Exam Board Questions

In this post I shall be answering the questions given by the exam board.

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

• My media product uses a conforms to the conventions of real media in various ways such as: 
• Using a grid to plan the layout of the magazine 
• Conforming to a colour scheme involving Black; White; and one other colour 
• The cover follows general practices of other magazine covers, such as using bigger text for more important articles (in terms of grabbing user interest) and using a uniform font throughout the whole cover for text that is meant to be the most interesting.
• The contents page also follows general practices, it has large page numbers with information next to them in smaller text, it also has pictures relating to the articles and to make the page seem more interesting at a glance to the reader.
• The double-page spread follows examples set by other magazines, not always of the music variety, as it has a large picture bridging two pages together with text on both sides of the image.

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

• It represents the growing social group of electronic music fans, specifically those who enjoy the club scene, typically if these people buy a magazine they will be looking for a light read, which is why I have kept the magazine easy to read .
• I have used a well known symbol related to this group on both the magazine cover and contents page, it is the purple wave travelling across the magazine. (It is coloured purple on this magazine as that was the colour scheme, the emblem itself can be any colour)

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

• There are several types of media institution that might distribute my product, for similar reasons.
• A newsagents might as they commonly stock a wide variety of magazines to try appeal to as large an audience as possible
• A music retailer could possibly distribute my product as there is more likely to be an overlap of music shoppers/ music readers than there would be of newspaper readers/music readers.

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

• My intended audience is the social group my magazine represents, the growing amount of electronic music fans.
• If this was a real media product, it would make sense to target a currently growing audience, as if you became a well known information hub you would likely continue to grow as the audience does.

    5. How did you attract/address your audience?

• The front cover is designed primarily to attract the attention of my intended audience, it does this in a number of ways
• It has a large picture of someone on the cover (If he was an actual celebrity this would likely attract actual readers)
• The background I have used for the magazine is intended to look similar to a speaker, with the black and white rings, the intended audience would be interested as they are known to have an interest in large speaker systems.
• As mentioned before, the purple waves I have used are a well-known symbol to the intended audience and this is likely to get the magazine noticed.

      6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

• I have learnt how to use variety of technologies to achieve my final result, primarily the image editing software 'Photoshop'.
• I have also learnt how to use the physical technology of a digital camera.

     7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

• I have learnt about the popular styles and conventions used to make magazines so that they all conform to a similar layout, but can still vary drastically while doing so.
• I have learnt how to properly construct a magazine using a grid to help as opposed to doing so by eye.
• I have become aware of the colour rule of black, white and one other colour and have begun to notice it most magazines.