11. What Have I Learnt?
• Planning
As I didn’t have Publisher at home, I had to use Word to create
my preliminary draft. Zoomerang was a very useful tool for
carrying out my market research as I could reach a much
wider audience. SlideShare also helped me to present my
planning in a more accessible way. The Internet was really
useful, as it helped me to research different media
products, and helped me to identify the codes and
conventions of media products. It also helped me to research
media Institutions and to realise the importance of them in
media production.
12. What Have I Learnt?
• Hardware
I had used digital cameras before, but this time I had to
be more aware of what picture I was taking, and
why. I had to make sure the lighting was right which
is something I hadn’t really thought about before.
Also, mise-en-scene had to be taken into account to
represent the audience. At first, I didn’t do this as
thoroughly as I could, so I had to take some more
images of different people and using different
angles and shot sizes for variety.
Using the Macs for the first time was a challenge as I
had to learn a different operating system to
Windows.
13. What Have I Learnt?
• Software
I had used some image editing software before, and found
PhotoShop quite easy to use once I got the hang of the
controls. Using layers was different to what I’d done
before, and found cropping and editing images quite
painstaking and time consuming. The outcome, however, was
worthwhile as it gives a more professional look in the end.
14. What Have I Learnt?
• Blogger
Using a blog was new to me. It was quite similar in some ways to
Facebook and other social networking sites. It was an
effective way of presenting my work, as a folder would need
me to print a lot – especially as I did a lot of drafts. It also
allowed other people to look at my work and
comment, helping me to evaluate and improve what I was
doing.
16. Progression from Preliminary to Full Product
This school magazine is much more basic than
my final magazine because:
• It looks ‘flat’ – the background seems plain
and uninteresting without a colour or gradient
effect on it.
• The colours are quite simple and not chosen
specifically for the target audience
• The images are not edited
• The image at the top right is too big
• The image at the top right is supposed to be
a logo, but is not stylised enough to look like
one
• The second image looks too busy as it hasn’t
been edited
On the plus side…
• I have taken into account my target audience
by including competitions and addressing them
in the right mode of address and other things
that would interest them.
17. Progression from Preliminary to Full Product
Similarities…
Masthead using appropriate font for
target audience - youthful
Integrated text and image
- But different layout
Models the target audience
can identify with due to them
looking at the camera
18. Progression from Preliminary to Full Product
Differences…
Masthead in different places
More text Less text
Different tone and mode of
address