Greg Colbeck's AS Media Project

AS MEDIA STUDIES: G321: FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO IN MEDIA: EVALUATION

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

My media product challenges forms and conventions of real media products as it is a multi-genre music magazine. I have done this with the front cover as the masthead font and name connotes that it is a hard-rock magazine or an alternative rock magazine, however, the main image challenges that as it is a medium close up of a hip-hop DnB artist. However, in a popular magazine like Kerrang, the images an mastheads used helpc onnote that it is a rock magazine. Under my mast-head, it says “The worlds most unique niche music magazine.” It is also challenged as also other pictures on the front cover are of different genres, one is of a heavy metal band, with the name ‘Curbstomp’ another is an alternative pop punk band called ‘What Just Happened’. (Note, this isn’t the final piece)

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents a variety of social groups, ranging from a rock ran to a hip-hop fan so it is very hard to talk about how the magazine represents a particular social group when it represents a broad variety. How it does this is when it wants to attract a particular social group for that part of the magazine I have used very stereotypical views of that social group and genre. For the hip-hop RnB fans, I have made sure the artist is looking flash and very modern, this helps reinforce the ‘perfect partner’ ideal. For the rock fan I have made the rock artists very stereotypical with long hair and baggy clothes, pulling angry faces and having powerful, sometimes angry band names. Each representation of a different social group is portrayed by a strong stereotype, helping reinforce self identity and embody strong emotional responses.

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

My magazine would most likely attract a small independent company. This is because though my magazine attracts a wide variety of social groups, it does not focus on just one and so would only attract readers who are into different genres of music. The circulation would be small and at first promoted to the public through the radio and local websites. It would also have its own website for readers to browse through and subscribe online, there would also be an option to buy online as the circulation is small it may run out of print if it became popular.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

My audience would be, like I have stated previously, a vast wide selection of social groups. They would be aged 16-24 and range from both genders, I would not however attract audiences for such genres as country, or classical music as my media product does not contain them. From my feedback I have received I have received from 3 different people who I know all enjoy different tastes of music. From the type of music my magazine contains, my readership will most likely be those that spend quite a lot of money on items, be it clothes, audio devices or footwear. This is helped because on the magazine, there will be images that provide the perfect partner image, so my audience will want to dress like them and act like them.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

My magazine attracted my audience in a number of ways, the front cover itself is very eye catching, using bright contrasting colours against each other. On the front cover is also a large image of a solo-artist, which makes people want to read about him and be him.

The mode of address in my magazine is peer-to-peer, relating to the reader on a personal level, this helps build a relationship with the reader and make him/her think that it is written for the reader. I have done this by writing as if I am writing to a friend or colleague, being very informal and using some abbreviations and slang.
On my second splash page, at the end I mention about ‘running around the peace gardens, was actually quite fun.’ This is peer-to-peer because it is like informing a friend of what I did then, and it is very informal.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Make a list of what you have learned about technologies during your practical work. Web 2.0 (blogs), Photoshop (talk about which tools you have used, what you have learned about the software – strengths/weaknesses), Quark Xpress (talk about which tools you have used, what you have learned about the software – strengths/weaknesses). This can be done in bullet points with images uploaded alongside.

I have learnt a many number of things whilst constructing my media product, the main one being learning how to use Quark Xpress. Quark is a very useful tool in which I used to do my dekstop publishing, however, it does have some faults:

 For a new starter, it is very difficult and complicated, as there are a lot of tools for very specific things.

 Once you have got the basics of Quark it is hard to use it to its full potential as there are so many tools you are still getting used to it..

 You cannot save Quark files as picture files, so you have to export them and convert them, which majority of the time, makes Quark crash or the files gets wiped. Very volatile.

However, the good points of Quark are:

 Once grasped the controls allow for almost anything.

 Create a professional media product with ease compared to other desktop publishing programs.

 Can import pictures into Quark to edit and use.

I also used Photoshop which allowed me to edit my photos, crop them and resize them to how I wanted, it is a very good program as you can manipulate images anyway you want, if, you have the knowledge.

There are some bad things about Photoshop however:

 Like Quark, for a new starter it is very difficult and complicated, as the tools there require knowledge of actual photo properties and the editing process.

 It can be very complicated as some procedures require a lot of ‘left click, right click, tools, left click, select an option, right click’ etc. etc. However, on a whole Photoshop is a very good program:

 Once grasped you can do what you want with images with ease.

 Excels other photo editing programs.

 Can do anything you want with the image

 An in-depth help system, providing amazing amounts of help.