My media product challenges certain conventions of rock as I have used a female model on the cover of my magazine. This was done so purposely to present how females can also be rebellious & outspoken, despite the industry of rock predominantly focusing on male icons. This also goes against the way in which females are presented as a whole in the mass media. Females are often protrayed as conformists & sex symbols. The fact that my model is wearing conservative clothing also goes against this convention. This is because she does not look trashy, unlike many female rock stars, who are protrayed in this light in order to display their reckless attitude which coincides with the genre of rock. On the right are two examples of females in
the genre of rock who are protrayed as sexualised & trashy objects. The first image is of Courtney Love from the band Hole, & this picture shows her with her legs spread apart to connote promiscuity & this also makes her look un-lady like & trashy. A better example of how female rock stars are presented as trashy is shown in the image of Canadian rock star Avril Lavigne who is posing completely topless for a magazine cover. This shows sexualisation wrapped up to look like being rebellious, however we are less likely to see a male rock star with his shirt off or posing nude, showing how females in rock are made to look like solely sexual & submissive beings. I also decided against using an instrument on the front cover of my magazine as this is such an obvious way to present the genre of a magazine & I wished to present the genre of rock in my magazine through other less obvious conventions.
the genre of rock who are protrayed as sexualised & trashy objects. The first image is of Courtney Love from the band Hole, & this picture shows her with her legs spread apart to connote promiscuity & this also makes her look un-lady like & trashy. A better example of how female rock stars are presented as trashy is shown in the image of Canadian rock star Avril Lavigne who is posing completely topless for a magazine cover. This shows sexualisation wrapped up to look like being rebellious, however we are less likely to see a male rock star with his shirt off or posing nude, showing how females in rock are made to look like solely sexual & submissive beings. I also decided against using an instrument on the front cover of my magazine as this is such an obvious way to present the genre of a magazine & I wished to present the genre of rock in my magazine through other less obvious conventions. However, there are certain aspects of rock conventions which I have complied wi
th when I produced my final product. This includes the colour scheme which comprises of black, white & blue. When I was conducting research in to rock magazines I discovered that many of them use dark or plain colours for instance the magazine NME which uses a main colour scheme of black, white & a primary colour which is red. This complies with the rock theme as it is simple & not glamourous which is how I wanted my magazine to appear. The reason I chose the colour blue instead of red, even though red seems to be better favoured, is because I wanted to higlight the cool aspect of a rock magazine & the colour blue reflects that cool factor better than the colour red does.
th when I produced my final product. This includes the colour scheme which comprises of black, white & blue. When I was conducting research in to rock magazines I discovered that many of them use dark or plain colours for instance the magazine NME which uses a main colour scheme of black, white & a primary colour which is red. This complies with the rock theme as it is simple & not glamourous which is how I wanted my magazine to appear. The reason I chose the colour blue instead of red, even though red seems to be better favoured, is because I wanted to higlight the cool aspect of a rock magazine & the colour blue reflects that cool factor better than the colour red does. The audience for my media product is unisex & between the ages of 16-25 as I chose to aim my magazine at the younger generation rather than the older generation as I am more aware of what may appeal to people near my age group. In addition to this reasoning, when I analysed rock magazine covers, contents pages & double page spreads, I found that they were all very dull looking & this was due to the fact that the target audience for these magazines were about 30-40 years of age & mainly males. As I wished to produce a magazine that was more creative than the ones I had analysed, I realised that I had to make the age range for my magazine between the ages of 16 & 25 as this would allow me to be more creative & at the same time appealling to my audience. If the target audience for my rock magazine had been older, it would have been irrelavant to use the amount of colour that I used for example for my contents page in which the text is all written in an electric blue colour. This is because more mature audiences usually require a formal look to a magazine, therefore use of colour is minimal & images tend to be uninventive or hold no obvious connotations. By choosing the target audience that I did I was also able to incorporate button flashes in to my magazine, as this is relevant to young people & university students who are less likely to have as much money as the older generation due to their ages. Therefore I am aware that they would appreciate getting something for free where as the older generation would not due to the fact that they are likely to have enough of their own money & would not require a free poster, headphones etc.
My media product is projected at & represents social groups from category C which is working class e.g. skilled workers through to category D which consists of those who have the lowest amount of income e.g. students & young teenagers. Therefore it can represent a wide range of social classes, but it excludes the social classes upper middle class (A) middle class (B) & C1 who are lower middle class. The reason for this being that my target audience for my media product is between the ages of 16-25, therefore it is unlikely that anyone in this category is going to be a proffessional person, as most of the people between these age ranges are going to be in education therefore their income is not going to be of a high standard. Those in this age range that do work are likely to be lower middle class because they would have only minor qualifications e.g. no degree, in order to make money worthy of placing them in a higher social class. My media product represents the social classes C1 through to D by being quite creative e.g. the use of the edited brick wall for the background of my magazine cover & also the masthead used. These items represents these social classes, because they are not too regular & boring which would be the case if my magazine was aimed at the middle class for instance. In addition, the use of a button flash represents the magazine is aimed towards the social class D particularly, because many young people do not have money of their own to afford CD's etc, & they often have to rely on their parents to pay for such items. By giving them something for free they feel a sense of independance, in the sense that they do not have to ask an adult with money, to buy something for them. Therefore having used a button flash on my front cover presents how I am aware that young people in category D have no real money of their own & would benefit from a freebie. Furthermore, the female on my front cover is a young women which conveys that my magazine is aimed towards a certain social class e.g. university students who would belong in category D mainly as although they have money this is usually through financing by their families or loans. By using a female in her early twenties, representation of the social class of my target audience is evident because my model looks young cool & stylish in a rock sense, & appears just as my target audience would in real life.
A lot of the methods mentioned above have been used to attract & address my target audience. Firstly, the design of my magazine incorporated a variety of fonts for diffrentiation which is less likely among magazines targeted at older people. In addition the model for my magazine is a young female which is relevant to my target audience as it is likely that they wish to read about people similar to their own age as opposed to more mature individuals. I used a button flash to attract my target audience as young people do not earn their own money & those that do would not have a high income due to lack of qualifications. Therefore by using a button flash I was able to attract & address my target audience at the same time as button flashes are less prevalent in magazines aimed at an older audience. In addtion the colour scheme which has been used consists of neutral colours which are not biased to one gender more than the other. For example if I had used the colour pink, the magazine would appear stereotypically directed towards females. Although it can be argued that blue is a boys colour, this is not much of an issue as due to feminism it is a lot easier for females to incorporate themselves in to sectors that before were exclusive to males e.g. working, wearing trousers etc.
The media instituition that is likely to distribute my media product would be World Wide Magazine Distribuition(WWMD). My justification for this being that WWMD has wide distribution to 8,000 stores in the UK, & also includes a great range of services. These comprise of packing & disribution, which is key as WWMD is based close to motorway networks, Birmingham Interational Airport & railway stations. This means that distribution of my magazine would be quick & efficient & offers a wider range of locations in which to distribute my magazine. Not to mention that the vehicles used by WWMD are able to insure next day delivery which is a valid aspect of distribution as the quicker information can get to the consumers, the more up to date & relevant my magazine will appear. Another benefical aspect of WWMD is that they store addresses electronically which is more beneficial for my magazine as WWMD are less likely to lose my address if it is stored on a computer as opposed to paper. I was considering Conde Nast as an institution by which I may distribute my magazine however I decided against this choice, as although Conde Nast is a highly powerful & well known company, it has suffered a decline in business in recent years. This lead to issues such as them having to reduce their budget by 25% which will effect the quality of my magazine e.g. the print standard.
Through the course of producing my media product I was able to develop my understanding on technologies, particularly Photoshop. This is because prior to producing my final product I was unfamiliar with the tools that can be used on Photoshop & I was unable to navigate many of these tools & use them effectively. In order to use all that Photoshop has to offer effectively, I needed to gain a basic understanding of the tools involved in the program. When it came to producing my magazine I needed to learn how to carry out simple tasks e.g. making a background & also removing one. To gain knowledge on how to do this I watched Photoshop tutorials that had been posted on Youtube. This benefited me greatly as I was able to achieve a more proffessional look for my magazine overall, which I would not have been able to do if I had not learnt how to use basic tools on Photoshop. In addition I used an editing program called Picasa which I downloaded free from Google. With this software I was able to add certain effects to my images e.g. tinting, black & white effect, shading etc. This also benefited me as it made my images look less typical, & therefore aided in appealling to my target audience.
Looking back at my preliminary task I feel that I have made a great progression from that point up to completion of my final product. This is because when I created my preliminary front cover I did not use Photoshop & this was clear in my work as my front cover looked below average. The typefaces that I had used, particularly for the cover lines, were not creative or very relevant for a school magazine. Neither was the colour scheme as looking back on it I feel that I could have used brighter colours to try & entice students, as this would be more appealing to them. In addition my cover image was not proffesional as my model posed in a classroom, though this was not really the issue. But the fact that people were behind her in the background did affect the appearance of the cover. Due to the fact that the main cover line was about my model having won a modelling contract, it would have been better to use an image of her posing in what looked like proffessional photo shoot, shot somewhere in the school to keep it relevant. I chose to use Microsoft Publisher for my preliminary front cover because I found it much easier to navigate, as there were many icons on Photoshop that I did not know how to use. However, I was aware that in order to produce a more proffesional appearance I would need to use more advanced software for my final product. I learned basic fixes on Photoshop through tutorials on Youtube e.g. how to remove unwanted areas from an image. I have therefore gained a greater understanding of how to use Photoshop & gained the knowledge that with more advanced software comes a more proffessional looking product, providing you know how to use the software. I also learned more about the magazine industry as a whole, e.g. the different ways magazines can be distributed such as online or more conventional methods such as newsagents. Not to mention, the huge stereotypes placed in the rock genre & the people in it e.g. males being associated with rock more than females & also females being shown in a sexualised way therefore being conformist to the mass media, though the media want us to believe these women are actually being rebellious.
