ASMediaCharmaineLambert: 2015

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I have kept the same font throughout except for the masthead which is appropriate to the genre of the music magazine as it is a font that would be related to country, I also used a different font for the answers of the questions in my article to make the font more legible but kept the other font for my questions so they would stand out. My colour scheme of red, white and a dark grey is kept throughout the product and the only thing challenging this colour scheme is the guitar making it stand out more on the magazine drawing peoples eyes to the images which the bright red dress also helps attract people because of the bright colour, the colours are also conventional of a magazine as the majority of magazines will use either one of these colours or multiple. My model is the same throughout the magazine and means that the double page spread and contents page is related to the front cover creating continuity throughout the magazine which also kept my ensuring that the costume is the same and the page numbers are relative to the articles and that none of my articles start at page 1 as that would be the contents page. My magazine uses conventions on each page as I have included a masthead and feature article on my front page, images and a subscription bar on my contents page, I also used the convention of a main image on my double page spread and making it so my article would continue on the next page as generally double page spreads will last longer than two pages. By only using two photos on my contents page (other than the one of my front cover) I am breaking the convention of using multiple photos on a convention page in order to attract a more mature audience yet still attracting a young audience by some of the artists used meaning I will have a wider audience range then if I just aimed my magazine at one particular social group.

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Since the majority of my audience were females between the ages of sixteen and nineteen, I ensured that my model was a young female in this age group meaning that they would relate to the artist on the front cover of my magazine making them more inclined to pick it up. I asked my model to wear a bright dress so it would stand out against the dark grey background, I tried to keep the costume and make-up simple which was appropriate for the genre of country which can be very simplistic.

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2040220173501827436#editor/target=post;postID=8904796582761213441;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=27;src=postname

Since most country artists are rather young I chose a young model for my magazine cover, I also noticed the majority are wearing red and/or are in a dress therefore I asked my model to wear a red dress, I asked my model to hold an acoustic guitar as this is conventional of the country genre, I had my models hair styled to the side similar to some of the above artists' hair.

For the inspiration for model's look I mainly looked at country pop artists such as Taylor Swift to be able to aim at a wide audience, this is the comparison of my model's look to Taylor Swift's

I used Taylor Swift as my inspiration and asked my model to wear a dress similar to the purple one she is wearing in the bottom right corner, I then asked her to wear a red dress which is a colour that Taylor is frequently seen wearing in the photos I have found, also she wears a lot of halter neck dresses meaning I asked my model to wear one if possible, fortunately the red dress she owned was a halter neck, I paired the dress with a black cardigan to make it stand out more as the colours contrast well with each other. As Taylor wears her hair up often I asked my model to style her hair in a side ponytail which was also beneficial practically so it would not tangle in the guitar as before we took the photos this happened a few times prior to my model doing her hair. I had my model looking away as I believe it looks more serious which is why I also asked her to have a neutral look on her face as the genre of music can be quite serious, I made sure to utilise the guitar so that it would be in all the photos as it is a stereotype of country music and therefore you can tell the genre of my magazine by just looking at the image

Question 3 what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
variety of organisations - institution without magazine in my genre

The best institute to distribute my product would be a magazine institution that does not already have a country magazine as if they already had one they wouldn't need another so it would be more competitive of who's gets published. Two possible publishers are Bauer media and TimeIncUK, either publisher would be a good choice as there is a gap for country music magazines within the UK and therefore there would be no competition to get the magazine published.

Bauer media are known for publishing magazines such as Q, Mojo and Kerrang, this would be a good publisher as they are well known and the magazines are not just published in print, it is published other a range of media platforms, for instance, Q is published online, in print and has a music channel, Kerrang also shares these benefits as well as airing music from its genre on a radio channel, Mojo is also published online and in print, therefore if my magazine was published by Bauer media it would be available across a range of media and would be targeted at a wider audience range. Here is an overview of Bauer media's brands:

TimeIncUK publishes the magazines NME and Uncut which are an indie and rock magazine respectively, therefore the genre is unlike my own and means that it would be beneficial to publish my magazine with this institution, NME is available online as well as in print meaning that everyone is able to access it and read the magazine, Uncut is also available in these formats. Here is an overview of TimeIncUK's brands:

I would most likely choose TimeIncUK to publish my magazine as there is not yet a magazine with the genre of country music which would be beneficial as my magazine would be easier to get published as there would be no competition, it would also mean that my magazine would be available on multiple media platforms.

Question 4: Who would be the audience of your media product?

I also used multiple artists from my audience survey as this is what would appeal to my audience the most, I used them on either my contents page or front page.

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

http://goanimate.com/videos/0UzJRWZbjess?utm_source=linkshare&utm_medium=linkshare&utm_campaign=usercontent

To ask people to do my audience survey I posted it onto the social network sites 'Facebook' and also on 'Instagram.' To attract people to my magazine in general I have used a bright red colour to catch peoples eye especially making it stand out against the dark background, the white font also stands out against the background.

I asked two friends to feedback on my magazine, one I asked over the Internet, he said that the magazine looks professional but is not as engaging as it could be and it would probably not attract his eye.

I asked my other friend in person and videoed her response: