Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full finished product?

School Magazine 

Final front cover

the preliminary task was to make a front cover of a school magazine and this was to help you basically get to grips with photoshop and everything that it can do. So straight away i knew who my target audience was however it wasn't so easy when it came to my actual final pieces however it did help me to understand how to base the look for the right target audience. 

I did a lot of research when i came to my main product because i needed ideas to help me develop mine and to also help base my target audience around a certain image. By doing this, it helped me to make my layout look a lot more professional.

Because the preliminary task was only a mess around to help me understand the concept of photoshop, i started to experiment on different fonts to see what looked better and what was easier to read for the audience. Without doing the preliminary task then i wouldn't  be bale to use photoshop as successfully as i can now.

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

Flickr

I used flickr when i collected all of my college magazine survey results. i found it difficult at first but after i got to know it a bit more and i found it a lot easier.

Blogger

I never heard of blogger until media. At first i found it hard but as i used it a lot more it got easier. I used it to display everything in my whole project including my final pieces and things that helped me work my way up to the final pieces and it also includesa all my evaluations, images, etc. 

Photoshop

I also used a lot of photoshop throughout this project as i did all my final pieces as well as mood boards and other things. The first thing we did was the preliminary projects which helped me understand the basic of photoshop even though i had used it before with my other subjects including photography. I used a lot of different methods in order to make my photos look right for my magazine including 'Image>>Black and white' which made my front cover black and white. I also used the same way with the contrast which made the image look a lot better. I also used the 'ruler' tool which helped me line everything up neatly and it also helped me know where the middle of the page was etc.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My target audience is mainly for the ages of 18 and over and for people who like to focus not just on the music side of a band/artist but who are also genuinely intrigued about the persons life and who they are as a person so in a way the magazine has both demographic and psycho-graphic side. The cover lines on my magazine involves bands and artist that my target audience would enjoy and may also include some new bands that they would like. 

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

I decided that my magazine would be an independent magazine because when you have to rely on other companies to print etc they could easily become bankrupt just before doing the things for the magazine and there is basically nothing you can really do apart from trying to find another place which would be almost impossible with such short time. The one thing that would help this work out for my magazine is by having online distribution meaning spending less money on shelf space and having it a monthly magazine also helps out with the money situation because less copies would be needed unlike some magazines that are weekly based.

Distribution will be key for my magazines success because it will help attract and bring in the right audience that the magazine is based around. By having the write advertising in the magazine will not only link in with my target audience but will also help with the money side. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social group that my magazine is mainly involved around are people who are around 18 and over who have a more mature look towards music. One of the ways i have done this is with the pictures i have chosen. The pictures are simple and each show different sides of the person. This helps show the reader a different side of the person in my photos because not only have i picked two quite serious looking photos but i have also chosen images of him smiling which shows the complete opposite side of the first two images.

Another this that helps is the language content that i have included. mainly in my double page spread feature Q&A i made sure that the language i used was a lot like how us as people would talk. This helps the magazine seem more relateable for the reader.

The Music Magazine Industry

Bauer, IPC and a few others are the main magazines publishes based in the UK.  BBC Magazines, National Magzines, Bauer and IPC have a massive power over the industry which is around 60%
However, due to the over grown development of technology more and more people are buying magazines online which is causing solid magazines to decrease in sale. This then causes different magazines to be fore to close if they are not to expand into the world of technology. 

Unedited photos