Question Seven

Looking back from the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to full product?

Question Six

What have you learned about new technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Photography

Where photography is concerned, I have learned how the new digital technology is more of a benefit when taking photographs in the media world compared to the process years ago. Today, we have access to digital cameras, making it easier to take and develop photographs. Because of this technology, many photos can be taken at once as well as uploaded onto a platform such as a computer where the photographer can view and select the best ones. This is in contrast to 10+ years ago, where the photography process was much harder. Digital cameras weren't a thing so there was more care and focus in taking images, as well as the photos being a poorer quality. 

An old fashioned polaroid compared to a new, digital camera.


Software: InDesign and Photoshop

Photoshop and InDesign gives us the creativity to manipulate and change photos then edit them to make them look more professional and achieve a professional standard layout to our media product. Within the media industry, photo manipulation is used heavily. For example, I understand that a lot of the time the photographs used are airbrushed and filtered to achieve a perfect, clean and polished look.

When it came down to photoshop, I used many techniques to enhance my photographs and create the desired look. For example,  I used is black and white filtering as well as resizing etc. Before photoshop, the concept of doing this to ordinary photographs would be difficult to achieve quickly and easily.

This is the photograph I used for my front cover. Originally, the photograph was in colour but due to photoshop I was able to insert a black and white filter to it in order to get the desired effect.











InDesign is a software which I used in this case to create a professional layout to my pages in the magazine.
 This is the initial page setup for InDesign. Here you can choose several options to edit and create your finished product.









Internet and Blogger

This is the biggest area that gives me the ability to develop skills in not only this area but in all of them. The internet allows you to search for how to use a certain software or piece of equipment meaning that instead of waiting to be shown, which is more time consuming, you are able to get the answers quickly and go ahead on what you were doing.
Furthermore, the internet makes it easier and more interesting when it comes down to any research and planning as there is masses of information available online at any time in various forms. Another benefit to this is that websites such as Blogger, where all the planning and research is presented, is easily accessible from any device such as computer, tablet or phone and saves on things such as paper resources.
Plus, because of the access to the internet, I have come across other resources which I have used within my coursework such as Prezi, YouTube and Canva which have enabled me to make my work presentable in interesting ways by embedding videos and pictures easily.



To conclude

To conclude, because of the various methods available I have been able to develop my skills in these above areas therefore have to ability to apply them to any other media based project or activity I do. This proves that these skills involved in media production are available in some shape or form to everyone once they have access to the software.
The skills involved are ones that can be transferred to a range of areas and subjects, even though in the area of digital media requires a very different range of skills compared to things such as traditional media. 

Question Five

How did I attract/appeal to my subject audience?

When creating a magazine, audience research and feedback is important. It is especially important in the feedback stage as it allows you to know how well you did in achieving what you set out to do in the first place. 

I decided to do a questionnaire to find audience feedback, 

Creating the questions 

These are the questions I decided to ask:

• Who do you believe the target audience of the magazine is? Consider age groups, gender and social class when answering.
• In what way is the magazine successful in attracting that audience?
• Is there any way it could be improved to make it more appealing?
• Do you think the target audience would be interest if the magazine was available digitally?
• Do you think the photography is suitable for the target audience and the genre? Why?
• Have you heard of the artists on the cover? Which and how?
• Do you think there is anything on the magazine that does not have any relevance to the genre?
• Would you buy the magazine? If not, why?
• Is there anything that could be added to broaden the audience?
•  Where would you expect to find this type of magazine? 

Responses

Bianca Watson 

Age: 28
Gender: Female
Social Group: C2







1.) I think the target audience is mostly women in their late 20s to early 40s and possibly working class to middle class.
2.) It uses a colour scheme that is more appealing to women than men.
3.) To make it more appealing to the audience that it is targeted at I'd include other graphics such as a picture of a vinyl where it says about prizes.
4.) I don't think it would be a necessity for the magazine to be digitally because the target audience will more likely buy a hard copy.
5.) The photography is suitable because it is unique and represents the style and attitudes of the people who are most likely to buy it. The black and white photography is also suitable because it makes the boldness stand out.
6.) I have heard of the artists on the cover because they are mostly well known and I was born around the time some of them were more famous than they are now.
7.) No, all the magazine is relevant
8.) I wouldn't because I am not interested in the genre
9.) More recent artists that younger people would have heard of but in a similar genre or make it more male and female orientated.
10.) A music store or vintage clothes shop.

Question Four

Who would be the audience for your media product? 

When creating a media product, a clear audience needs to be in mind as this has an impact on all the decisions in terms of design and content. 

Publishers use demographics and VALs to determine who their audience is and what the audience want to see in the magazine. 

Demographics: statistical data relating to the population and particular groups within it (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/demographics)

VALs: stands for values and lifestyles. It is designed to help companies tailor their product in order to suit the audience and appeal to those most likely to purchase it. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VALS)

My reader profile 

Summary

Age Group: the average age for my music magazine is 35 

Gender: primarily female audiences (56%)

Social Grade: C2 

I have selected these as my target audience as I feel as though these are the people who have the most interest in the genre of my magazine. Furthermore, this particular style of magazine can be viewed as a collectible due to the nostalgic elements - something of which appeals specifically to these people as the younger generation will not be as interested. 

Question Three

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

When it comes down to producing a magazine, the distribution companies are responsible for the product reaching the target audience by carefully selecting where the magazine is distributed. They have to be sold in the right locations and advertised correctly. 

What is meant by distribution?

Definition: 

1.) The action of sharing something out among a number of recipients. 

2.) The way in which something is shared out among a group or spread over an area. 

( definitions taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_(business) ) 

Research/choosing a distribution company

The first important thing is the size of my audience and who would be the most suitable in terms of distributing my magazine. 

In order to decide this, I decided to look at magazines in similar genres that already exist. 

Classic Pop Magazine

This is a good example of a magazine in a similar genre. 

- Published by Anthem Publishing 

- Edited by Steve Harnell 

- Bi-monthly magazine 

- Switching to monthly in may 2017 

- Audience profile is mostly male around 30 to 40. 

- Frequency 6 p.a 

-Also have a website, online versions, collectible versions and unique YouTube and Spotify playlists  

Research:

http://anthem-publishing.com/classic-pop/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Pop_magazine

Further research into Anthem Publishing

- Covers two main principle targets: music and craft 

- UK based

- The UK's only publisher of music making and listening magazines 

- Established Autumn 2002 by Jon Bickley, Simon Lewis and Paul Pettengale. 

- 2003 lauched the MusicTech magazine 

- 2010 bought Guitar and Bass magazine from IPC 

- Then published Classic Pop, Country Music and Vintage Rock magazines

- Created colouring magazines 

- Also publish food and baking magazines 

- Leading independent music magazine publisher in the UK

Taken from: http://anthem-publishing.com/about/history/

The publishers website 

This is the publisher I would use if my music magazine was to be published due to the fact that the music magazines already published by the company are similar genres to mine, therefore there is already evidence of a strong audience. Furthermore, the fact that the company is independent means that it is more niche, meaning the readers may be a smaller group but be more specific. The biggest advantage is that the company will be aware of the strongest ways to target the audience which is evident through the fact that their magazines are successful meaning they will be more suited to my magazines when it comes down to areas such as advertising. The company is national, which despite not being able to offer globalization is an advantage as many of the artists in my magazine genre are part of British culture and more so part of trends which were specific to Britain back in the 70s and 80s.  

However, another company I considered was Time Inc. This was down to the fact that they publish popular music magazines such as Kerrang and even Uncut. However, the audiences of the magazines published by Time Inc are different. Therefore, they may not be able to reach out to the specific target audience as much as the other company. 

Question Two

How do media products represent social groups?

The media is the largest platform when it comes down to representations. It has an alarmingly large role in conveying and communicating messages to audiences. One of the biggest things that are represented through the media is social groups. when creating my magazine, I took social groups into consideration - referencing areas such as music culture within audiences as well as gender and social class. 

Social groups are groups of people who share common interests etc and recognize themselves as a distinct social unit.

Useful websites into female representation. (used for research)

- https://womenleadingchange.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/the-sexualization-of-women-and-girls/
Article about the concerns of over sexualising girls and women via the media and the problems this causes which helped to to prove that my magazine was offering an alternative representation that could be seen as something more positive.

- http://subcultureslist.com/music-subcultures/

The website explains subcultural theory and specifically those associated with music (which in turn are typically youth orientated.)  This gave me a good understanding of why my social group representations were connected.

SARA by Fan Vids

Evaluation - Question One