To the examiner,
I hope you enjoy reading through my blog and looking at the work I have produced. I feel my skills and knowledge of how magazines work and are produced have improved drastically I hope you like my final cover, contents and double page spread. To make them easier to look through, all my blog posts are labelled. Overall I hope you enjoy my blog, thanks.
Wednesday, 1 May 2013
Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups ?
I have designed my magazine to represent the social group ‘metalheads.’ I chose to base my magazine on ideas from Kerrang and also took inspiration from Metal Hammer as these are the same genre magazine as mine and also both target the same audience as me.
The use of the colours I have used fit the colour palette for my genre as the colours black, white and red are commonly used. The magazines usually are dark and use white writing so that it contrasts and red to stand out. As well as this you commonly see metalheads in black clothes such as a black band shirt. This means that the colour black works well to target this social group and having a darker colour was the right choice for my cover.
I chose the image for my cover artist because in my opinion he appeals to both the female and male gaze. He would fit both the gazes as he is a good looking man so he would appeal to the females and he looks manly with all his tattoos and would appeal to men. This makes my target audience wider but is still specific to ‘metalheads.’ Also my artist is good at representing my social group in that he is dressed in dark clothes, although he isn’t wearing a band shirt he is showing off his tattoos in a dark vest. This makes the photo stand out on the cover and appeals to people who buy the magazine as it appeals to the male gaze.
‘Metalheads feel no need to justify themselves’, so the model on my cover isn’t all made up and posing in unnatural positions, he only has a small amount of hair gel on. This represents the social group I have chosen in that he is care free, isn’t trying to impress and is comfortable in the photo as well as looking casual. He doesn’t need to justify himself or care about what people say, representing the social group well.
My contents page represents ‘metalheads’ in that again my model is dressed in dark clothes and has the mid-length messy hair associated with the genre I have chosen. Also the colour scheme matches that of both the contents pages above. However, this time I used a dark photo with white and red writing to stand out but then used a light background to put my text on at the bottom. This follows the colour scheme that is associated with magazines associated with metalheads like Kerrang and Metal Hammer.
My double page spread represents my social group by having the box in the left hand bottom corner. This represents my social group by showing different bands that they might listen to and by showing what the Black Steel listen to. This represents the social group as these are bands that my social group listen to.
My media product represents my social group well as it has many features from the social group ‘metalheads.’ These features include:
· Bands they listen to
· Colour Schemes
· Images
Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?
My audience is mainly teens to young adults aged 15- 25 but can stretch much further in to adults aged 40-60 and children aged 10-12. However children younger than 15 aren’t usually into the types of music in this magazine such as Slipknot or Bring Me The Horizon. The reason my magazine attracts teens is because they see a guy on the cover in his mid-20’s and aspire to be like him. The guy on my cover looks the part and is a ‘rock star’ and at some point in every person’s life they either want to be a footballer, a ballerina or a rock star. Similarly with young adults might view the model as an aspirational figure.
Other reasons the image on my cover attracts the audience is because it captures both the male and female gaze. He would fit both the gazes as he is a good looking man so he would appeal to the females and he looks manly with all his tattoos and would appeal to men. This is a huge reason why my magazine appeals to the audience.
Another reason it attracts an audience is the colour palette I used. The red writing stands out enormously on my background on the cover and throughout my magazine. I kept the same colour palette throughout and made sure that I used the black and white which contrasted with each other and one other feature colour to stand out and highlights key words. This worked really well to entice my audience as it is eye catching and helps draw in readers. As well as the colours being eye catching they are also gender-neutral colours. This helps to keep the magazine open to either gender increasing the size of the audience.
The artists featured in the magazine are worldwide artists which attracts readers from everywhere across the world instead of limiting my market to just the UK. This also gives them an idea of bands not from their country that they may not have heard of and may like to check out or go and see, if they are touring, or information about when they are touring and in which country.
As well as this my double page spread talks about how a band has made it and how they became so successful. Also it talks about how they are still working all the time to become more successful. Other bands that aren’t yet very successful will want to read this article as it ultimately tells them step by step how they became successful and gives new bands hope and a guideline to becoming successful. This means that people in bands will be attracted to buy the magazine as there may be future articles about how people who came from nothing made something of themselves. As well as this the main content is about bands in the magazine so there is plenty for them to read.
Another thing in my double page spread that will attract a following is that the public might want to know what successful bands listen to them. On the bottom right of my double page spread there is a box which tells the reader the favorite songs that Black Steel listened to on tour. This attracts the audience as they can feel like they are able to listen to the same music as successful bands if they read the magazine.
My article also helped me to attract my audience by people knowing the band and wanting to read about them and find out more from the article. They can only tell from the front cover that the band is inside and featuring, but they can’t tell what the article is about until they look inside. This creates a sort of suspense and makes the magazine intriguing. The article also helps give people some sort of idea what it’s like to come from nothing within a few years.
My magazine also creates a sense of belonging to the audience by giving the younger readers something to aspire to. The older members of my audience usually look similar to the band member on the front cover, although he may have better tattoos etc, he still is similar to my audience. Another thing that engages my audience and creates a sense of belonging is the box on the double page spread telling the audience what music the band listen to. This gives the audience some music to try out and have a listen to or that they already listen to and can relate to. This engages my audience and draws more people in to buy the magazine as they can find out more about the band and the music they like.
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